Robert Jones | How to Successfully Secure Your Next Executive Role: Search, Interview, and Negotiation Tips from a Chief Administrative Officer
Robert Jones | How to Successfully Secure Your Next Executive Role: Search, Interview, and Negotiation Tips from a Chief Administrative Officer
Robert Jones joins us on this episode to share his 42 years of experience at the top of corporate America recruiting, interviewing, and hiring executives. The current Chief Administrative Officer at Gavilon Group, LLC and prior Managing Director and Chief Administrative Officer of Enron Creditors Recovery Corp., Robert credits flexibility and adaptability to rapidly changing environments as keys to his success and encourages other aspiring leaders to follow suit.
The ability to move quickly, to adapt to new environments and change, is key to continued success and promotional opportunities.
Cultural fit; evaluating the final candidates.
Putting yourself in a position to be noticed during a search. It’s a natural process IF you do the right things.
When and how does the head of HR at a large corporation utilize search firms?
Complexities and intricacies of bringing an executive onto a team.
Interviewing a candidate; questions and red flags.
When negotiating an offer remember it is total rewards, not just dollars, from executive perks to your decision rights.
Executing your next executive career search.
Job loss and outplacement services.
TOP TALENT ADVOCATES REMAINS COMITTED TO PHILANTHROPIC EFFORTS. EACH GUEST IS ASKED TO SUGGEST A NONPROFIT OF CHOICE FOR OUR SUPPORT.
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[00:00:00] Richard: Welcome to Hiring Insights. The podcast that provides insight into the executive hiring process and experience, whether you are a job seeker, a people leader, a recruiter, an executive coach, or simply interested in talent. There is something here for you on the Hiring Insights. Today's episode is presented by Top Talent Advocates, where we advocate for executive and legal talent.
You can learn more about Top Talent Advocates, listen to other episodes and hire great talent by visiting toptalentadvocates.com and clicking on podcast. Here's your host for Hiring Insights, Mosah Fernandez Goodman.
[00:00:44] Mosah: Today I'm joined by Robert Jones, who’s the Chief Administrative Officer for Gavilon Group, which is a leading commodity management firm.
Prior to joining Gavilon in 2010, Robert was Managing Director and Chief Administrative Officer for Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. His experience includes aligning human resource initiatives to achieve company objectives and leading organizations through aggressive growth and change. Robert, welcome to Hiring Insights. Thanks so much for joining us today.
[00:01:17] Robert: It's a pleasure to be here.
[00:01:20] Mosah: I was hoping you would be able to tell us a little bit about your background and career trajectory.
Tell us maybe a little bit about the positions you've held and a little bit about how you've secured new roles and some of the motivations for you over your time.
[00:01:32] Robert: I've had two employers in my 42 years. But I started while I was in college, with Enron, which I'm sure some of your listeners have heard of. Worked at Enron for 30 years in progressive HR positions.
Ultimately ended up being the last man standing. Chief Administrative Officer for Enron at the end of my career. So, nine of those years were in bankruptcy through restructuring and liquidation. And then the prior years, various HR positions, marketing positions with progressive responsibility along the way.
Today I am the Chief Administrative Officer for Gavilon, which is an agricultural commodity company here in Omaha. Similar role that I had in Enron, except it's an ongoing thriving organization, responsible for human resources, marketing communications, facilities, a gamut of administrative type functions.
You know, throughout my career I think that that's probably been one of the keys to my success is flexibility, adaptability. Environments change pretty rapidly in the professional world, and your success is often defined by your ability to adapt to that change and with a positive attitude. And I think I've done that very successfully throughout my career. From Enron I was there during the good and the bad and the ugly times.
And the easy thing to do, would've been to leave and go find something a lot easier, but it was presented a number of challenges, a number of opportunities that led to kind of the success I'm having today at Gavilon.
[00:03:20] Mosah: Robert, you mentioned adaptability. How has that enabled you to secure progressive roles over your career?
Maybe shed some light for our listeners into how that's enabled you to take new opportunities and new challenges.
[00:03:35] Robert: One of the things I give college students a lot of times, and I do discussions when we have interns coming into the office, one of the things that they could take away from my talk and that is the ability to adapt to new environments. You know, you almost gotta be a chameleon when it comes to kind of corporate America, because things change, especially in commodity type businesses with the markets. Your ability to move quickly, to adapt to new environments, to new leadership, to whatever it may be is key to continued success and promotional opportunities.
I've seen people that struggle with that. And it generally leads to a short tenure in a role, where I develop that ability, I would say it goes back to my childhood. My dad was in the military. We moved around every two, sometimes one to three years. I don't know how many different states and countries I lived in, but it was one of those things where you had to adapt to the new environment.
Whenever that may be. Foreign country, different languages, new locations or you wouldn't survive. I mean, it would be a miserable life. So that translated well into my professional life in being able to do that, 30 years at Enron, one employer, but I had 15 different jobs during that timeframe.
And that started in Omaha went to Minneapolis, moved back to Omaha, moved to Houston, moved back to Omaha, moved back to Houston, back to Omaha. And my ability to do that quickly and hit the ground running was important and it kind of positioned me for, bigger and broader responsibilities because I was able to make that transition well.
[00:05:18] Mosah: That's great. Thank you for sharing that insight. So, everyone in their career hits a wall or faces challenges that they might not have anticipated. What were yours in and how did you sort of push through and fight through those?
[00:05:32] Robert: Well my wall was the day Enron filed for bankruptcy. My career trajectory was doing really well.
I was advancing into senior level positions, executive level positions. Company files for bankruptcy. It created a lot of concern personally, but also organizationally. I mentioned earlier, the easy thing would have been to leave and go do something different. And I had plenty of those opportunities that were presented to myself, but I persevered, I saw the opportunity to learn.
I saw an opportunity to make a difference. Make a bad thing better for a lot of people. I think I was successful in doing that. And that was rewarding. I mean, that was a brilliant, that was a real high sense of accomplishment that you always look for in life and you rarely have the opportunity to do, but I, I think by staying and persevering and taking all my learnings from all of my different positions I had at the company, I made a bad situation a lot better.
And I got exposures to things that I never would have been exposed to in a normal career. Negotiating settlements with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and testifying and criminal trials, civil trials, bankruptcy hearings.
[00:06:45] Mosah: So, are you recommending that someone have a similar Enron experience? Is that your recommendation?
[00:06:50] Robert: No, I don’t know if I would recommend it, but I guess it was-I had a high sense of accomplishment because I got some things done, again, a lot of learnings. One of my philosophies throughout my career is always stay in school, keep learning and developing, and you got to own that.
You know, the company can't give that to you. They can provide opportunities, but you as an individual have to own your own career and your own career development. And if you're not learning, then you're not living. Right, you gotta stay contemporary. At my age and my experience, I continue to learn new things every day.
And, that's important.
[00:07:30] Mosah: Robert I'd like for you to share some perspectives on joining a C-suite, you've been at the top of corporate America, and you've worked for private equity backed ventures, and you've seen a lot in corporate America. As a CHRO as a chief admin officer, and as a member of an executive team, I'd like you to share your perspectives about what it takes to join a C-suite, beyond the requisite qualifications. What do you look for when you're helping recruit executives to join leadership teams? And if you could share some examples from that experience over your career, that would be wonderful.
[00:08:05] Robert: I consider myself a student of human behavior and what I always look for and not just the C-suite, but you know, mid senior level positions is cultural fit.
Especially if you're going outside to fill a role and I filled the number of those in my career. What you want to look for is the person that's going to fit the culture of the company. And everybody that makes the final list, like you said, the requisite qualifications they have, right? It's going to be the person that will fit best with the rest of the leadership team. So, you got to know what the leadership team looks like and how it works together and be able to make sure you get that right personality in there that will gel. You can have organ rejection really easy. And I've seen that happen as well, where you get someone that's not quite the right fit and they don't last long.
They don't survive. I mean, they've got all the qualifications in the world, MIT, Harvard, and then they struggle in kind of that team, you know executive level role. Jobs that I've had a lot of times in a lot of companies nowadays, you get player coaches.
So, these are people that not only lead teams and lead efforts, lead departments, but they're also doers. So you want to make sure you find the right person that can do that. That's not their full-time job to do but they got to understand it.
They got to be able to lead by example. And often you find people that just can't do it. They’re so far removed from it that they're not credible to the people that they're trying to lead. And so, you look for those things and, I mean, there's a lot of attributes that you need to be successful.
Someone that's humble, that's a good listener, that's confident, but not arrogant. There's a lot of things that when you're going through this interview with them, you explore and you can, you can find those characteristics pretty quickly.
[00:10:00] Mosah: Put yourself in the shoes of a candidate, looking for their next executive level role. At Top Talent, we obviously support candidates in their search and help them navigate the pathways to getting that next job. What are some of the things that you believe an individual can do to advantage themselves in a search?
And sometimes it's even just getting noticed they may not already be on the radar screen of a head-hunting firm. How can they put themselves in the situation to get noticed?
[00:10:30] Robert: Yeah, that's a great question. Throughout my career I think I applied for one job and that was the first job I got, and the rest of the advancement came by doing really, really good work.
Right? And getting noticed. And it just, it's a natural process when you do that. Also about relationships and your network. Throughout my career, I've always tried to maintain really good interpersonal relationships with colleagues, subordinates, senior leadership. To get that recognition, take on those challenges, those opportunities that no one else wants to do because it's high risk, but also could be high reward if you're successful in doing those things, but volunteer for those, you know, communicate the need to educate yourself and get that attention.
Talk to your supervisor about your aspirations, talk to their supervisor about your aspirations, get people's attention. And I tell you the thing that I think that helped me throughout my careers is doing really good work, being kind of low maintenance. That’s one of the challenges today that's different than when I grew up in my career.
I think there's an expectation by a lot of employees about it’s kind of the company's responsibility to educate me, to develop me, to promote me. Yeah it doesn't work that way. You got to own that. I mean, the company can help give you the tools, educational assistance, but you got to own it.
[00:11:54] Mosah: When do you like to use executive search firms?
When is that the best route to go?
[00:12:00] Robert: It depends on what's available to you, you don't want to limit yourself to just your network. Certain jobs that are very specialized skillsets. Let's use the CIO for example. To be able to even get to that point of requisite skills you got to go out into a firm that does that, right? That goes and does searches for IT executives so they can qualify each of the candidates ability to do the technical aspects of the job. And IT you can make a big mistake that costs you a lot of money. So, you want to make sure that they have that technical ability.
And then once you get that, and the search firms are really good at that, they know who the best tech people are out there. Again,it’s not always the best technical person is the best leader, but you want someone that is technically competent, right? They don't have to be able to write code, but they got to understand when they're talking to someone that's writing code, what that means and how that translates to business, right? Cause they got to translate business process into technology. So, you need someone that understands that. And then you go through that process of looking for the cultural fit, the self-awareness the confidence, all of those things, where they would be a fit for the culture.
One of the things I've seen that probably the single biggest failure when it comes to executive hires, is that cultural fit. I have met very brilliant, capable people. You look at their pedigree, they've got the best schools and the best experiences, and they were very successful in previous roles.
But once they got to your particular culture, they crashed and burned. They just couldn't adapt. They couldn't translate all that experience and knowledge into our environment.
[00:13:42] Mosah: So, when do you recommend that companies or organizations not use a search firm?
[00:13:50] Robert: Well again, if you could develop a talent, you can get to where you have an heir apparent then again, but that takes time and effort.
And that costs money too, because you sometimes have to spend a lot more money for it to have that first Lieutenant ready to go. A lot of organizations can't afford to do that, where they have that talent developed or ready to roll because you got two big kids and you can really only afford one. So, if you can develop talent, that's the best, safest, because then you eliminate the organ rejection and you have basically, you've interviewed them for the last, however many years they've been an employee to see if they will fit and can manage. If you don't have that ability, then you got to go outside. One of our commercial roles, we developed that talent, right?
It's not necessary because we have the capability to develop the talent and then size it up and putting them in the right roles.
[00:14:42] Mosah: Robert I was wondering if you could share some insight into the steps or process that it takes to actually get to an interview. What are some of those from online applications to being contacted by a recruiter, to being networked into an opportunity?
What happens before an interview?
[00:15:00 Robert: Well at the C level, it rarely comes down to someone applying for the job. In most of those cases, they're passive seekers. They’re currently gainfully employed, very successful. So, either someone internal, myself or a search firm, if you engage them, will start a dialogue.
You as a company, want a well-defined role. The requisite skills and challenges that the position may have, and you'll engage with the candidate, you'll share with them, gauge their interest, check their willingness to relocate because in a lot of those positions, they’re rarely in the same city where the position is. And that can be an obstacle at times. So, you want to make sure that you're not wasting their time or you're not, they're not wasting our time. So, once you get through those kinds of that courting period, and you'll get to a point where you can start having discussions, sometimes you'll fly to them and I've done that, or I'll have dinner with them.
Just to see if how serious they are about being a candidate for the role. You know it’s a courting process, right? They're interviewing you; you're interviewing them. You're deciding if it would be a good marriage, again it's not an event, it's a process. Some of the search firms have real good research departments where they pretty much know who the best in the industry is.
And so those are good resources to go to.
[00:16:30] Mosah: So, can you walk us through the process to actually hire an executive, help our listeners understand the complexities and intricacies of, of bringing in an executive onto a team because it's unlike other roles, right? I mean, it's not a pure tactical type of opportunity.
It's multi-dimensional so as someone who's hired so many executives, if you could kind of demystify that for our listeners, that would be wonderful.
[00:16:56] Robert: The best way is to develop that talent right within the organization and that minimizes your organ rejection. But that's not always an opportunity that you can explore because you don't have a lot of companies, nowadays don’t have deep benches and don't have the ability or the time to develop the talent or certain specialized skill sets.
We recently hired a CFO, and we just didn't have someone ready. Maybe three to five years, we could develop that talent and they are great people and great abilities, but they weren't ready for that role. So, we started a search process and, a lot of times we will retain an executive search because especially if it's very specialized, and we know it's not going to be from the local market.
The best candidates out there are passive seekers. They're not people out there looking. And these are people that are very happy in the role that they're in, and the search firms will go out, engaging in conversation with them, test the interest, hopefully, at least get to a point where I can have a conversation about the role that we're looking for. And then if successful then engage the company into that process. And normally you'll narrow it down to, two to three viable candidates. You'll bring them in for a round of interviews and we'll have five or six other executives, maybe even somebody that would report to them in an interviewing process.
Throughout that process, I would facilitate it, start the process and end the process, you know, then we would compare notes. Everybody would have their list of pros and cons around the individual and, and we would be able to kind of come to a consensus on the right person, the right fit for the organization.
And that's worked for us very well. Once you get to that point, then you start that background check. So, you find the candidate before you extend the offer, you do the background check, the search firms will do it for you sometimes. And a lot of cases the hiring supervisor wants to do it so they can ask more open-ended questions. Sometimes depending on the role, you may do it running through a personality test.
To see if their personality fits the culture of the company. We've all done those in our life. How people think, how do they respond and in stressful situations, and then you just triangulate all of that information and you come down to a higher.
[00:19:20] Mosah: Phenomenal. So you described yourself as a student of human behavior.
What are some of the red flags that you look for when you're interviewing or sourcing a candidate? What are some of those things that jump out at you as something that might force that organ rejection or that lack of cultural fit?
[00:19:37] Robert: You do a lot of situational questions, you you'll ask them how they would solve a particular problem, an interpersonal problem with members on the staff. And you can kind of fill them out from that standpoint, if they have that ability to solve those types of problems. The arrogancy can come out pretty quickly. Someone that's been in a C-suite before or a senior level, you look for that word of I. I did this versus the team, which you can spot it. And we've all seen people, we've been at dinner parties. You could see it, if you pay attention and you ask the right questions, it'll surface.
[00:20:20] Mosah: Robert, what are some of the questions if someone was sitting across the table from you, they could expect to be asked and then what are you really looking for in those answers?
[00:20:29] Robert: Well, I always start my questions to walk me through your career and all the changes you've had. And why did you leave? And that gives me some insight to that person's ability.
So that always helps me just get kind of a foundation. I look for those kind of self-starters, those people that take ownership in how they have progressed. And again, a lot of that I think is through good work, but it's one of those things that you can see. I mean, I can, because I can see how, how the person reacts to the types of questions.
I always try to get them situational questions around here's this problem, how would you solve it? Kind of an in-basket exercise, a process. It depends on the job, you know, you may ask them, walk me through the steps of how you would hire an employee, what would you do in the first hundred days of your job? And what I look for in that case, depending on if it's a senior position is if they just go in and say, I'm just going to impose my way. I'm going to do it the way I've always done it versus listening, studying and talking to people, and then you take all that data and that information, and then try to steer the organization in a way, because a lot of times people just want to take the culture that they came from, then impose it on someone else which may or may not work.
You don't know that. But I look for those kinds of things and then generally comes out
[00:22:01] Mosah: If you're an executive level candidate and you are fortunate enough to secure a role, how would you advise someone to evaluate an offer and maybe even negotiate that offer?
[00:22:17] Robert: Well, I always tell people, do the pro con list, right?
And some of it is monetary and some of it's opportunity. It's always hard for people. It's sometimes helpful to have a firm like yours that sees a lot of different data points. And can triangulate where the market is on a certain role. Sometimes a company has some limitations because there's equity issues and compression issues.
And, but it is taking in all those data points. And again, you're putting some value, you know, people look at nowadays total rewards. It's not just your paycheck anymore. It's your benefit package, your executive perks, depending on the role it is, what kind of decision rights you have. What their expectation is so that you can head off any kinds of problems that you may have, especially in those most senior levels, like a CEO. Having the well-defined decision rights and their approval limits and stuff and what where it has to go to the board versus the decisions that they can make. But coming in as the candidate, you want to know those things.
Some of the questions I've asked when I came into my role, they did a silent search and I got contacted by a search firm and I started the process, about a four-month process to get to this seat.
But I had to go through that process, right? And had to be vetted. But I wanted to know what my decision rights were, because the person ahead of me had been terminated. And there clearly were some problems with the department it didn't have the rapport that it needed to have in the organization. It was seen more as an obstacle than an enabler for the business.
So, I wanted to know, could I change out the staff if I felt I needed to? Could I add people if I felt like I needed to? Could I change certain policies or procedures that we were doing that may have been the obstacle for the business And I got clear answers to each of those. At that point, it wasn't about the money, cause the money generally follows the role. It was about what rights I would have to manage and to be successful in the business because I knew if I couldn't do any of those things, I'd follow the same fate as the person that I replaced.
So, I was able to get agreement and I slowly, basically changed out the staff. You know, setting expectations for the team. This is where we're going. I'm here for a reason, because there was a lot of we've always done it this way and why can't we just keep doing that away?
Well, if that was the case, I wouldn't be here. It wasn't successful for the organization to continue down that course, so they brought someone in new with a different way of thinking and some people make that transition. Some people, you cleared, set up the expectations with them and then others, self-selected and said, look, I don't want to be a part of that. This is the way I always like to do things and I don't want to do it differently. And the others you had to replace and gave them an opportunity to be successful and they chose a different course. So, you had to make a decision.
[00:25:13] Mosah: You still didn't tell me how to negotiate against you.
[00:25:18] Robert: Well, you use the word down method, that I know. Obviously, negotiating is having your facts, right? The money is, it's important. It's got to be there, but it's all the other things that make it successful. You don't want it being very high paid and then be miserable at work. Right?
[00:25:42] Mosah: Or not able to perform?
[00:25:43] Robert: Exactly or put it in a position where you can't be successful. The more money you make, the higher the expectation.
So, keep that in mind.
[00:25:52] Mosah: Robert, if you were looking for your next executive role today, what would you do?
[00:25:58] Robert: Well, a lot of it's around your passions, right? What do you want to do? A lot of times you do get to that kind of C level. You've already made the decision, what track you're taking.
If it's, human resources, commercial, finance, HR, whatever it may be. So, then that's kind of defined for you but it's about your passion on what you want to do. Early on in my career, I decided I liked human resources but I had other opportunities I could have pursued. But I chose that path, right?
I just said, I really like the variety of the job. Every day's a new even if you had the same problem, you're dealing with different personalities. So, you got to approach it from different angles. I developed kind of a passion and it was a challenge. And I went back and got my master's in human resources because I wanted to specialize in that.
And I would say that, you know, even to this day, if that's important find out what you're passionate about. Is it a startup kind of opportunity? Do you want to develop a team? Do you want to develop a company? Do you want to launch a company? You answer those questions and then I think that'll help you understand.
I want to go work for a company that maybe it’s in an immature state, but I want to help them get to that next point in time.
[00:27:12] Mosah: So, what specific steps would you go through Robert to be able to execute that search? And one of those tactical elements that you would look to.
[00:27:22] Robert: Well, and again, you can utilize your network. Ask those questions about what those things are that you look for but talk to someone like yourself that can help them kind of get to the funnel. Because it's overwhelming.
If you think about what's out there, but ask the right questions to figure out what you want to do, what do you be passionate about? And how do you want us to move forward? It depends on where they're at in their career. And, on my stage, I get great gratification on developing talent and creating a legacy. To say okay, these are the people that I helped develop and place in the organization, whether it be part of my team or someone, outside of that thing.
But once that's not there for me here, what's that next opportunity somewhere else? And talking to someone like yourself and says hey, this company over here was like the company you were with, but they're 10 years ago. Right? You can help them get to where they want to be with that experience.
And you know, they'd be a good fit. Good marriage. Let's open the dial.
[00:28:26] Mosah: Robert sometimes things don't work out. Reorganizations, poor performance, economy turns. What advice would you give to someone who's recently lost their job?
[00:28:37] Robert: Well, it's a good question and it's emotional, right? It depending on how long a person's been with the employer. I know from an employer's perspective; I always try to treat people with that kind of dignity and respect as they go out. We help them with finding tools and, and a lot of times we'll use outplacement services to help that transition.
I mean, it's one thing, it's the right thing to do. It's something the organization, like Gavilon, is part of that employment proposition. You know, when those things don't work out you treat people with that care while they're an employee. And then when they're transitioning, you treat them the same way.
So, people feel like, okay, if the worst thing happens to me, I lose my job. They'll help me make that transition. Sometimes it's no fault of their own, right? Obviously if it's-they're terminated for violating policy and all that sort of stuff, or stealing, whatever it may be, they're on their own.
But those people that just couldn't make the transition to a new model or, become redundant because of you modernize or you go through some bad economic times and I'd been involved in all of those throughout my career, and utilizing outplacement is, always been a great tool and to help that individual transition. And it also helps the organization that, that currently exists. It's sticking around. There's less survivor guilt when they know that we're doing something to help the person. I work for a company that cares, even if you're no longer an employee.
It kind of pays for itself, right? Because of the goodwill you get with current staff, but also mitigation of any kind of legal expenses. The challenge that a lot of people have in making that transition is depending on how long they’ve been working, right? Like myself, if I had to go apply for a new job, would I know how to do it? I would, because I do this for a living, but the average person would say if they were in an accounting role, they may have applied for a job 20 years ago, 15 years ago.
They don't know how to do that, today. Right? Because it's evolved, you know, with technology, LinkedIn, all of that stuff. And you know how people search for jobs, the normal roles that, that get filled is key words, right? It's your LinkedIn profile and everybody's using that to search. So, you look for the highest number of matches that you can find in someone's LinkedIn profile and they make the short list. And then you do some phone screening and so forth like that. So, it's packaging that person and understanding if they're quite capable and got a lot of talent to offer, but they just don't know how to do it in today's environment. It's not the way you did it 10 years ago or argue five years ago.
And you'll probably tell me 90 days ago, because you know how companies are searching today. It's evolved quite a bit and its high technology. It's high packaging a person, making sure that their LinkedIn profile, which is the resume, is going to hit the mark when it comes to electronic searches and algorithms.
Again, that's the first step employers use. And then the second step is that phone screen. And then, you know, depending on how that goes, then you can get a in face interview. And each one of those is different process of having someone to help you get through each of those phases. Because I always tell people if you're getting interviews, your resumes okay.
But if you're not getting the job after you've been interviewed and you're like, oh yeah, I've had like five interviews and I haven't gotten an offer yet and I'm thinking it's gotta be my resume. And I go, no, it's not your resume. Your resume is getting you the interviews. And, you're getting through the phone screenings, the fact that you haven't been able to land the job is we got to work on interview skills. Repetition going through doing video interviews, recording those interviews. Playing back the interviews for the individual will help prepare them for, what they can expect in an actual job interview.
[00:32:29] Mosah: So maybe in just a few words, how would you summarize your advice to an executive undergoing a job search?
[00:32:38] Robert: I would utilize your network. I mean, throughout your career, if you've made it to that executive level, you should have a pretty big Rolodex or outlook the card. I know you still use Rolodexes. But utilize that network. Engage in lunches and it may not be that they have something, but they know someone that does have something because that pays dividends.
Somebody that can vouch for you and say, hey, this guy is a really good guy. You should talk to him. Having an advocate, whether it be a prior mentor or a firm like yours that can help open some doors for you is really, really important. You’ve got to be perseverant and you just can't get the audience if don’t have someone that can help you do that, whether it be at your network or someone like yourself.
[00:33:31] Mosah: Robert Gavilon’s a dynamic fast-growing company, really great place to work. How can someone let you know they're interested in joining Gavilon?
[00:33:40] Robert: Go to the gavilon.com website and there's a section up in the upper right corner on our positions. So, we give you a profile of each of the roles, brief job description, as well as what the company has to offer from benefits, comp perspective. So that's the first place I would encourage applicants to go, and you could respond online.
[00:34:01] Mosah: Robert one thing we do for every guest on this show is make a contribution to a nonprofit of their choice. I know you'd love to make the contribution to the University of Iowa, but I'm going to forbid that. Who should we be making a contribution to?
[00:34:17] Robert: Locally, the Open Door Mission. It's always been an area that we focused on at Gavilon, especially in light of what we do. We provide the raw material to make the food. So it's important we, as a company, support that cause so Open Door Mission here locally, would be my choice.
[00:34:39] Mosah: Thanks so much for joining us today.
Robert really appreciate all the insights and tips and tricks, and really can't thank you enough for being on the show. So thanks so much.
[00:34:48] Robert: Glad to do it. Thank you.
[00:34:51] Richard: Thank you for joining us on Hiring Insights. Remember, you can learn more about Top Talent Advocates and listen to other episodes by visiting toptalentadvocates.com and click on the podcast link.
You can also email us at tta@toptalentadvocates.com.
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