Brand Camp University – Personal Branding 2.0

This blog post is about the story of seven rock star recruiters and career pros who tell their story about finding their passion and working in the recruiting and career services industry.

What prepares you to work as a recruiter or in career services? Is there a certain educational path? Are there strategically aligned companies to work for that will put you on the fast track?

The Story of Seven Rock Star Recruiters and Career Pros

• Jennifer McClure – Started in Human Resources
• Kelly Lux – Started as an Executive Assistant
• Tammy Turner – Started as a Public Accountant
• David Benjamin – Started as a Social Worker
• Kim Benjamin – Works with the Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Program
• Molly Sly – Started in the Tourism Industry
• Kristi Daeda – Start as a Computer Programmer

Our list of recruiters have started College & Career Chats (#cchat), work with prisoners to get them prepared for the job market, and been ranked as the tops in their field to name a few of their accomplishments.

Jennifer McClure
President of Unbridled Talent
Twitter: @CincyRecruiter
Website: http://www.cincyrecruiter.com

Jennifer McClure is President of Unbridled Talent, LLC a Cincinnati based consulting firm providing services to clients in the areas of attracting, recruiting, developing & retaining key talent in their organizations.

She is passionate about helping businesses to improve their people strategies through consulting and training opportunities and she’s also a popular speaker who is regularly engaged to present at conferences, associations and to HR, Recruiting and leadership teams at a variety of organizations, including Fortune 100 clients.

Prior to beginning her Consulting career, Jennifer led the life of a full-time Human Resources Pro with leadership and executive-level experience in privately held and Fortune 500 companies and also worked as an Executive Recruiter and Executive Coach partnering with C-level leaders to find, recruit and develop key leadership talent. An active participant and user of a variety of social networks and social media, Jennifer has been named a Top 10 Employment Blogger to Follow by Monster.com, one of the Top 25 Most Influential Online Recruiters and has been ranked as one of the Top 25 HR Pro’s to Follow on Twitter. She writes frequently about a variety of talent management topics on her personal blog www.cincyrecruiter.com and the industry leading blog www.fistfuloftalent.com.

Kelly Lux
Career Development and Relationship Management Professional at Syracuse University
Twitter: @KellyLux
Website: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kellylux

One of the things that led me to the career field as a profession is the fact that I have always been conflicted about exactly what it was I wanted to do. I believe it is the rare individual who knows what they want to do and never wavers from that course. That has not been my experience.

I will admit that in my younger years I was not very career-oriented and was just looking for a way to pay the bills. With a bachelor’s degree in psychology, I worked as an executive assistant for several years and in various places before ending up at Anheuser-Busch in 1997. In my role as Assistant to the Plant Manager I was given much more freedom to be creative, to lead teams and to develop all kinds of skills that would serve me well in the next phase of my career. However, there wasn’t much room for advancement in this position, so I ended up leaving to pursue a Masters in Education. To make a long story short, I never ended up securing a full-time teaching position and had to go for plan B, which led me to a job at Syracuse University. Initially, I had to swallow my pride and go back to an administrative assistant role, Masters degree notwithstanding. However, within a year of being hired at Syracuse, the position I currently hold opened up. While I had no experience in Career Services or working with alumni populations, I was able to sell my transferable skills, education and passion for the job. While employed at Syracuse University I have continued my education and taken classes in higher education administration, career counseling and, most recently, social media. Two years later, I have greatly expanded my knowledge in the area of career, become a certified career coach, delved into social media with great enthusiasm, and learned that I have a gift for managing relationships and finding creative ways of communicating with people from all walks of life. This is what I was meant to do.

Tammy Turner
President of Kapstone Recruiting and Training Services
Twitter: @TammyTurn
Website: www.Kapstonejobs.com

Tammy Turner is an entrepreneur, author, professional speaker, consultant and career coach. Tammy started her career at Plante Moran, LLP in the tax department, later moving on to Deloitte & Touche, in Enterprise Risk Services, and then to Arthur Andersen in International Payroll and Global Human Resources. After more than 6 years in Public Accounting, Tammy realized that her true passion was in Human Resources, and more specifically in Recruiting. In 2003, she became a recruiter for Robert Half Finance & Accounting, specializing in the permanent placement of Finance and Accounting professionals. In 2004 Tammy had an opportunity to travel overseas and work as a Recruiting Consultant for UNICEF and HR, Inc. Cambodia. Tammy spent nearly 3 years in Cambodia working as a consultant and ultimately started her own recruiting business International Employment Solutions (IES), in 2006.

In February 2007 Tammy returned to the United States and launched a second recruiting business Kapstone Recruiting & Training Services, LLC and in 2009 she purchased a franchise exclusive to Food Service & Hospitality (Food Team). Tammy has aspirations to grow her business globally and open a Kapstone Recruiting office in Singapore in 2012.

David Benjamin
Principle of Dave E. Benjamin Consulting, LLC.
Twitter: @DaveBenjamin
Website: www.davidebenjamin.com/

Graduated college, became a social worker for 3 months. Got tired of restraining adolescent girls all day, became a financial advisor for almost a decade. Successful career, got into management enjoyed it but got burnt out. Transitioned into recruiting industry, first staffing nurses at hospitals, nursing homes, and correctional facilities. Moved to Direct Hire – placed accounting/finance professionals and other miscellanous positions. Left corporate workforce in 2005, joined The Sales Matrix (Sales Consulting Firm) as a consultant and Recruiting Mng, placing sales professionals with clients. Still with TSM, started own consulting firm in Jan 2010 (David E Benjamin Consulting LLC), primarily helping clients with everything digital/social media. Enjoy speaking for Universities, Corporations, Associations, Etc. on a variety of topics: Social Media related & job seekers. Getting ready to launch SalesBasix (Sales and Marketing E-Learning Co) with 6 other guys.

Kim Benjamin
Founder of A Purposed Transition
Website: www.HRStrategiesPlus.com

Kimberly’s has over 19 years of human resource experience working for Fortune 500 Companies such as General Motors, Ford Motor Company, ITT Industries, Cornerstone Schools and the Michigan Primary Care Association. She also teaches job readiness, human resource management and entrepreneurship classes at local universities, community colleges, churches and correctional facilities. Kimberly enjoys teaching entrepreneurship classes at the State of Michigan Mound Correctional Facility in Detroit, Michigan. She has taught three classes at the correctional facility over the past 2 years and plans to continue to teach more classes in the future. Her students eagerly call her “Professor Benjamin” and enjoys receiving first-hand knowledge on how to identify their preferred skill sets, understand how to start a business, write a business plan and pitch their business idea to potential investors.

Molly Sly
President of Hire Logic LLC.
Twitter: @MollySly
Website: www.HireLogicLLC.com

I never thought I could sit behind a desk. This would explain why I graduated from Michigan State with a degree in Park, Recreation and Tourism Management. I emphasis the Management because otherwise it’s a fairly embarrassing degree, especially because I have been sitting behind a desk for years! I will say that my first job upon graduation was tied to my major. I was in marketing for the Greater Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau. While I was starting out there, I had a friend in California that kept telling me I should work for his company because I have the right personality to recruit. I didn’t know what recruiting was so I declined. However, about a year later his company was opening up a Chicago office and Chicago seemed like a great idea. This move to Chicago and this move into recruiting was definitely the best thing I could have done for myself. My first job was for a large consulting company hiring CAD engineers. Since then I moved into IT recruiting, then corporate recruiting, then field recruiting, then an independent gig followed by another corporate recruiting position at a large advertising agency. The advertising job really did change my life and opened up doors I didn’t know existed. It was so refreshing to recruit for really interesting and exciting jobs (creative positions, digital strategy, experience planning, social media, etc.). The timing of it all perfectly coincided with the changes in the web. I become immersed in LinkedIn, Boolean searches on Google, tweeting and friending like it was my job. That’s because it was, and is, my job. I’m now working at Hire Logic, LLC which is an independent contingency based recruiting firm that is comprised of me, just me. I specialize in all things digital. I love making connections with people through the web and then meeting them in person and in a perfect world, finding them an awesome new opportunity or an awesome new employee. Some of the biggest risks I’ve taken in my career have absolutely been the most rewarding and I’m always excited to see what is coming next.

Kristi Daeda
President of Successitechs
Twitter: @Kristid
Website: Successitechs.com/articles?

I was a computer programmer, a marketing copywriter, and an HR leader and recruiter before a layoff helped me discover where my greatest value lies–creating foolproof success plans for others. Now, I help career-minded professionals define and confidently market their value so they can find their ideal job sooner. Plus, my tech background keeps me in touch with the specific needs of my core client base — IT professionals. It’s great that what seemed at the time to be twists and turns in my career have equipped me to make sure that my clients don’t have to go through that uncertainty.

The end of the story confirms that there are no silver bullets in any industry even as a recruiter or career pro but, that passionate, committed, competent people will always find their way.

Photo Credit: wanted, originally uploaded by babblingdweeb.

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