Skip to main content
a woman in a hat and scarf standing in front of a river
Start your journey

How to find the right fit for you

Posted by Carolin |

When it comes to career growth, our needs and aspirations may greatly vary from one person to another. So how to narrow it down and make sure we’re going down a career path that is right for us? In this article, Carolin Denner, Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist, kindly shared her insights to help candidates define their goals and ensure the next job they land is right for them.

How long have you been working as a recruiter?

I’ve been working in recruitment for 10 years, across several areas of expertise - including sales, engineering, and general recruitment. In the past 3 years, I’ve focused on tech recruitment for Criteo.

Which global trends can be highlighted in today’s labor market?

Over the last 2 or 3 years, the labor market has been very dynamic. We went from a global pandemic with layoffs and hiring freezes to an explosion of jobs and people moving in 2021 through to the first half of this year. Just to finally come back to a phase of layoffs and hiring freezes. It’s fast, you never know what you will get as a candidate and with that, I’d say what people are looking for has also changed quickly. We’ve moved from a time when people were open to taking risks, for example joining a brand-new start-up with a promising compensation package in one quarter to looking for stability in the next. Some trends have manifested themselves throughout this time though. For example, the flexibility of work; whether on-site, hybrid, or fully remote, they yearn for the freedom to choose. Candidates also value a clear outlook and want to identify with the company’s culture and values.

Have soft skills grown as important as hard skills?

Definitely! When looking at the hiring process, we try to encourage candidates to be transparent and honest. Why? For us to know if they’re truly a good addition to the team. If we’re interested in a profile, even though it may not fit exactly the role the person applied for, we’re going to consider them in mind for different potential opportunities. But we can only do that when candidates are truthful about their experiences and goals. We’re particularly sensitive to a person being open as it is one strong value of ours at Criteo. We encourage candidates to talk openly about who they are, and what they know, but also what they don’t or where they failed, so we can help them prepare, and find the right team for them to be successful in the future.

If you were to write a candidate’s survival guide, which tips would you give?

Don’t let fear choose for you

The first step comes even before applying for me. The decreasing number of opportunities in the current market can lead to panic. Though it may be scary, I think it’s important to remain open in your search, to trust, and ask yourself; What do you want in your next role? What makes your day better? What makes you want to go or not to go to work in the morning? What do you value? What will make you happy?

Be selective about what you seek

Perhaps make a checklist to bear in mind where you are today and where you want to go. I’d advise you to focus on the roles and companies you feel you could say “yes” to if there was an offer. It may be counterintuitive when you’ve been job hunting for some time, but by doing this, you’ll get more time to prepare, raise questions, and, you'll be able to also challenge the companies you selected to see if it is a good match for you.

Be yourself: Finding the right fit is a two-way street.

This works during the interview process as well. Being transparent and observing how the interviewer responds can be a good indicator of how this could work out of the hiring process. Of course, known tricks such as cheat sheets with real-life experiences, and challenging successful and/or failed projects, will allow you to always have something concrete to fall back on. What we try to do is to seize the candidate in general and push them to ask themselves what their ideal job in an ideal world would be.

Use the resources at your disposal.

When candidates reach the more technical interviews, we usually provide guidelines and interview guides, prepping materials, especially when including practical exercises like coding or design. And as a bonus, check out on LinkedIn if you know people already working in the company you’re considering and see if you can ask for a sneak peek.

Bonus: Use your network

If you know anyone who may be working for us or knows someone working here, reach out! This is always valuable and real insights you can gather this way and use in your preparation and decision-making.

Which things should candidates ask themselves before accepting an offer?

That’s a tough one! If it were me, I’d ask myself:

  • How does the job align with my short-term and long-term goals? Ask yourself what motivates you and if you feel this offer can match what you want in your daily life.
  • Trust your feelings! Ask yourself: How did I feel about the people I met during the interview process? Did they look open and honest about what they said they liked in the company? Or did I get the feeling they were trying to sell it at all costs?
  • Check out benefits such as health, parenting policies, leave, well-being, etc. to see if it can be a good fit with your own lifestyle. These benefits are often a valuable indication to assess if you’re dealing with a company that cares about work-life balance.

You seem to believe authenticity is a good asset, from the hiring process to the workplace, right?

To me, authenticity means you can show up as yourself at work and, in order to do that in an organization, you need to feel safe and feel like you belong. So, ultimately, it goes back to the employer fostering things like inclusion and learning. When it comes to the hiring process, our interviewers try to embody that, being transparent about what it means for us at Criteo and breeding that trust. Authenticity can also be tested by the candidates. In our case, we promote values such as Open, Together, and Impactful. Use your interview to challenge us on these!

Things to keep in mind for candidates willing to land their next job at Criteo?

At Criteo, we are looking for people who can identify with what we’re trying to build as a company culture. We believe you can live our values “Open - Together - Impactful” through different personalities and people. So rather than looking for a certain type of personality, we focus on how the candidate would live our values. Different personalities will bring different angles to a team/company and foster diversity.

Be honest with yourself, authentic in your answers, and trust that you’d be as lucky to join us as we’d be to have you onboard. Remember that finding the right fit always goes both ways.

Carolin

Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist

The Future is Yours.

Search jobs