New internship brings fresh perspective

This is a guest blog by Kim Trojan, HR/Recruiting intern at Milliner & Associates, LLC. 

With the start of any new opportunity, whether its classes at school or a job, I always have those first day jitters.

My first day at Milliner & Associates (M&A) was no different. I interviewed with M&A last spring for their summer internship and then again in the fall for the spring internship, so I was familiar with where the office was located and had a good handle on who was in the office. This definitely helped calm my nerves. In retrospect, I can barely believe two weeks have passed and I’m already into my third week here at M&A. The team accepted me with open arms, and I feel a strong sense of belonging here.

The first couple days were overwhelming. When someone lays out your tasks and responsibilities in front of you it can seem like a daunting list. Now that I’m more settled in, I am confident I can handle whatever is thrown at me. I am now very familiar with Ultra Staff, which is our applicant tracking system/database. A wealth of information is stored within it, and now I am versed in entering our candidates’ details into it. It took me about two days to finally become comfortable with it, and now I can fly through the process with ease.

I was exposed to recruiting in a previous internship, but nothing compares to the warm environment at M&A. In two short weeks, they have exposed a completely different side of recruiting to me that I had never seen before. They take the time to get to know both their clients and candidates on a deeper level. When interviewing and screening potential candidates they ask about their career goals and where they would like to be, not just about their past experience. Right off the bat that seemed very important to me. In many interviews, you are asked solely about what you have done, past tense. They are looking to see if your prior experience can fit their needs. Very rarely do you hear anyone care enough to ask you what you WANT to do.

On the flip side, they take the time to build relationships with their clients so they have a grasp on the type of person they would like. In doing so, they can send the right kind of people out for these roles. This helps the candidate find the perfect person at a much quicker rate, drastically reducing the time and effort spent on finding new people to fill roles.

I’ve learned an incredible amount of information in a short amount of time, and I’m definitely excited for what my future holds here with Milliner & Associates!