For Beginners
What do Hiring Managers Look for?
What are the 3 different role levels? What do hiring managers look in each of them?
What do hiring managers look for in freshers? There are no background references to check about their attitude. All you can hope for general aptitude, either through proxy measures (college tier and/or grades at college) and/or a selection process testing general aptitude.
But things change after 1st job (or 0-2 years experience). Not only does the hiring manager have one person to call to check about your attitude, they also expect workplace aptitude not just general aptitude. By workplace attitude, I mean:
→ understanding of different parts of a business, understanding of common workplace terms.
→ understanding of common data formats, and how to use basic data transformation tools and techniques (Excel / Google Sheets)
→ workplace communication: how to make a presentation; how to write minutes of a meeting; etc.
→ usage of tools and workflows specific to your function (e.g. knowing how to use Amazon ads platform, for e-commerce associate)
But even at this point, a hiring manager doesn't truly expect domain or function expertise. Any functional experience is generally a plus, but it is understood (at least by the hiring manager, if not the recruiter) that it can be taught very quickly. So, the 2 things that will get you the right role at this stage are: good reference on attitude and great general & workplace aptitude levels.
However, criteria take a big jump when you cross over to 3-6 years experience and are expecting a managerial job. This is exactly where the second slab of skill hierarchy starts kicking in.
Not only you are expected to have 1. general aptitude 2. workplace aptitude and 3. good references from past managers, but you are also expected to lead on deliverables and train your team. This requires functional expertise in at least one work stream.
In a supply-starved talent market, this might become a negotiable or a non-requirement (for example, in 2021-22), but it is still a good skill to have even if market doesn't require you to. There are two reasons for that primarily.
First, because you can develop a perspective of a domain and its challenges, only by working in a functional role. And second, because it is practical too: once you have developed functional expertise, you always have a pool of roles where you are sure to compete on a stronger foot.
And apart from a few specific functions, you don't have to worry about getting locked in, either to the function or to the domain. Most functions do have a path to general leadership roles. And, functional skills also often translate reasonably well (if not as well as general aptitude), from one domain to another. For example, if you are a content marketing manager in a retail company, it's entirely possible to move to a SaaS role if you can showcase transferrable skills to the hiring manager.
So, what do hiring managers look for in leadership roles? It almost comes down to references about having delivered outcomes. This is also when you get locked into a domain, and generally can't move from one domain to another, because both the references and context don't generally translate.
But things change after 1st job (or 0-2 years experience). Not only does the hiring manager have one person to call to check about your attitude, they also expect workplace aptitude not just general aptitude. By workplace attitude, I mean:
→ understanding of different parts of a business, understanding of common workplace terms.
→ understanding of common data formats, and how to use basic data transformation tools and techniques (Excel / Google Sheets)
→ workplace communication: how to make a presentation; how to write minutes of a meeting; etc.
→ usage of tools and workflows specific to your function (e.g. knowing how to use Amazon ads platform, for e-commerce associate)
But even at this point, a hiring manager doesn't truly expect domain or function expertise. Any functional experience is generally a plus, but it is understood (at least by the hiring manager, if not the recruiter) that it can be taught very quickly. So, the 2 things that will get you the right role at this stage are: good reference on attitude and great general & workplace aptitude levels.
However, criteria take a big jump when you cross over to 3-6 years experience and are expecting a managerial job. This is exactly where the second slab of skill hierarchy starts kicking in.
Not only you are expected to have 1. general aptitude 2. workplace aptitude and 3. good references from past managers, but you are also expected to lead on deliverables and train your team. This requires functional expertise in at least one work stream.
In a supply-starved talent market, this might become a negotiable or a non-requirement (for example, in 2021-22), but it is still a good skill to have even if market doesn't require you to. There are two reasons for that primarily. First, because you can develop a perspective of a domain and its challenges, only by working in a functional role. And second, because it is practical too: once you have developed functional expertise, you always have a pool of roles where you are sure to compete on a stronger foot.
And apart from a few specific functions, you don't have to worry about getting locked in, either to the function or to the domain. Most functions do have a path to general leadership roles. And, functional skills also often translate reasonably well (if not as well as general aptitude), from one domain to another. For example, if you are a content marketing manager in a retail company, it's entirely possible to move to a SaaS role if you can showcase transferrable skills to the hiring manager.
So, what do hiring managers look for in leadership roles? It almost comes down to references about having delivered outcomes. This is also when you get locked into a domain, and generally can't move from one domain to another, because both the references and context don't generally translate.