Mattie Reynolds, Talent Acquisition Partner, on Building a Career in HR and How to Navigate Tech Layoffs

Mattie Reynolds has spent the last 10 years working with Fortune 500 companies and startups to not only hire the best talent but to effectively build out internal talent pipeline programs and HR operation solutions. She is the Founder & CEO of MR Talent Solutions, a contemporary talent solutions service positioned at the intersection of talent and organizations. Mattie’s company has helped more than 500 clients get jobs in a variety of industries. These sectors include, but are not limited to, those in banking, technology, marketing, and consulting. MR Talent's successful client placements have included organizations such as Google, Roku, Netflix, Apple, Lattice, and Walt Disney, to mention a few, in addition to collecting over $16M in pay. 

The origin of Mattie’s career did not quite start off this way. At the start of her career, Mattie initially recruited for non-technical roles with recruiting agencies. These roles included administrative, help desk, and general office opportunities. She then progressed into hiring creative roles. These roles included: 

• Executive producers
• Experiential marketing
• Client partnerships
• Production managers 
• Editors

You would think that after making such a vast transition within the HR space that she would stop there. However, Mattie is a fan of tackling new challenges and domains. With that ferocious attitude to conquer anything that she pursues, Mattie made a pivot into hiring for more technical roles. Why is this important? Tech has significantly grown in prominence over the last few years due to its high compensation packages and global impact; now, everyone wants to work in tech and Mattie is one of the key figures in the industry holding that power. What type of power? The power to help welcome extravagant talent into the industry as well as seeking innovative ways to help them grow. 

While working at prominent media, tech and financial companies such as Group 9 Media, Discovery, Inc., Hulu and Roku, Mattie recruited for the following tech roles: 

• Data scientists
• Product managers
• Product designers
• Software engineers
• Product designers
• AI/ML professionals

While Talent Acquisition is a fulfilling role, it is also a role that has experienced significant layoffs in the tech industry and beyond. To be honest, all roles seem at risk for layoffs in tech. Within just 1 month of the new year, Tech companies such as Google, Amazon, and Salesforce have collectively laid off 25,000+ employees. However, Mattie presents an approach to navigating this shaky industry. Here’s what you should consider:

Continuous Learning

You need to stay up to date with the latest industry trends, skills, and networks. You need to emphasize and bring attention to your commitment to learning and professional development, whether that's through certifications, online courses, or attending relevant conferences. Not only do you need to stay committed to this but, you need to be adamant about broadcasting that you are doing these things. The best place to do so is on social media via platforms such as LinkedIn. You want companies to know that you are very serious and intentional about your career growth. Employers value candidates who can adapt quickly. You should highlight your abilities on LinkedIn, build yourself a website, create a portfolio and make it easy for recruiters to hire you.

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Build Your Personal Brand and Network

By being on Linkedin and highlighting your professional development milestones, you are enhancing your personal brand. That is key to your career growth. However, another way of adding to your personal brand and job search strategy is to ask your network for feedback. You want people to make recommendations about your skill sets on LinkedIn for others to see. In terms of networking, evidently, you want to build bonds and connections with professionals online but you should also be attending industry specific forums, professional associations and sharing your insight on social media platforms. Networking is beyond essential for your career development and can ultimately lead to job referrals. 

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Necessary Soft Skills For This Role in 2024

Effective Communication

Whether it's written or verbal communication, it is important for you to have a strategy for how you interact with candidates and hiring managers. You'll also be interacting with stakeholders, so you must always be clear and concise in your communication. Why is this important? Talent acquisition professionals help the business meet key deadlines by hiring the best talent but the only way to do so is by making sure that everyone is on the same page and has clear insights into the hiring process and updates.

Relationships

You need to establish strong relationships with stakeholders. You want to ensure that you are also effectively managing all stakeholders. While you are responsible for getting talent through the door, there are many others involved in the process. You must stay on top of everyone, including yourself, to establish proper deadlines and maintain status reports. You also want to have a strong relationship with candidates you are funneling into the pipeline. While effectively assessing if they are a good fit for the role, be sure to keep them engaged throughout the process. You don’t want to lose quality talent because of poor communication and relationship building.

Ability to Adapt and Be Flexible

The workforce is constantly changing and company goals can swiftly change, as well. You need to be someone who is adaptable and flexible in your approach to talent acquisition and hiring strategies.

Necessary Hard Skills For This Role in 2024

Ability to Use Sourcing and Recruitment Software

As a Talent Acquisition Professional, you need to be proficient in using hiring tools and systems. You also want to remain up to date with the best tools being used in the industry across large and startup companies. These tools can include systems such as Greenhouse. You want to get familiar with ATS systems, job boards, social media platforms, and understanding how to leverage these tools to effectively improve your sourcing strategy.

Data Analytics and Reporting

Believe it or not, but talent acquisition requires a ton of collecting and analyzing data. This type of data can include candidate demographic information, their resumes, and overall candidate metrics to effectively source from. In this process, you have to ask yourself, “if the company is spending all this money on these recruitment tools, am I able to pull the best talent from there?” Having strong analytical skills is going to allow you to make more data driven decisions, identify recruitment trends as well as to optimize your recruitment strategy.

Interviewing and Assessment Techniques

You need to have a strategy for how to effectively conduct interviews. You want to make sure that the person you are hiring for truly has the ability to get the job done. Your checklist should look like the following:

• Do I have my behavioral interviewing techniques locked in? 
• Do I have a structured approach to interviews? 
• Am I utilizing tools for evaluations, while ensuring I am removing bias from the interview process?

You should have an answer to all of these. Other topics that you want to grow more familiar with are employer branding, workforce planning, and compliance regulations. 

Interested in gaining some insight into how Mattie pursues filling a technical role, specifically AI/ML? Check it out!

Get Very Close to the Team You are Hiring For

Mattie likes to bake herself into the teams that she is hiring for. This means joining their team meetings, sitting on their stand up calls, and listening in on their retrospectives. This helps Mattie better understand the skills these roles require.

Creative Approaches to Finding Talent

Find out where this type of talent works and plays. Many AI/ML professionals are actively engaged on online platforms, such as GitHub. Kaggle, Toptal, and Stack Overflow. These platforms provide opportunities for talent acquisition professionals to go in, identify the talent, review their work, and connect with them.

Qualifying Resumes

Mattie digs deep into the resumes of potential hires. She is reviewing key items such as:

• Do they have skills in the right programming language for the job? These can include python, R, ability to work through machine learning algorithms, and data manipulation techniques. Ultimately, it’s a matter of if she can effectively benchmark this talent and evaluate them according to what the hiring manager is looking for.

Mattie wants readers of this piece to no longer be discouraged by the market. She wants you  to get as scrappy as possible in your approach so that you can easily convince employers that you are the most ideal candidate for the role. 

Interested in connecting with Mattie? You can find her on LinkedIn, here.

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Interested in making a career pivot into a business and tech role? Check out these two resources I created for professionals like you:

25 In-Demand Business & Tech Roles for 2024

16 Journal Prompts for Pivoting into Business & Tech Roles