Sep 13 2018

From Creative to Technical Recruiting: How I Got Here

By Meta Careers
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Susie P. is a Technical Recruiter for Product Design Leadership at Facebook, but surprisingly, her career started in the creative industry. Holding various roles from marketing and creative staffing to sales, she found herself wanting more from her career. But two and half years ago, she was given the opportunity to pursue a role in technical recruiting at Facebook. It turns out, this would be the game-changing role that would define her career.
="Susie smiles in front of a wall covered in posters"

Converting my people skills into a career in recruiting

Growing up, I had a hard time quantifying my talent. Some people are good at soccer, others are good at math, but it was harder for me to understand what my talent was. As I grew older, I realized my biggest strength was my ability to connect with people.
I got my start working for a digital design agency doing marketing strategy. While I quickly learned marketing wasn’t my passion, I started to realize the thing I loved most about my job was working with the engineers, strategists, designers and copywriters. I had a unique talent for forging relationships with people across various departments and teams.
This realization led me to take my first step in the world of recruiting. I accepted a role at the largest creative staffing firm in the US, where I spent two years placing candidates with SMB and design agencies. After a quick stint at a small UX design agency, where I was hired to build out the team to acquisition stage, I moved back to a staffing agency to help with business development and sales. One of the key reasons I made the jump into sales was because I wanted to expand my skill set, step out of my comfort zone and grow as a professional. But as I started to dive deeper, I realized I missed the feeling of helping people with their careers. With recruiting, people put a lot of trust in you to help them make a decision that will impact their future. It's a big responsibility, but it's also incredibly rewarding, and it's the reason I decided to go back to recruiting.

The opportunity of a lifetime

Once I decided to make the move and go back to my roots, I applied to Facebook, where I first met Jeremy, a recruiting manager for the Product Leadership Recruiting team. Right away, I was immediately drawn to his impressive experience working in product design leadership and his eagerness to scale this department. Given my unique background, which I now know is seen as an asset, Jeremy and the team took a chance on me -- and this technical recruiting role turned out to be a major game changer for my career.
I’ll never forget my first couple of months at Facebook. I was nervous; I had never worked at a large company, especially one with the size and scale of Facebook. But the fascinating thing about working at Facebook wasn’t the size, it was the incredible amount of growth I experienced over the next two and a half years. Facebook challenged me and gave me the opportunity to learn and thrive in a completely new field, and I attribute this growth to three key practices:
1) Focusing on diverse perspectives: At Facebook, we look for diverse backgrounds to bring unique and fresh perspectives to the table. We believe diverse mindsets drive innovation and scale. It didn’t matter that I had a creative background; my colleagues saw this as an asset. I often compare this mindset to painting: when you stick to one color, the painting is stagnant and boring. But when you add a variety of colors and contrasts, you add depth and perspective.
2) Offering a seat at the table right from the get-go: From day one at Facebook, I was given a seat at the table. My colleagues saw me as equal and proactively asked for my perspective when it came to making decisions. As a result, I quickly learned to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, push myself to think outside of the box, and rise to the occasion. I was challenged, and as a result, I grew quickly.
3) Encouraging new experiences and providing opportunities for growth: I always knew I wanted to expand my skill set, and Facebook gave me the opportunity to do that. Early on in my time there, I expressed my interest in learning about and hosting events to my manager. Soon after, I learned how to plan, execute and scale events, train others, and eventually establish an events program that I could scale out. Today, I continue to help grow and scale our events team, and work on securing partnerships to plan and execute events. This includes executing leadership dinners in San Francisco, Menlo Park, New York, Seattle and London. Hosting events like these allows us to think beyond traditional recruiting tactics for more creative strategies, and when you’re able to successfully hire someone as a result, it’s the most rewarding feeling.
Over the past two and half years, I’ve grown more than I ever thought possible. Facebook has given me the resources and the opportunity to transition into a new role and do what I love, while continuing to grow and challenge myself. I get to work cross-functionally with a variety of teams and inform our hiring strategy. As recruiters at Facebook, we don't just conduct interviews and fulfill hiring demand. We literally have a seat at the table; we work to bring on people that make up Facebook's leadership and are shaping the company's future.
A few days ago, I received a message from a manager I hired last month. She said, “I absolutely love this place. My life is forever changed by coming here. Thank you.” It’s moments like these that make me proud to be a recruiter at Facebook.

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