What We’re Hearing from Candidates
Happy 2023! Quick re-introduction: we are Envision Inclusion, a recruiting firm that specializes in building diverse teams at innovative tech startups. As former startup operators ourselves, we understand the growing pains and challenges well and work closely with each client company to hire a team that will help them get to the next big milestone. We primarily focus on all types of technical roles: software engineering, data science/machine learning, product development, and product design.
As recruiters, we message and interview MANY candidates each week but tend to keep the learnings from those calls to ourselves. You can find us silently huffing and puffing about how candidates say they want this and that, and how some companies knowingly or unknowingly just aren’t aligned.
While we can’t promise to bridge the gap for you completely, we are going to start sharing some of these candidate insights (and trends when we see them) with our network so startup business leaders that are hiring, going to be hiring, or doing anything people-related, can have a peek behind the curtain as to what the peeps are really looking for in their next role or company.
This is what we’re hearing right now:
Unsurprisingly, Layoffs are top of mind for candidates right now, but the way they’re approaching being laid off or potential layoffs differs person to person. For those that were impacted by the big tech tech layoffs, here are some of the emerging themes we’re hearing in conversations.
Some candidates are taking their time finding the next “best-fit" company for them that aligns with their values, interests, and career growth – they’re just starting to take recruiter calls with places that look interesting and have no timeline for starting something new.
Most recently laid off candidates are looking for stability (#1 priority!) in their next role (and sometimes aren’t sure why they took the call with us for a position at an early-stage company in this rollercoaster fundraising environment in the first place!). When considering startups for the growth and development opportunities, candidates say they’re considering current fundraising, future fundraising plans, burn rate, etc., to mitigate risk.
Others are open to anything and taking calls from anyone that reaches out and will narrow down what they’re looking for after understanding the market a bit better. When we talk to these folks, we know we need to work hard to sell them on an opportunity.
When asking about compensation expectations, we’ve been surprised that candidates are looking for a continuation of their previous title & compensation. Many of the candidates we’ve talked to are looking for horizontal growth - similar title and compensation, but maybe open to different size/stage companies, a new industry (i.e., moving from fintech to health tech), or learning new technologies, rather than seeking vertical growth.
For those that haven’t been affected by layoffs, they’re looking for the same reasons as usual.
New year, new me. Forbes wrote about why people look for new jobs in January, and we see the same things. We often see an uptick in candidate responses towards the end of January, after performance and comp reviews. It makes sense — candidates will wait for their EOY bonuses to get paid out before they start looking for something new so that they’re not leaving money on the table that they worked hard for in the previous year.
People feel stagnant in their current role/company and are seeking growth opportunities at big companies or startups where there is the opportunity to learn and grow their skills.
Regardless of the situation, candidates are stressing that they’re looking for a team environment that supports growth, learning, and collaboration.
That’s all for now, folks! Be back soon with more blog posts in this series every other week. If you are hiring and need support, contact us below! 👇🏽
