It is officially the first day of summer and looking like it’s going to be a hot one! I mentioned this in my newsletter last week also, we welcomed another rescue to join our pack—meet Tilly! She is a 4.5 year old AKC registered yellow lab. Surrendered to the local shelter, a lab rescue was quickly notified and now she has found her forever home at the Smith Farm and we couldn't be happier! Tilly is still deciding what she thinks of the goats, donkeys, horses, cows, and pigs but slowly realizing they are her new buds. While it would be easiest to judge the family that surrendered Tilly, we have decided on grace. It must have been hard to have to give her up, but in turn, it landed her right where she needed to be.
We don’t get to write every part of our own story in life. Careers are long and a lot of “life” happens during that time. While I am a firm believer in making things happen for yourself—there are peaks and valleys in every journey. Sometimes we are at our best and our performance is great along with our teammates and company. However, sometimes we have unavoidable bumps in the road and these bumps can affect our personal and work lives. Peoplezest has worked hard to create a safe place for candidates to talk to us about their own bumps in the road and how to navigate and turn it into a strength in an interview.
Throughout our career journey we progress in our skill sets, thought process, leadership skills, conflict resolution, and communication styles. I know for sure that 5, 10, or 15 years ago I would have handled some situations differently than I do today. All of that is due to growth. I’m sure all of us have those pivotal experiences in our career that we can reflect back on—so why are we not quicker to give candidates the same opportunity to progress?
I want to give a couple of recent examples:
We presented a great candidate for a Regional Manager position we were working on. Our client received the resume and decided first thing to ask a few colleagues about the applicant. This should not be done, an applicant is confidential and should not have their name passed around and risk jeopardizing their current position. One colleague said they had worked with the individual 12 years ago and didn’t think they were very good. In this case, the applicant wasn’t a direct report to the person so the feedback shouldn't have been given weight, it also assumed that the applicant hadn’t had any growth in those 12 years. We ultimately placed the applicant with another company and they have already been promoted within their first year.
In another placement, we had a candidate who had a great track record of longevity with previous employers. We presented the applicant to a client who had information that the applicant had been terminated from one of the companies, so they immediately passed. We decided to dig in further on a few of the references. We spoke to two supervisors at the company they were let go from. One supervisor gave a glowing reference. The second supervisor stated they had parted ways with the employee and believed they were just having a bump in the road that was affecting performance and likely needed a new environment. They went as far as to say that they would even rehire them today. All of the other companies gave great references. The candidate’s current company ended up finding her so valuable that they decided to promote into a different role that was an even better match to her skillset, and even more value was recognized in retaining her.
Now, I realize not all situations end up this way. But I hope you take away the idea that we all need grace at some times in our career and that when people are with the right company, the right role, and the right time, most perform at the top. And that a resume is just the starting tool to get the candidate to the interview, allowing the candidate to speak to their strengths, weaknesses, and journey will give valuable insight.
Peoplezest looks forward to continuing to work with you through executive placements, strategizing services, career counseling and resume needs.