Jennifer Tucker – Executive Recruiter – The Faces of Mee Derby

 

The Faces of Mee Derby is an initiative to share the stories of our team and their journey’s through the staffing industry from a personal and professional perspective. COVID is bringing us all together in a whole different way by connecting through technology. From our home offices to yours, we invite you over the next several weeks to get to know the Mee Derby team through this video series. It is a fun look at who we are – collectively and individually – how we got into staffing and what the staffing industry means to us. This week we are hearing from Jennifer Tucker:

 

Why staffing? How did you end up in this industry? 

I actually applied to be a temporary worker when I was looking for a full time position years ago and I kept sitting in front of this person interviewing me thinking, how do I get your job? A few months later I posted my resume online, somebody contacted me for an onsite recruiting position and fell into the industry and have loved it ever since.

 

How has your journey led you to Mee Derby?

I was working as a corporate recruiter for that very same staffing firm that I started with back in 2000 and my position was eliminated. The first person to call me was Robin Mee and said that I should consider speaking with her about a position. I went from working in a branch in traditional temporary staffing, to being a corporate recruiter for a staffing firm to executive search with Mee Derby.

 

What are the benefits of working remotely for you both professional & personally?

Working remotely from a professional standpoint is extremely productive for me. You can get hyper focused on what I’m doing with very little outside distractions, you really have to be good at creating your own activity so I think that over the years I’ve honed that in a very productive way. From a personal standpoint I get to balance my need to be a professional and have my professional juices flowing with this very real need to also be a mother. So I’m able to take my kids to school, pick them up, go to practices, go to games. I don’t miss any of that. At the same time I’m having a very fulfilling career because I’m not spending an hour in the car commuting everyday each way. I can go straight to work, be very productive all day long and have this other side of my life that is very fulfilling.

 

 

How does Mee Derby impact the staffing industry?

I find more and more that I am taking calls from candidates who really just cautiously testing the waters in the job market and coming to use for advice. I find that we are becoming very much a consultant to both our candidates and our clients. I would say on a weekly basis I probably have five solid phone calls of individuals just saying “tell me what’s out there tell me what you are seeing in the market.” I love that people trust us enough to know we’ve got market intelligence, we’ve got excellent client relationships, excellent candidate relationships, I think we create a very strong candidate and client experience. We get to see the industry as a big picture all the time. The verticals that are growing are our clients that are growing. I think that is why we have become a very valuable asset, a very valuable consulting firm in addition to an executive search firm to the industry.

 

Why should someone work with a recruiter in their job search?

We can really talk them through what their perfect job is. What they are looking for a lot of times is a process, it’s not just applying for a position. It’s a process in finding what they are passionate about. We can get a lot of insight into these candidates, we can talk about culture and we can talk about career paths and what that all looks like for them. You’re not going to get that by just posting your resume.

 

What are your three favorite aspects of working for Mee Derby?

I love the fact that we remain connected while still being remote through calls/emails/texts/zoom. I love our stellar reputation in the industry – Thank you, Robin! And I love the way Robin leads the organization through optimism, kindness, empathy and her keen business acumen.

 

How do you stand out as a recruiter?

I really get a kick out of matching a candidate with their ideal position or matching a client with their ideal candidate. The best thing that can happen to me in my job is for someone to call me 2 or 3 years down the road and say “that job you placed me in was the best thing that happened to me.” That is the most fulfilling aspect of this industry. I’m very competitive but in the sense that I want to find the win not just make the placement. I’m acutely aware that individuals that we work with are looking for careers, not just jobs. So we aren’t placing a body in a position, we aren’t throwing resumes up against a wall, we really take the time to focus on the candidate background.

When I work with a candidate and a client they’re not going to get just stuff in their inbox, they are going to get real solutions, they’re going to get a real experience with me.

 

Jennifer Tucker

Executive Recruiter