Silicon Valley recruiter Marissa Senzaki’s tips for job success

Top Silicon Valley recruiter Marissa Senzaki has hired staff for Facebook, Google and Skype. Here are her top tips.

Marissa Senzaki is one of Silicon Valley’s top recruiters. Picture: Gina Baldassarre

Marissa Senzaki is one of Silicon Valley’s top recruiters. Now based at messaging service Slack’s new headquarters in Melbourne, the 33-year-old psychology major has hired staff for Facebook, Google and Skype.

THE DEAL: Read more from The Australian’s business magazine, September edition.

I’m hiring … customer experience staff. At Slack we don’t look at this as just an entry-level support position. These people are dealing with a wide range of customer inquiries. It could be people letting us know about a bug in the software or about different functionality they’d like to see. So [our customer-facing staff have to have] a love for the software and really want to understand all the little nuances, because we don’t use templates to respond to people. This job requires critical thinking. It’s the second-largest group that we have within Slack, after software engineers.

I’m in recruitment because ... I’m pretty good at getting people to open up to me and give me a sense of what they want to accomplish, what their struggle has been so far and why they are in the job market now. Some people have a hard time articulating that and sometimes it just takes me peeling back all those layers and asking the right questions.

My advice is … Don’t be afraid to try. There are a lot of people who think, well, I don’t have an engineering degree or I haven’t worked in tech, and they’re intimidated by that. But apply for the things that interest you. Research these companies and don’t be afraid of rejection. Networking is key — go out into the community, join different meet-up groups, talk to people who have worked in the type of company or role you want. Always research the company. Research the people. Part of interview preparation is being able to ask questions. There’s usually time for questions but sometimes people just say ‘no, I don’t have any’. That comes off as kind of uninterested.

I was born and bred in … Silicon Valley. I feel like it’s starting to change but there still is a problem with diversity in Silicon Valley. I’d love to see the tech companies being more open-minded about how they hire. A lot of hires tend to be young white men who are college educated. There’s an elitist [bias towards] people who have come from top-tier schools, and that’s not necessarily something you need to do particular jobs.

Read more in The Deal magazine, out on Friday.