Insights on Red Hat Talent Acquisition

Hello everyone and welcome to the talent acquisition or TA part of the Red Hat Job Social for KubeCon 2021 where we will talk about how to get into Red Hat. My name is Jan and in this video I will share with you some insights that I thought would be valuable and interesting for you as a presumably potential candidate as well as answer some of the most frequent questions to give you an advantage should you decide to pursue opportunities at Red Hat. We will explore two overarching themes or parts, namely what it means to be a Redheader and how to become one. I will present these as best I can so that hopefully at the end of this talk, you will have a better understanding of not just the process of joining Redhead, but also some of the values, strategies and considerations behind it. Now, why should you care? Which is to say, who am I? I've been recruiting for Redhead for three years. I support. a multitude of teams across EMEA focusing on positions within services or consulting, pre-sales, telco, P&T, customer success, and others. My job is to partner with the business to help them find, evaluate, and hire talent that is right for Red Hat, but also to do so in a Red Hat way. And I will elaborate more on what that means because these are among the key concepts there. I want you to take away from this. I will also give you some examples of how this applies to me as TA to help illustrate the points. At Red Hat we value open and honest communication and I will try to demonstrate this today. We also take pride in our culture which to me personally is the best thing about Red Hat and if you ever had a chance to chat with our associates at an event I posit they would have told you the same. It's important and we will go deeper on this. Bear with me because what we will cover in the first part will build towards the second. So before we talk about the how, let's first talk about what it means to be a redheader and why, which is to say, what are our values? What are we about? And how do we do things? So what are redhead values? Our core values are freedom, courage, commitment, and accountability. they are often depicted on a scale because they require constant balance. First, freedom. The open source model depends on a free exchange of opinions and ideas. This also forms the foundation for positive change. Secondly, courage, because expressing that freedom takes courage. Thirdly, commitment, which is to say staying focused on our goals and seeing things through. And four, accountability to our customers. to our shareholders, to the community, to each other. Forget this and we lose our freedom. It bears repeating that no single value is as important as all of them together. They don't exist without a sense of balance. For example, freedom without accountability is chaos. The same is true for our mission and brand. We serve our customers, we serve the community, we serve the shareholders. all are related and none of them can be ignored. Some of you may know that our mission statement is to be the catalyst in communities of customers, contributors and partners creating better technology, the open source way. This phrase, the open source way, means a way of thinking about how people collaborate within a community to achieve common goals and interests. I think this is where the Red Hat way originates. Personally, as a non-technical guy, I call it the open source philosophy because it goes beyond creating open software. It's also about our culture and how we operate. So how do the values contribute to our culture? The inherent tension and conflict between them is what makes them so compelling. And as red headers, it is up to all of us to hold each other accountable for keeping the four in balance. These values keep Red Hat in a state of constant change. The balance is always shifting and it also helps us to firmly root us to our purpose. What is the Red Hat purpose? Our why is open unlocks the world's potential. We share knowledge and build upon each other's discoveries. We solve problems by bringing passionate people together to collaborate. We create communities where everyone is supported and is free to use their voices and talents in order to contribute. That is to say, our why is to have a customer-centered mindset. and to live the Red Hat culture. Firstly, a customer-centered mindset means building customer relationships, strategically aligned to the needs that drive their business. It's an invitation for associates to define who their customer is and tailor their actions accordingly. As Paul, our CEO, said, it's about driving value to your customers, no matter your role in Red Hat. we should always be thinking of our customers first. We are here to help them consume open source innovation. So everybody should understand that what they do on a daily basis has an impact on our customers. Secondly, Redhairs live the Red Hat culture. We are stewards of our unique open culture and strategy. We care about our customers'needs and maintain our commitment to open source. You could say the Red Hat way is about how we stay true to our culture and the open source roots. We are proud of what we've built, treating fellow Red Hatters with respect and dignity, having open debates or discussions around a topic, and generating ideas. It's what makes Red Hat a better, stronger company. To summarize the what and why and shift our focus to the how the foundational principles of our open culture are not changing, we will work to preserve these and foster the behaviors that make up that culture. Red Hat remains Red Hat. STA, my ability or our ability to succeed and serve our customers is dependent on our ability to attract, retain and develop top talent. However, it is also important that you as a candidate have an appreciation of our culture and business. Those that do are the most successful candidates. So in that context, let's talk about our hiring process and how to become a Redheader. So how do you actually join Redhead? We strive to maintain an equal source mix of where our candidates come from. which are applications, referrals, and headhunts. With high volume recruitment, we also do a lot of proactive pipelining for future roles. We know what our stakeholders look for. We know what a red hatter looks like. And even if we don't have an open position for you right now, we'll likely have one in the future and we'll be able to contact you when that happens. In terms of the process itself, there are sequential steps and throughout all of these we stress the importance of seeing and blocking bias as well as reinforcing our culture and inclusive meritocracy. First you're going to have a chat with a recruiter. We want to learn more about you as well as give you some more information. Aside from your experience and motivation we also covered the basic job prerequisites like location, work authorization. availability to travel if applicable, and so on. There may also be an exercise or a test. We finalize everything and present you to the business. From there, it generally follows a variation of the following. Depending on the role, the second step will be either a technical interview, often with a member of the team that you're applying for, or it's business equivalent for non-technical roles, whatever that may be. Finally, we will have a so-called Write for Redhead panel where you will meet with the hiring manager accompanied by a team member or a member of a team you'll be collaborating with, usually between one to four people. Now, you may be asking, what is Write for Redhead? So Write for Redhead is a competency-based behavioral panel interview. We use to evaluate a candidate's ability to perform the job. And to contribute to our culture. It enables us to be aware of biases and aim for consistent candidate experience throughout. Why is this important? Effective interviewing brings people to Red Hat who are set up to succeed and add value to the company. It results in a passionate and engaged workforce that promotes our culture and reinforces our inclusive meritocracy. We won't be successful unless our people are happy in their roles and know what our goals are as a company. STA, being able to find the right talent while ensuring that our culture is promoted are key parts of. our job. We've been instrumental in growing Red Hat's talent and hiring the key members that drove the enterprise deals that make us successful. Another outcome that we strive for is that hopefully each candidate is going to have a positive experience whether or not they join Red Hat. At a certain stage, we will ask you for feedback on how we did and where we can improve. So do let us know, giving and receiving feedback. Back is one of the most popular instructor-led courses at Red Hat. That being said, we're people too. Stuff happens. Maybe we can't catch up with the hiring manager that week. Maybe a customer escalated your technical interviewer. There are delays. Yeah, reach out. We're not going to take it personally, and neither should you. During the panel, we will also pay attention to certain competencies. relevant to the position you are interviewing for. So what is a competency? These are defined to be broadly applicable across the organization and meant to convey the knowledge, skills, abilities, and observable behaviors that help associates do their job well. Competencies are not what an associate accomplishes like responsibilities and goals, but rather how the associate accomplishes them and should be relevant in any role regardless of seniority or tenure. Each competency is defined by a set of four to five behaviors, which are the observable actions that serve as the building blocks of each competency. To give you an example of what we talked about earlier, one of our competencies is the Red Hat Multiplier. which is about practicing open leadership behaviors and about creating and reinforcing our culture. It consists of five behaviors. So for example, to collaborate or to invite cooperation and productive dialogue to create better solutions. Another example is to promote inclusive meritocracy. So meaning to empower others. to contribute ideas and value solutions based on their merits regardless of source finally at this point if you are victorious we're going to get you set up start the onboarding and give you a fedora in 2020 bc or before covet we would also fly you out to munich and take you out for dinner maybe next year yeah and that's it so i hope you found this useful again do let us know. If you are interested in opportunities at Red Hat, you can go to our KubeCon landing page, sign up and join our talent community to connect with TA. We also have recruiters available on chat during the conference. So don't hesitate to reach out to us or to Jack and Nuria in particular, if you have any specific questions. Before I end this, we did hire from KubeCon last year, so it is worth your time to... sign up. Now, I can't promise that we will personally reach out to all of you, but at the very least, we will know about you and our recruiters will be able to get in contact with you for open roles in the future. Thank you for watching.

I will present these as best I can so that hopefully at the end of this talk, you will have a better understanding of not just the process of joining Redhead, but also some of the values, strategies and considerations behind it. Now, why should you care? Which is to say, who am I? I've been recruiting for Redhead for three years. I support.

a multitude of teams across EMEA focusing on positions within services or consulting, pre-sales, telco, P&T, customer success, and others. My job is to partner with the business to help them find, evaluate, and hire talent that is right for Red Hat, but also to do so in a Red Hat way. And I will elaborate more on what that means because these are among the key concepts there.

I want you to take away from this. I will also give you some examples of how this applies to me as TA to help illustrate the points. At Red Hat we value open and honest communication and I will try to demonstrate this today. We also take pride in our culture which to me personally is the best thing about Red Hat and if you ever had a chance to chat with our associates at an event I posit they would have told you the same. It's important and we will go deeper on this.

Bear with me because what we will cover in the first part will build towards the second. So before we talk about the how, let's first talk about what it means to be a redheader and why, which is to say, what are our values? What are we about?

And how do we do things? So what are redhead values? Our core values are freedom, courage, commitment, and accountability.

they are often depicted on a scale because they require constant balance. First, freedom. The open source model depends on a free exchange of opinions and ideas. This also forms the foundation for positive change. Secondly, courage, because expressing that freedom takes courage.

Thirdly, commitment, which is to say staying focused on our goals and seeing things through. And four, accountability to our customers. to our shareholders, to the community, to each other. Forget this and we lose our freedom.

It bears repeating that no single value is as important as all of them together. They don't exist without a sense of balance. For example, freedom without accountability is chaos. The same is true for our mission and brand.

We serve our customers, we serve the community, we serve the shareholders. all are related and none of them can be ignored. Some of you may know that our mission statement is to be the catalyst in communities of customers, contributors and partners creating better technology, the open source way. This phrase, the open source way, means a way of thinking about how people collaborate within a community to achieve common goals and interests. I think this is where the Red Hat way originates.

Personally, as a non-technical guy, I call it the open source philosophy because it goes beyond creating open software. It's also about our culture and how we operate. So how do the values contribute to our culture?

The inherent tension and conflict between them is what makes them so compelling. And as red headers, it is up to all of us to hold each other accountable for keeping the four in balance. These values keep Red Hat in a state of constant change.

The balance is always shifting and it also helps us to firmly root us to our purpose. What is the Red Hat purpose? Our why is open unlocks the world's potential.

We share knowledge and build upon each other's discoveries. We solve problems by bringing passionate people together to collaborate. We create communities where everyone is supported and is free to use their voices and talents in order to contribute. That is to say, our why is to have a customer-centered mindset. and to live the Red Hat culture.

Firstly, a customer-centered mindset means building customer relationships, strategically aligned to the needs that drive their business. It's an invitation for associates to define who their customer is and tailor their actions accordingly. As Paul, our CEO, said, it's about driving value to your customers, no matter your role in Red Hat.

we should always be thinking of our customers first. We are here to help them consume open source innovation. So everybody should understand that what they do on a daily basis has an impact on our customers. Secondly, Redhairs live the Red Hat culture. We are stewards of our unique open culture and strategy.

We care about our customers'needs and maintain our commitment to open source. You could say the Red Hat way is about how we stay true to our culture and the open source roots. We are proud of what we've built, treating fellow Red Hatters with respect and dignity, having open debates or discussions around a topic, and generating ideas. It's what makes Red Hat a better, stronger company.

To summarize the what and why and shift our focus to the how the foundational principles of our open culture are not changing, we will work to preserve these and foster the behaviors that make up that culture. Red Hat remains Red Hat. STA, my ability or our ability to succeed and serve our customers is dependent on our ability to attract, retain and develop top talent.

However, it is also important that you as a candidate have an appreciation of our culture and business. Those that do are the most successful candidates. So in that context, let's talk about our hiring process and how to become a Redheader. So how do you actually join Redhead?

We strive to maintain an equal source mix of where our candidates come from. which are applications, referrals, and headhunts. With high volume recruitment, we also do a lot of proactive pipelining for future roles.

We know what our stakeholders look for. We know what a red hatter looks like. And even if we don't have an open position for you right now, we'll likely have one in the future and we'll be able to contact you when that happens. In terms of the process itself, there are sequential steps and throughout all of these we stress the importance of seeing and blocking bias as well as reinforcing our culture and inclusive meritocracy. First you're going to have a chat with a recruiter.

We want to learn more about you as well as give you some more information. Aside from your experience and motivation we also covered the basic job prerequisites like location, work authorization. availability to travel if applicable, and so on. There may also be an exercise or a test.

We finalize everything and present you to the business. From there, it generally follows a variation of the following. Depending on the role, the second step will be either a technical interview, often with a member of the team that you're applying for, or it's business equivalent for non-technical roles, whatever that may be. Finally, we will have a so-called Write for Redhead panel where you will meet with the hiring manager accompanied by a team member or a member of a team you'll be collaborating with, usually between one to four people. Now, you may be asking, what is Write for Redhead?

So Write for Redhead is a competency-based behavioral panel interview. We use to evaluate a candidate's ability to perform the job. And to contribute to our culture.

It enables us to be aware of biases and aim for consistent candidate experience throughout. Why is this important? Effective interviewing brings people to Red Hat who are set up to succeed and add value to the company. It results in a passionate and engaged workforce that promotes our culture and reinforces our inclusive meritocracy.

We won't be successful unless our people are happy in their roles and know what our goals are as a company. STA, being able to find the right talent while ensuring that our culture is promoted are key parts of. our job. We've been instrumental in growing Red Hat's talent and hiring the key members that drove the enterprise deals that make us successful.

Another outcome that we strive for is that hopefully each candidate is going to have a positive experience whether or not they join Red Hat. At a certain stage, we will ask you for feedback on how we did and where we can improve. So do let us know, giving and receiving feedback. Back is one of the most popular instructor-led courses at Red Hat. That being said, we're people too.

Stuff happens. Maybe we can't catch up with the hiring manager that week. Maybe a customer escalated your technical interviewer.

There are delays. Yeah, reach out. We're not going to take it personally, and neither should you. During the panel, we will also pay attention to certain competencies.

relevant to the position you are interviewing for. So what is a competency? These are defined to be broadly applicable across the organization and meant to convey the knowledge, skills, abilities, and observable behaviors that help associates do their job well. Competencies are not what an associate accomplishes like responsibilities and goals, but rather how the associate accomplishes them and should be relevant in any role regardless of seniority or tenure. Each competency is defined by a set of four to five behaviors, which are the observable actions that serve as the building blocks of each competency.

To give you an example of what we talked about earlier, one of our competencies is the Red Hat Multiplier. which is about practicing open leadership behaviors and about creating and reinforcing our culture. It consists of five behaviors.

So for example, to collaborate or to invite cooperation and productive dialogue to create better solutions. Another example is to promote inclusive meritocracy. So meaning to empower others. to contribute ideas and value solutions based on their merits regardless of source finally at this point if you are victorious we're going to get you set up start the onboarding and give you a fedora in 2020 bc or before covet we would also fly you out to munich and take you out for dinner maybe next year yeah and that's it so i hope you found this useful again do let us know.

If you are interested in opportunities at Red Hat, you can go to our KubeCon landing page, sign up and join our talent community to connect with TA. We also have recruiters available on chat during the conference. So don't hesitate to reach out to us or to Jack and Nuria in particular, if you have any specific questions.

Before I end this, we did hire from KubeCon last year, so it is worth your time to... sign up. Now, I can't promise that we will personally reach out to all of you, but at the very least, we will know about you and our recruiters will be able to get in contact with you for open roles in the future. Thank you for watching.

Transcript for:Insights on Red Hat Talent Acquisition

Transcript for:
Insights on Red Hat Talent Acquisition