Haha depends on the role. For non Technical roles ,they're all difficult but if I had to choose, I'd say Uber - most L3 and above roles for Uber has a final case study presentation with a panel; followed by Amazon (they have a 6 panel loop interview + written essay before you get invited for the loop). Similar process for Google, Meta, Microsoft, not 'hard' per se but the bar is extremely high - For Tech roles, go check out Blind.

Haha depends on the role. For non Technical roles ,they're all difficult but if I had to choose, I'd say Uber - most L3 and above roles for Uber has a final case study presentation with a panel; followed by Amazon (they have a 6 panel loop interview + written essay before you get invited for the loop). Similar process for Google, Meta, Microsoft, not 'hard' per se but the bar is extremely high - For Tech roles, go check out Blind.

It's all supply and demand. During the oil boom, oil and gas engineers are highly sought after so field engineers raked so much from offshore trips and currently there is a shortage of tech talent, so with higher demand, lower supply, it pushes the overall average compensation upwards.

I'm in between jobs so thought of doing something fun (and hopefully helpful for the job seekers community).

A little bit about myself:

I have 10 years experience in Recruitment (7 years in a top recruitment firm in Malaysia and 3 years as an internal recruiter in a Tech company). In my career, I've been promoted 5 times and went from a Junior Recruitment Consultant to where I am now as a Recruiting Manager. I absolutely miss my agency days where I was raking MYR 250K yearly on average from placements and placements. Took a (indirect) cut to do internal recruitment in hope to be more involved in recruiting ops and strategy and have never looked back since.

I've spoken to approximately 7000 candidates, placed more than 600 of them in jobs, met with at least 1000 hiring managers throughout my career in Malaysia and Singapore. Having seen the variance between offers, experiences and screening through countless of CVs, I hope I'll be able to answer any questions you may have

I've recruited for a wide range of roles including Finance, Sales & Marketing, Technology (currently) and Strategy related positions. I spend every week talking to candidates, understanding the needs and wants of different hiring managers and companies, prepping candidates to ace interviews and negotiating the best possible offers for them so ask away!

Back in my agency days, we always conduct these type of surveys to see how we can help client retain talent and the baffling discovery is most employee leave not for better salary, they leave for better work culture. Like they say, culture eats strategy for breakfast and culture stems from the top. That's why you see top companies like Google & Meta offer free meals, childcare/barista/gym services/ full flex work arrangement/ 6 months maternity leave just to keep employees happy. You can pay your employee at max range but it won't keep them for long if they're not enjoying what they're doing. Aside from remuneration and job growth (promotion), we also find employees wants to feel belonged so monthly townhalls/all hands are good to keep them engaged. Reward and Recognition are both important. Showcase them if they've done a great job. Some employers also invest in up skilling them (sending them for courses, even overseas short term training and bonding them for 1 year in return).

Lastly, this is uncommon in Malaysia but here many tech companies especially offer equity to employees that is vested across 4 years. Microsoft, Google, Meta, Uber offers a 4 years vesting schedule of 25%/25%/25%/25% after completion of each year on top of equity refreshers yearly to keep them so this could be a new strategy company can adopt to retain their top talent. Some companies like Amazon are even more aggressive with a backload vesting 10/20/30/40% after each year (so they'll very unlikely to leave after 2 years). Oh well in all honestly you'd be lucky to keep a good employee for 3 years these days.

After every interview stage, I will also do a follow up to get feedback from the candidate or if s/he has any concerns - it it IMPORTANT we address any concerns soon.  If it's WLB (I may arrange an informal chat with someone in the team to reassure the cdd), if it's scope, I'll need to get the hiring manager involved; point is the candidate should feel at ease after the entire process. Last but not least, the company PITCH is everything > How are you going to pitch about your company? I'd usually start with our vision and mission before going on to growth plans and culture.

1. Interesting question!! My company is currently battling with attrition problem due to the intense competition in APAC.
Back in my agency days, we always conduct these type of surveys to see how we can help client retain talent and the baffling discovery is most employee leave not for better salary, they leave for better work culture. Like they say, culture eats strategy for breakfast and culture stems from the top. That's why you see top companies like Google & Meta offer free meals, childcare/barista/gym services/ full flex work arrangement/ 6 months maternity leave just to keep employees happy. You can pay your employee at max range but it won't keep them for long if they're not enjoying what they're doing. Aside from remuneration and job growth (promotion), we also find employees wants to feel belonged so monthly townhalls/all hands are good to keep them engaged. Reward and Recognition are both important. Showcase them if they've done a great job. Some employers also invest in up skilling them (sending them for courses, even overseas short term training and bonding them for 1 year in return).

Lastly, this is uncommon in Malaysia but here many tech companies especially offer equity to employees that is vested across 4 years. Microsoft, Google, Meta, Uber offers a 4 years vesting schedule of 25%/25%/25%/25% after completion of each year on top of equity refreshers yearly to keep them so this could be a new strategy company can adopt to retain their top talent. Some companies like Amazon are even more aggressive with a backload vesting 10/20/30/40% after each year (so they'll very unlikely to leave after 2 years). Oh well in all honestly you'd be lucky to keep a good employee for 3 years these days.
2. You're right! A regular job seeker will be interviewing on average 3-5 companies and a good one will get more than 1 offer so the competition is real. As recruiters, I learned from experience we need to manage expectations from the beginning of the process (not only at offer stage); it's important you know what is the candidate looking for? Is it money? growth? What are his/her short/long term goals and how can you or the company be able to support his/her aspiration/growth?.
I will also always ask if they're interviewing elsewhere and for what roles/industry - even if they refuse the share the companies name, I'd like to know what am I up against so I can do some research and be prepared for my closing before the offer stage.
After every interview stage, I will also do a follow up to get feedback from the candidate or if s/he has any concerns - it it IMPORTANT we address any concerns soon.  If it's WLB (I may arrange an informal chat with someone in the team to reassure the cdd), if it's scope, I'll need to get the hiring manager involved; point is the candidate should feel at ease after the entire process. Last but not least, the company PITCH is everything > How are you going to pitch about your company? I'd usually start with our vision and mission before going on to growth plans and culture.
It sounds like you're a hiring manager - if you are, I'd highly recommend you work closely with your recruiter should you identify a good candidate. I'd like to think recruiters are more than gate keeper; they have to be a good sales person, empathetic process owner and  a skilled negotiator.

1. Interesting question!! My company is currently battling with attrition problem due to the intense competition in APAC.
Back in my agency days, we always conduct these type of surveys to see how we can help client retain talent and the baffling discovery is most employee leave not for better salary, they leave for better work culture. Like they say, culture eats strategy for breakfast and culture stems from the top. That's why you see top companies like Google & Meta offer free meals, childcare/barista/gym services/ full flex work arrangement/ 6 months maternity leave just to keep employees happy. You can pay your employee at max range but it won't keep them for long if they're not enjoying what they're doing. Aside from remuneration and job growth (promotion), we also find employees wants to feel belonged so monthly townhalls/all hands are good to keep them engaged. Reward and Recognition are both important. Showcase them if they've done a great job. Some employers also invest in up skilling them (sending them for courses, even overseas short term training and bonding them for 1 year in return).

Why are recruiters ghosting on job applicants? Like is giving an update or replying an email so difficult?

Depends on the role, but some of them have literally too many to manage. Sometimes the recruitment system doesn't allow or have the feature to send an automated message.

If the recruiter has spent time on speaking to the candidate and promise to get back to him/her the next day, and disappeared after that, is this excusable with 'too many to manage'? It's a really bad work ethics. And no one ever realise that these candidates could potentially be their fiture clients

I'm in between jobs so thought of doing something fun (and hopefully helpful for the job seekers community).

A little bit about myself:

I have 10 years experience in Recruitment (7 years in a top recruitment firm in Malaysia and 3 years as an internal recruiter in a Tech company). In my career, I've been promoted 5 times and went from a Junior Recruitment Consultant to where I am now as a Recruiting Manager. I absolutely miss my agency days where I was raking MYR 250K yearly on average from placements and placements. Took a (indirect) cut to do internal recruitment in hope to be more involved in recruiting ops and strategy and have never looked back since.

I've spoken to approximately 7000 candidates, placed more than 600 of them in jobs, met with at least 1000 hiring managers throughout my career in Malaysia and Singapore. Having seen the variance between offers, experiences and screening through countless of CVs, I hope I'll be able to answer any questions you may have

I've recruited for a wide range of roles including Finance, Sales & Marketing, Technology (currently) and Strategy related positions. I spend every week talking to candidates, understanding the needs and wants of different hiring managers and companies, prepping candidates to ace interviews and negotiating the best possible offers for them so ask away!

Have you contacted back the recruiter and asked for a status update? I have spoken to a person who headed up a recruitment firm and she specifically told me that in the market, the candidate should be the one to get back to the recruiter with a simple follow up. Again its not an excuse with their behaviour or work ethics. At the end of the day, personally I see this is as a dog-eat-dog environment and results come to those who take action.

That happened long time ago. I raised this in a post because i do find the recruiters are not behaving very professionally and engaging with candidates. 'Too much on their plate' or 'too many to manage' are sinply excuses imo. Who isnt very occupied with work? Everyone is equally busy  and dropping a simple email update to someone you have spoken to before shows the good work ethics and will definitely be remembered by the candidates (like i said they are all their potential clients in future). I guess it's a culture thing in recruitment field, and unfortunately it's not something i appreciate. By saying this, I myself are in the client facing role and have to constantly engage differently stakeholders at the same time.

To answer your ques if i have followed up the recruiter back then, yes i had (2-3 times) and still did not get any response (ghosted i guess). I even got my friend in the same company to help emailing the recruiter and still.....
I had also came across recruiters who never responded after speaking to me despite telling me that they would give m me an update the following week and then totally forgot abt it, i could not be bothered with those as well. If you cant action on something then do not ever say that you will give an update the following week when you are not actually meaning it, right?

I have also seen on linkedin posts about recruiters complaining abt candidates never responded to them or showed up during interviews - I LOL-ed at that cause it seems like a karma to them.

Interesting!

What's the most common faux pas from applicants you came across?