Resources for Recruiters

Steps to Open a New Job

  • Step 1: How to open a new job form
  • Step 2: Build an Interview Plan
  • Step 3: Have Intake Meeting
  • Step 4: Create the job in Greenhouse
  • Step 5: Post the job on careers page / LinkedIn
  • Step 6: Begin Slack Kick-Off Process

Intake Call Guidelines

Hiring managers are required to have an intake meeting with their respective Recruiter before beginning the candidate search. In an ideal world, the intake meeting should be scheduled after the Hiring Manager has completed the intake form and the Recruiter has reviewed this information.

The intake meeting is intended for the Hiring Manager and the Recruiter to get on the same page about job requirements, the ideal candidate, and the proposed interview process.

Step 1: Please use the below checklist to ensure you cover the necessary topics during the intake meeting. You can also review the intake form response on our Open Job Report.

  • Job title
  • Reason for opening
  • Job level
  • Number of openings
  • Time zone/location restrictions
  • Ideal start date
  • Ideal candidate profile
  • 3 LinkedIn examples
  • Alternative titles
  • Required software/tools
  • Ideal companies
  • Screening questions
  • Selling points
  • Any additional information
  • Job description

Step 2: Please review the interview plan and ensure all interview sections are completed and consistent with our Types of Interviews.

In addition to reviewing these topics during the intake meeting, the Recruiter and the Hiring Manager will select the Values Interview Panel. Using this document, the Recruiter and the Hiring Manager select two people who are highlighted in green (indicating that they have been here for 3 months or longer). When choosing two people to be on the Values Interview, please keep in mind the following:

  • must have been here for 3+ months
  • must be two people from different departments
  • please keep diversity in mind when selecting teams

Once the Recruiter and the Hiring Manager have identified the interviewers, the Recruiter will ensure they are trained & ready to go!

Slack Kick-Off Process

Once the Recruiter has conducted an intake call and the interview plan is complete, the Recruiter officially kicks off the role in Slack.

  1. Create a new channel slack channel named: “team-hiring_position_recruiter-name”
    1. Example: “ops-hiring_handbook-product-manager_recruiter-kelsey”
  2. Invite the entire interview panel plus VP Talent & Recruiting Coordinator to the channel
  3. Tag VP Talent to make the channel private
  4. Once private, send kick off note using the below template:

Hi team! We are excited to kick off our [hyperlink job description] opening and I appreciate all of you participating in the interview process. I thought it would be helpful to create a Slack channel to stay aligned as we begin interviewing candidates!

As a next step, please:

  1. Review the below interview process and qualifications
  2. Please share this post to social media to help drive applicants to the role
  3. Please review these pages in the handbook:
    1. The interview process
    2. Resources for hiring managers
    3. Feedback definitions
  4. Please review our Guide to Using BrightHire and ensure you download the BrightHire Chrome extension.

Interview process / hiring team:

At a high level, here is an overview of what we’re looking for in this hire. @hiringmanager, please add any additional insight that will be helpful for the hiring team to keep in mind as they interview candidates!

  • Why is this position open:
  • The ideal candidate:
  • Level:
  • Deal breakers:
  • Selling points:
  • Target start date:

Creating an offer

  • Once finalist is identified, Recruiter completes references if necessary.
  • Recruiter confirms level and compensation.
  • Recruiter creates an offer in Greenhouse
  • Recruiter inputs number of equity options into the Stock Option Calculator, and transfers information into offer in Greenhouse.
  • Recruiter submits offer for approval in Greenhouse.
    • Approval chain: Talent Team Manager (if applicable) > VP Talent > Hiring Manager > Department Head > VP Operations.

Extending an offer

  • Once the offer is fully approved in Greenhouse, Recruiter schedules offer summary call. The purpose of the offer summary call is to review our offer with the candidate and answer any questions they may have.
    • Attendees: Recruiter, Hiring Manager, Candidate.
  • Prior to the call, Recruiter generates the correct Offer Summary document in Greenhouse, downloads the document, and sends to VP Talent and/or Director, Technical Recruiting and Hiring Manager confirming the offer details are correct, and outlining the agenda for the call.
  • Agenda:
    • The Hiring Manager kicks off the call to give the candidate feedback and tell why we’re excited about them
    • The Recruiter then shares their screen to display the offer summary document. The Recruiter then covers our compensation philosophy, the compensation specifics, perks, travel (and benefits, if applicable), and equity
    • Tthe Hiring Manager and Recruiter answers any questions and asks how the candidate is feeling about the opportunity
    • Before ending the call, be sure to determine a potential start date (all start dates should fall on a cohort Monday) and schedule a follow up call to answer any questions.
  • Following the offer call, Recruiter sends the offer summary to the candidate in an email with Hiring Manager cc’ed.
  • To send an official offer, the Recruiter
    • Updates the offer approval with the accurate start date
    • Tags the VP Talent and the Recruitment Operations Specialist in the Talent Offers Slack channel: “@VP Talent @Recruitment Operations Specialist please send this [US/Non-US] offer letter. Open Date: ** Source: ** ”
  • The official offer is sent to the candidate via Docusign.

After the offer

  • After the candidate signs the offer, the Recruiter sends a welcome email to the candidate and Cc’s the Hiring Manager.
  • The Hiring Manager posts an announcement of the candidate’s acceptance in the Slack #Hiring channel.
  • The Recruiter declines all other candidates, marks the candidate as “Hired” in Greenhouse, closes the job (if applicable), sends a hire report to Onboarding Email, Hiring Manager, VP Talent and Talent Team Manager (if applicable), and exports the candidate to Bamboo.
  • The People Operations team then works with the candidate to onboard them and get them set up for their first day.

LinkedIn posting best practices

Instead of resharing a post, it is much better to copy and paste the entire post and then give the author credit by tagging them.

Avoid including links directly in your posts. Anything that takes the user away from LinkedIn is discouraged… so instead, add the link as a comment.

If you’re looking for Sourcegraph content to promote to your network, view the “Recommendations from Sourcegraph” section on Sourcegraph’s LinkedIn Profile. There you will find recent updates and articles.

Sourcegraph will share the top priority roles we’re hiring for via a monthly LinkedIn and Twitter post. It is encouraged to post about our open roles on personal Linkedin profiles as well. Thank you for helping us attract and hire the best talent!

Here’s an article for more helpful tips!

LinkedIn Recruiter Licenses

We have unlimited LinkedIn Recruiter licenses for all Sourcegraph teammates. A recruiter license allows you to view unlimited candidate profiles and send unlimited messages to prospective candidates. This is a helpful tool for hiring managers or any teammates who want to help with recruiting outreach efforts.

If you would like a recruiter license, please let your recruiter know and we will get your account activated!

Resources to learn more about using your LinkedIn Recruiter License:

Sourcing Outreach Best Practices

Our goal is to drive meaningful outreach and engagement with prospective candidates. When designing an engagement strategy, the goal is to create a sequence of messages and or/content at touch points delivered to a targeted candidate at predefined intervals.

Here’s a guide on creating a Recruiting Outreach Campaign.