I sat down with BlueWave’s Recruiting Manager, Cassandra King, to learn more about BlueWave’s recruiting team and how she develops a recruiting team that people want to join!
Q: Tell our readers a little bit about yourself, how you got into recruiting and how you became a Recruiting Manager.
A: I’m from West Palm and moved to Orlando to go to UCF for my degree in Health Administration. I realized I wanted to work with people and help people, but maybe healthcare wasn’t where I was meant to be. I thought about recruiting and landed at BlueWave and have loved it ever since. I’m happy I fell into it!
Q: What do you look for in a recruiter for your team?
A: Someone who has a good work ethic, is personable, and excited to be here! I’m looking for someone who is eager to learn and grow professionally and be a part of BlueWave’s growth. Someone who is relentless and can take feedback and bounce back. What we do is hard, but the good wins and being able to help people and see those good outcomes makes it all worth it!
Q: How would you describe your interview style? How can candidates stand out?
A: Conversional and personable; I like when people are able to quickly build rapport and hold a conversation. There’s a lot of things that we can teach, but I like being able to connect with candidates on a deeper level and understand what they want to do. I always try to have a real conversation in order to match them in a role that’s good for them long-term, not just something they have the basic qualifications for. Candidates can stand out by being personable with myself as well as the team. Are they saying hello when they come in the office? Are they interacting with the team? We can teach technologies, sourcing tools, but you can’t teach “human”.
Q: What’s the secret to your success? How did you get to become the recruiting manager?
A: Well, I realized not only did I like helping candidates and clients, but when someone new would start, I’d want to help them grow. I like seeing people realize their strengths to become a good recruiter and growing into a role. Internal employee growth and development is important to me. Seeing someone who came in with no recruiting experience, like myself, grow into their strengths is amazing. I like being a resource and encouraging open-mindedness of our team.
Q: When interviewing recruiters for your team, what can you say is different about working at BlueWave rather than another staffing firm in town?
A: Our consultative approach with both candidates & clients. We really get to know our clients and work with their different departments so we know how the company communicates within their organization. We know about career pathing and opportunities, not just basic requirements. The perfect candidate & the perfect client aren’t always the best match for each other. Understanding a candidate’s desire for growth, upward mobility, skills development etc. is more important than just fitting the basic requirements. We find what’s a good fit for both candidates and clients. We bring people into our office and get to know them on a deeper level as well as maintaining that relationship for opportunities to work together on future roles as they become available.
We are working with some really cool companies (the majority of the time, exclusively). It’s often clients they haven’t heard of, so we’re able to share info about new projects and cool startups. Even the mouse has cool projects you wouldn’t have heard of before.
Q: Where do you see yourself/the company in 3-5 years?
A: I see myself still with the company, hopefully still in a role where I’m helping out team develop and grow. I hope our internal team grows into roles that suit their strengths. I look forward to seeing everyone grow and how they navigate that. As for the company, I see it being bigger, but still maintaining really cool clients and maintaining our consultative boutique approach where both candidates & clients are getting that personal touch, since changing jobs is such a big deal.
Q: What advice can you share with people looking for a new job?
A: Utilize your network! Find people that you trust to advocate for you! Reach out to a recruiter you like and utilize your network. Applying online can go a long way, but working with a recruiter who can advocate for you on a personal level can help represent you to a client. Update your LinkedIn – make it look professional. Connect with people who work at the company you’re interested in. Maybe you know someone who works there. Ask them about the role & the company. Those personal relationships will go a long way. Stand out when there’s hundreds of applicants. Intangibles get lost in a resume database and missing words don’t appear in a keyword search, so connecting on a personal level may give you the opportunity to share more than just your resume.
Q: What’s your favorite part of working for BlueWave?
A: The growth, the opportunity and the culture! I think we all really care about each other and about what we’re doing. Internally, being a part of the company growth and internal employee growth, but helping candidates with their careers. It’s a fun thing to watch. In just two years, we’re about to go through our second office expansion and that’s really cool!
Q: Finally, how can people get in touch with you if they’re looking to get into recruiting?
A: My email (Cassandra@BlueWaveRP.com), reach out on LinkedIn, or apply on our job board.
