Why Talent Acquisition Professionals Make the Best Product Managers
“Congratulations, you got the promotion! We’re moving you to Boston to run your own team. You have one week.” These words were said to me in one of my first recruiting jobs; I had one week to pack up my apartment, find a new place, and say goodbye to my friends and family in New York. This was a promotion I had been looking forward to for quite some time, but was still terrifying nevertheless. I had to suddenly pivot and make a giant change within a short period, all while balancing the roles I was still trying to fill.
Seven years and three jobs later, I’m grateful that I had a chance to grow and learn quickly in multiple environments. During this time I’ve also moved back to New York, temporarily moved to another country, and made a career change into product management.
As a former recruiter I’ve noticed that very few people go directly from college into a product management or product management-adjacent role. After having many great conversations with product management and engineering leaders, a pattern in thinking emerged. The general consensus was that in order to be a really good product manager, you need to have some sort of prior experience (engineering, sales, etc.) that you can translate into product management.
I’ve also found that people who have worked in talent acquisition opportunities make some of the best product managers I’ve had the pleasure of hiring/ working with. So, what are some of these factors that make recruiters great product managers?
Empathy — As recruiters, we need to be hyper aware and competitive (more on that later), but the “product” we are working with is a person with aspirations and goals. Any good recruiter will tell you that the key to being successful in their role is having empathy with the people they are placing. Recruiters also need to understand the needs and wants of their hiring managers (also known as “stakeholders”) to create a match. Empathy plays such a critical part in overall recruitment strategy, that it is impossible to be a good recruiter without it. Product managers also use empathy to not only understand the needs and wants of their users, but also to ensure that they’re not over assigning work to the developers, architects, etc. that they work with. In both fields, empathy serves as a critical tool used to create something great.
Market Awareness — A mentor of mine once said “a great recruiter knows how to be competitive with the person who matters most — themselves.” Recruiters are often operating in a space where they not only have to deal with direct competitors but other, different companies offering tremendous salary packages. They are then expected to be a market expert in salary expectations, trends in offers, and understanding why candidates turned down a particular role. They are constantly learning about various trends in the market in order to position themselves and their organizations as the place to be. Furthermore, they need to become an expert in all aspects of the company and role they’re recruiting for. Similarly, a product manager is expected to be a subject matter expert not only on the tool they work on, but also need to at least have the pulse on what’s going on in other parts of the company. They may also turn to tools like newsletters and podcasts to get a better understanding of what sort of offerings are happening in the market so that they can not only compete with but stay ahead of their competitors. Developing a strong market awareness then becomes quintessential to both product managers and recruiters alike.
Prioritization — Tools like JIRA and Trello quickly become a product manager’s best friend because they allow them to see what initiatives need to be prioritized over another. Product managers also need to be able to shift priorities depending on what is going on at that time. A recruiter has to operate under a similar system — it is critical to understand what is going on in an organization at a given time so that they can prioritize the open roles (or “reqs”) they’re working on. Both jobs will usually have some sort of program they’ve put in place to analyze priority or why something has to be done at a given time. Product managers and recruiters also will use data analysis to determine the past way to move forward in order to prioritize better.
Data Analysis — I cannot count the number of times in my career someone asked me “does the data support that?” As we move closer and closer to a data-driven society, people want to look at a combination of quantitative and qualitative data prior to making a decision. Recruiters (especially recruiters who start their careers in an agency setting) are beholden to certain numbers and statistics: how many candidates did you interview for a job; how many candidates accept the offers you present; how long does it take you to close a role. During my time interviewing for talent acquisition opportunities, I was asked to quote these numbers along with the methods I used to track said data. Product managers, too, are expected to have multiple forms of data analysis completed prior to suggesting certain updates or new product features. It has become the norm to see a product manager writing queries in programming languages like structured querying language (SQL) or building out dashboards using tools like Tableau. Data analysis is fundamental in both of these fields for the reason that it goes back to the why of the matter — stakeholders don’t just want to understand the how of solving a problem, but why.
Communication — Much like a product manager, a recruiter must be an expert in all forms of communication. A recruiter needs to know their audience as they deal with multiple personality types on a daily basis and need to understand how to cater to each individual. For example, some hiring managers want to hear an update every day about their roles whereas others want an update once a week. Even more importantly a recruiter has to read between the lines of what someone is asking for in a potential new hire. They ultimately are trying to get to the “why” of the matter — as in why is it that this new hire needs to be fluent in Python if they’re not actually coding anything? Having a full overview of a req or product requirement(s) means that this person is able to be effective in their role, and communication is key to being successful.
Saying No — One of the best product management leaders I’ve worked with often reiterated a sage piece of advice: “a really great product manager knows how to say no.” Given that product management focuses so much on prioritizing certain initiatives over another, saying no is an all-too-common (yet vital) part of that role. Talent acquisition professionals also have become experts at saying no; we say no to candidates who didn’t get a role, we say no to hiring managers with unrealistic expectations, and we say no when we’re unable to take on another requisition. This can be disheartening to many recruiting professionals, but when you are able to say “yes,” it makes it all the more worthwhile.
