My alarm goes off at 5 am and I’m still tossing and turning. Three more alarms get dismissed. I finally wake up to the tune of I’m Not a Vampire at 6 am! I know what you must be thinking…a song track early in the morning? I must be crazy, right? It woke me up, didn’t it?
So I get ready, finish up a delicious breakfast, read the newspaper while listening to the Radio and put the finishing touches on another blog directed at my friends just to spook them out. It’s holidays and they’re all probably lazing around so why not post something unbelievable, right? At 9.30 am, I decide to work on my project, referring to various books, surveys and notes that I’ve made. When you know stuff, you know stuff! But typing them and getting them to make sense to the readers, well now, that is a task that takes a lot of time, passion and creativity…and the willpower to not go off tangent which happens all the time!
I turn off my laptop at 10.30. Decide to eat a few Oreos before heading to Multi Recruit! I’m so excited that I finally get to do an assignment on Recruitment, with careful supervision of course! Just then, some work comes up and by the time I finish up, it’s already 11.05! I finally turn up at 11.19 at the office. Yeah, I walked to office and took the stairs again so, I hate to admit it but I was LATE!
Anyway, my mentor and the staff of Multi Recruit are already busy at their work! They have this informal mode of communication which puts everyone at ease but when it comes to getting down to business, it is completely formal. So my assignment is to learn and help out one of the recruiters with CV sorting and reviewing for a few days to come – say until Monday, for one of the loyal clients. Grabbing a chair, I get all worked up while the recruiter whom I’m supposed to help (help…while I’m still hyperventilating that I get to do something practical!) walks me through the Job Description including the requirements of the client for the job vacancy.
In the meantime, I observe everything around me. Her table is spic and span. Two phones, a few notebooks with a LOT of details, a coffee mug (must be stressful, I assume), the all-powerful and super important Computer and yes, a few sticky notes too. Exactly how I always imagined the perfect recruiter’s cabin to be! The office is abuzz with the recruiters tapping away on their systems, making phone calls to the candidates and setting up interviews while my superior (I’d like to think I’m the assistant for the time-being now) patiently and pain-stakingly explains each and every aspect of downloading the CVs from the job portals after sorting through the millions of resumes to find ideal candidates.
12 pm now. Usually, if I were in college I would have thinking of lunch while trying very hard to focus in class (which I do, mind you!) but since this is very important, I completely forget about lunch. So my superior is busy looking at so many resumes and I keep pointing out a few CVs, trying to match the candidates’ experience and key skills with that mentioned in the JD…I have so many questions for the recruiter but answers all my queries with ease and simplicity. I’m learning fast.
And then the power goes kaput at 12.20! “Just great,” I exclaim to myself while my supervisor is busy explaining to me without being aware of the power cut! That’s what you call dedication. Anyway, it’s an informal break-time until the power comes back on. The directors of the company are busy making phone calls about getting the UPS troubleshot and brought back ASAP. I finally get to break the ice with my super who asks me about my project and we end up talking about what I do on weekends. Well, everyday is a weekday during holidays if you ask me, if it wasn’t for the project and blogging which by the way, I love to do!
A few minutes later (because I forget to look at my watch), the power is back on and everybody who was relaxing now get into busy-busy work mode again! A fun sight to watch and inspiring at the same time. There are so many open tabs in the web browser on my recruiter’s monitor. Just then she gets an email and call from one of the clients (the HR manager of a firm for which she is the Dedicated Campaign Manager, love the sound of it!) asking her to send him the CVs of the candidates who successfully passed through the first round of interview. She searches throughout the numerous but neatly organised folders and emails the CVs asked by the client. The BDM congratulates her on mission accomplishment and I grin away to glory!
1 pm, we are done downloading the necessary CVs. Just when I thought the hard bit was complete, she tells me that the hard bit begins now! Phone call time! Supressing the hunger pangs, I listen with intent on how well she opens each resume, writes down the important details on a notepad and dials each candidate up and begins the conversation oh-so-professionally (well, these are pros at work, what did I expect!). But that’s the catch; not everyone will answer their phones or will be interested on relocating to another place besides the various other problems the recruiter will encounter. And yet, she persistently made calls after calls (that’s her job, you see…will be mine soon, so excited!!) and wham! At 1.30 pm she lands a potential candidate to be employed with one of her clients. She has 4 clients that she is currently working with. She is quite happy and takes a little break while I try to recall what happened in the background.
The directors were in a meeting and that was followed by a conference call with their SEO Team, I’m assuming but I could be wrong! I was so engrossed in learning that I forgot everything around me. And around 1.45 pm, I finally took leave from the office. Content about what I learned and hoping to be practically more helpful to my super, I start walking back home. Just when I thought my day ended, my friends make plans, again!
I say, work and play – the right balance, makes for a happy recruiting intern!