The Two Sides of Hiring: Recruiting vs. Interviewing for Data Roles in Diverse Markets
Stories From Both Sides of the Table
I have stories from sitting on both sides of the hiring table, some successful and others not so successful.
For example, I can tell you stories about how I was successful in the interview process and got a job offer when:
- I had zero industry experience but had shown my academic knowledge and interest in working in a customer-facing data [%] role, even though I didn't speak the local language.
- In the last round of interviews for another data [%] role, the CEO cracked a joke, and I was the only one in the room who didn't laugh at it. However, I convinced him and other colleagues that I was responsible and could build the cloud data platform they would need.
Or, I can share with you my stories about how I didn't get a job offer when:
- I failed to convince the VP, senior manager, and HR lead at my final-round case study presentation to hire me over another candidate, even though I thought I aced my presentation.
- In one interview, I spoke too much and expressed my strong view on the evolution of the company data landscape by stating, "I think you should not build a BI team only, but rather focus on building an ecosystem of data teams and start by hiring data engineers first."
Furthermore, I can share stories of success in making good decisions in staffing when:
- I structured the hiring process to have at least three interview rounds with my peers, team colleagues, manager, or talent acquisition colleague and me.
- I went with my "gut feeling" and selected the candidates who had fewer years of experience than listed in the job vacancy but were able to debate the data problems with correct methodologies and reason their approaches with a business value in mind.
And the stories of making less successful decisions in staffing when:
- I did not pay enough attention to the candidate's low adaptability to new technologies or soft skills.
- I didn't do a reference check, although I had doubts about the truthfulness of the CV.
I could go on with more success and non-success stories and share more firsthand examples of job hunting and staffing. However, I want to delve deeper into this post and focus on the common factors contributing to success on both sides of the hiring table.
But first, to provide a clearer picture, I will step back and quantify my experiences a bit:
- The stories I shared with you are collected from multiple markets, or more precisely—4 different ones. For confidentiality purposes, I won't mention which story is coming from which market or what the industry is.
- During the past 6+ years of my career, I applied for more than 150 data positions in 3 European markets—1 native to my nationality and 2 foreign ones. My job search in foreign markets was successful, and as my experience grew, my career grew too. This allowed me to cover different data roles, such as data analyst, data scientist, and data engineer, and become a data lead in these markets.
- Consequently, the data lead role enabled me to build the team(s) and lead the hiring for various data roles in 4 diverse markets—3 European and 1 non-European—for the past 3+ years, during which time I reviewed over 500 CVs and interviewed more than 100 candidates.
In summary, this is how I gained perspective on getting a job offer or making a good staffing decision in diverse markets. I've learnt that it's not just one factor that makes the difference, but a combination of them.
And, as mentioned before, I will showcase in this post the success factors that worked for me on both sides of the hiring process.
Now, let's dive in.
Side 1: My factors of success in interviewing and landing a job offer
In this section, I will provide the most important factors that helped me land data interviews, progress through the hiring process, and eventually secure job offers in different markets.
(Spoiler alert is in the image below.)
Before all, you need to know that landing a data role across borders requires you to pass a question, "What skills do I have over someone who already is in this market, and why would I be a better pick to hire?"
I am telling you this because, in most markets, you have Ad A) immigration quotas and Ad B) work permit requirements **** for foreign citizens.
This was the case for me in both foreign (European) markets where I searched for the job opportunity.
However, there was some good news for me.
In the markets where I searched for a job, the data roles were on the shortage occupation list (even with a 5-year time difference in the job search on the two markets).
In addition, my higher university degree made me eligible to get a visa for a skilled worker.
These were my first and second factors of success: my education and technical expertise.
Yet, again, landing interviews and the first industry job in the foreign market didn't go without additional effort.
In my first search, and after more than one month of straight rejections and not getting even one single call of interest on my CV, I have learnt that you need to have a strategic approach to the job search itself and be familiar with the market particularities.
With this said, I researched the market standards about CV structures and cover letters to understand better what can land me more interviews.
For example, after I changed my CV according to specific market criteria—like adding my professional photo, birthday, and even my marital status—I saw a higher interest in my CV. As crazy as it might sound to someone, in some markets this is still a standard, or at least welcoming.
On the technical side, I have learnt how to structure my CV better using the Google preferred CV format and XYZ formula by bolding the keywords aligned with numerical achievements.
Example given: "Secured the company's Microsoft Partner status by completing certification for DWH implementation and data model development using SQL in the first 2 months of employment." or "Co-developed a Spark ETL framework, saving an average of 10 man-hours per month on a greenfield Data Lake project."
In addition, I followed the rule that my CV was a maximum of two pages long.
Although these points are not a "CV-local trait," but rather a "CV-global trait," they boosted interest in my CV, so it's worth mentioning them.
This was my third factor of success: familiarization with the local (market) and global resume standards.
When this was settled, the next factor that helped me out was the speed at which I applied for roles.
Simply put, I was applying daily for the new vacancies. Waiting for the weekends to do bulk applications was not an option, as I knew that companies tend to close job ads quickly if the application count is high.
So, I activated the job notifications on my LinkedIn, the main job portal sites, and the career sites of the big companies in the market.
This consistency in job applications ensured I got noticed early in the hiring process and resulted in more interviews.
These were my fourth and fifth factors of success: speed and consistency in job applications.
Now you wonder what to do next and how to move from only interviews to landing an offer—especially when you are not yet on the market.
What worked for me in all cases was that I pointed out my curiosity, potential, and flexibility. For every role I applied for, I stressed my interdisciplinary skills and that I could cover more than the tasks described in the vacancy and support business development. With time, this helped me develop the M-shaped profile—i.e., being eager to work on multiple roles and cover both technical and business sides in the data area.
This was my sixth factor of success: interdisciplinary skills.
However, getting constant rejections one-to-two months in a row sometimes resulted in my low morale. So I had to keep my big goal in mind and focus on what is important. Even though time passed, I invested it in further developing my skills and adding new "bullet points" to my resume. But I never gave up on my search.
This is my seventh and most important factor of success: determination.
Being persistent was also the factor that enabled me to grow in my career and experience the other side of the hiring process – recruiting.
Side 2: My factors of success in recruiting and selecting good candidates
In this section, I'll share the "universal" factors that, in my experience, contributed to making successful hiring decisions in different markets.
(Again, spoiler alert is in the image below.)
A successful hiring process starts with a foundation, or, to be precise, a defined structure and steps.
In my early days as a hiring lead, I learnt that a lack of structure or having different hiring process structures per market can lead to inconsistencies in the evaluation process. This makes it difficult to objectively compare candidates in different markets, leading to missed opportunities in staffing good candidates.
So, if I didn't have a global or standardized cross-border interview process in my company, I would set it up myself.
With this said, I would aim to have at least three interview stages:
- the general one (with me only, to check the team and the role fit),
- the technical one (with me and at least 2 colleagues to check the use case presentation or hands-on coding), and
- the final one (with the n+2 manager and talent acquisition manager to check the company fit).
This was my first factor of success in recruiting: a structured cross-border hiring process that was transparent and less biased.
While having the structure is important, being tentative in recruiting is equally important if you want to build a high-performing team.
This means that as a hiring lead, you need to "look beyond" the bullet points on a resume and find individuals who want to work in the international environment, collaborate, and contribute to business value.
You can do this by creating a set of standard (market-agnostic) questions to check the candidate's motivations, interests, and ability to work in an international setting.
For example, I always ask one open-ended question: "How do you approach collaborating with colleagues who have different perspectives or working styles?"
This was my second factor of success in recruiting: focussing on a candidate's potential and their ability to adapt and grow beyond technical skills.
During this whole process, I try to keep the positive candidate experience.
With this said, in every market and the interview stage, I come up with a prepared structure where I have an "icebreaker" intro to present the company, the team, and the new open role. I try to encourage open conversation and flow in every interview and speak less than the candidate, so I have a higher chance of identifying the top talents.
On top of this, I always "leave my doors open" and mention to the candidates that they can reach out to me via email at any moment during the interview process. Finally, I tend to provide timely feedback and minimize unnecessary assessments and prolongations in the recruiting.
This was my third factor of success in recruiting: creating a positive candidate experience to be able to attract the top talents in every market.
With this last factor, I have learnt that I can build strong cross-market relationships with future employees even before they join the team.
In addition, building relationships with candidates during the hiring process decreased my recruiting efforts in one market already. It allowed me to reach out to a talented individual in the network and offer him newly opened positions in the team.
Key Takeaway
This post aimed to show you the factors of success I collected after experiencing how it is to "sit on both sides" of the hiring process.
From my past experiences, I have understood that successful hiring, regardless of the market, is a two-way street.
For candidates, this means finding a place where they will feel appreciated and be able to grow, and for hiring managers, it means finding new colleagues who will enjoy working with the team and for the company.
To achieve this win-win situation, regardless of which side you sit on, track your success factors and establish a process that will work for you in the long run.
Until next time, happy interviewing and recruiting!
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