Top 3 Questions from Candidates in 2023 - What's Trending?

As a senior technical recruiter my job is to talk to dozens of candidates a day, adding up to hundreds of candidates a week. And they sure are talking back. Candidates today are not of the same blood they were pre-2020. Their wants, needs and dreams for the future have taken an 180 for the most part. I’m often asked by my hiring managers in the C-Suite what the playing field is like today - and what are the top questions a candidate is asking when first being “pitched” a new opportunity by my team.??

Q1 of 2023 we’ve been working deep with the autonomous vehicle technology space and with startups in general. These roles are sought after and require strategic recruiting from candidates at various levels, locations, and backgrounds. However these recruits have all been asking these important questions - and this is before they have even decided whether or not they want their candidacy to be considered. Enjoy the read and comment below with other questions you’ve heard candidates ask prior to their consideration of submitting themselves - and whether or not you agree with our findings.?

Now let’s spill the tea…

1. How Stable is This Company??

Whether the role pitched to a candidate is from a tech giant or pre-seed startup, candidates' very first question is regarding stability of the business. It’s easy to empathize as to why they are asking this. The news is covered with tech and finance giants performing layoffs to what seems like daily. Candidates are reading articles like this list in the Wall Street Journal regarding 2023 companies laying off. They are also checking the WARN Notices in their own states to see if their current company has filed a forecasted layoff. The good news is if your company is hiring…that likely means there is stability, but the candidates want more info than just a job description. Here are a few tips on how to be prepared for this question to be answered before the candidate’s resume even hits your inbox:

• Ensure your company’s status on Crunchbase , Wellfound (formerly AngelList) and other sites are current. Additionally push for your marketing team to stay up-to-date with press releases, PR campaigns and update the website regularly, as well update the current team's info. Often marketing teams backburner the website, the team bios and additional online resources like applying for top rewards or recognition on lists like the Forbes Top American StartUp Employers 2023.??Also consider that not only are your future candidates researching the sh*t out of you - but so are your investors and potential customers. Not everyone refers to just the pitch deck anymore. Spicing up profiles, the website, awards and gaining a place on top lists will all help “sell” the stability of your business to top talent.?
• Push your entire team (yes, even the rookies and the C-Suite) to keep their LinkedIn up-to-date. Remind them to include panels, speaking engagements, research, publications, projects, past companies worked for and updated pictures. Engineers aren’t always thrilled when you ask this of them, and often management doesn’t want their team to be poached by means of having stellar profiles. The upside from a recruitment standpoint is that any great candidate wants to know WHO is on the current team, and WHO is sailing this ship. In the mindset of a candidate, Great Teams + Dynamic Leadership = A Successful Stable Company.?
• Prep your recruiters with some “inside scoop” about upcoming funding and forecasts. This one can be tricky because there is no need to provide any confidential information, however offering % to fundraising target, the overview of the GTM strategy or the predicted timeline and amount for the next round of funding shows the candidate there are strategies and KPIs in place for the business - which to a candidate this is also another foundation for future, stability and overall company success.?

2. Is This Role Remote??

It’s no lie that the pandemic did prove for some that both companies, and the employees can thrive in a remote work environment when given the chance, structure and the right tools. Additionally there were benefits to the families, friends and of course even pets of those who were no longer chained to a desk and counting down the minutes until they would be sitting in the 5:00pm traffic to commute home.?

Technical candidates aren’t the only ones asking if this role is remote - but they should be listened to closely when and WHY they are. It’s a given when casting the net now to candidates - there is a much larger spread and more inclusive when offering the remote role.?

However, not all technical candidates want to be 100% remote either. We are hearing a lot of questions from candidates specifically to the make-up of the team, percent that’s remote, hybrid and/or scheduled for quarterly visits or overall travel. They are also concerned with what tools your team is using to stay connected and productive.? In addition to the stack you work on, inform them of the productivity and connectivity tools you are using. Some companies are also offering budgets to new employees for their remote spaces - or are providing monitors or other tools directly to create their home offices. Others are offering Headspace, Peloton, or gym memberships to contribute to the overall life-balance of their remote employees.?

Some Hiring Managers, especially at the Tech Giants, are really pushing for their current teams to come back to the office on some level - and although that may work for some teams, others are starting to put their “ear to the ground” and look for new opportunities while doing so. Employees are human too, and have now created their own habits and lifestyles in their remote lives. Whether it's the joy of dropping a toddler off at preschool in the morning or the flexibility to go for a run with the dog at lunch - if a candidate is already in a remote environment there may be some struggle getting them to completely change their habits. Stable startups are at a clear advantage here too when creating the role and physical location of them, there is just less red tape when it comes to the decision making and flexibility of where this future employee will be actually working from.?

Hiring Managers who are carefully considering their candidates’ current and future needs - whether it's their work/life balance or to be more connected with a hybrid role -?are pulling in the big hitters. And Hiring Managers who are not are left in the dust. One way to avoid this is to work with your HR team to identify roles that clearly need to be in office PRIOR to posting and starting the recruitment process - and work together to pinpoint the roles that do have flexibility. This will save everyone the headache of figuring this out during an offer stage and even better, will ensure you don’t lose your top candidates to this mistake.?

3. What’s the Salary, Title, and Growth Opportunity?

It’s not surprising that the money question made my recruitment team’s top 3 questions we are hearing on the field in 2023. Money is a top motivator for any worker regardless of the industry. However engineering and technical candidates aren’t making it their number one question anymore. If the answers to the above Questions #1 about Stability and #2 about Location and Work/Life balance aren’t received with positivity, we won't even have the opportunity to get them to ask the third question about money anymore. Prior to 2020 that was always the first question, along with the title.?

Titles are always a funny topic to me. Years ago I had a colleague once ask our boss for a change in title; she wanted to put a “senior” or “executive” piece next to her current title. My boss responded to her, “ You can call yourself the Queen of Sheba for all I care - go do your job and if you hit your numbers we can discuss this at a later date.”?

Some candidates are VERY title sensitive. As recruiters, we often see this come up during the negotiation stage. Candidates often think “higher title means higher pay” - which isn’t always the case. Similar to the remote vs. hybrid vs. inhouse convo with HR - there should always be a preliminary discussion “If we found our dream candidate for this role - would we be able to budge on title and salary IF we had to…and what would that look like?”

Having these conversations can be tough, but having a back up plan to the “what if” is better to do ahead of the candidate search rather than at the end of it. Budgets are budgets at the end of the day - and there is a reason for a salary range. But if your diamond in the rough is brought before you - are you willing to lose them based on say a $5-$10K budget concern? Also being able to detail the “career” and growth path of specific roles is key to keeping a candidate interested and listening. They want to know with the rapid growth of the business there is also the ability to grow their career.??

Candidates want to hear that they can match or exceed their current salary - but often are willing to get creative whether it's with additional Options, or perhaps 2 days in office vs 3 a week, or even more vacation time. So companies should be able to get creative prior to the offer stage - and know where the wiggle room is, and where it is not.?

From a recruitment standpoint overall, the companies successfully filling their technical roles quickly with super high standard candidates are able to answer these top questions, and then some.? Recruiting used to be a math game of finding X candidate to fill Y position because that’s the skill set they possessed and the job required it. Now the ballgame is really in the hands of the candidate - people are choosing where, when and how they work. Candidates want to know they can come into an already stable company, maintain or exceed their overall quality of life, and get paid well to do so.?

Thanks for reading and as always drop a note to let us know what you think….