More than often you dream of working for your ideal employer, when I talk to people I found this dream employer to be one of the fortune 500 companies. The reason or reasoning behind why these fortune 500 companies are considered dream employers varies from person to person, but often enough a compelling reason is the fact the company or the company’s product has on mankind and world. I am not saying that this is the only reason, but this by far is the leading argument. So, we thought why not share the secrets of getting hired by the IT giants or at least provide and enlist pitfalls that might hinder you from landing you dream job with one of these.
But before we get to the hiring process, tips and tricks I just want to point your attention on one point, have you ever wondered why a certain person have worked in more than 1 fortune 500 companies? What is the reason that the same person worked in company X, and then move to company Y and then after a few years that same person is observed in company Z. Have this point in the back of your mind, as we will be getting back to this point.
For the sake of this conversation, let us say you wanted to work for Microsoft, what will you be willing to offer them? You might prefer Google or Amazon? What about SAP and Apple? If you are more of the social networking kind maybe Facebook is the employer for you? But the question remains the same!
The Process Filtering Process
The filtering process starts early based on your CV and application. The application must be compelling as well as a rich CV content. The more experience and interpersonal skills you possess the better chances you have moving forward in the process. Normally a recruiting company is hired to perform the initial filtering and shortlisting of actual candidates. The big companies also use their regional main offices to conduct this initial process. For example, Dublin is often used as the hub to handle candidates from Europe. One of the main benefits of using Dublin is also that most of main offices of fortune 500 countries have a presence in form of a regional office. If you make it through the initial process you move to the next phase.
Technical Skill Set Evaluation
If you are dreaming of landing a job with one of the tech giants, you better have some technical skills worth hiring. Normally this can be a niche field of specialization or jack of all trades, depending on the role in question. When you have passed the initial process, during the technical interview you are probably going to meet a VERY technical person normally situated in Italy, Spain, UK or Ireland. Whatever the case, the technical person most probably is a senior technical person who knows his and your field very well. You will feel that you have good control when the easy questions are being answered, but you start feeling the heat when the most technical topics are being explored and discussed. There are some important things to consider during the technical interview
- The person conducting the technical interview probably knows more than you. There is a reason that he is interviewing you and not the other way around.
- You will at some point not know the answer or at least not know the correct answer, at this point be honest. Do not try to fool them by trying to provide answers that are incorrect.
- Acknowledge the fact that you understand that there are more knowledgeable people around you and how you can utilize their competence in order to best serve your customers.
- Be humble in all situations, however, do not be uncertain about things you are sure about. If you are 100% sure in a specific field be ready to pick a fight for your case.
Negotiating with the Experts
You probably will be expecting a handsome salary and a bunch of benefits from a tech giant offering you a job, however, this is not the case at least not initially. You can expect to get paid average salary, maybe even better than the average salary for the position and you will for sure get a lot of benefits related to the technical products the company is offering to their customers. This will surely apply for Google, Microsoft, Amazon and to some extent other companies as well. You might get offered annual shares too. But remember what is the most important thing for you, is it a lucrative salary or is the prestigious of working for a great company? If it is the latter, which I suspect it to be then you must pursue your dream. Accept the work and show what you are worth and what value you can add to the company. Remember the question we asked you at the beginning of this blog post, what value do you or can you add to an already successful company and business.
You might have been the best in your field prior to joining this tech giant, but now you are one among the average employees. Please do not misunderstand the message, you and all your efforts will be rewarding, but this needs to be seen as a long-term investment. The more efforts you put in during the initial phase the more chances there are for you to prosper.
The other point that you were advised to keep in mind was why same person gets hired of different leading tech companies. The reason is quite simple actually, most of the companies are looking for certain attributes in the personality of a person. These same attributes are required by all big and successful companies. You might be aware of personality types and the ideal combination of teams. Depending on the goal of a team, certain type of people are put together in teams, these teams are semi-autonomous and do not need managers to guide them towards their goals.
Following these simple advice’s, tips and tricks you can avoid the most common pitfalls that hinder you from getting your dream job with our time’s tech giants. Make sure you also read through our other related blog post.
