Looking for recruits

Hi, my name is Priscilla Ocampo! I am a senior in the School of Communication, and my themed inquiry is in Leadership. This summer and fall, I had the privilege of interning. The company I interned for is a Boston, MA-based recruiting and staffing agency specializing in IT services and IT consulting. My role was a Junior Recruiting Intern.
Since I live in Costa Mesa and go to school in Orange, I worked 100% remotely on EST hours. If one is located in the Boston area, they have a hybrid work model. Working fully remote was difficult for me due to distractions and such. However, this was a big learning experience because it taught me how to manage my time efficiently and how I may be more interested in hybrid or in-person roles in the future. 

In this world, it is essential to build a network. I had to use networking when looking for an internship for the School of Communication internship requirement. I found this internship through a family I babysit for. In May 2021, I approached the father of the kids I babysat and asked him “does your company ever have interns?” He replied, “I could use one or two.” In all honesty, I had no idea what this internship would entail. We sat down for coffee in May, and he discussed what the company he works for does and what his day-to-day looks like. From this short interaction, I was very excited and eager to learn.

Working from home

During my internship at Curate Partners, I learned many crucial lessons about the real world and the job market. In my day-to-day schedule, I would wake up bright at 5:30 to join our morning team meeting. In these morning calls, we would learn about “hot jobs” and what roles we should work. I would pick one role to work for that day. To perform the role, you must understand what the job entails. I had to read through job descriptions and discuss with account executives what the employer is looking for in a candidate. After that, I would start a search on LinkedIn Recruiter. This is a recruiting platform through LinkedIn to find candidates. I would message as many people as possible whose experience matched what I was looking for. Once people responded, I would set up a quick phone call to learn more about them and tell them a little about the company and role. If they weren’t the right fit, I would keep them in our pipeline for other opportunities.

Taking SCC 301, alongside my Recruiting internship, I was able to apply a lot of the concepts from that course to my internship. One of the concepts I used a lot was my knowledge of conducting interviews. When completing the brief introduction calls, I would make a questioning route to guide and steer our conversation toward what the role entailed and what we needed from the candidate.

Throughout my internship process, I was able to learn a lot of valuable information. If you are interested in IT sales or recruiting, I highly recommend interning for Curate Partners. You will be exposed to many different job opportunities and apply skills from the School of Communication.