Yesterday, we were happy to host two recruiters at a weekly panel discussion for the summer interns. The panel topic discussed was getting yourself noticed by recruiters.
Our guests were Michael Kieran, Executive Recruiter at Duo Security, and
Steve Lowisz, CEO of Qualigence.
We started the conversation with some laughs and thought-provoking questions.
One thing both professionals believed in was the “rule of three”.
They teased that jokes always start with three men walking into a bar before transitioning into their first piece of advice!
As homage to them, we are sharing our top three takeaways from the discussion.
Top Three Skills
Both recruiters agreed that talent should be highlighting their top three skills as much as possible. Michael used a “T” analogy for showing off your skill set. The vertical bar would represent your expertise in a field. The horizontal bar represents all your skills throughout multiple disciplines that allow you to collaborate with other fields of study.
They stressed the importance of LinkedIn during the entire discussion. Both attested to the fact that people are hired frequently from LinkedIn only. Their main points led to creating connections and having a public email on your profile. If a recruiter likes your resume and/or portfolio, they may not want to wait until you accept their connection. It was recommended to interns that they always have an email in their “bio”. It is a clever idea to make an email just for your LinkedIn bio; this protects you from giving out a personal email and helps the recruiter contact you immediately. Steve emphasized the need to grow your connections because this is what will open doors for you to meet other people in your field.
One Phrase to Cause Conversation
This section of the dialogue started with a little story.
A man introduces himself and asks a peer “what do you do?”
The man replies, ” I blow things up.”
This type of response will always have people wondering. They will want to ask what you mean by that. This leads to the ultimate conversation starter. It is quite innovative to have this one phrase on your LinkedIn page. Next, the class was challenged to see what their phrases would be.
“I want to help bridge the gap between technical backgrounds and marketing backgrounds”
– Bryanna Gardner
“I want to make other people talk about your company”
-Mark Rosiek
“I want to help people engage”
-Gabrielle Miller
In conclusion, the trait that shows through your technical skills and presentation the most is passion! Our experts both agreed that the worst thing to see in the recruiting process was a lack of purpose or passion for your career.
It was an honor to have expert recruiters share their knowledge with the interns. The Center for Digital Engagement thanks you all for participating!
