[Music]
foreign
[Music]
and with that let's go ahead and get
started I'm Andy like Paige mentioned um
to give you guys just a quick background
about myself I've been recruiting almost
for 10 years now it's kind of crazy to
think but I started my career at
palantir
um I was there for four years and then I
moved to a company called affirm where I
started as the second technical
recruiter and I was there for about four
and a half years and focused focused
mostly on engineering hiring and then
eventually leading the technical
um Talent function
um and now I've been at YC continuity
supporting Founders
um specifically on technical hiring for
about four almost five months now so
it's nice to meet everyone here
awesome and I am Heather uh I actually
started my career in a bit of a
different field in social work in San
Francisco which I was new to the city at
that time uh and it was the first time I
had really been exposed to the tech
scene so after a few years of doing
social work I actually decided to do a
bit of a career shift as you can likely
tell and joined a recruiting agency
called bets recruiting where I partnered
with a lot of different Tech startups
across the us to help build out their go
to market teams I did that for about two
years and then moved in-house and joined
stripe and was there for about six and a
half years for a very wild and exciting
ride I joined when they were about 300
employees and I was the fourth business
recruiter business and g a recruiter on
the team in about a year after joining I
moved into management and was
responsible for overseeing
uh both the business and GNA functions
for the Americas until I left uh back in
April of this year and I've also been at
YC for about five months now uh joined
the talent team here and uh working with
Founders and focused primarily on go to
market and GNA exec Talent awesome thank
you both for joining us and for those of
you who don't know uh Y combinator is a
startup accelerator
um so every year we have two batches of
startups where we give them 500k and
then they go through a three-month
program where they learn about the
fundamentals of starting a business we
also have additional functions that
Heather is going to tell us about and I
want to kind of frame who they are
before we kind of dive into
why you're really here Heather yes so uh
we are part of the YC continuity team
specifically or as we refer to ycc which
is basically YC's later stage investment
fund and we are investing in the top one
percent of YC batch companies we've had
about uh just over 4 500 companies that
have gone through our batch program and
through our growth stage fund we've
reinvested in about 40 of those uh and
we typically invest in companies that
are around series b or later we've done
some pre-series bees as well but series
B tends to be our sweet spot uh who are
really kind of hitting the accelerator
on growth from both a business and
talent perspective uh and then we I will
say that we don't just invest in these
companies but we're pretty embedded with
our Founders and provide support to them
as they scale their organization through
a lot of different programs that we run
uh working with our investment team on
overall business strategy and then the
talent team which Andy and I are both on
where we are really focused on helping
Founders on anything related to Talent
people and helping them really build out
their executive bench as well
and for a little bit more context could
you share what your day-to-day looks
like you kind of went into it already
but love to hear more yeah I'll give a
just a really quick overview
um just for everyone here context wise
our day day looks very different from
being an in-house recruiter
um being an inside of your Critter our
main focus is to really focus on that
specific company and bringing candidates
employees into that specific company
here at ycc like Heather mentioned be
support many different Founders in any
given time in all different sizes and
stages for example stripe is actually in
our portfolio but we also have companies
that are much earlier like series B and
C
um we I mean and that could range for
many different things like specifically
for me I'm doing a lot of introductions
um for engineers over to Founders like
kind of being kind of like a Matchmaker
there
um like
um Heather mentioned we're also really
helping with executive hiring and we're
also
um connecting founders with subject
matter experts to really help them build
out their executive bench and it can
also mean like running a diagnostic onto
their recruiting pipeline so it really
just ranges from day to day but um yeah
it's been really fun doing it so far
okay now let's talk a little bit about
the overall drop job market and
um what's been going on what are some of
the trends that you've been seeing
yeah so I mean the most glaring Trend
obviously you know we see it all over
LinkedIn has been layoffs
um companies that have saw accelerated
growth through covid over hired and now
they're course correcting and their
growth has really slowed
um unlike just what we saw just a year
ago there are a lot of candidates on the
market now a lot more Talent available
um it was a job Seekers Market
um and now it's the opposite and it has
become very very competitive and I do
think candidates now have to go above
and beyond just to stand out
um but coming out of this another Trend
that we're seeing is that early stage
companies
startups are really the ones who are
full steam have had hiring
um they're really capitalizing on the
available Talent out in the market right
now and they're really trying to snatch
them up
um one thing I've noticed in particular
is that companies are looking for
candidates who have more experience
um really looking at candidates maybe
with like six plus years like really
kind of leaning more on the senior side
um and we can get into this later but
for folks who maybe don't have the that
type of experience under their belt yet
um don't be afraid to really broaden
your search and include smaller startups
like you don't necessarily need to
Target fan companies
um those are just going to be in my
opinion a little bit harder to get into
try to Target smaller companies where
you can have a really great mentor
um and just just I know
at this stage maybe like don't be afraid
to be a little riskier
um and then another Trend that we're
seeing is that most companies
um are still it's so pretty favorable
when it comes to remote hiring
um there are a couple companies who are
you know going back to more of a hybrid
mode
um again I think the recommendation here
is just to be a little more flexible
when it comes to location
um and then another thing just a quick
plug
um here at YC we do have work at a
startup I definitely recommend looking
um on on there for opportunities
to kind of build off of how people can
think to narrow down their job search
are there any Trends or specific
industries that are ripe for disruption
yeah
um I mean there are many some some that
just kind of come to mind are Developer
tools
um you know despite layoffs there's
always going to be need for software
engineers and companies are now starting
to build tools to help automate
development or to make life make the
lives of um developers a lot easier so
than companies like a webflow build
buddy retool like those those companies
are doing quite well
um Health Tech as well
um I think this industry has been pretty
ripe for disruption for some time and
we're seeing more companies lean in like
benchling modern fertility
and then security to companies like
vanta salt security as well
one other to add is which you may have
noticed popping up recently is climate
Tech that seems to be a pretty big Focus
for a lot of larger organizations as
well as is really helping to contribute
to
um the state of the environment here at
YC we love startups and I personally
love startups but for some candidates
they might think that they're risky uh
what are your thoughts on that we love
startups so I see
um so I think it's important to first
call out that risk can be very broad
term and is very relative to the
individual themselves so I think you
need to spend a little time just
defining what risky means to you
personally uh I'll say that there are
definitely some advantages to joining
either a startup or a large company and
it just depends on what you're looking
for in your next career move and what's
most important to you so working at a
large company might provide you with a
bit more stability or maybe better
benefits more uh formal on the job
training or opportunities to see what at
scale looks like but I will say that
swim lanes are tend to be a bit more
defined at larger organizations and your
scope of work is typically a bit more
narrow and then from a compensation
standpoint salary tends to be a bit
higher and if you do receive Equity as
part of your package uh it is liquid but
then there tends to be a bit more less
upside on the actual value of your
equity whereas working at a startup you
can you've got a ton of opportunities to
grow and develop at just a much faster
rate and it tends to be more of an all
hands on deck atmosphere so your level
of exposure across the entire business
and just ownership overall
is is much greater
um you're you're like digging in and
you're really helping to build and scale
the business and can often see the
direct impact that your work is having
on the success of the company
um you may also have more influence and
more interaction with senior leaders or
or even Founders uh there tends to be
more creativity and risk taking because
things are moving so quickly and it's
easy to break things and and then fix
them without having some larger
implications on the business and then in
terms of compensation uh startups it is
possible that your salary may not be as
competitive or uh match offers that you
would get at any kind of Fan company but
you will have greater ownership in the
company in terms of equity which can
lead to much higher
um reward potential as well and then
just a quick uh kind of perspective from
my experience uh joining stripe early on
was honestly the best thing that I could
have done for my career uh what I was
able to learn in a accomplished in a
matter of just under seven years would
definitely not have been possible for me
at a larger company and it just
completely catapulted my career in a way
that I didn't think was possible and was
also just looking back in uh reflecting
is is really rewarding to see all of the
impact that I was able to have within
the organization and it opened up a lot
of doors for me and I clearly got the
opportunity to join a great company like
YC
and why do you think now specifically
would be a good time for something yeah
so I might be stating the obvious here
given all the recent uh big tech company
headline layoffs that we are hearing
what feels like on every other day uh
Cadence but big companies aren't aren't
necessarily synonymous to uh with
stability and startups aren't synonymous
with volatility so going back to what
Andy had mentioned many early stage
companies are actually doing really well
and they are full steam ahead on their
hiring if you actually kind of like take
a step back and look at Trends on the
startup World you'll see that a lot of
really great ideas and companies are
born out of tough times and some of
today's biggest and best known companies
actually got started during past
recessions
um take Airbnb for example the founders
were very early entrepreneurs at the
time and were struggling to pay rent
back in 2008 and they had an idea hey
let's run out an air mattress on our
floor of our apartment for extra income
and boom like from that idea Airbnb was
basically born there's also companies
like uber and slack WhatsApp Instagram
apple and so many others
um the other thing to note is a lot of
the companies that are created in this
type of environment like we're seeing
today really have to learn how to
preserve cash and extend their Runway
and need fewer resources to grow
compared to some of the larger players
uh not having to scale back and then
um just to reiterate there are a ton of
great startups hiring it's just on you
more so as a candidate to really
understand what you're looking for in
your career what is your own personal
risk threshold and also you need to do a
little bit more due diligence on the
viability of of the business that you're
considering to join So speaking of the
viability of the business what are some
actual questions that candidates can ask
to figure out where the state of the
business is at
yeah this is a this is a good question
and so often candidates aren't uh sure
what to ask or are even not comfortable
with asking but it's important for you
as a candidate to have all the data
points that you need to make a sound
decision and also it demonstrates to
Founders or hiring managers or
recruiters or whoever you're engaging
with at the company that you're doing
your homework so I would encourage you
to all Flex this muscle if you haven't
already
um but some of the the questions that I
would definitely encourage you to ask is
do you does the company have product
Market fit which means basically they've
identified their target their Target
customer
um there's market demand for the
products and they're selling and
customers are buying this tends to be a
little bit more important for companies
that are I would say series a or earlier
just because that's what they're
primarily focusing on as a business at
that stage the next question I would ask
is how much runway do you have so this
means how much cash do they have in the
bank and how long will they last before
needing to raise another round you're
not necessarily looking nor will you get
the founders or recruiters or who again
whoever you're engaging with through the
process to provide you with an extra
dollar amount of what's in the bank but
rather a timeline so ideally they would
have about 12 months or more in Runway
and if it's less then you should ask
about you know future funding plans and
what you're really looking to get from
this question is ensuring the company is
not going to run out of money in the
near future or go under uh and that they
have a solid strategy on how they are
planning to hit their next business
Milestones uh companies should know the
basic math and if they don't I would say
that is a bit of a red flag if they
really can't speak to that
um the next question would be what is
the biggest excuse me risk to the
company and as a follow-up how are you
addressing it so this will just give you
a bit of preview into what's top of mind
for the company and do they have a plan
in place to really Safeguard the
business
and then what does attrition look like
um I would say it's definitely important
to know if the company is able to retain
their employees if attrition The Sweet
Spot is
um around 15 if it's above that you may
want to do a little bit more digging
um just to understand why people are
leaving the company so that you have
more data points and then one last
recommendation make sure that you are
doing research on the actual current
team which you can do via LinkedIn
pretty easily things to think about are
are they able to attract attract good
talent and what is the tenure of the
team as well
um so now let's let's think about like
as a candidate when you're assessing
different companies and you're trying to
get a sense of like is this the right
company for me candidates might have
some questions that are either
uncomfortable to ask or they just want
to know more about so one of those that
I hear a lot is how do I ask about
work-life balance
especially at a startup yeah
um I know candidates might be
uncomfortable while asking this question
because they don't want to come off as
lazy or you know quote unquote like
unmotivated or that they're worried that
it might turn off the hiring manager and
really risk the offer honestly I I would
just ask it I think I would ask like
what
um what are the working hours
expectations and then follow up with an
explanation like pertaining to your
specific situation or you know your
boundary for example there are a lot of
mothers out there parents who need to do
daycare and other things I wish I would
just set that expectation like pretty
upfront and then also making sure you're
fully emphasizing that you are fully
dedicated when you are on a working
hours
um would be really important
um this is actually a very common
question that recruiters hear all the
time and I think it's just really
important to communicate on both sides
um so just to give you an example like
um for engineers a lot of times like you
do have to do
um
you have to be on call and a lot of
times the recruiter and even the hiring
manager will let you know that up front
um so so just you know just communicate
what your options
um and again just to be very clear that
you do have boundaries if that is the
case yeah that makes sense um and
another Hot Topic is compensation how
and when in the interview process do you
ask about compensation
yeah um and I know this is um a topic
that can also be very uncomfortable
candidates and even for myself I know
that's always like very uncomfortable
for me
um I what I I do recommend is
um it's really important to ensure that
your comp expectations are aligned with
the opportunity and you don't want to
get to the end of the process and find
out that there's misalignment
um and before we get into how to ask
it's important to kind of call out that
common practice for recruiters
um we typically share the pay range for
what we're able to offer for a specific
role for a specific level and that's
because the interview process is a wage
we use as a way to assess like
candidates experience as it's related to
the role
um and we take into consideration the
level internal parity of the current
team and a lot of different factors
um so in terms of like how to ask
um I would just maybe start out by
saying like you know to the recruiter
this is not my biggest motivating factor
but it is an important aspect of how I
evaluate an opportunity and I want to
make sure that I'm being respectful of
everyone's time can you share the pay
range
um a lot of times the recruiters
um will be able to share the
compensation range
um it's typically not the hiring manager
so I would just defer to the recruiter
um but if you are interviewing at a
smaller company and they there is no
recruiter um it will be the hiring
manager or the founder who will have
this conversation with you
um in terms of in terms of like when to
ask I definitely recommend doing it
before the on-site or the face-to-face
interview
um just again like you want to make sure
there's alignment do you want to get too
far along where by the time you get an
offer you know your both parties are
surprised
um and then my advice really is to do
your research ahead of time either on
pave or level stuffy I to understand
what the market is paying for someone at
your level and and in your role
given the current state of the economy
do candidates still have the ability to
negotiate their offers
yes yes yes yes yes the answer is always
yes uh don't ask don't get is the motto
uh there are a few companies that will
say that this is our best and final
offer but it's always best practice to
do some research come up with your data
points and see if there's any wiggle
room with the offer itself but keep in
mind you want to make sure that you're
doing so within reason and a respectable
manner one pro tip before going into a
negotiation I would take some time to to
figure out what is most important to you
with regards to the offer package itself
is it base is it uh maybe Equity is it
sign on companies are usually able to
get creative on what lovers they can
pull across those three different
categories uh and we'll often ask you
what's most important to you to get you
to sign today so go in prepared and
again with reasonable asks and then just
one other reminder companies are
typically working within some parameters
for offers and and they do take into
consideration internal parity of their
current employees as well when they're
um when they're like going to figure out
what your offer package is actually
going to look like and then finally just
to reiterate please don't forget to be
respectful to recruiters or whoever is
negotiating with you uh thank them for
their help and for going to that uh for
you when it comes to increasing your
offer at least trying to to increase it
it might be so that they're not able to
but I think just showing that
appreciation will go a long way
yeah that's a great point it's hard work
to be a recruiter to always be talking
to candidates
now let's go back a little to the
beginning
um of when a candidate might be engaging
with a company
um and thinking about how candidates can
tell their story
um and kind of come out come off as a
strong candidate
um so for candidates who are recently
let go or have recently left their
companies how how should they kind of
talk about that um and should they share
if they were part of a reduction in
force they there should be no shame in
letting your recruiter know that you're
a part of a riff
um especially in this economy I think
everyone's very
empathetic to that situation and it
really has no bearing on your candidacy
um this question will likely come up on
like why you're looking for a change and
it's better to be honest
um I I don't think the recruiter will
harp on it I don't think you need to
harp on it either
um I don't think you need to explain why
I mean it we can give like a one-liner
but I think when you are talking through
her just really focused on your
experience
um focusing on the impact that you've
made at whatever company you're coming
from
um and kind of move forward from there
um I don't I don't think anyone should
be scared to share that they were a part
of a riff in terms of just making
yourself stand out as a candidate what
are some ways to do that
yeah a few things come uh top of Mind
first and foremost leveraging your
current Network for any introductions
the power of your network can often be
uh very underestimated especially in
today's environment I'm sure you guys
see it all across LinkedIn right now
everybody to Andy's point is very
empathetic if folks were impacted by
riffs or are looking for new
opportunities and people are more than
happy to make intros or get you pointed
in the right direction so definitely
take them up on that for companies that
you're interested in I would do some
digging on LinkedIn connect with our
leaders send them a nice note if you can
find some kind of common ground in that
message do that just to try to like
penetrate and get in outside of just
maybe sending your application in
um I would also include any kind of
letter of recommendation or references
from past managers in your application
or somewhere early on in the process as
well that could just help you get a
little bit of a boost or signal boost
early on in the process and then make
sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date
and uh get specific about your
accomplishments and to Andy's Point your
impact that you had in your previous
roles recruiters and hiring managers
definitely do review those so and make
sure that your LinkedIn uh matches your
resume as well because that those are
things recruiters will pick up on attend
networking events I think we've all
probably noticed that there we are
having more in-person events but even
events like this where we're over Zoom
whatever you can do to get in front of
people and get your name and just like
meeting folks will also help you and
then this goes without saying but always
come prepared to your interviews have
your personal pitch down if you have to
practice in front of a mirror do it do
your research on the company the people
you're meeting come up with really
thoughtful questions for each point uh
in the process as well and then again
make sure that you're sending thank you
emails and follow-ups after each
interview to each individual schedule
what was the most standout or the most
impressive thing that a candidate has
ever done to get your attention
uh uh at stripe oh gosh I don't I think
it was a sales candidate
um they sent in some cookies which
always like desserts will always get my
attention
um but then we also had a marketing
person get really creative and send in a
package that they had uh kind of like
come up with some creative stripe
marketing ideas that they they had which
like clearly that's a very creative
outlet and definitely got us to get on
the phone with them
the outcome of that because that was
years ago but at least got them in the
door and on the phone with somebody I
remember a palantir we were interviewing
for a coordinator role
um and I remember one Janet we actually
did end up hiring her she just went
above and beyond to basically showcasing
she didn't have any experience but after
the interview she had sent a really long
doc showcasing like what she could do as
a coordinator and to me that just showed
like
just she was already kind of doing the
job already like just basically
showcasing her skill set and I think she
had like graphs and charts and all these
things and like she did a model of like
how many people she could schedule it
was just that was just like crazy and
above and beyond and it's it's not the
norm typically
um so yeah that's that's definitely one
way just to stand out
we know that there are a lot of
companies out there
um so in your opinions what are some of
the companies that you're most excited
about
um well we're very excited about the
companies in our portfolio um to name a
few zip
um zip is a very common name but if you
if you guys welcome to zip HQ they're
hiring engineering sales post sales
marketing
um pave I think we mentioned that they
are a compensation benchmarking company
um they're hiring a bunch in the tech
sector as well so data scientists
designers engineering sales
um deal is also another good one kolshi
um they're their very first federally
regular exchange where people can trade
on virtually anything
um any event um so they're really cool
um Checker they've been around for a
long time background checks
um
build buddy they are um I think I
mentioned this like in the developer
tool space they're pretty small they're
like a 12 person startup but definitely
check them out Fanta they're in security
and then whatnot as well they're in the
um like the marketplace
um
hop situation okay that has been a lot
of really good info um so if there's
only one piece of advice that you want
our attendees to take away from this
talk what would it be
oh gosh one
um
I would say that I know things may feel
a bit heavy right now with all the
recent layoffs and slowing of hiring but
there's still a lot of really great
opportunities out there
um I would just recommend that you take
the time to do The Upfront work and
Discovery phase of what you want from
your career so that you're clear on what
you're looking for going into your
search this will just give you so much
leverage throughout your interviews
um and then you you have to really get
good at marketing yourself and really
pushing yourself outside of your comfort
zone with networking asking for intros
asking really tough questions as we
talked about but honestly this will just
like also reinforce and help you grow uh
professionally and personally
um so I guess if I were going to I guess
I'm going to borrow Nike slogan and say
just do it like get out there and go and
try things and get creative and if you
fail that's okay just like don't get
discouraged you just have to be a bit
patient right now and make sure you're
doing some due diligence but there are
great companies out there and great
opportunities
similar to Heather I mean I I think just
do your research
um I to give you guys like more insight
I also did a really I started in
marketing during my first job and I
really hated it and I didn't know what I
wanted to do and I knew recruiting was
actually a field I wanted to get into
and I was not working a lot with some
friends who were already in there and an
opportunity happened to come up it was a
contractor role and I just went for it I
was like you know I'm just gonna do it
because I knew I want to be in
recruiting and so and then that's how I
landed at palantir
um and then funny enough I actually
interviewed stripe after volunteer I
didn't get the job I was devastated I um
I realized actually looking back I
probably was just so new and I just
wasn't a good interviewer I had realized
and what I did after that was I actually
um
talk to a friend who's really good at
interviewing and she basically prepped
me so much like we went to a Barnes and
Nobles I don't even know those exist
anymore but eventually a coffee shop and
then she basically like like she threw
in a bunch of questions at me and really
prepared me for my next interview which
was for a firm
um and she honestly over prepared me
like going into that interview I felt so
confident and I got the job with them
you know the next day
um so I really I really recommend
everyone just to maybe be a little bit
more self-aware like if you don't get
the job maybe just do a little bit
digging until like maybe why and then
don't be afraid to just ask for help
like really just do it like I was really
devastated over my rejection and we're
like shedding a couple tears and then it
was just kind of like okay I just like
need to do better so that's some advice
I would give if anyone's in in that
situation
oh I want to jump into and just uh touch
on one of the questions in the chat
which is is there anything specific or
different when looking at senior
leadership roles
um one thing I would definitely leverage
for uh more senior director and above
leadership roles is uh VC Talent
Partners like start connecting with
those individuals because they are very
plugged in into uh the startup scene and
can often help if they don't have
anything within your their portfolio
specifically like we will often make
introductions to other Talent Partners
across different vccs to try to get good
talent plugged into good companies so
that's also another Avenue to try if
you're
um on the the senior leadership side
yeah definitely plus one to that
[Music]