#TechCompanyJobs #CareerAdvice #JobSearchTips
Are you wondering at what level within a tech company someone can help you secure a job? 🤔 You’re not alone! Many people are seeking guidance on how to leverage their connections to land a job in the tech industry. In this article, we’ll explore the different levels within a tech company where someone could potentially assist you in getting hired. So, let’s dive in!
## Entry-Level Positions
When it comes to securing a job at an entry-level position within a tech company, having a connection can certainly help. Here are some examples of titles within a tech company where a referral could increase your chances of getting hired:
– Software Engineer
– Data Analyst
– UX/UI Designer
– IT Support Specialist
If you know someone at the manager level in one of these departments, they may be able to refer you for a position or put in a good word with the hiring team.
## Mid-Level Positions
As you move up the career ladder, the impact of a referral becomes even more significant. Here are some mid-level positions where a connection could potentially get you a foot in the door:
– Product Manager
– Senior Software Engineer
– Business Analyst
– Network Administrator
If you have a connection at the staff engineer or director level within the company, they may be able to introduce you to the hiring manager or provide a recommendation.
## Leadership Positions
When it comes to leadership positions within a tech company, having a referral can play a crucial role in getting hired. Here are some examples of titles where a connection at a high level could almost guarantee you a job:
– Director of Engineering
– VP of Product
– Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
– Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
If you happen to know a C-level executive at a FAANG company, such as Google or Facebook, they could potentially advocate for you during the hiring process and help you secure a job.
## How to Approach Your Connections
When reaching out to your connections for help with your job search, it’s essential to be respectful and professional. Here are some tips for approaching someone within a tech company:
1. Clearly outline your career goals and the type of position you’re seeking.
2. Express your interest in working for their company and explain why you’re a good fit.
3. Ask if they would be willing to provide a referral or introduce you to the hiring team.
4. Thank them for their time and assistance, regardless of the outcome.
Remember, networking is a two-way street, so be sure to offer your help or support in return if they ever need assistance in the future.
## In Conclusion
In conclusion, having a connection within a tech company can significantly increase your chances of getting hired, especially as you move up the career ladder. Whether you’re seeking an entry-level position or aiming for a leadership role, knowing someone within the company can make all the difference.
So, if you happen to know a manager, staff engineer, director, VP, or C-level executive at a tech company, don’t hesitate to reach out and ask for their assistance in your job search. Who knows? They may be the key to unlocking your next career opportunity! 🚀
Remember, persistence and professionalism go a long way in securing a job through connections. Good luck on your job search journey!
CEO, CTO can have this influence.
It varies by company. Some places, it’s the final decision of your future manager and he can do whatever he wants. Some places, you get interviewed by people completely unrelated to what team you get placed on.
Giving the manager final say can be both a good idea and a bad idea. It opens the door for corruption and nepotism. It’s also frustrating if the hiring manager knows someone is great (due to having worked with them before or high-quality reference), but isn’t allowed to hire them because they failed the interview of someone who isn’t even on their team.
People managers would usually go thru director /sr. Director -> vp with valid business justification
Conpletely anectodal, but when I interned at a particular faang, one of the interns had the same last name of the vp of the org I was in. The vp was 3 levels below the ceo
I never had confirmation that they were related and it was just an unternship, not a full time position. But the weird thing is that every intern in the org were either rising seniors or grad students, and he was a rising sophomore…
Technically any title typically within the same field can help you get a job. If you have a buddy that already works for a company he/she can get you to the front of the line. It’s what’s known as networking. You can meet random Joe at a bar and network. Now if you’re talking no interview, no need to prove yourself at all, etc. type shit well that is gonna vary by company. I’d imagine most companies don’t typically want those in general, but there are “soft” interviews that may be conducted more as “formalities.”
The public sector does this all the time. Even though they are legally required often to post jobs they often already have a buddy system in place where they just post the minimum time frame then just hire their buddy anyway.
In essence, people all over the chain can get you a job technically. There is no hard fast “this person will get you a job” outside maybe the CEO or COO etc. probably. I wouldn’t think like that anyway. Just leverage your network period with everyone instead. For all you know that janitor at Google has connections. Not even kidding.
I have seen the 18y son of a director directly out of high school getting hired as software engineer without any interviews. Just a few years earlier at the same company that would not have been possible. A clear sign that a company lost its way.
Anyone, really. An internal recommendation just means someone will look at your resume. You still have to jump through the hoops.
If you’re a VP or higher in a company, publicly traded or not, you can get your children into the company even if they’re complete dolts.
I’ve seen it twice at my team (company is a publicly traded Fortune 500). Screened somebody and during the review the consensus was “yea but do you know who X’s parent it, we can’t reject them”. To be honest one was a great employee who didn’t want to be known as a VPs kid. The other was an idiot who intentionally sabotaged work when he got pissed at his manager.
Depends on the company. The smaller and more “entrepreneurial” the culture is, the more likely they are to be able to just hand someone a job. If your goal is to start building relationships with people you think might be able to do this for you, I’d target new managers. New managers haven’t learned how to really say no or have tough interpersonal conversations, they also haven’t learned how to draw that line between personal and professional relationships. New managers tend to either approve everything because they don’t feel comfortable saying no yet or they reject everything because they want to prove they’re irl biznez ppl. It’ll be easy to determine which one a new manager is if I’m right and you plan on finding one to manipulate into hiring you.
Larger companies probably not possible unless you’re the CEOs dipshit son or something.
Ideally never. They should only be able to bump you to the top of the resume pile, which in and of itself is a huge bonus as many applications never make it past the pile.
My company (bulge bracket IB with heavy engineering culture) doesn’t allow it. We can refer people and a recruiter will do their screening similar to if they found a person on LinkedIn.
Last summer we hired an intern that came as a referral from the CTO. She still went through the same evaluation and technical assessments as everyone else. Any one of us could have vetoed at any point in the process and there would be absolutely no pressure from higher up.
Friends with a VP. He interviewed and declined the CEO/Founder’s brother. Nothing is guaranteed.
Knowing anyone in the chain can help you get an interview and that is probably the most you can expect. Knowing the hiring manager well can help, but I wouldn’t work at a place where that guarantees you a job.
At startups it can happen at the lead engineer level. Just need to have a company that has money and executives who trust you.
In Germany? Most companies have mechanism to prevent this (we call this Vetternwirtschaft).
If it’s about internships it’s a different story tho. As long as you have a good relationship with whoever will be responsible for the inter you’re good to go as internships are limited time only and oftentimes unpaid / low pay.
You won’t get a job purely based on a recommendation, however, it might allow you to skip the very first review stage (=CV and application). After that vitamin b usually won’t help you progress further in the process.
If a VP recommends a candidate then all they have to do is show up to interview, performance doesn’t matter. It’s sad though, as they always suck.
That’s not how it works.
It’s not about the role they have but their influence.
To get a guaranteed job, the person needs to be quite high on the hierarchy. Like, the owner, not much further down. Companies won’t create a job for some middle manager’s connections. Hell, one of our CxOs currently tries to help a former colleague from their old company to land a job with us, and even he could so far not create a job for that person. He’s instead trying to set them up with the right people, getting them to talk and hopes that something will manifest from there. This is, of course, an immense help for that person. Their network grows like crazy and those valuable connections surely will come in handy in the future even if they start somewhere else. But it is still far from a guaranteed job.
But if there is a matching job opening and someone has a good standing with whoever makes that decision, getting someone you personally vouch for into the interview process for that position usually isn’t too hard even for juniors. From there on, you are often on your own with only a few bonus points. This is never guaranteed, but it helps you get the foot into the door, which often is a very important step. And if multiple candidates are equally skilled, that referral might become the deciding factor.
Probably no level, HR has more power than even execs and will just block it without proper interviews etc
Blow the CEO?
Short answer, definitely the CEO and those who report to the CEO.
But most people with those sorts of titles are very, very aware of the weight their words carry.
I am VP of Engineering,
If I put forward someone to hire, they are always run through our normal processes, even if they are reporting to me.
I do reserve the right to play a veto card ( overriding my teams recommendation )
When I do that, I am putting my career on the line for that person, so I have only done that once. With someone who I knew, had worked with before, was suburb and due their accent did not interview well.
Short version, technically my title is easily big enough to do that… but I won’t do.
President
I have a connection to someone who used to be highish up at Meta that wasn’t able to do much to get me a role the 2 times I tried, though that was when I had 0 or 2 years of YOE outside my internship and didn’t have impressive grades.
At a non FAANG place, knowing one of their greybeards got me straight to an in-person but the offer wasn’t a great one, only got offered a low end amount on their listed payscale for juniors despite having 4 YOE, so I really don’t think their management was all that jazzed about me outside of that connection.
Maybe getting an SWE job at Twitter or Tesla could be done if you knew Elon Musk but I don’t think it could be done at most FAANGs
At real companies, as a software engineer. None there are checks in place for this. However….
I’ve been hiring communities where the hiring manager knows the guy and will fight tooth and nail for a candidate. If that’s the case so long as the candidate didn’t hard fail an interview there basically a shoe in.
I was on an interviewing panel. A high level manager leading engineering (like CTO) and who’d created and lead our interviewing process and panel referred a candidate. We debated whether interviewing them would be too much nepotism, but their resume did look solid. We settled on interviewing them, but temporarily kicked the manager out of our slack channel, interview processes, and panel meetings. They had no insight or decision making power. Manager wasn’t thrilled, but we took integrity seriously.
Good culture is going to preclude this kind of thing.
Newly hired VP brought in their own Director from another company to be placed directly under them. My department has had issues since.
It doesn’t work like that at any FAANG.
The smaller and more “informal” the company, the greater the influence execs might have.
Also, not everyone with the same title has the same power and influence. Depending on the company, an SVP of Sales (or Engineering) might be vastly more influential than a VP of HR or IT or something.
Depends how qualified you are. If you can pass the interview and it’s down to several candidates, a strong reference from someone who knows the hiring manager is probably enough. If you’re a complete dud, even the CEO couldn’t do it without losing way too much reputation to be worth it.
they can submit their referral thus pretty much ensuring someone from HR will take a look at your application, that’s kind of it
no guarantee of interview (HR can say no)
no guarantee of passing interview (interviewers and hiring managers can say no)
and definitely no “guarantee you a job”, at least probably not without that person to look like a conflict of interest case
the right friend at the right time can get you an in, any level. a lot of it comes down to luck.
e: well, not guarantee, but still. assuming you can demonstrate competency. the right rec can be everything.
VP or C level, but you also gotta be someone of a value and reputation to be at VP.
VPs and C level people can’t go around advocating for low level contributors or managers.
big companies typically have controls built in to make sure this can’t happen. with that said, it would likely have to be a VP or better to have that kind of influence. i am an EM at a big company and there’s zero chance i could just hand some random person a job. way too much scrutiny and way too many people involved in the process. best i can really do is guarantee someone gets an interview.
Depends… are we talking a shoe-in for a job you’re qualified for, or playing “staff engineer” at your uncle’s company after you learned how to print “hello world”?
Maybe the owner of the company was private.