Learn More about Audible's "Next Chapter" Returnship Program and How to Prepare for the Interview Process
Audible’s ‘Next Chapter’ Returnship program is a 16-week paid full-time internship for experienced professionals returning to the workforce after taking time off for caregiving.
The program is open to professionals who have at least 5 years of professional experience and have been out of the paid workforce for at least one year to focus on caring for a child or other dependent.
Join us to learn more about our distinctive returnship program and how to prep for the interview. You’ll hear from our Program Manager, Supriya, who will give an overview of the program and interview process, a returnee-turned new hire, Archana, will share about her personal interview and returnee experiences and from a mentor, David who will discuss the importance of mentorship and it’s impact on returnees in our program. We hope you’ll join us!
Resume Gaps and How To Handle Them: Advice From a Recruiter at GoTo
💎 Believe it or not, resume gaps can add value to your overall experience. Watch this video to learn how breaks can positively impact your career, and prepare for the interview process at GoTo!
📼 Resume gaps: "The advice I would give to someone with gaps in their CV or resume would be, first of all, try not to focus or worry too much about them." Watch this video, where you'll meet Meghan Fischback, Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at GoTo, who will review GoTo's application and interview process and share some insights on how to prepare.
📼 It is a not-so-well-known fact that resume gaps can add value to your overall experience. Whatever the scenario, Meghan advises including a brief explanation of how you spent that time in your CV. Perhaps you were upskilling or took the time to really research and evaluate your next best fit. Try to include the value you obtained from that experience in your brief explanation.
📼 Apart from advice on handling resume gaps, Meghan reveals how you can improve your chances of getting hired at GoTo. First, in general, when you're applying for a new role, you want to take the time to tailor your CV to that opportunity. You need to understand the job description and the requirements and tweak your CV honestly to address them. Second, when you get your interview scheduled, be sure to prepare. Do your research on the role, the organization, company updates, and the hiring managers you're going to meet. Practice some well-rounded examples. You can use the job description as a guide for what questions you might be asked!
Don't Worry About Resume Gaps - Prepare for This Recruiter Question Instead
One of Meghan's go-to questions for candidates is, "What motivated you to apply to GoTo?" What she's looking to understand is: Did the candidate do any research on the organization? And what did they find that got them excited about the opportunity? Apart from that, open questions help recruiters get better insight into a candidate's thought process and how they apply their skills and knowledge for success.
🧑💼 Are you interested in joining GoTo? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get to Know Meghan
Meghan is an experienced, candidate-focused recruiter specializing in volume, multilingual recruitment across Sales, Marketing, Trust & Safety, Customer Care, and IT. Skilled in Talent Acquisition, People Management, Candidate Experience, Employer Branding, Advertising, and Sourcing Strategy, she's passionate about all things recruitment! When she's not growing teams and dreams, you can find her making music or swimming in the nearest ocean! If you are interested in a career at GoTo, you can connect with her on LinkedIn!
More About GoTo
GoTo’s flexible-work software – including GoTo Connect, GoTo Resolve, Rescue, Central, and more – is built for small and medium-sized business IT departments, but powerful enough for the enterprise. By building its secure, easy-to-use software, GoTo is committed to ensuring the time at work is well-spent so that time outside of work is better spent. With over 3,000 global employees and over $1 billion in annual revenue, the remote-centric company’s physical headquarters is in Boston, Massachusetts, with additional offices and thousands of home offices in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and beyond.
From a Love of Puzzles to Riot Games’ Head of Data: Natasha Julka’s Career Story
Natasha's dad used to ask her why she was opening up their VCR—and whether she was planning on putting it back together.
"I loved breaking and fixing things around the house," Natasha explains. "I couldn't wait to see what was inside!"
Her dad, who was one of the first people in his family to pursue higher education, always encouraged her, says Natasha. So did her mom, who wanted to see Natasha and her two siblings pursue STEM careers and get the best education possible.
"I really owe [my success] to her," says Natasha. "My parents were so supportive of all the experiments I did, and all the things I broke."
Her parents may have encouraged her love of hands-on problem-solving, but Natasha was the one who turned it into a successful engineering career, and now to a role as the Head of Data at video game company Riot Games. We sat down with her to hear more about that journey, as well as what advice she has for people like her who don't consider themselves big gamers, but who are interested in solving complicated problems with and for a passionate, talented community.
Pursuing Independence
Natasha did her undergraduate degree in India, near where she's from, and she knew she wanted to go somewhere else for her master's.
"I wanted to go somewhere far but with a great program, and that was the U.S.," she says. "The independence you have here in terms of choosing your own curriculum, you don't have that in India."
She moved to L.A. not knowing anyone but an aunt's family, and has since built a full life of her own in California. And her siblings followed her example, too—her younger brother, who had sat with her for hours working on programming problems when they were young, ended up moving to Singapore, and her older sister now resides in Switzerland.
"Now my dad is like, 'Oh, you should totally not come back.' He's so proud and so excited that I'm here, that all his kids [have pursued opportunities abroad]. I used to call him and be like, 'What the hell? You're not missing me?! What is going on?'" says Natasha, laughing.
She made the most of her independence, though, and found fulfilling work as an engineer. "I loved that I got to experiment a whole lot, that I got to build things," she says.
Then a roadblock popped up: her manager asked her to take on a management role.
Solving People Puzzles
Natasha initially said no to the offer. But eventually her manager convinced her to give it a shot, even if just for a year. She signed up and immediately had one of the hardest years of her career.
"It was horrible," she remembers. "I was comfortable with being an engineer, so [as a manager] I was always one step back, still in that world [of being an engineer]."
But when her manager left, and then his manager left suddenly, too, Natasha found herself reporting directly to the CTO—and leaning into the challenge.
"If that hadn't happened, maybe I would've never really left engineering to give management a true investment from my side," she reflects. "But because it did, I knew I couldn't keep messing up. I had to grow up. I realized that I actually enjoyed aspects of management, especially how you can make an impact."
Eventually, some mid-level managers were hired, and Natasha got more coaching and mentoring versus just trial-by-fire experience. She realized that understanding the product, finance, and operations parts of an engineering business was just as vital as knowing how to code, and seeing the longer-term strategy of the business unfold allowed her to better manage her team and their own career goals.
"You start to position people so they can advance their careers. It's like putting a puzzle together, that same excitement. You feel really good when someone starts their career with you and then you help them grow, and when they leave, they're ready to own an entire org," she says. "That's when I feel successful."
Natasha was content with her scope of impact at her then-employer… but then she got an email from a Riot Games recruiter that she couldn't ignore.
Prioritizing Player Impact
"This might sound cheesy," starts Natasha, "but the email [the recruiter] wrote me was just so personal, so thoughtful, that it made me want to talk to him."
They talked, and though Natasha wasn't (and isn't) a big gamer, she loved what she learned about the problems Riot Games was trying to solve. As her interviews continued, she discussed issues like how to build a safe community and how to leverage data to create unique experiences, and she felt like she was being treated like a respected collaborator versus a candidate.
"I never felt like an outsider. All the amazing work, the people, how they kept me engaged throughout the entire process...at the end, I was like, 'Okay, I need to join this company,'" says Natasha.
She was particularly excited about her role as Head of Data because it came with a mandate to not just make a positive impact for her direct team, but to make a positive impact for the broader gaming community, including the millions of people who play Riot's games.
"I was really pleasantly surprised when I joined Riot to see how they think through the holistic experience. It's not just that you go into the game, you play, and you come out," she says. "It's how do you go in? Who do you get matched with? How do we make sure people are not being toxic on the chat with you? That you're having a good experience? That we're providing good recommendations for you for things to buy or champions to consider?"
Natasha herself has played League, and is fascinated by gaming and the community around it, but she's quick to point out that it's not her strong suit. "I just don't have the hand-eye coordination to play all of those crazy games where you really need to be precise!" she explains. "I'm a casual gamer."
4 Tips for Adjusting to a New Industry
Natasha was happy to learn about the world of gaming—and she wasn't afraid to ask the questions necessary to do it.
"I needed to understand every part of the gaming industry, from how we publish to how we do our esports, to provide ideas or even think through the strategy of what we're going to do next," she says. "When I started, it felt overwhelming, but I leaned heavily on my team."
She has advice for other people who are interested in working in an industry like gaming, but might not know where to start:
- Recognize what you bring to the table. Gaming, just like any other industry, is made better when it's led by a diverse set of people. "If everyone's thinking the same way, you're never going to see your game differently. We want diverse opinions and different ways of seeing," she says.
- Know you're not alone in being new. "If you're open to learning, people are there to help you," says Natasha. "You're not going to feel alone. There are a lot of people going through that same journey."
- Engage with the broader community. Natasha says that at Riot, she has direct access to the player community, and that's really helped her build a sense of who they are doing their work for. "Usually when you talk to customers, you get all formal; there's a protocol," she says. "But here, directly interacting with the players is huge."
- Don't be afraid to propose new ideas. Riot Games has a strong culture of open-mindedness and transparency, says Natasha—so strong that she was shocked by the direct and tough questions people asked the company's leadership at her first all-hands meeting. But what she's learned from that example is that pushing the envelope is required to make real progress on long-term problems, and that starts with having the space to propose new ideas. "Take risks!" implores Natasha. "Our players are dreaming of a new thing every day. So listen to them and take risks because that makes [your ideas] better."
[VIDEO ▶️ ] Prepare For Raytheon Technologies Interview - Tips From a Recruiter
Get ready to show up as your best self for a Raytheon interview!
📼 Watch this video to get great interview tips from Amy Gardner, the company's talent acquisition manager, that will help you prepare for your interview at Raytheon, as well as dive into the company's application process, culture, and values.
Don't be afraid of resume gaps- as Amy says, everybody's human. Amy highlights the importance of preparing for the interview with Raytheon by making sure to present your skills aligned with the job description. Also, research the company as much as you can to have intelligent questions prepared to ask the interviewer.
It's perfectly okay if your resume shows different categories and skills depending on the job position you're applying for; this can actually go a long way in your Raytheon interview to help you stand out to the recruiter. Don't miss Amy's insights on how to tailor your resume depending on the role you're applying for.
More Quick Tips For Your Raytheon Interview
Do you get nervous during interviews? Well actually, Megan does too! She shares some tips that will help you relax and show your best self in the process. One of them is to keep a notecard in sight with key points you don't want to forget to check from time to time: it'll make you feel more confident. Watch the video to get more tips like this!
Also, don't forget to send a good thank-you note after the interview. According to Megan, it can go a long way in making the interviewer feel appreciated.
Get To Know Amy
Amy is a lean-strategy-driven, human resources professional able to leverage passion and creativity in a business-centered capacity. She utilizes emotional intelligence, tactical, and rapport-building practices to aid in high-caliber success. She's been working at Raytheon Technologies for almost two years now.
More About Raytheon Technologies
Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX) is an aerospace and defense company that provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military, and government customers worldwide. The company was formed in 2020 through the combination of Raytheon Company and the United Technologies Corporation aerospace businesses and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.
📨 Are you interested in joining Raytheon Technologies? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
