Introduction: working with a tech giant…
Cloudflare’s global platform began as a small project, built to detect the source of email spam. Now it protects thousands of people and businesses around the world from digital attacks while enhancing performance. Cloudflare has grown fast in its first years and is now a web security pioneer, protecting vital government records for free because its teams believe in protecting democracy.
Although it is a well-established global company, its recruitment team decided to take a leap of faith when they were looking to hire new talent and match public demand. Cloudflare teamed up with DigitalGrads to do just that with four unique junior roles.
The challenge: global domination…
Cloudflare has been expanding its operations across the world for some time. It already had offices in Lisbon, Munich and London but it needed young talent to expand further across Europe.
DigitalGrads have always been tech recruitment experts, but this job tested our team in new ways. The challenge came from the candidate criteria: every one of the four roles required a different language proficiency. Having only worked with English-speaking roles previously, our recruitment experts had their work cut out for them. We scoured the internet, sourcing candidates with proficiency in Dutch, French, Spanish and Scandinavian languages.
“They had a demanding need for new sales people that I was determined to meet, but we started working with Cloudflare in April, at the start of lockdown…” – Kristina, DG Recruiter
In the midst of adapting to remote working, the DigitalGrads team took on our most challenging job yet. The task of diversifying foreign language teams is not one we take lightly, so we quickly got to work.
Our approach: tech is about innovation…
Starting with lockdown worries in the back of our minds, the team set up regular bi-weekly digital meetings with Cloudflare. Communication was our top priority, so we designated our most talented account manager and acquisitions expert to the task.
Once role requirements had been agreed, the DigitalGrads team began the gruelling task of sourcing candidates. We started within our graduate pool with a targeted email campaign and quickly exhausted our talent. But we didn’t stop there.
“I put my heart and soul into finding talented foreign language speakers in London, but it was a completely new challenge. I decided to put all of my energy into sourcing candidates the old fashioned way with a powerful word of mouth campaign” – Kristina, DG Recruiter
Word of mouth proved to be an impressive tool. Social media and organic advertisement awarded DigitalGrads with a variety of talented candidates. We gave them our industry-recognised training to prepare them for the challenging application process.
Conclusion: success always comes with a struggle…
Having fully reformed our recruitment techniques to find specialised candidates for Cloudflare, the team arranged interviews and coached all parties through the application process.
While we initially expected to secure three hires, the talented DigitalGrads candidates went above and beyond to impress in the gruelling multi-stage interview process. Cloudflare hired four high calibre permanent Business Development Representatives with foreign language specialties to expand their business across Europe.
“We had a great and successful partnership with the DigitalGrads Academy hiring a number of talented individuals into our Business Development Team in the UK.
“The DigitalGrads team has been very helpful to support us during this year’s recruitment phase, providing a pool of candidates that had been pre-screened and had completed Business Development training. This has allowed us to hire diverse new grads that are interested to kick off a career in sales.
“We hope to continue working with the team in the future!” – Cloudflare team
Since taking on our four candidates, the international Business Development Team’s success has only continued. They have had a record-breaking summer, achieving a 48% year-over-year increase in revenue. We like to think that our Business Development Representatives are out there, improving Cloudflare’s growth because of our dedication to innovative hiring.