Recruiters are always talking about other people’s careers, namely the careers of their candidates and prospects. There seems to have a lot less discussion about the careers for the recruiters themselves. This is no exception for technical recruiters. In today’s blog, we’ll take a good look at the career levels of technical recruiters at Redfin.
We were excited to sit down for an interview with DK Burnaby, Senior Recruiting Manager – Technology, Business Ops and Early Career Talent at Redfin, and previously Manager, Talent Acquisition Programs and Operations at Concur (recently acquired by SAP). Having experience managing talent acquisition teams at fast-growing technology companies, DK is the perfect expert to help us get insights on today’s subject, specifically in an in-house recruiting setting.
There are five common career levels/job titles for individual contributors on a recruiting team:
1. Recruiting Coordinator
Main responsibilities:
- Provide administrative support
- Be the front line for candidate and manager experience
- Act as the nerve system of the team by facilitating communications and managing processes
Key skills:
- Being organized and customer experience oriented
- Being self-motivated learners with great enthusiasm
- Basic project management skills
- Demonstrating creativity and independent thinking
What’s needed to level up:
- Shadowing others during interviews, closing calls, etc.
- Starting small recruiting-related projects, such as coordinating events, under supervision
- Increasingly showing success in running cross-functional tactical projects
- Early integration into technology (used by the engineering teams)
- Receiving mentorship from veterans
- Having a desire to learn and grow one’s career
- About 1 – 2 years before promotion
- A strong Quarterly Net Promoter Score (measuring candidate experience and manager experience) determines promotion for all levels
2. Associate Recruiter
Main responsibilities:
- Has the same responsibilities as Recruiting Coordinators, but can work solo without help
- Take ownership of job requisitions with the guidance and support from lead and senior recruiter
- Support Lead and Senior Recruiters
- Conduct research and present to the team
- Run cross-functional, tactical projects self-sufficiently
Key skills:
- Ability to conduct competitive analysis (i.e. other companies recruiting the same candidate pool)
- Online research skills to identify passive candidates
- Increased level of technology understanding
What’s needed to level up:
- Demonstrating a significant ability to generate prospects independently
- Conducting all recruiting activities, from sourcing to closing, with the help from lead/senior recruiters
- Typically another 1 – 2 years before promotion
3. Recruiter
Main responsibilities:
- Independently run full recruiting cycle
- Partner with hiring managers on the software engineering team
Key skills:
- Ability to source passive candidates
- Ability to generating prospects from different channels (online search, referrals, events, etc.)
- Understand how software technology fits together (e.g. know what AJAX is used for) without being technical
- Ability to identify qualified candidates
What’s needed to level up:
- Showing work improvement by working “smarter”
- Demonstrating an ability to be a consultative partner to the business
- Making valuable contributions to key recruiting initiatives
4. Senior Recruiter
Main responsibilities:
- Same responsibility as Recruiters, but at a higher proficiency level
- Act as a subject matter expert in the domain of recruiting
- Provide information and partner with engineering managers, not just “tell me what to do”
Key skills:
- Having the same skills as Recruiters, but at a more elevated level
- Scaling up recruiting results with the support from Associate Recruiters and/or Recruiting Coordinators
What’s needed to level up:
- Increasing focus on mentoring and managing junior team members
- Demonstrating an ability to lead recruiting initiatives and drive change in business practices where needed
5. Lead Recruiter
Main responsibilities:
- Supervise and mentor Recruiting Coordinators, Associate Recruiters, and/or Recruiters
- Step in wherever recruiting help is needed
- Play a consulting role to both the engineering and the recruiting teams
Key skills:
- Well-rounded and perform at expert-level proficiency in most, if not all, recruiting functions
- Ability to mentor and train recruiters who are more junior and less experienced
- Continuously help the team work “smarter” and be more effective
What’s needed to level up:
- Coaching teams to higher results
- Having a holistic view of the recruiting function
- Leading their team to be a more effective contributor to overall recruiting results and internal brand
- Demonstrating an ability to design strategic recruiting initiatives
- Driving change within recruiting and within cross-functional and partner business groups
You might see different structures at different companies. For example, the sourcer role is commonly seen at many companies and has a place in their career track. Some companies don’t have the Associate Recruiter role. And at many companies, a Recruiting Coordinator isn’t necessarily a stepping stone to a Recruiter role.
To help his team with their career growth, DK has established a development plan for all members. A 14-factor metric is used for team members to identify their own strengths, competency and goals. With a career plan that focuses on learning, DK is seeing the rewarding payoffs of grooming and growing technical recruiting talent from within. It has reduced the need of hiring experienced industry technical recruiters from outside while successfully partnering with the rapidly expanding software engineering teams at Redfin.
Feel free to comment and let us know if you have questions!
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