GitLab talent ambassador

Maintained by:

Become a GitLab talent ambassador

It's an exciting time to be part of the GitLab team. As we continue to grow, our goal is to create and foster a culture of talent acquisition across the company.

Whether you're a hiring manager or an individual contributor, you play an important role in this. Keeping with our mission that everyone can contribute, we want all GitLab team members to feel encouraged and equipped to take part in helping us find great talent and act as ambassadors for the company and our talent brand.

Here are a few key things you can do to become a talent ambassador for GitLab.

How to get started

Whether they're just interested in GitLab or have already been sourced or interviewed for a role, most candidates have done their homework on their prospective manager and team.

If you're a hiring manager or part of the hiring team, you'll want your LinkedIn profile (and any other sites you use for work, like Twitter) to represent you and GitLab in the best way.

Here are some steps you can take to get started optimizing your profile.

1. Name, photo, and headline

Use your real name.
Include a headshot that represents you professionally.
Write a headline that creatively explains your role or passion.

2. Use a banner image

Your banner image is a great way to visually associate yourself with GitLab or a subject matter area you're passionate about. You can find several GitLab-branded banners in the talent brand & engagement repository.

3. Write a summary

Your summary should mirror your personal elevator pitch. It should tell people who you are and what you're passionate about.
It's also a great place to talk about your team and GitLab, and why a candidate would want to work with you.
Feel free to use and build from this boilerplate summary about working at GitLab:

It’s an exciting time to be part of the GitLab team. As one of the largest all-remote companies in the world with team members in more than 65 countries, this is a place where you can contribute from almost anywhere. You’ll be part of an ambitious, productive team that embraces a set of shared values in everything we do. As part of GitLab's (YOUR TEAM) team, my role is to (ADD CONTEXT HERE ABOUT YOUR ROLE AND TEAM).

4. Your current role

This is an important one people often miss: Make sure you've listed your current role and connected it to the GitLab page. You'll know this worked when you see the GitLab logo next to your current role.

5. Follow GitLab's company page

You'll be able to stay up to date on what our social media team is sharing about GitLab.

6. Add media

Videos about your team or life at GitLab
Blog posts
Your README file

More training for rocking your profile on LinkedIn

LinkedIn's "Rock Your Profile" session for GitLab (held 2020-02-28):

Watch the recording

Candidates will do their research in places far beyond our jobs site to find out more about whether GitLab is the right fit for them.

We want to be sure we're telling an authentic story about life at GitLab, and one of the best ways to do that is through our team members.

Once you've reviewed the team member social media policy, you'll find a library of suggested posts to share using our social media advocacy platform, Bambu by Sprout.

There are several important things to keep in mind when sharing your opinions about working at GitLab on social media. Please keep these things in mind as you create public-facing posts:

Be as specific as possible when sharing examples about your experience.
- With more and more team members joining GitLab there's likely to be more variation in the team member experience. Making statements like, "At GitLab, we all…" or, "At GitLab, everyone…" may create unrealistic expectations if the detail being shared only applies to particular teams or functions within the company.
- As GitLab grows, there will be more variation in the experience of working here. If you're sharing a specific practice or ritual that happens on your team it would be more appropriate to say something like "On GitLab's Marketing team, we…" versus "At GitLab, we…". It's often the case that teams within GitLab will develop their own unique practices and being as specific as possible will better set expectations with candidates.
Speak to your personal experience.
- The more you're able to add color to a social post by adding details from your personal experience the more effective it will be in illustrating the experience of working here. A good example of this would be to talk about how you took advantage of a particular benefit rather than simply highlighting a particulat benefit that GitLab offers.
Highlight how key themes that make GitLab a unique place to work come to life for you.
- The more we can highlight the Advantages of working at GitLab to future candidates, the more we'll be able to attract talented people to join GitLab.
Actively invite people to help us on our journey.
- Future candidates will be more interested in hearing about what we're building toward rather than where we have already arrived. Think about ways in which your messaging can invite others to "help us build a special company" rather than "joining a special company".
Be considerate of tone and how your message may be percieved by the audience reading it.
- As a general guideline, we don't bash our competitors on social media
- For our talent brand, this extends to the employment practices of our competitors. Especially given there have been a number of tech companies lay off staff in 2022, it's important that any messaging to those who may have been impacted by a lay off clearly convey sympathy and compassion.
- An example of a compassionate tone: "With many layoffs in the tech industry, please know that GitLab is currently hiring."
- It is ok to mention companies by name if it is relevant to the post, and the employees losing their jobs and the company doing the layoffs are treated with empathy and respect.
- An example of what we want to avoid: "Lost your job? Come work at GitLab!"
If you're unsure how to communicate something, you can always reach out to the #talent-brand channel on slack.

On LinkedIn

As you're sharing content on LinkedIn, use the hashtags #LifeAtGitLab and #AllRemote as you deem suitable. This will connect your post to a curated feed of content from our team members on GitLab's "life" tab on LinkedIn, and promote our remote culture.

On Twitter

Be sure to follow the @gitlab Twitter account and reshare content our social media team is posting.
Consider tweeting some of the content ideas above, and tag the GitLab account for potential retweets.
Just like on LinkedIn, use the hashtags #LifeAtGitLab and #AllRemote as you deem suitable in your tweets.
If you're sharing a job opening, here are a few suggestions you can consider sharing with the job link. Feel free to personalize these:

It’s an exciting time to join @gitlab. We're hiring for a [INSERT ROLE NAME]! [INSERT JOB LINK] #AllRemote #LifeAtGitLab

Interested in joining the world's largest #AllRemote company? @gitlab is hiring a [INSERT ROLE NAME]! [INSERT JOB LINK] #LifeAtGitLab

Do your best work from anywhere. @gitlab is the world's largest #AllRemote company, and we're hiring a [INSERT ROLE NAME]. Interested? Learn more: [INSERT JOB LINK] #LifeAtGitLab

Other platforms

There are a number of platforms and touchpoints where candiates interact with our talent brand or our jobs prior to ever applying or talking with us. Here are a couple of ways you can help tell GitLab's story on these sites.

Leave a Glassdoor review
Rate GitLab on Comparably

Know of another site where GitLab should have a talent acquisition or talent brand profile? Send us a message in the #talent-brand channel on Slack.

3. Refer great people to GitLab

One of the best ways to help GitLab grow is by referring talented people in your network.

As you think about who would be a good fit for GitLab, don't limit yourself to only the people you know are actively searching for a job. You never know when someone is ready for their next career journey. We want to hire the best candidate for the role and make sure that person will be a "values add" to GitLab's unique culture.

Here's a fact sheet that can be used as a reference guide as you're having conversations with potential candidates.

Ready to make your first referral? Check out this guide.

4. Request a LinkedIn Recruiter account

If you're a hiring manager or part of a hiring team, you should upgrade your LinkedIn account to a "LinkedIn Recruiter" seat.

LinkedIn's analytics on GitLab show that our hiring managers have a 43% higher inMail acceptance rate than recruiters or sourcers.

With a LinkedIn Recruiter seat, you'll be able to:

Collaboratively source candidates with other team members via Projects
Send unlimited InMails (InMail metrics is one of our KPIs)

Ready to upgrade your account?

Learn more about LinkedIn Recruiter and how to upgrade your account.

Already upgraded your account? Awesome! Check out Step 5, it's time to start sourcing.

5. Start sourcing

Once you've activated your LinkedIn Recruiter licensce and your public profiles are updated, you're ready to start sourcing candidates for your team.

You can use this sourcing guide to learn how we define a sourced candidate, where to start your search, and even what you could consider saying in your outreach.

For additional guidance on using LinkedIn Recruiter for sourcing, check out this training page.

Keep in mind:

As a hiring manager, you can request a source-a-thon for your vacancy. The Talent Acquisition team will partner with you to schedule it, and anyone is welcome to participate!
There's a difference between a sourced candidate and a referral. Here's a quick overview.
If you have questions, you can always reach out to your talent acquisition partner or post it in the #talent-acquisition channel on Slack.

Responding to potential candidates

As you share more about life at GitLab and get involved in sourcing candidates, you'll likely start to get more direct outreach from people interested in working here.

If you do not know someone who messages you on social media and you do not have a shared connection in common, then it is up to your discretion if you want to engage with them.

Here's a suggestion for how to respond to these messages, particularly if you don't know the potential candidate. Feel free to make this your own and personalize it based on the specific message or questions you received:

Hi, {NAME}, thank you for your interest in GitLab! It's an exciting time to be part of our team. The best way to share your information with our talent acquisition team is to apply to a relevant role on our careers page. I'd also encourage you to take a look through our company handbook and our Life at GitLab Content Library to learn a bit more about our culture. GitLab is an incredibly unique place to work. Thanks for reaching out, {YOUR NAME}