Dell Oliver is a seasoned Tech Recruiter that has worked at Amazon and now is a Senior Tech Recruiter for Buzzfeed.
Here is a summary of key takeaways from the interview:
- Dell Oliver’s Background: Dell Oliver started his career in recruiting without knowing much about the field. He was hired by Lead Global Solutions, part of the Aerotech family, after attending a job fair. He found satisfaction in helping people find jobs, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic when many were struggling.
- Working at Amazon: Dell was recruited to Amazon as a contractor. He found the interview process challenging but manageable with preparation. He started as a contractor and was eventually hired full-time. He emphasized that working as a contractor is like a continuous interview where you’re assessed on your success, compatibility with the team, and adherence to the company’s brand.
- Contract Work: Dell discussed the pros and cons of contract work. While the uncertainty and lack of full employee benefits can be downsides, the opportunity to trial a company, gain recognition, and potentially transition to a full-time role can be beneficial. He also mentioned that some people enjoy the flexibility of contract work, taking breaks between contracts as they wish.
- Recruiting Tips: Dell shared tips for job seekers. He suggested reaching out to recruiters on LinkedIn and tailoring your resume to highlight key achievements and skills relevant to the job you’re applying for. He debunked the myth of resume screening robots, stating that recruiters do look at every application.
- Transition to Buzzfeed: Dell was approached by a former colleague from Amazon who was a recruiting manager at Buzzfeed. After a series of interviews, he joined Buzzfeed, where he is responsible for tech recruiting across all organizations.
- Breaking into Media Companies: For those interested in breaking into media companies, Dell suggested building a personal brand on social media platforms like TikTok or Instagram. He also mentioned the possibility of starting as a freelancer or fellow to get a foot in the door.
Check out the full transcript from the sixth episode of the TechGuide podcast, featuring an interview with Dell Oliver.
Ryan Atkinson: We have Dell Oliver joining us on the podcast today. Thank you for being here, Dell. I’m super excited to have you.
Dell Oliver: Thank you for having me. I’m stoked to be on here.
Ryan Atkinson: Awesome. And before we dive into the nitty gritty of recruiting, job, finding all of that, I gotta ask our opening question of, you have a busy day.
It’s been a long day, you’re recruiting all day. How are you de-stressing from work?
Dell Oliver: Oh man. Well, I’m not looking at my bracket cause I’ll just make it more stressed out, . You know, really what I like to do at the end of the day, de-stress from work is just honestly my wife and grab the dog and we go for a walk around the block.
Just something simple, just get it back outside, fresh air, some sunshine. I live in Arizona so it’s usually sunny and just, yeah, just go for a walk and just kind of end the day that way.
Ryan Atkinson: I love that. And of course I have to ask, what type of dog do you have and what’s his or her name? How old?
Dell Oliver: So I have a two year old.
Um, Dutch Shepherd and her name’s North, like the direction north. Yeah, yeah. She’s a rescue, and the rescue named her north and we’re like, we’ll, instead of trying to figure out a new name for her, we just like, kinda like that name. So we just kept it as north. Yeah.
Ryan Atkinson: Oh my Gosh, I love that. That’s a great name.
That is sweet. And so let’s dive into it, because you’ve been in recruiting since 2018. You’ve worked with companies like Amazon, GTR Staffing, and now Buzzfeed. Take me to, around this time, how did you know you wanted to get into recruiting?
Dell Oliver: Yeah, so honestly, getting into recruiting, it’s one of those jobs when you come out of college, you don’t, no one really knows what a recruiter was.
I had no clue what a recruiter was, you know? Yeah. And I moved back to Arizona. Sorry I’m can be a longwinded answer . But I moved back to Arizona after college from Colorado and um, went, just went to a job fair here and there was a company called Lead Global Solutions, which is kinda like part of the Aerotech family.
And they were talking about recruiting and hiring recruits. Like, well, I have no clue what this is, [00:02:00] but you know, I gave him, Little resume that I had from the work I did in college. And they called me up and said, Hey, would you like to come interview with us? And I started, what? An interview. And they offered me a job a couple weeks after.
Been there ever since. You know? I really like recruiting. I didn’t, I didn’t think I would at first. I was like, well, I’m just sitting here looking at resumes, but you know, Growing into recruiting and kind of the satisfaction that you get of like, especially during Covid and stuff where you’re like really placing people with jobs and people that sometimes are really looking for a job and are down on their luck or might, be stressing where their next paycheck’s coming from.
It’s, you’re kind of like that glimmer of hope that comes in and really just starting to see the satisfaction on people is what keeps me going.
Ryan Atkinson: Yeah, that is really, really quick. I, I feel like that’s a really fulfilling role because at a time during like Covid where everyone’s losing their jobs, it’s like, oh my God, where’s my next paycheck coming from?
You’re able to place ’em into new roles if it’s with your company or with others.
Dell Oliver: Yes. Yeah. There’d be people, I’d be talking to like, oh, I just lost my job and, I have. Family here and I was the only one working. Like I had no clue what I was gonna be doing next. And it’s like, well, here I am.
Ryan Atkinson: I love it. Cause then you were with Allegis Global Solutions for about a year and a half. You worked your way up from talent assessor recruiting, sourcing specialist, uh, to a senior recruiter, and then you broke into one of the big boys. Amazon. Take us to August of 2019. When you break into Amazon, how, how did that happen?
Dell Oliver: I got recruited. It’s really funny. I was just got recruited in a recruiter reached out to me asking if I’d be interested in joining, um, coming into Amazon as a contractor. I said, well, I’m not gonna say no to Amazon, especially, you know, being so fresh in my recruiting experience. And yeah. I really.
Just studied. One thing about Amazon is like they, their interviews are traditionally tough, but, if you study and you really read and understand what they’re looking for, then, it’s, it’s not too hard of an interview to do. I mean, it’s still tough, but like, you got the bases and,[00:04:00] that’s kind of what I did.
I just spoke to ’em, you, you know about what I’ve been doing at Allegis. And how I kind of grew there so quickly and where I saw myself growing and just, my interest in Amazon and being able to help shape their recruiting organization. Cause we were on a brand new kind of recruiting team that they were just starting up when I came and joined them.
Ryan Atkinson: And so you start off, I think it’s interesting. So you started off as a contractor position. This wasn’t like a full-time position. Was that, was that like scary leaving like a full-time position at contract work or?
Dell Oliver: So at first it wasn’t that scary cause I was like, okay, I have like, I think I have.
I think originally it was like four or five months. Yeah. And then, um, with the contract and then they extended it out to the nine month contract with ’em which is a match they can go. And then, they started doing their interviews to see what contracts they wanted to convert full-time to Amazon.
And that was during the peak of Covid. So you’re like sitting here, you’re like, well I really hope I do make it on full-time with Amazon. And that was definitely a. Stressful, like getting ready for that interview. Yeah, well, luckily I did get hired on full-time from them, but part of, it was awesome to learn the Amazon insides and out and being on a recruiting team really helped me before the interviews with the Amazon.
But it still was challenging because as a contractor with Amazon, you, you’re kind. Essentially interviewing that whole time with ’em. Like they see how you’re successful, you are, how, how you gel well with other, um, people working on your team as well as do you really follow like the Amazon brand and sort.
Um, which was awesome. But I mean, you’re also working with, you mean it was interesting because we’re contractors on a team with full-time Amazon employees as well. Interesting. Yeah. You’re seeing how they work, but also, You’re like striving to be, your coworkers essentially. [00:06:00]
Ryan Atkinson: Would you recommend that time, it sounds like it’s very stressful cuz it really is like a job interview for three or four, five months on performance.
Do you, would you recommend people try out contract work? Or what are some of the pros and cons people should consider with it?
Dell Oliver: Yeah, so I’ll, I mean, I’ll start out with the cons cuz I think there’s a little less constant pros. Just simply the cons is like, something like a global pandemic could happen right towards the end of your contract or you never know, like how the hiring’s gonna go, they say you have the possibility to extend or a possibility to, um, come full-time, but do they really mean that we’re with, I mean a lot of companies do, but you know, there are some bad apples out there where they just say that just to get you. And then the cons, also are like, you are a contractor, so you aren’t technically a fully fledged employer of that company.
Yeah. So like there are some things that you aren’t privy to, but I think, If you are a betting person, the pros outweigh the cons. Like you’re kind of betting on yourself, and I think, your confidence in yourself onto being able to perform that job really will help out. Um, especially, coming in as a contractor to the company, you Yes, you’re essentially getting.
A trial run at the company, but you’re understanding how the company works. It’s not even, so you might, at the end of the, your contract you might say, why would I even wanna work at this company? Yeah. So it, it works both ways. The pros, I think does get you in the door, gets you more recognized.
And at the level of like FANG companies, I think that might be the best way to get in because. At at Amazon we’re looking at, I mean, if during the peak of Amazon, during the peak of Google, all that I. You’re looking at, you’re competing with like three, 4,000 people for one role. , you know, essentially.
I mean, that’s probably a little dramatic there, like, but probably not though. . Yeah, but you’re in, so like you’re in, you’re in front of that hiring manager for that role. You, if not that hiring manager can reach out to another manager like, Hey, I’ve been working with Dell for a while now. Like, [00:08:00] Let’s, he’s, his contract’s coming up, we don’t have a space for him, but I think he’d be good additionally if something the company doesn’t wanna lose.
And so I, it is, it does have, the pros definitely outweigh the cons. And you know, I think contracting work also, I mean, a lot of times these big companies, There’s big recruiting companies like what I work for. I mean, you lose your contract. Usually that recruiter doesn’t wanna lose you as their source of revenue.
Like cuz they get a percentage essentially. Yeah. So they’ll, they’ll find another place to place you in at the end of the day, I mean, And some people, some, there’s some people I talk to and it, it does surprise you. Like they love contracting work. That’s what they’ve been doing for their 20 plus career years of career.
Cause they say like, well, if I wanna take three months off and not work at the end of my contract, I can take three months off. I don’t have to worry about vacation when I’m ready to come back to work. I just go find a new contract, which I, that’s not something I could do. But I mean, there are people that, like, they love contracting and I, I do find it interesting with their mindset, but, it is, I guess if you like to have a unique challenge in like a different landscape all the time, that would kinda be the way to go.
Ryan Atkinson: So when you went into Amazon, um, was your mindset though, when you’re getting this contract work, like, I want to be here full-time, or were you at all thinking like, oh, this isn’t just a trial run. See if I wanna be with Amazon?
Dell Oliver: No, I, I was. I was probably about like 23, 20, 23, 24 maybe at the time. Yeah.
And I was like, I wanna work for Amazon, I’m gonna rub all my French spaces at Fresh outta college. Like they’re still grinder way up. And here I am and at Amazon, I was like, I was excited, you know, it was, I was a company, I was like, I’m gonna, I’m gonna get this contract, I’m gonna work my butt off.
I’m gonna do everything I can to become a, uh, full-time employee here. And yeah, I’m gonna love it here. And, yeah. Interesting. So yeah, that was my goal, was to get converter full time with them.
Ryan Atkinson: And so when you were like a full-time role at Amazon, I’m curious, cuz obviously you’re, you’re, you’re getting like you said, like 3000, [00:10:00] 4,000 applicants, like a role.
Sometimes, maybe, maybe a exaggeration, but yeah, a lot of people and a lot of very, very smart people. So at your time at Amazon, was there something that candidates did that like, really stood out to you that got them like, at least their foot in the door that other people can do?
Dell Oliver: Yeah, so there’s, there’s two big things.
You know, one is you. Reaching out to a recruiter on LinkedIn, like, Hey, I applied for this role, um, and I’m interested, like, can you help me? And a lot of times you’re not reaching out to the right recruiter, but a lot of times the recruiter’s happy to help you be like, Hey, let me get your information over to a recruiter and, we’ll, we’ll look ahead and, try to find your resume.
The second one is, I’m one of those people that I fully. Your resumes kind of like your, if you’re like in sales, it’s like your book of business. So you wanna show what you’ve done. For resumes that say, like, I’ve worked at one company and for like, say I worked we’ll just using Amazon for example, at Amazon for the past five years, I was a sprint engineer here.
and that’s why you put on your resume. Well that doesn’t tell me what you’ve done, doesn’t tell me what languages you do. I think really, I mean, you don’t wanna overpower your resume, but you do wanna like put in key achievements and I always think like put in a couple of data metrics, some metrics you done.
Yeah. Um, to really make and stand out. I think there’s a big misconception nowadays that when you apply for a role, you go through some robot that you have to have all these key words. That’s all. I mean, I’ve been recruiting for almost. Eight years now. I wanna say I’m bad with math in my head, you know?
Yeah. I’ve never once seen that. Like no matter what recruiters look at the resume. I’ve never, there’s no software that I’m aware of where it’s like, okay, we’re gonna look through these and find these keyword. Yeah, I mean there might be that I don’t know of like, I know if you’re like doing searchers on LinkedIn and stuff, then keywords.
Yep. But every application that comes through doesn’t get rejected. You look at it, you’re gonna decide like, Hey, like this is what I’m looking for. There’s some questions that [00:12:00] might be associated with it, and you’re gonna look at the answers to those questions as well. But there’s no like secret robot.
Yeah, they, and rejects your resume. And I think that’s kind of the problem where kind of see resumes going to today is like everybody’s trying to beat the system, but by trying to beat the system is hurting them because they’re either not putting any information on their resume or they’re putting things in.
We’re the recruiter can’t understand. And, as recruiters, we definitely, we, we give everybody, a fair shot. But if you’re giving very limited information and you’re going up against. Some say you and I are going up against each other. Yeah. For a job. And my, my resume’s just like, Hey, I’ve done like two things.
Two roles, don’t have much information. Yeah. And you’re like, well, I’ve done this. I optimize this programming. I. Then moved up. And so I think, putting in more information on what you’re doing and then instead of trying to beat the systems is the key to getting into these companies.
Ryan Atkinson: Interesting.
And so how, like, so what, like, should I put on my resume though? Like what, what should be on my resume that if someone looks at it, they’re like the three, the five seconds, however many seconds you take to look at it. Like what, like really grabs your attention.
Dell Oliver: Yeah. So minor I, I like to see like, Depending on where I’m at, I like to see either key accomplishments, like, you know, if I am recruiting for like, say like just a ba uh, a software engineer, like I’ve optimized my system to run like 3% smoother.
I created a code that used to take, you know, a thousand. I don’t know, like a, think like a thousand inputs to do and I optimize it to only one. Or I save money by composing this into the cloud and really making the I’m totally like, I’m totally spacing here, but like the dockerization simpler for AWS or something.
Really just putting in key accomplishments instead of like listing off everything you’ve done. Um, just really those key accomplishments and you really, don’t be afraid to. Really optimize it as [00:14:00] well towards kind of the role that you want. So just because you have a lot of experience in one, one role say that you’re, you’re back an engineer and you wanna become a front end engineer.
Yeah. Well optimize your resume for more the front end stuff you’ve worked on. Like, it’s great to step back in. Talk. Talk more about the front end stuff. Talk more about the different languages and programs you work, you know, and I think that’s where it’s at now is really where it’s just to make your resume just.
your resume tells a story about you and you’re trying to get your biography essentially out in 30 seconds or less.
Ryan Atkinson: That’s really interesting. Um, I think, yeah, because resumes to me, like when I was flinging out resumes when I was trying to get outta school, I would always just like, I would all send like a blanketed one and all honesty.
But a key that I think that I did that you touched on a little is I would. Recruiters emails that the companies I wanna work for, and then send them an email that covers like three bullet points of like my background and like, oh, here’s also my resume. Um, and you said that recruiters actually look at that and like take that into account, um mm-hmm.
is that, is that like actually true? Is that, or is that just a waste of time?
Dell Oliver: For myself and my team, like all the time, I’ll get, I’ll get emails or I’ll get LinkedIn messages saying, Hey, I’m looking for this. I’m like, oh, I’m sorry, like this isn’t my robot. And then I message the recruiter on my team like, Hey, this person just reached out to me.
Here’s your LinkedIn information. Yeah, take a look at them and vice versa. I get it all the time. So, yeah, I mean, my team, we, the team I work on, we definitely do care about everybody. I mean, it’s the same thing, like, yeah, that’s awesome. A few, yeah, a few bad apples ruin it, but I mean, I read every link to messages I get by the end of the day.
Um, that’s awesome. I try to help out and even if I like, don’t. Have something for you. Like, I always respond like, Hey, I’ll, I’ll keep you in mind. You know, I, I just, I’m one of those people where I don’t, I don’t like to be ghosted, so I don’t wanna ghost people. I feel that I, uh, I, I definitely feel that.
Ryan Atkinson: So I’m curious, so you were at [00:16:00] Amazon, you had a great experience. You’re there for two years. You went to GTR Staffing, you’re there for 10 months, and then you come to buzzfeed, which is a company with over 1700 employees. And you are responsible for the, all the tech recruiting across like all the organizations.
Um, share with us how you got into Buzzfeed and like what really brought your attention to Buzzfeed?
Dell Oliver: Yeah, so it’s really funny actually. It goes back to just, you know, I’m one of those people that believe in you. Keeping in touch, having good friends. It goes back to where when I started actually as a contractor at Amazon, one of the person I work closest with is a recruiting manager at Buzzfeed.
So when the tech role opened up, he emailed me. He was like, Hey Dell, we have a new role open. Would you be interested in applying? And I said, now I’d be interested in applying. Um, and cause I, you know, I was looking to get more, I love. Looking, get back to the corporate side like I have, yeah, the utmost respect for con recruiters that go out and contract for companies.
It’s just, it’s a grind, you know? And I mean you, it’s awesome, like the upmost respect for people that do, but I was like, man, this is getting a little tough. And this was like, cause when I was at gt, I was like the peak of like the tech, I wanna say like Mountain, where like everybody’s getting offered. So I was like, it might be nice to go back internal at this.
And so he, uh, passed my information over to the director of the team. And I met with her and she, they put me through the gauntlet of interviews. Our interviewing at Buzzfeed is nothing. I mean, it’s not, we don’t, they don’t make it as difficult as like some of these bigger companies. But, you know, I met with a, a bunch of people on the tech team, on the hr, the recruiting team to really see if I would be a good fit for them.
And luck has it. Like here I am now. Yeah.
Ryan Atkinson: And I think Buzzfeed’s a like a really interesting company. Um, it’s a huge, amazing media company. And media, I think in the past few years has like really gotten like, oh, I wanna work at a media company. I wanna work at a media [00:18:00] company. Kind of similar like, oh, I wanna work at a tech company.
So how, what would you recommend to someone that wants to break into like a media company that doesn’t have any media experience
Dell Oliver: at all? Well, that’s a great question. I think, I mean, to be fully honest, like obviously I don’t really work on the media side things. I work on the tech Yeah. As the tech side.
But you know, I think nowadays social media’s so prevalent in life. Yeah. Um, that, I mean, You, you, you hear stories in like at Buzzfeed, where you create your own brand essentially. And the media companies will find you, you know, they will, come out, you’re making, TikTok and you have like lots of followers.
I mean, I don’t, my wife has like a thousand followers on Instagram and I’m like, that’s a lot of followers. I thought, you know, like, I see these people like that come. We work with and that were, that the people that recruit kind of that side, um, deal with and I’m like, oh wow. That is a lot, a lot. Like I don’t have social media, which is really weird for the company I work at.
My Instagram got hacked, like. A year ago, and yeah, I just said, you know what, I’m not dealing with this anymore, so I don’t have it. But it’s, it’s crazy just to see how you can really create your personal brand on like Instagram or TikTok or Facebook, Twitter, and you can really build your brand that way if you definitely, if you want to get into like a company that features media or influencers.
And also, I think another great way is, um, I mean there, there’s lots of work for like freelancers and fellowships in media where you can really get your flinn door similar to a contractor and you can build it up in there. You same goes to the same thing. You might love working there or you might, you might not love working there.
And at the end of the day, you know, there, it opens that opportunity a little bit more to the future.
Ryan Atkinson: Yeah, so it’s building like a personal brand and like that gives you the power to, like, if I reach out to you, be like, Hey, like I have this TikTok following of 5,000 people. I love media. Let’s, let’s chat.
And [00:20:00] that’s something that you’re super receptive to if, if you’re on like the media recruiting side?
Dell Oliver: Yeah, I think we don’t re, I think we really have, I, we don’t really have a, we don’t really recruit that. There’s like a whole separate. Part of the, our organization that does that. Yeah. Uh, that, that finds it.
But I mean, yeah. But I really think what helps though is like if you’re gonna have like that 5,000 on TikTok, um, which I don’t even know if that’s considered an influencer nowadays. Like, I think it is, but you know, but don’t have, like, I’m gonna talk about. On my TikTok on my Instagram today about cars.
Tomorrow I’m gonna cook you something. The next day I’m gonna talk about this travel, like mm-hmm. . You really wanna be honing into what you’re passionate about and you really wanna hone into, like, make it in that like lane, if you think of it I mean there’s just so many different, um, lifestyle and fashion trends where, it went, you’re gonna really lose your audience if you know I’m talking about one.
Let’s say like the Met Gala, the fashion choices of the Oscar, and then tomorrow I’m like, well, this is how we’re gonna change the oil on my 55 Camaro. This is just really pulling in onto that niche and really, building it that way. I mean, it’s really cool to see like what some of these niches are.
I’m like, I never would’ve guessed that, but that makes complete sense.
Ryan Atkinson: I like being very specific on one brand because then you can go to these huge media companies and be like, Hey, I’m very specialized in marketing or sales or cars, and I think it adds a lot of, a lot more credibility to your background.
Dell Oliver: Yes. Yeah. It’s not like you’re just trying, it does it ma. It does. It’s not like there’s nothing wrong about like having all this different stuff, but it seems like, you know. Yeah. At times it’s. Are you just trying to find a something that takes off, which I totally understand that, but at the end of the day, you don’t really want.
And now I’m making a career about, you know, creating TikTok on Instagram is about something you really don’t like or not passionate about.
Ryan Atkinson: Exactly. And so [00:22:00] we’re gonna hit our last bucket here as we kind of close this out. Recruiting, it’s, and the job market right now, it’s extremely tough. A lot of, there’s a lot of layoffs within tech, just a lot of lays everywhere.
If you could give like one piece of advice to someone that just got laid off, uh, what would.
Dell Oliver: That’s tough. I would say manage expectations. It’s, it’s difficult, to say that, but in my opinion, the for for the foreseeable future, the years of, your. Maybe five years in tech and you’re getting offered $300,000 total compensation packages.
I, I don’t see that happening anymore. The only reason that was happening was because one day Amazon woke up and decided to do it. Well, Google now wants to do it now Facebook, but really outside of those fan companies. Yeah, companies really couldn’t offer those. So I, I think managing expectations when coming into it.
Like you, you know, you always want to, I always say like, ask for the most money you want to ask, but you also have to understand. when it comes back and it’s not close. Like the days of essentially expecting that is where it’s at, um, is it’s not gonna, I, I mean, it could happen, but it’s not gonna be, I feel like I was just hearing.
Especially like at Amazon during Covid, like, like everybody’s getting offered in Texas, massive amounts of contracts. A lot of money. Yeah. And so it was just like, I don’t, and you know, I think those days of people of getting that, I mean, that’s great, but I, I think you’re gonna need more than like five years experience unless you’re like in.
You know, the hot, like AI or data science right now. Um, and then also I think, you know, really just leverage your network. You know, just, you know, I, I see it all the time, you know, I love seeing it like, Hey, I just was laid off and you see all these comments underneath these for people. And I’m like, yeah, it’s really cool to see that.
And I think, you know, just, just by doing that really helps out. And I think those are the two main things that will come to it.
Ryan Atkinson: Yeah. How do you leverage your existing network? So let’s just say I got [00:24:00] laid off from my job. Is it posting on LinkedIn like you just said? Or like what are some of the ways that you should utilize your existing network?
Dell Oliver: Yeah, so I think posting on LinkedIn is a good way. Um, but you know, but then you see the people like, well, I don’t wanna hear like, you got laid off. Like, I’m tired of, yeah. Everybody sees their own, you know, nowadays. Yeah. Yeah. I think also like a really cool thing is just look for little mixers and meetups, you know, every, every major tech, I mean every city pretty much now has a tech hub in it some place, you know, I remember, yeah, at g I was recruiting like flutter engineers out of Tulsa.
Like it’s crazy, like to see where the migration of tech has gone. You know, go to tech meetups, meet people within the industry that might have that job, and I. Also I you think of it during the peak attack, every recruiter in the world was probably email. It was probably LinkedIn messaging you, yeah. So go back, find those LinkedIn messages and just reach back out like, Hey, I got laid off.
Like is this opportunity still available or do you know of any opportunity that’s available?
Ryan Atkinson: That is a actual gem that I have not heard of. It’s actually thinking about who messaged you during the peak. That is a gem.
Dell Oliver: Yes. That’s why I always like respond to people. You never know, like. , you always want to be, I always respond to people cuz you know, if you don’t, the one person you might not respond to might be the peop person to save you, you know, or make you the half million somehow.
But yeah, I definitely go through and find those recruiters cause us recruiters, we love to obviously help you get jobs and we all still just love kind of when the jobs, when the people looking for the jobs come to us because it’s, we’re so used to being rejected. It’s nice to be accepted.
Ryan Atkinson: Yeah. And so like it would, going back, like going back to August, 2020 to see like who was reaching out to me and reaching out to them and just saying, Hey, like I was just impacted my layoffs.
Do you like know of any roles? But the key to that has to be, you had to have like responded in the past, you right? Or could you just send them an email back?
Dell Oliver: I do get some don’t, don’t respond back to [00:26:00] me, or they’re like, Hey, I’m just doing this. Yeah. You know, I think as long as you were respectful during that time, you didn’t tell, you know, you get some lovely messages as recruiters.
Um, you know, as long as you’re respectful at the time, you know, everybody’s happy to help. Even if we, you weren’t respectful, like we understand it that we’re happy to help, I. I mean, we understand it’s, we’re a people business here. You know, we deal with people every day that like, no, not everybody’s gonna respond.
But you know, as I said, like at the beginning, like, I love helping people get jobs. So like if I have an opening, I’ll definitely help you. But even. If I don’t have an opening, I mean, recruiters are typically connected with recruiters, so we’ll see different jobs and you know, send them over. They’ll be like, Hey, you know, go talk to Ryan.
I just thought I posted a job that I think you’d be a good fit in.
Ryan Atkinson: Ah, that’s awesome. So it sounds like a lot of the podcasts that, like we’ve been recording on Tech Guide, a lot of this sounds like. A lot of like finding a job comes down to like the relationships you build with recruiters and like treating recruiters well because it, like they’re the ones that are gonna help you find new jobs.
And I think that kind of rings true to like what you’ve been talking about as well.
Dell Oliver: Yes. Yeah. I mean, As a recruiter, I get those messages from recruiters and I understand like the frustration that comes towards recruiters at times. Um, but you know, at the end of the day we’re, we’re really just here to help and we’re really here to help.
Like, my, my tagline on LinkedIn is to help you get your, uh, dream job in tech. And that’s truly what I mean, you know, it’s very satisfying to help someone get their job and, you know, One thing I like, you know, here being internal against, like, you get to see the people grow and that’s like awesome. Like when they like message you on Slack and they’re like, man, I’m having such a great time here.
Like, thank you so much again. So it’s, yeah, you know, that’s what we’re here for. And I think we’re underutilized at the end of the day because people just, us as the gatekeepers, but we really aren’t, you know, we’re here to.
Ryan Atkinson: Utilize recruiters. . I love that. And so last question for you. Um, what is one way that someone could like stand out right [00:28:00] now if they were gonna message you or if they’re just in the interview process as itself, what’s one way that they could really separate themselves from other candidates?
Dell Oliver: Yeah, I think it’s going back to kind of, what we talked about with your resume. Have your LinkedIn up to date, you know, if you, if you’re a If you’re a, like a Goling engineer and But you have been using, oh man, what’s like a hot new language? I can’t think of one right now. There’s so many. But you’ve like, say you’ve changed completely outta Goling and you’re just, we’ll just use Python.
Cause that’s come mind. And you’ve been using Python for the last three years, but your last update on LinkedIn was going, you’re like, well, why aren’t I finding out these Python jobs? Like keep it up to date. Mm-hmm. , I like to actually have. Actually my LinkedIn is the exact same as my resume, so everything Oh nice.
Is that you can see, cause you know you to stand out. LinkedIn is the one thing that has those gatekeepers, you know, where we do our brewing searches, like it has to like see something. So I think between LinkedIn, just keeping that up to date and. Find a, find a recruiter in the company you wanna go to and just reach out to them.
Say, Hey, like, are you guys hiring? I think that’s the first question nowadays with, um, you know, Alicia Lock companies not hiring. And if they say, oh yeah, I’m hiring. Just say, Hey, don’t, don’t just send them your resume. Don’t say, here’s my resume. Say, okay, well I’m really interested. Go look at a job. I’m really interested in this job.
Do you have like 10 minutes to chat about it? And, you know, just make that intro and make yourself stand out. I mean, I was just, I was looking on LinkedIn just before this, just. . There was like a something on my feet about recruiter jobs and it was like recruiters are having a hard time nowadays finding new jobs.
And there was like one job application with like 2000 applicants to it, so, you know. Oh my God. Yeah. So it’s, I mean, and then I was like, okay, well I’m just kind of curious now, so I wanna look at a couple like jobs on LinkedIn. And I was like, a lot of them had like 500 to a thousand applicants. And you know, people say being the first [00:30:00] 50 to apply will.
Well, if you’re number 1000 and the job’s only been open for 24 hours, find a recruiter at a company and reach out to ’em. You know? I think that’s just the biggest thing to do is don’t be shy. You know? I know it’s tough. It’s, especially people don’t like being vulnerable. Yeah. And kind of going out and asking for help.
Getting a job is something that I feel. You know, people are a little, people just don’t like to do. And just be vulnerable. Like we understand that that’s what we’re here to help you, is to get you that job. We wouldn’t, we wouldn’t be in this position if we didn’t like helping people get jobs at the end of the day.
I love that.
Ryan Atkinson: I love that. I love that, and I have loved this conversation. Dell, thank you so much for joining us. A lot of great tidbits about on here, about like contracting work networking, all that good stuff. So thank you so, so much for joining us.
Dell Oliver: Thank you for having me.