Talent Acquisition - Pro Tip: PLEASE submit your resume in PDF form.

1 month in and 2.5 months to go, I figured it was time to update everyone on my progress! Almost every week, I've been lucky to be able to work on projects across all 5 functional areas that I identified; it's been interesting to be able to vary my work and get a well-rounded Human Resource Management (HRM) experience right off the bat in my internship.

These past two weeks, a lot of my work has focused on what many people think of when they hear the term Human Resources: talent acquisition; therefore, this will be the focus of my first blog post! Of all the categories I identified, I probably have the most experience within talent acquisition. The summer after my sophomore year at Vanderbilt, I got the opportunity to intern for a company called CultureFit, a small IT staffing and recruiting company based out of my hometown in the Chicago suburbs. In this role I got broad exposure to the various facets of recruiting, especially culture-based sourcing and recruiting. However, because this company was an external firm that worked on filling its clients' vacancies, I was excited to take on a new, internal talent acquisition role at redpepper.

redpepper is currently recruiting for 2 full-time positions, and is also constantly on the lookout for freelance employees in the Nashville area that can fill vacancies on a per-project basis. This has created a diverse need for talent both within and outside of the greater Nashville area, and lots of opportunity for me to get involved! As the Operations Intern, I have been monitoring our LinkedIn job postings as well our Freelance and Full-Time Jobs email inboxes, helping to organize our recruiting process. Additionally, I have also gotten exposure and training (Cain, 2017) in a new Applicant Tracking System (ATS), Google Hire, which is one that I have never had experience with before, and sat in on multiple first-round phone screens as well. I have been performing some variation of these roles almost every day, and I think this is something that I will continue to do during my time as an intern here, as our desire for new talent (and great culture fits!) constantly continues with the company's exponential growth.

A sample of what Google Hire's, an applicant tracking system, homepage looks like.

Reflecting on the past couple of weeks, I have loved jumping head-first into talent acquisition! I am super passionate about the concept of finding not just the right candidates on paper but also in practice, and I believe that this is something that redpepper does incredibly well. I am excited to continue to stay involved in talent acquisition during my remaining time here as an intern, but am also excited to take on some tasks in new functional areas in order to grow as an HR professional and discover other areas in which I may have interests. Stay tuned to find out what next post's topic is... maybe I'll surprise you! (but probably not if you know how to scroll down on my blog 😉)

References

Cain, A. (2017, September 14). Google launched a service to help small businesses hire employees – here’s how it works. Retrieved from www.businessinsider.com