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June 22, 2023
Event Diaries: Women in Tech Berlin
In Germany, women make up only 17% of all jobs in technology. So, with the support of our partners, we’re on a mission to change this.
After hosting our Women in Tech Berlin event at Factory Berlin earlier this month, we’re sharing an overview of what went down, lessons from our expert panel and answering the burning questions we didn’t get a chance to ask.
Meet our Panel
Chido Nyandoro
Chido Nyandoro is a Senior Talent Partner working at Acelr8 in the tech startup ecosystem in Berlin, Germany. She consults and improves how startups hire and scale and is eager to continue to ensure DEI hiring is applied. She holds a Masters in Corporate Social Responsibility and an Honours in Organizational Psychology.
Deborah Birnbaum
Deborah Birnbaum is a Lead Talent Acquisition Manager at HelloFresh. Her educational background is in interdisciplinary media studies, learning how systemic injustice and oppression operate in our society, shaping how we interact.
She found her way to recruitment via pit stops in non-profits, MTV, and a few other industries. Deborah began her career as a recruiter determined to make a difference in representing minority groups in tech—from entry-level to experienced hires.
Elizabeth Eke
Elizabeth Eke is a Talent Acquisition Partner at Zalando. A dedicated Talent Acquisition Specialist, she is successful at managing the full recruitment life cycle. From development to implementation, Elizabeth creates customised strategies to meet position requirements and hire the best candidates for the role.
Rafael Galliano
Rafael Galliano is a Talent Acquisition Partner at Zalando. Having previously worked with Wayfair and Amazon, Rafael is a Talent Acquisition Enthusiast with years of experience in the field. For Rafael, the goal is to cause a positive impact by bringing in great talent and providing an excellent candidate journey.
How To Nail the Hiring Process
During the event, our expert panel covered various topics, from the typical tech recruitment process to common mistakes women make and how to ensure you stand out. Here are some of the key learnings:
Entry into tech looks different for everyone: If you think it’s too late to transition into tech or more experience, think again! Elizabeth was a lawyer, Chido wanted to be an actress, and Deborah worked in several industries and bounced back from being laid off before working with HelloFresh.
Be inquisitive: Ask lots of questions throughout the recruitment process. While you may be reluctant, asking questions and communicating effectively is a soft skill recruiters look for while showing that you’re genuinely interested in the role.
It’s okay to have a career gap: While career gaps may have been a red flag previously, in the current economy, things have changed. So, don’t stress about your career gaps; be open and honest.
You don’t need to meet 100% of the criteria to apply: A 2019 study found that men apply for a job or promotion when they meet only 60% of the qualifications, but women only apply if they meet 100%. Must-haves are essential for hiring managers. But we’ll let you into a little secret: if you meet 70% of the criteria, you will have the must-haves!
Ask the right questions about performance reviews: Asking questions about performance reviews show recruiters that you want to better understand what it takes to do the role well. Ask questions like how they’ll measure progress, whether it is okay to fail, and how you can help your team succeed.
Ask about employee churn rates: Employee churn is the overall turnover within an organisation as existing employees leave and new ones are hired. If many people have left the team you’re applying for, it could be a sign of overworking or a poor work environment.
Don’t be afraid to bring up salary during the interview process: Be sure to discuss money before there’s a job offer on the table. Raise it during the interview process to ensure expectations align before progressing.
Sell yourself as an individual: Last but certainly not least, feel free to shout about your personal achievements. Your team may have achieved a lot, but certain things would only have happened with you and your skill set. So, focus on those!
Asked and answered
During the event, there were several questions we didn’t get a chance to cover. So, we asked our panellists.
Could you explain the rationale behind a team member or hiring manager starting the interview process instead of the conventional HR method?
Rafael explained, “I’m not sure I’ve seen that happening in big tech companies. I Believe having a TA (of HR, as some refer to) in charge of this process is a benefit for all parties involved since we can bring talent insights that a team member or a Hiring Manager will not have, e.g. How is the strategy to hire for that specific role – will it be easy to fill by organic applications or needs to be directly sourced, how do you push for a referral campaign, how the interview process should look like, etc. Many nuances are involved when Talent Acquisition takes the stage, which makes the process look easy from the outside, but it isn’t.
So from a candidate perspective – if you find yourself in a process where TA was not involved, there you should be able to notice the differences, and I will bet that in 9 cases out of 10, the process won’t be as smooth/organised as it could have been.”
Should we worry about the recent layoffs in the tech industry?
Deborah told us, “In short, there is a legitimate cause for concern.
It will make the job market (even) more challenging for those with less work experience. As a result of the layoffs from big tech, we are seeing experienced hires flood the market with more openness to negotiate on salary. Companies still hiring want to seize the opportunity to scoop up senior talent at a lower price, especially because their headcount has likely already been reduced. So if teams can only hire 25% of the planned roles, they want them to be as experienced as possible.”
How can we make our application stand out if we need more working experience?
Deborah said. “my advice here is to secure a referral. Reach out to an engineer, designer, etc., at the company you want to work at and see if you can have a call with them. These folks don’t get nearly as many queries about a job post as recruiters do ;). If that person can refer you internally and possibly even attest to some of your skills (share your GitHub with the engineer if they’re open to it and walk them through a project, or show the designer your portfolio, etc.), it will give you the best chance of getting your application to the top of the pile.”
Here’s what some of our attendees had to say about our Berlin event:
“The speakers. All of them. Amazing how well-structured and attentive they were. I made notes on the event, which doesn’t happen often. This was valuable for me. Thank you a lot for sharing your expertise. Precious.”
“A lot of useful tips noted down in my phone! And for me was important to meet someone from HelloFresh, because I’m particularly interested in the position there.”
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