I was a hiring manager for Amazon and SLB for 5 years.
Here is the 5-point checklist I used to decide who to bring on my team:
PS: These are the same things I teach our clients during interview prep that help them convert $150k - $400k offers and land $15k - $150k compensation raises.
McKinsey has a simple filter for who to get onto the team that I stole as well:
Would I want to be stuck at the airport with this person?
If the answer was no, I simply moved on.
When I brought someone on the team, I was more interested in their enthusiasm for the company than their interest in the role or the product.
Teams shift, products overhaul, projects get killed… all the time.
But if the candidate showed strong cultural fit and interest in the company, I knew they would stick around even when things got rough.
As a hiring manager, my goal was to hire candidates who had the potential to replace my job.
The best candidates demonstrated their desire and ability to progress to the next level by talking about not just their responsibilities but their impact on business results, i.e. top line and bottom line of the company.
I can teach someone how to do their job, but I cannot teach anyone Attitude.
The best candidates gave strong examples of how they navigated difficult conversations with their coworkers, pacified angry customers, and empathized with team members when they deviated on goals.
Perhaps the biggest thing I looked for when hiring for my teams was executive presence.
Can he maintain his confidence during a difficult client interaction?
Can she hold her ground when a cross-functional team member pushes back?
Can I trust them to represent me in high-stakes meetings?
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The candidates who got hired had a confident on-screen presence, maintained eye contact, spoke slowly with ease, and did not lose their balance with difficult questions.
If you want to convert $150k - $400k offers with $15k - $150k compensation raises in today’s market, technical competence alone will not cut it.
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