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.