This month’s professional spotlight features Jon Teklai. Jon is a Recruiter at Uber. Learn more about him and his work, as well as his tips for preparing for an interview.

Could you briefly explain some of your responsibilities in your current career role.

I support our Finance team and “Xchange Leasing” subsidiary start-up with their Recruiting and HR needs. I specify in leadership/executive search talent scouting so long story short I’m a professional stalker. I also am the diversity recruiting resource partner for our Employee Resource Groups and help facilitate the strategy and implementation of diversity sourcing, events, and programs.

How did you come to decide that this was the right career path for you?

I interned in HR at Yelp in 2010 and I realized I enjoyed working with people more than doing more of the “heads down” type work. In general, I try to leverage the natural skills that I have, and I feel the fact that I have grown up in very contrasting environments through different stages of my life has prepared me for being able to connect with a wide variety of people. I think the key to recruiting is getting beneath the surface level “small talk” conversations and figuring out what someone’s true skills and passions are and matching them appropriately to different teams and roles.

Is there a philosophy that drives your career?

I try to set expectations early and be transparent as much as I can. Recruiting at companies like Google and Uber can be tough as less than 1 percent of applicants are hired so I learned quickly that I can’t just give friends the “hook-up.” With that said, I am up front on where I can and can’t help candidates to be mindful of their time and avoid spinning their wheels if there isn’t a fit. I also try to assist them outside of the specific opportunity by giving resume/career advice, interview coaching, and connecting with recruiters I’ve worked with at other companies when possible. Building a reputation as an honest and considerate recruiter will help you develop a professional network that starts to work for you.

What do you consider to be your greatest professional accomplishment?

I would say I am most proud of helping grow the Global Finance organization here at Uber from around 50 to almost 600 employees in a little over 2 years.

What’s one piece of advice you would give someone looking to transition into your line of work?

Make sure you are comfortable with being uncomfortable and being in a metrics based environment. Recruiting is basically a sales job but the products you are selling are an opportunity and a person which can both change and transform at any minute.

What are your top tips for preparing for an interview?

Look up the “STAR Method of Interviewing.” It helps you think about work experiences that you’ve had that are good to bring up during an interview, and how to tell the story of what happened in a full cycle beginning to end way that clearly conveys how you positively impacted a situation.

Also, it sounds so simple but just be confident. I used to think it may be corny or unusual to look in the mirror and say something like “this job is mine.” However, speaking things into existence really works. There’s obviously a difference between being cocky and confident, but if someone interviewing you feels that you are personally confident that you can learn the job, they will feel that much more confident in giving you a job offer. Confidence also helps you be your natural self, and it’s important to be yourself and show your personality so that you and the hiring team can both better decide if the two of you won’t hate being around each other for 40/50 plus hours a week.

Lastly, remember that you are interviewing the company and team too! You always want to come off interested in a role, but be careful to not come off too eager. Making a career move is a huge decision so you want to make sure that you are putting in a lot of thought and asking questions that show you have done research but also shows that you are only going to accept a job that you feel is right for you.

Outside of all of your hard work and efforts toward building your brand, what do you do for fun? Hobbies?

I like to compete in sports outside of work because that is the only way I will consistently work out and make sure I am healthy enough to do my job. I am also passionate about film/video production and comedy and try to merge the two when possible.