I sat down with Megan Hanna, a fierce recruiter in the risk, data science and analytics space. Megan’s unique position has encouraged her to be constantly learning and adapting. Her wisdom, eye for the future and sage advice made for an amazing conversation
Tell us a little bit about yourself
My name is Megan Hanna, I am a recruiter in the tech space in the Philadelphia area. My entry into this field is actually an odd one, I was originally a bartender for many years. Then, the owner of Numeric reached out to me and was wondering if I’d be interested in the position of recruiting candidates specializing in risk management. I was interested and then after a while, our colleague who recruited for data science and analytics left and that position opened up, so I applied and now that’s what I do. Numeric is a staffing and recruitment company particularly specializing in the analytics and technology industries.
What was you most fulfilling or fun project? What did you learn about yourself?
I had a couple of fun projects, one was working for a huge international bank. They were looking to solve a problem related to international lending with third world countries while remaining profitable. Given such a massive and highly important projects, they wanted to test it thoroughly before requesting any money to start it, so they were looking for data scientists with PhDs and couple of years of experience to truly deliver an actionable plan. It was great working with that client and it was exciting to find the right people for the job.
I really learned how much I really enjoy this work. I am always excited to do the requirement gathering, understanding the business process and how it works for each and every client, and then going out and finding those great fit candidates. Additionally, I learned that I really like to be constantly learning, and to have at least an idea of what skills or programming experience the client is looking for, so you’ll often find me on google or on Udemy classes trying to get an understanding for what are those skills that they want and how that will impact their business. I think that this time that I take to educate myself compliments my work greatly and pays dividends, but it also sometimes takes a toll. Ultimately, it’s about striking a balance, but education is a great thing to invest in because it helps me and my clients grow.
What is your greatest bit of professional advice?
I would say that my biggest piece of advice is to find a mentor. Right out of college, a recruiter placed me at my first job at Morgan Stanley and there I found a great mentor who helped along the way. Keep in mind that you don’t have to meet a mentor in person, you can build connections through LinkedIn and continue a relationship virtually. Take people out for coffee and ask them to tell you about themselves, people are very good at talking about themselves.
Another piece of advice is that I urge you to ask mentors about lateral moves, what kind of lateral moves did you make and which ones do you think I can make? Any wise person will likely go through their inventory of skills or yours and they will quickly pull out any transferable skills and point them out to you. They also likely have stories about how they used a similar process to move from one position to another and will have advice on how to do it well.
Realistically speaking, the only constant in life is change. We have only now hit the tip of the iceberg with analytics and data science. I want to stay around to help shape and staff the technological evolution that will continue changing our lives forever.
Do you find that women are often a minority in the industry? If so, what actionable steps would you recommend to actively combat this issue?
Absolutely! Although I’ve only been recruiting for two years and I’ve been on sites where the split is around 60/40 or even 55/45, I have found that men are seen as more tenacious. Especially in the recruitment industry, there is a view that men have a higher likelihood of being sharks, vicious go-getters. Recruitment is similar to sales, and historically people have thought that men are better at sales and that view, in a lot of ways, still persists. However, I think that the best way to forge ahead is go out there, roll up your sleeves and do it, never back down and know your stuff. No one will treat you with anything other than respect if you put in the work.
What skills do you recommend learning?
Anything AI is important to learn over that next 12-24 months. AI and neural networks have been the buzz words of 2018, and for good reason. We have done many amazing things in the tech industry, we’ve built so many capabilities and algorithms to help understand unstructured data but the scale is massive. This is why machine learning and AI is important, I think that we need to train machines to handle the massive amounts of data that we currently have and that we will have in the future in order to be able to solve problems effectively.
Ultimately, it’s about striking a balance. Education is a great thing to invest in because it helps me and my clients grow.
What are you excited about in your professional future and where do you see yourself going?
If I could do it all over again, I would want to get a PhD and work for my clients in their data science teams, but I don’t think that is in my future now. I’d like to stay in recruiting, as long as I stay within the risk management, data science and blockchain circles. I really have taken a liking to learning more about blockchain and understanding its many applications. I’ve been reading everything that I can get on the topic and I’m very excited to see where and how far it goes.
Realistically speaking, the only constant in life is change. We have only now hit the tip of the iceberg with analytics and data science. I want to stay around to help shape and staff the technological evolution that will continue changing our lives forever.
Do you have any advice for young women excited to enter your field?
Know your value, without a doubt, women must know their value. Don’t be undersold under any circumstances. Unfortunately, I see that often and then you see it the wage gap statistics. If you can do the same work as the man next to you, you should demand to be paid the same.
Also, get internships and check your expectations at the door. Do your research, learn about the market, learn about the space that you’re trying to break into, and talk to recruiters to get more information. Put in the work and you will be rewarded, just be persistent and know your stuff.
The best way to forge ahead is go out there, roll up your sleeves and do it, never back down and know your stuff.