🎧 What Big Tech Recruiters Really Care About (it's not what you think)
Product portfolios? Career breaks? Resume length? Cover letters? Thank-you notes?
I chatted with recruiters from Intuit, LinkedIn, eBay, Atlassian, and Cisco and asked them for their hot takes on your burning PM job search questions.
Listen in to learn what Big Tech recruiters really care about when hiring Product Managers. 🎯
Stick around to the end, I share my top 5 tips so you can take action today:
Be concise in every touchpoint.
Be relevant to the role, not generic.
Be honest about the basics, like location and relocation.
Be genuine, your enthusiasm is a signal.
Be patient, follow up with grace, about a week is fine.
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Jess Sherlock (00:00)
Hey everyone, today I've got some really fun intel for you from a handful of big tech recruiters that I got the opportunity to chat with at last week's Women in Product Conference out in Santa Clara, California. Now, if you don't already know, I am the chapter lead for our Denver chapter of Women in Product. It's a global organization that empowers women to grow in their product careers and it's something that I just love being a part of. I organize events here in Denver regularly.
And as a chapter lead, I got the opportunity to attend the conference and meet other chapter leads, mingle with attendees, join the talks, and talk to the recruiters that were there at all the various booths. So today I want to share with you the takeaways that I had about what these recruiters are experiencing in the current market, some of the things that they wish you knew as candidates, and some of the hot takes that I heard. So let's get into it.
All right, I've got my notes here because I was really excited actually. I wandered around to all the booths. There were companies like eBay, Intuit, Atlassian, Metta, Cisco, LinkedIn, Mozilla, just all of these household names were there. And I took my little notebook around and asked all of the recruiters and PMs that I spoke with and hiring managers questions about their hiring processes and how things are going. So.
If you haven't already listened to my episode on the 2025 job market, you might want to give that a listen. A lot of what I heard from the recruiters really continues to validate the patterns and themes that I'm seeing this year in the job market for product managers. Not the least of which is the more targeted your strategy, the better.x
So recruiters and hiring managers in this market are really looking for folks with proven experience. So what does that mean for you? That means you really have to do a great job.
pitching and packaging yourself. So storytelling and being concise is really critical in this market. So let me run through some of the things that I learned about these recruiters that I think you all might really benefit from because, you know, step one is we have to understand our audience. You may not know this, but recruiters at these big tech companies are typically dedicated to recruiting for certain roles.
Now, what I heard from all of these big tech recruiters for the most part is that...
their recruiting teams are dedicated specifically to product. And actually the way that they organize their recruiting efforts is around the stage of career. So for example, LinkedIn and Intuit shared with me that their recruiting teams are organized in sort of three general categories. One is early career. So that's your internships, rotational programs, post-college programs.
the sort of mid-career, which is going to be your individual contributor roles from PM all the way up to senior and above, and then executive level recruiting, which is typically going to be director level and above. So the reason I call that out is that you can rest assured that many of these recruiters are very familiar with product roles in general, with product hires, because they've really done it before. They've been focusing in on just that area.
So if you're worried that you're speaking to somebody who doesn't get it just because they haven't come from product, that's really not the case. These folks really do speak the language of product. And what I heard from many of them is that their hiring managers that they're working with are often coaching them on the details of what they're looking for in the role. So you can rest assured that these recruiters, though they may not have been product managers in previous parts of their career,
They really do understand the nuances and they've seen a lot of different PMs go through the process. So they understand what to expect and you can speak the language of product to them, they will get it.
One thing I thought was interesting is I asked all of these recruiters, how many job openings are you handling at any time? And the numbers range, but generally I heard that each person is handling about 10 to 15 job openings at any given time. So if you're a candidate, consider how busy these recruiters are. That is what I heard just over and over and over again from all of these recruiters is we're busy, we're managing a lot of open roles.
And not only are they handling the open roles as they're written, sometimes the requirements for the roles are changing. So they're at the mercy of the hiring teams that might be changing their mind on some specific skill set that they're looking for. And the hiring managers that they are dependent on for feedback or the hiring team they're dependent on for feedback, those folks often have really loaded schedules. And so they're literally just waiting a lot of the time for the folks that they are dependent on.
to get back to them with feedback from your interviews and whatnot. So if there was one thing that I heard loud and clear, it's that all of these recruiters are busy. I had one person say, you should see my inbox and my LinkedIn. they just clearly are living in a world of, there's way more information than they could possibly ever consume. And so what I took away from that is, it's really important to be concise, direct.
available and responsive. All these things are going to help set you apart to a recruiter who's really, really busy and trying to fill all of these roles. So I want to run through the top tips that I took away from all of my conversations and what I heard loud and clear from them. And so just to give you a little context, as I was walking around chatting with all these folks, I was asking them questions like, how do we feel about the length of the resume?
How do we feel about cover letters? know, thank you notes. Do we like them? Do we not like them? What about product portfolios? What about career breaks? Do those things make or break a candidate's chances? And what about follow-up time? How long should they give to follow up? So I'd like to start by running through the answers that I got to some of these questions, because I jotted down some quotes and I just, know
there's endless debate online And you know, hey, the answer is probably going to change over time, but I wanted to give you some intel from these recruiters so that you can, have an answer for today.
Okay, so no interview of recruiters would be complete without asking perhaps the biggest question. How long should my resume be? ⁓ man, did I get some funny responses. The shorter the better. I'm not looking at page three. One page definitely seemed to be the preference across everyone I spoke with. Two pages max, but that's really only if you have an exceptionally deep professional history and the content is...
you know, really warranted or really earning its position on the page. So overall, heard from folks, the shorter, the better, make sure it's clear and concise and recognize that we as recruiters read, hundreds of these a day. So the shorter, the better is always going to be the answer.
All right, the next hot take question I asked them, cover letters, how do we feel about them? And I got some funny responses. One person said, I can't tell you the last time I read one. Another person said, yep, don't read them. Another person said, you know, it won't ever replace a bad resume. And then another person made the comment that they felt that most of these cover letters are just kind of lazy copy paste cover letters and that it's actually
worse when you see a cover letter that includes the wrong company name or even the wrong role.
But overall, everyone seemed to be in agreement that there's really limited ROI. It's not a great spend of time. And you know what, if you do decide to do one, make the top couple inches of your cover letter really good, because that's the thing that's going to keep them reading.
All right, here's a fun one. I asked all of the hiring managers and recruiters what they thought about portfolios for product managers. And I'll tell you, the consensus was confusion. Most folks looked at me with a long pause and I even had one person look at me and say, you mean for product designers? Like a portfolio for a product designer? And I said, no, there's
a trend and some thought leaders that are encouraging product managers to put together portfolios with, you know, a case study of their top projects, et cetera, et And, overall, there was not a single person who got excited at the idea. And in fact, it came back to that point of being busy. I had someone who said, I've seen those links, I guess, at the top of a resume. I never click those. Someone else said people are too busy. So.
You know, again, I'm not here to tell you not to necessarily, but recognize that they may not be looked at. So if you've got a ton of extra time and you're interested in putting your work together in a single place and maybe there is a company that specifically asked for it, great. But I would definitely not let it replace the effort that you're putting into a strong application strategy, a strong resume and optimized LinkedIn, because the end of the day, the portfolio is an added bonus from what I can tell.
And even that may not be the case for many of these teams who just don't have the time to look at.
All right, another topic that I thought would be fun to ask about. Thank you notes. Do we like them? Do we hate them? You know, they make or break, you know, a candidate's chances of getting the job. And what most people, said was, oh, it's fine. You know, I appreciate it. It can be a nice touch maybe after, an interview with the team. But folks definitely said, it's not necessary, but it is.
kind of nice if it's helpful or genuine. So if there truly is something that you might need to close the loop on, a clarifying piece of information that you want to share, then by all means, a thank you note can be good. But the recruiter sort of felt like, you know what, my inbox is already crazy enough. It's just another email in there. Now, you my preference on this and my philosophy on thank you notes is they definitely don't hurt. it can be a good way to keep your name top of mind.
It can be a good way to address any objections that might have come up during your interview. similar to some of these other things, right? Recognize that it's not a make or break, but it's definitely something where if you do send one, you want it to be genuine and timely.
All right, this was a fun one. I asked recruiters and hiring managers how they felt about career breaks. I get this question all the time. I even got it actually about an hour before I went around and chatted with all the recruiters. I had met up with someone at the conference in between talks and we got to talking about their career experience and they mentioned that they felt that this one career break that they had on their resume, was the reason they weren't getting callbacks. So...
As I was talking to the recruiters, this felt like a good one to ask them as well. So I said, how do you feel when you see a career break on a resume? Is that a deal breaker for you? And, again, people were really surprised that I was asking. They seemed to really be surprised that this was even a concern that people were thinking about. And it was pretty cool to be able to say, you know what, I literally was just chatting with someone a couple of minutes ago who had this very concern. gave them a little bit of detail on, the break I mentioned it was due to
a layoff and then some family circumstances that required them to take some time off. I really appreciated the human response that I got from all these recruiters. I mean, the takeaway I heard overall was it's fine. Like they happen. They're really common. everybody's got a different situation. Sometimes you don't have a choice. Like there was this real empathy for it and a real understanding that it's one of those things that just
happens. And so the theme I heard in addition to that was definitely be prepared to share a bit more about the why. So I did hear from all of the recruiters and hiring managers that, they are probably going to ask what that career break was about, maybe what you did during that time or why it came about. But one person even said, I've seen a lot of career breaks in my career and I can never think of a time where that was the reason why we didn't move forward with a candidate.
So if you have a career break, the advice I would give to you is be prepared to talk about it and don't make it weird, it's up to you to kind of set the tone for how you want that career break to be interpreted. So if you make it weird, it's gonna be weird, but expect that they might ask about it and be prepared to share a bit about why it happened and what you did with that time and try to find a positive framing for it.
And by the way, I took a career break. I took almost a year off because I had burnt myself out pretty significantly. And honestly, I just needed a minute to get my head back on my shoulders. So, one of the ways that I positioned that at the time was, hey, I didn't do great setting boundaries at my last job. I put my all into the job, but that ended up coming back to bite me. So I used that break to recover.
I also learned a lot about the boundaries that I need to put in place. So if I were to work full time again, here's how that would benefit my next employer. I'm rested. I'm ready to go. I know myself better than I did before. And I'm going to approach this job in a way that's more sustainable, right? And that benefits all of us. So anyways, be prepared to talk about it. They will be curious, but don't go into it assuming it's a deal breaker, because really that's not what I heard.
All right. And the last question I asked for all of these folks was, how long should people give you before they follow up? Because, this is a question I get all the time. You know, I had the interview, they said they were going to get back to me. I haven't heard from them in a couple of days. Should I follow up? This has probably happened to you. And so I asked these recruiters what they thought and, this was a good one. for the most part, the theme I heard was, you know, give us some grace. So people said, you know,
that they definitely understood that you're eager, you're excited, you put all this effort into an interview and you just, you you want to know, you're like, I want to answer, I want to know what's going on. But the general consensus was, you know, give us at least a couple, few days, up to a week would be great, have grace. And I thought it was really interesting. One of the recruiters said, if we aren't updating you, we're probably waiting on our team too. And they said, sometimes
the hiring manager is out on vacation. Sometimes the hiring team hasn't put their feedback into the system yet. Sometimes we're waiting on, another candidate's interview to happen before we make a decision. And so it's just a really interesting framing that I hadn't even really thought before,
most of the time it's just a function of we're busy, we haven't had a chance to get back, but we will, or we don't have an update yet. And so I thought that was a really interesting framing. remember that these folks are managing 10, 12, 15 different job descriptions. So if you multiply that by, let's say, five active candidates in process.
that can add up really quickly to just so many touch points. could be 50 to a hundred different candidates that an individual recruiter is managing at any given time. So anyways, that's not to say don't follow up. They definitely said, if I told you I'm going to get back to you and I haven't, by all means, please remind me, right? These folks are human. They might've just forgotten. So that nudge can be helpful, but we don't want to veer into being obnoxious So...
make sure that you're following up in due time, but be patient. with every one of the recruiters I spoke to at the end, I said, know, do you have any tips for these candidates? Are there any pet peeves that you want to share? And I got some good ones. So this is, guess, sort of a wild card mix of things that I heard that you might find interesting.
One person mentioned, you know, if you're willing to relocate say that because if i'm going through resumes And it says, know, you must be in person in new york city and I see that you are in florida I may not have the chance to follow up with you and ask put it in your resume if you're willing to relocate
Another one that came up actually a few times was do your research on our company. Have questions, be excited, be passionate. You know, as a hiring manager, this is something that came up for me as well and was quite frustrating actually. So I'll share from my perspective. I can't tell you how many times I would get on a screening call with someone and one of their questions would be to me, they would say, so what does the company do?
And I'll tell you, I just wanted to hang up the phone. It was like, are you freaking kidding me? You applied to this job and now you're asking me what we do? but it just goes to show that preparation, those thoughtful questions, following the company on LinkedIn, following the latest news and press releases about the company. All those are really helpful things so that when you show up to the interview,
You seem more tuned in and you don't seem like you're there by mistake.
Alright, here's another tip they said. ⁓ A few folks said this actually, that they do want you to be confident, but that there's a really fine line between being confident and being entitled. there was this sense that sometimes folks show up and they're sort of bringing in this ego or a chip on their shoulder, I guess, when they're talking to recruiters and they're kind of like, well, I'm the perfect person for this role. Like I don't even know why I have to do this interview. And so...
confidence is good, but we want to remain humble. We don't want to walk in like entitled in that way. It just puts a bad taste in someone's mouth.
thought this tip was really insightful as well. Be ready to answer this question. Why us and why now? at least one person, if not two people said, one of the first questions that they ask when they get onto a screen or call is this question of why us, basically why our company and why our team, why our product and why now? Because they felt like that really
gave the person an opportunity to not only pitch their skills, but also pitch their excitement, their energy, their unique background that sets them up for this specific role. And again, going back to the point about being excited and passionate, if you get that question and your answer is really generic or you can't answer it, What a lost opportunity. So be ready to answer the question, why us and why now?
All right, and this probably won't surprise you, but first impressions are important all the time, but especially in an interview. So one of the recruiters said, you know, the first five or 10 minutes of a phone call usually decides everything. And they said, sometimes people get on and their attitudes way off or they're clearly not excited about the role or they take forever to answer the first question. They're, not capable of being concise. And so
There's a lot of factors that these recruiters are considering beyond your resume and your LinkedIn, but also equally important. How is that first impression in the first interview? be cognizant that that can really make or break things. And so I think that's a great thing to prepare for. So make sure you're bringing in that positive energy, that passion, all that is contagious. so even if you're not the strongest resume, if you show up really excited,
that could be the thing that shifts things in your favor.
All right, and the final tip, we all know this, but it's worth repeating, get referrals when you can. And each of the recruiters did say when there are referrals, those go to the top of the resume pile. So if you can get a referral to a company, don't hesitate there's usually some cash that the employee who referred you would get some sort of cash bonus or other incentive to make that referral.
You're never bothering an employee by asking for one of those, assuming you're qualified.
All right, so I'd love to run down my top tips based on what I heard. I hope you enjoyed those quotes and feedback that I captured from all the recruiters that I spoke with. here are my top five takeaways from all the conversations that I had. Number one, be concise. These folks are super busy. They're comparing and contrasting a lot of different candidates. They've got a lot of different job descriptions to fill. Their time is really valuable. So
whether it's on your resume, it's in a screening call, or it's in an email that you're sending, every touch point that you have with these folks show that you can really prioritize the most important information and be concise every opportunity that you have. Similarly, be relevant. don't make these recruiters and hiring managers search for why you're the best fit.
you're choosing what to include in your LinkedIn, your resume, which keywords to include, how to describe yourself in your narrative, which accomplishments to include. All of these things are going to be most helpful the more relevant they are to the specific role that you're hiring for. So lot of this goes back to having a good...
clear and actionable application strategy. So if you know exactly how you're pitching and packaging yourself, then you can absolutely be super relevant every point of the way from resume to LinkedIn to the stories that you prioritize telling during the interviews themselves.
All right, tip number three, be honest. this plays into not just what you choose to include in your resume, but also how you handle yourself at all stages of the interview process. So folks mentioned, know, tactical things like if you're willing to relocate, tell me that. But I also heard from some of the recruiters that there was nothing more frustrating than seeing someone whose resume didn't match up to the person they experienced in an interview.
Recognize that it's a long game getting hired and the reputation that you're building is really important so be honest as much as possible and Don't Be tempted to maybe tell a small fib just to get the interview because it will come out and that may affect that recruiters Interpretation of you for the long term. I always think of these recruiter relationships as potentially long-term relationships
I've had clients who get interviews at companies and maybe they're not the best fit for that particular role, but they get chosen for a future role. Now, if you ruin things by not being trustworthy with those recruiters, then they may not want to call you back if a future opportunity is a better fit.
All right, tip number four, be genuine. whether that is sending a thank you note and really being genuinely appreciative for them taking the time to chat with you or share information with you or...
during the interview when you're talking about why the company and why you're excited and passionate about this opportunity, Being genuine is one of those things that can be a real upper hand for you. It's something that's really difficult to fake. And so if you genuinely are very excited about the role in the company or passionate about the problem space, That can only help. And if you notice that
you're having to stretch the truth or you're feeling like you're not able to be genuine and role really isn't that exciting. I guess I would just remind you that you're probably not hiding it very well, right? Humans are very good at picking up on whether something is authentic or genuine. And even if you think you're faking it as best as you possibly can, it's probably being picked up by the recruiter and hiring team. Even if they can't specifically name it, they're going to be feeling that something is a little bit off.
And the last tip I'll offer is be patient. recognize that for you, it may be the one and only thing you're working on or the one most important thing that you are working on. And so you're really interpreting everything through your lens of, know, I had the interview, I had it yesterday, I haven't heard back. Right. And you're we're always thinking about worst case scenario. But what I heard from these recruiters is be patient, recognize that they have a lot of tasks on their plate. They have
a lot of openings that they're working on filling. And so the more patient you can be with your follow-ups, the less likely you are to affect those relationships that you've built with the recruiter. So be patient, but also do follow-up, but do it in due time and do it with grace and be genuine in your curiosity of following up.
All right, well, I really enjoyed sharing this information with you I heard from these recruiters and hiring managers. And I hope that this was insightful and helpful to you if you are out job searching or thinking about kicking off a job search. And if you'd like some help figuring out your application strategy so that you can be relevant, be concise, be honest, be genuine, and be patient while you're out there job searching, then you might want to look into my SPRINT program.
we help you come up with a targeted application strategy. We get your resume in order. We help you get your LinkedIn optimized. And then we help you with all of that interview prep. And you know what? You get a cheerleader along your side for support and accountability all along the way. So.
If you're interested in getting some help with your job search, I'd encourage you to check out my SPRINT program at jesssherlock.com/sprint thanks for being here. I hope you found at least one thing that you can start doing differently in your job search, and I'll see you next time on AFTER THE CERT.
