Would you like Hiring Insights insights from a leader who has managed talent at General Motors, PepsiCo, Kelly, Volkswagen, and now recruits and coaches talent? If so, listen to Kristi Stepp!
Kristi Stepp on Hiring Insights
I recently visited with Kristi Stepp and believe her Hiring Insights are valuable to managers and talent at all levels. Kristi is a Partner with Sigred Solutions, a management recruiting and leadership advisory firm. Kristi has over 25 years of international and multicultural human resource experience in the automotive, healthcare, food and beverage, and workforce solutions industries. Prior to Sigred, Kristi served in strategic human resource roles at several global organizations including Kelly, PepsiCo and Volkswagen AG. Most recently, Kristi served as the global head of talent development at General Motors.
While at General Motors, Kristi had enterprise-wide development responsibility for over 65,000 employees, including 12,000 people leaders and 20,000 employees outside of North America. While at Kelly, Kristi was based in Singapore and led all aspects of HR for the Asia Pacific region.
On this episode of Hiring Insights, Kristi shares her insights on developing a job search strategy, how to prepare for and succeed during an interview, and successful onboarding and retention efforts for managers.
JOB SEEKERS
If you’ve been reading our newsletter or listening to our podcast consistently, some of Kristi’s advice for job-seekers may sound familiar. On previous episodes of Hiring Insights, we spoke with Robert W. Jones of Gavilon Group, LLC who provided insights into hiring through the lens of a CHRO. We have also visited with Dimitri Mastrocola of Major, Lindsey & Africa who provided insights into recruiting and hiring legal talent through the lens of a legal recruiter. The hiring landscape is always changing, and if you are someone who hasn’t looked for a new role recently, it’s going to feel significantly different.
Prepare yourself mentally for your search. A job search is a lengthy process. It will demand time, patience, and strategy. “What will feel like a regular search for an organization can feel like an eternity for a candidate, and especially for a results driven, successful executive.”
We spend a lot of our time pursuing the “unpublished job market” because at the Director level and above, roles may not be posted online or with a search firm. If you aren’t being actively recruited for your next position, you may need a partner like Top Talent Advocates to support you in helping find those opportunities.
Find your super connectors. Our priority for clients is to provide the tools and contacts to be successful in your search. How do you utilize your network? How many outreaches should you be doing per week? On the flip-side, we are utilizing our own extensive network in your industry. We are magnifying your outreach.
Kristi's networking advice, “What I share with people is that you need to think about your network, the most important leverage you have is your network and your friends and colleagues who are super connectors. So if you apply to a job on LinkedIn and you see it and you think it's amazing, then you need to think about who you know, at that company.”
Here’s a tip if you’re struggling to figure out how to get to the decision makers or how to expand on your network:
Go to your LinkedIn profile
Click on My Network
Click Manage My Network
Go to Connections
Click the magnifying glass, and then click Advanced
Change the drop down from 1st to 2nd...
You already have something in common with all of these people! Send an invitation to connect along with a polite introductory note. It does not have to be specific to your mutual connections because often times, people just hit connect based on shared interests. Go through that list and see if there are people of industry value to you. People want to help people, particularly those with whom they have a common connection. For more insights into using LinkedIn, feel free to contact and follow Lindsay Hofbauer.
Whether you are looking for a job or a board role, you have to have an updated resume that focuses on metrics. Quantifiable results. As Kristi says, she wants to see percentages and numbers. If you can’t prove on paper that something was delivered, and by proof we mean some type of data, the chances of your resume making it out of the “pile” are very slim. This can be quite challenging,
INTERVIEWING
Your resume or network gets you the interview. One of the first questions we ask our prospective clients who have been searching for a while is, are you getting interviews? If the answer is yes, but you aren’t closing any job offers, then we need to focus on your interview prep and delivery.
Kristi highlights the importance of having a candidate that shows they are open to learning. When you reach a certain level in your career, success has naturally boosted your confidence... but you can’t give the impression that you have all of the answers. Go into the interview confident, but with a learning mindset.
“You have to go in with a growth mindset, with a learning mindset and listen, before you speak, consider what else has been done? Don't assume that your best idea is the best idea for the situation. How do you bring other people along? So we will ask and look for that in interviews, and our clients are specifically looking for that.”
Bill George, our first guest on Hiring Insights, encourages leaders to lead with their hearts and to display that ability during interviews. Listen to Bill's episode to learn more!
Preparing our clients for behavioral based interview questions focuses on the STAR, or even RSTAR, method. You want interviewers to know what you have accomplished, so give them a story that highlights results. Kristi and I both put or own spin on the STAR methodology.
Kristi - Situation Task Action Results Reflection (STARR)
Mosah - Results Situation Task Action Results (RSTAR)
Our advice to job seekers has been to answer behavioral based interview questions by starting with the Results associated with a particular experience. This approach lets people know where you are going with your answer and helps set the stage for the details to come. We then encourage our clients to summarize their answers by restating the result they achieved. We also like Kristi's twist on the STAR methodology because she adds Reflection, which helps contextualize a response and displays a learning mindset.
Do your research, Kristi says...“You want to have done your research. You don't want to just show up and feel like perhaps you were the pick of the litter and they should be happy to have you. You really need to go in with your best foot forward and show that you are really interested. That can be difficult for some executive roles and taking that into account, I believe helps one with humility.”
Put in the same amount of time preparing for an interview that you would for a big presentation at work. Do your research on everything about the company, public filings, the industry, and research the people you might be working with. The amount of research that you do will be apparent in the interview and it will be noted.
COMING UP NEXT...
Ricardo Watson on Hiring Insights
On the next episode of Hiring Insights, we will explore insights from Ricardo A. Watson of JPMorgan Chase & Co.. Prior to joining JPMorgan Chase & Co, where he currently services as the Chief Risk Officer for Dealer Commercial Services at Chase Auto, Ricardo held several international roles at Credit Suisse. Ricardo is a graduate of Cardinal Hayes High School, holds a degree in Economics from Wesleyan University, and has studied at Wharton Executive Education and The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
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If you are thinking about a career move or want support on your executive branding and social media management, let's have a conversation. Leverage our network of recruiters, hiring managers, business leaders, and our personalized coaching to get noticed and carve your personalized path to success.
As always, thanks to Lindsay Hofbauer and our previous guests: Dimitri Mastrocola of Major, Lindsey & Africa, Bill George of Harvard University, Matt Miller of Uptake, Jennifer Champlin of National Association of Women Lawyers and Edward Jones, Robert W. Jones of Gavilon Group, LLC, and Alex Su of Ironclad.