Kenn Rymdeko has been a Recruiting Specialist with Toll Brothers since 2003.  Everyday he puts to use approximately twelve years of recruiting and human resource experience to assist in hiring top candidates from across the country.  Kenn's responsibility is to handle the openings for Toll Brothers' in-house civil engineering, survey, aerial mapping and land planning firm, ESE Consultants, Inc., for their 14 regional offices in CO, CT,  IL, MD, NC, NY, PA and VA. 

Be Prepared 

In the November edition of the CivilEngineeringCentral.com newsletter, Richard S. Bedell of Greenhorne & O'Mara talked about the importance of making a great first impression in "First Things First".  The author tells his story about going to an interview in his Boy Scouts uniform, and this reminds me of their motto - Be Prepared. 

What I am referring to is interview preparation, a very important subject to me. As I am usually the first person the candidate meets, you have to do well with me before you see my hiring manager.  To impress me and to move on to the next step, I am not focused on your skills and experience, but rather how prepared you are for the interview.  It shows me that you are serious about the job.

When dealing with most recruiters, candidates will usually go over their resumes, talk about past/present experiences, education, compensation, and of course "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" (This question is worthy of a whole article itself!).  Once the decision has been made that there is a skills match, it's time to schedule an interview.  I always send out what we call a "promo pack" about our company.  It includes an annual report, news clipping, articles, recent financial statements and a short DVD about our company.  I ask my candidates specifically to review this material as it will be vital to be prepared for the interview.  I also suggest preparing a few questions about the company that we might be able to answer.

As a corporate recruiter I have a vested interest in hiring the best people that WANT to work with my company.  I can't tell you how disappointed I am when I finally get to meet the person with the perfect resume and I ask, "So did you read the Promo Pack?", and they say they didn't have time. Some say they read part of the Annual Report in our lobby (how much can they really read in the 3 minutes it takes for me to walk to the reception area?!?!).  I would estimate that 10% - 20% actually read the material.

It makes a conversation about my company go so much smoother if both parties have some knowledge of the topic.  I'm not asking you to know everything, just a little.  For example, it helps if you know the proper name of the company.  I have actually had people sit in my office and ask how "Toll House Cookies" got into the home building industry (Thanks for coming in, let me walk you out....).  Imagine how impressed the manager will be when you tell her how interesting it is that they are bidding on a contract for the development of a historical piece of land or by asking how their expansion initiatives are working overseas.

Now, a lot of companies won't provide you with this information; you'll have to Google it by yourself.  Sometimes I purposely won't provide this information to see if the candidate will do the research on their own.  And if the candidate does....wow, let's go see the Hiring Manager right now!

Obviously, we want to work with the most experienced and hardest working people in our business.  But that's only if they want to be there.  I will often recommend a lesser qualified, but genuinely interested person than a highly qualified disinterested candidate.

So I ask you, please - PLEASE - show me you want to work here. Take a few minutes, and Be Prepared! It may just make all the difference in getting the job of your dreams.