Teamwork with a Hint of Luck

Julie here, bringing you another week of LMP updates. I technically started out as an intern early June, but I've officially become more and more of an LMP member (recently added onto the email listserv!). Anyhow, I can't talk about my experience at Comrise without describing the culture and the people. From day one, the GM, Tom, stressed to us the value of teamwork, telling us we'd have to be leaders and followers, always ready to step up and make the star plays on the court and to sit on the sidelines and hand water to our teammates as they made those game-winning shots. Since then, I've seen how that value has been internalized in our culture; everyone has been so willing to help each other, whether one's on maternity leave, out sick, or just another new employee like me. Simply put, the people here are awesome to be around. Plus, they all have diverse backgrounds and interesting stories to share (maybe a perk to being a minority-owned company!).

As I wrap up my third week of sourcing, there's an interesting point I'd like to share about it. Sure, there's a lot skill and experience needed, whether in understanding the technical requirements, creating the perfect Boolean string, or snuffing out the bad resumes, but there's also a hint of luck involved. Sometimes, you're given a straightforward job requirement (shortened to "req") with simple keywords to put in the search box and candidates responding promptly to your calls and emails, and other times, you're hit with a crazy req filled with rare skills and candidates that just don't feel like picking up their phones that day. As job seekers, we're always worried about bad luck coming our way and having that one recruiter read our resume that was having a bad day or simply didn't like our interest in classical music. Well, on the flip side, we as recruiters worry about bad luck and having our ideal candidate accidentally skip over our email or get an offer the minute before we call.

Either way, how do we avoid this bad luck? We can't. But we can increase our probability of success. Remember that great thing called teamwork? This week, we received several difficult, somewhat impossible reqs, but we sat down together as a company and decided that we'd all be working together, full-force, since we understood the importance of fulfilling these top-priority reqs. Immediately after dispersing from the meeting, everyone jumped onto job boards, called former connections, and brainstormed new ways to find candidates. It was amazing to see how when faced with a company-wide challenge, we all quickly dropped our tasks at hand and adapted our schedules to focus on our new priority. Undoubtedly, having the entire team work together helped us get more submittals than a few recruiters could have pulled off alone. Hence, we saw firsthand the importance of teamwork (mixed with a bit of luck) and why it is one of our core values.

“Teamwork must be at the core of the Comrise culture, and we should strive to be as collaborative as possible. This teamwork shall be built on the principles of mutual trust, mutual respect, effective communication, accountability, candor, and integrity.”

On the Other Side of the Résumé

Just a few months ago, I was hard at work perfecting my résumé, researching for job fairs, and practicing for interviews. I was a set-to-graduate college senior with no plans ahead of me. I read guides on résumé-crafting, I compared with friends’ templates, and did my very best to make that document as clean, professional, and impressive as possible.

And now I’m on the other side of the résumé.

My name is Todd, and I judge résumés.

Sure, I’m still in the training process and I’ve got a whole bunch of side projects, but my current day-in-day-out is résumés. Reading, scanning, analyzing, judging. I used to be a nervous aimless applicant, and now I play the part of the first sentinel on the road to being hired. That average 10-30 seconds a recruiter looks at a résumé before deciding to pass or pursue? Those seconds add up to make my day. Too many spelling or grammar mistakes? No thanks. Too far from the job site? Next. Wrong past job titles? Pass. Not enough experience with a skillset? Moving on.

It’s quite the change in perspective, but what can I do but try to make the best of it? If I’m going to do it, I might as well do my best to do it well. So review I do. Eventually, the absurdity will surely wear off. But until then, I’m working hard to let myself get more comfortable doing this job, a job that has to be done. My reassurance comes from knowing that, for those people whose résumés just might be good enough, I’m the first step on the way to employment. And what could make you feel better than getting someone hired?

Our Continued Experience with Comrise

Hi my name is Mansi Patel and I am a fresh graduate from Rutgers University. I graduated with a degree in Communication and Psychology as I humbly find myself in the staffing industry. My previous internships have allowed me to walk into Comrise Technology's doors with some experience on my back. I spent one year at Masala Communications as the PR/ Marketing Intern and later almost ten months at Liz Claiborne Inc. as their Corporate Communications Intern.

After a well developed first week of training here at Comrise Technology, our more experienced recruiters allowed us to dive right into the most basic aspect of recruiting: sourcing and screening candidates. It is fascinating to now know the number of details that are considered in finding exactly what our clients are looking for. It was just yesterday that my recruiter and I submitted my first candidate (QA/UAT Tester); we are confident that our client will see the same potential in her as we did.

I think many of my colleagues can agree that Comrise Technology seems to offer a certain sense of satisfaction upon completing our workday. Not every young adult gets to say that they not only have a job themselves, but also played a major role in finding someone else a job. I am excited to see Comrise Technology grow in this turbulent economy and rise to exceed it’s perceived potential.

Check in next week to hear more about our progression with the company as LMP Associates!!

Leadership and Training Program Begins

Hello my name is Dhawal – In terms of my educational background, I attended Rutgers University in NJ with a focus on Economics. Prior to this I attended Babson College in Wellesley, MA with a large portion of coursework in Finance and Entrepreneurship. I formerly have had experiences within the Financial Services, IT and Sales sectors which I have greatly enjoyed. I recently became a part of the Leadership in Training Program at Comrise and just on the fourth day, I feel that I am already immersed in the company’s motivated team environment.

The entrepreneurial and diverse community of Comrise has proven to be a good fit for me thus far. The learning curves for the industry as well as the operational components of the company itself are high in many ways. However, the accelerated nature of the program definitely makes it interesting to constantly be learning more. The in-depth exposure to the industry has been quite useful so far and the very approachable management team has also helped extensively along the way.

The first week has had more of an emphasis on ensuring that a fundamental grasp is made on factors such as industry data and internal details regarding the company as well as the program structure. Nonetheless, the Leadership and Training team has already started researching potential international clients while simultaneously expanding our knowledge of the industry and its many competitors. Definitely looking forward to future weeks - Stay tuned for additional blog posts as I get a bit more acclimated with the company!