December Post

December was an interesting month, as it was mainly catching up and preparing for January.

The main areas I focused on this month were operator interviews, co-op exits and recruitment, and data integrity.

Operations recruitment is making a transition between the HR consultants. My role will remain relatively unchanged, but we all met to discuss the process and responsibilities.

Because of the Christmas break, interviews were only being conducted in the beginning of the month. There were candidates that were unable to come in, so I had to schedule them for January.

 For our co-op students, I once again scheduled the exit interview, and completed the exit process. I found the process went much more smoothly this time around compared to August’s.

I was also involved in the recruiting process for our NRTC positions. It was great to work with the team leaders in Calgary, even if it was not in person.

I have now become very familiar with the recruitment process for the different colleges and universities. I believe this knowledge will help me formulate the student strategy, as well as recruitment strategies.

Over the month I had a variety of data related projects. Amanda needed her ER survey put online, and I was able to set up the whole thing for her.

Tennielle needed help with new hire information. It mostly involves going over lists and cross-referencing them, but it helps us formulate strategy. Admittedly, it’s not my favorite thing to do, but it helps me with my typing skills, and gives me an idea of how our strategies are formulated.

I am now preparing for January co-op recruitment. I predict that it will be very busy. I have put together my interview team, and I have a very good feeling about the organization of this seasons recruitment.

November Part 2

November proved to be much busier than I originally anticipated. Coming the end of the year, everyone seems very rushed to get all of their work done. I am helping out where I can, but it seems they cannot afford the time to explain what they need done.

I have been busy with little tasks that pop up daily. Whether I need to update information, or file documents, there is always something to do. In the past couple of weeks I have been helping the Calgary research center with their co-op recruitment. I made and presented offers to the candidates, and am now working with their certification, as I am with the co-op students coming to Joffre.

Last week was especially exciting, and busy. I received a resume from UofA regarding a student looking for a co-op placement. I casually set up an interview with the hiring leader for the week after. I was then told that the candidate already had two interviews, and offers pending that day! In a mad rush I set up the interview, got an engineer to sit on the interview with me, and interviewed the candidate on the phone. Immediately after the interview I put together an offer, and presented it to the candidate. The end result, they accepted the offer, and we now have filled the last co-op spot!

What I learned about this experience is that you cannot simply “wait” in recruitment. If you have a qualified candidate on the market, you have to jump on it immediately. The competition in Alberta is crazy right now. If you are thinking about interviewing a candidate, they probably already have other interviews, or offer lined up. A recruiter has a small window of opportunity to hire a candidate, and has to use their time efficiently and effectively.

Through these experiences I believe I will develop the skills necessary to make quick and correct decisions.

Another activity that I am working on is co-op exit interviews. It seems like yesterday that I stressing about August exit interviews, but now I am hardly fazed by the thought. I am happy that I will be having the interview with my friends. Because we have that type of bond, I think I will receive some great feedback from them.

Ocober/November

The rest of October was a very busy month, but also a very exciting month! I am responsible for engineering co-op recruitment, and I just hired my first few co-op students. Things were a little short notice than I would have liked, but in the end everything worked out. I am much more prepared for May recruitment now.

I am working with Bobbi, an engineer who is the hiring leader for the engineering co-ops. She shortlisted the resumes, and told me who she wanted for the interview team. This year is also her first year in co-op hiring, so we are both new to the process.

The interview team was excellent. We had a recent EIT (Engineer In Training), and a new grad engineer. I met with them before, planned everything out, and we headed up to UofA for interviewing.

It was s very long day. One of the hardest things about doing many interviews in one day is maintaining the same enthusiasm and energy for all the interviews.

We met with Bobbi and Tennielle to discuss the interviews, and who we thought the top candidates were. After submitting our rankings, we waited a week for the results.

We ended up hiring most of our first picks! Now I am beginning the process that I am more familiar with. The co-ops are set to start in January, and I am very excited to see how our hires perform.

The end of October and beginning of November did not slow down a bit. With co-op recruitment done, I am back to focusing on our career day, and job posting project.

Career day I thought was a big success! This year we decided to have two separate groups, the Mad Scientists, and the Project Protégés. We wanted to give the students a choice between science and business.

Organizing the event was more difficult than I anticipated, mainly because I didn’t know who to contact for things like bus booking, and site tours. Melody Jones has been working at NOVA for a very long time, and pretty much knows everybody there. She really helped me out for the organization of career day.

            The kids left positive feedback for most of the activities. You cannot impress everyone, but for the most part I think the majority left very positive feedback, with some ideas that we can use for next year.

            One thing that I have learned on my work term is the importance of feedback. When working with other people, and organizing events like career day, it’s important to have accurate feedback, and then using it to make improvements. I believe it comes back to a concept I learned in school called “Evidence Based Management.” Basing decisions on facts rather than opinion.

October Part 1

            October has proved to be a very exciting month! Last week I traveled to Edmonton again to interview co-op students from U of A. Co-op selection is a very interesting process. The schools have their own system of ranking students and employers. You really need to be strategic when it comes to ranking your candidates, as it can greatly affect the out come of whom you decide to hire.

One skill that I hope to develop further is my interview skills. To pick out details in a resume, and then look for those same details in an actual interview is much more difficult than it seems.

Students these days are trained for interviewing. They have become so experienced with other interviews and school resources, that to pick out the top candidate is very challenging.

I am still heavily involved in the Operations recruiting process, and with more co-op positions coming in May, I will have more opportunity to increase my interview skills.

            This fall was also NOVA Chemicals campaign for United Way. I feel a sense of pride knowing that I work for a company that values community with such passion. I wanted to become more involved with the volunteer activities, but I was to busy with my work. Although I did not volunteer, NOVA has inspired me to become more active in the community.

I might not be able to donate money, but I can surly donate my time.

            I am very excited for the upcoming projects in November and December. I am helping plan this years career day in November, which will see students exploring possible careers at NOVA.

I will also assist in scheduling for our Effective Relationships activities coming in December. I am not very familiar with Effective Relationships, so I am very ecxited to start something new!

September Part 2

             Well the end of September is here, and I feel it went by faster than any month previously. I think it was because of all of the career fairs. I attended the U of S, U of C, U of A, and the Calgary expo. I was great to see the campuses of the different schools, and the experience of organizing the trips.

The U of C and U of A career fairs were right after one another, so I drove quite a bit. I worked with some great people too! One of the engineering co-ops came with me to Calgary, and to Edmonton as well. It was just the two of us in Calgary, so we were very busy. However, in Edmonton we had three more volunteers come with us, so it was much more relaxing.

The career fairs were fun. I genuinely enjoyed going, but I am also glad that most of them are done. Now we just have Medicine Hat, SAIT, and NAIT. There is a month spread between each of them, which is a bit of a relief.

Another upcoming activity that I have started is co-op recruitment. I have just posted the positions on the job boards and we will start interviewing soon! I cannot wait to see what the other side of co-op recruitment is like.

The last big activity that I am working on is our NOVA  Career day. In November we bring a busload of junior high students on site, and we give them a tour and activities to do. Lots of organization is needed and it’s going to be busy in the upcoming months with that and the co-op recruitment.

September Part 1

The past couple of weeks were just crazy. It was the busiest I have been so far here at NOVA.

The end of August was great. I finished up all the exit interviews with the other students, and even had the privilege of sitting down with one who was given an offer! I found the feedback very valuable, and I think it will aid the student strategy I am working on.

One thing I have learned is that when you think your schedule is going to be very busy, it usually is not that hectic. But the weeks you never expected to be busy seem to turn out to be the craziest!

The past two weeks have been just like that. The combination of meetings and interviews left me little time in my office, and before I knew it I had a pile of tasks to complete in a short time. Last week I was in my first all-day meeting, seriously, it went from 8:15 am to 4:30. I didn’t expect it to actually last all day, and I was panicking a bit about the work I had missed. Not only that, Tennielle was leaving for the next two weeks.

Tennielle was invited to a convention in Chicago, which is really awesome. However, her absence has definitely caused some confusion, mainly with me.  When she left, she gave me a priority list to follow, with tasks that had to be done by the end of the week. What stressed me out were the career fairs we had planned. I was not sure who was planning to go and what was happening exactly. I asked Tennielle if she knew who was going, and she asking if I could go to the one in Calgary that week, and Saskatoon next week.

I was very nervous about getting the priority work done on time, and going to the career fairs. Not only that, I am also working on the NOVA Career Day, which is also “bring your kid to work day”. I stayed later Tuesday night to get more work done before driving to Calgary.

I decided to stay at my parents that night to make the next morning easier. I arrived downtown and unloaded the car. The volunteers from Calgary had not communicated with me, so I did not know if they would be there or not. After finding a parking spot I headed back to the Ramada, which is where it was being held, to find some ]one had already set everything up! Gregg McMurchy is an HR consultant in Calgary, and he was a great guy to be at a career fair with. Fred Henselwood showed up soon to, he was at the last career expo and is also very fun.

When I came back to Joffre on Thursday I planned my trip to Saskatoon, and finished up just about all the priorities. I am proud to say that I was able to get everything done. I realize in those tense moments one is very productive. I can’t believe everything that I have done in the last two weeks, and how it all worked out. I am very excited to go to Saskatoon for the U of S career fair, as I have never even been to Saskatchewan before!

 

 

 

 

August Post #2

Last week was very exciting. I conducted more exit interviews, but this time independently. I felt more confident when asking the questions, and knew more probing question as well.

I only have a couple more and then they are done. I really enjoyed visiting the other co-op students, so I’m kind of sad that I wont see most of them again.

We are also preparing for our student recruitment season. We are planning the logistics of career fairs right now and trying to get everything ready. We have ordered in some give away items and shirts. I hope to go along for some of them, as I really enjoyed the last career expo I participated in.

I was also very busy out of the office last week. The co-op/intern students had a team building activity at the Kraay family corn maze. We divided up into teams and set out to find our way through the three different paths. I’m happy to say that our team placed first, and by one minute!

The rest of the day we chatted and had a BBQ. It was a great time and I’m so glad that NOVA hosts these types of activities.

On Friday I had another short day. I signed up for the Joffre Social Club Golf Tournament. I was very nervous, as the last golf game I played with CAHRMA did not go so well. I practiced a few times at the driving rang, and I think it really paid off. My group was very supportive and told me I should pick the game up, which I think I will!