As a current college student exploring how to develop a career path, I lead Amtec’s “Employment Champions” interview series. Acting as an inquirer on behalf of recent and upcoming graduates, this series provided a unique opportunity to ask as well as get answers. This highlights video includes responses from top-notch employers in regard to what they look for in candidates when hiring – how to get hired is a key part of what new college graduates need to know for achieving their 5 to 10-year goals. 

Employers interviewed in this video include:

John Glanville, CEO of Maps.com

Jenelle Osborne, Mayor of Lompoc

David Giannini, Director of Software Engineering at Apeel

Shannon Kenny, CEO of Prontopia

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE INTERVIEWS

Hi everyone, I am Hannah Kiblinger. Amtec’s college ambassador and host of the show “Employment Champions,” a show on how recent graduates can obtain their five to ten-year goals. For this video, I put together a few of my favorite questions and a few of my favorite answers from two CEOs, a Department Director, and a City Mayor on what they look for in new hires.  

Question: Hannah Kiblinger, College Ambassador of Amtec

What are some qualities and characteristics that you’ve noticed that the “A players” you’ve hired all have in common?

Answer: Dave Giannini, Director of Software Engineering at Apeel Sciences

The “A players”.. they’re so much fun to work with and the one quality that really every single A player I’ve worked with has is that they can’t wait to get to it, be a part of it, and for them it’s not work at all.

Answer: Shannon Kenny, Founder and CEO of Prontopia

The “A players” have a consideration of the community around them and so as an employer, there are some things that I look for on a resume that may not necessarily be tied to your GPA or your summer internship. Questions that I ask tie into “do you challenge yourself” or “do you find yourself in pursuit of goals within your extracurricular activities?” It’s a question that reveals values and pursuits show character and experience. It wouldn’t matter to me so much what types of jobs you’d had before and more of the story and so those might be subtle questions that I would use to be able to identify the character of the A player that isn’t directly related to the job that you’re applying for. 

Answer: Janelle Osborne, Mayor of Lompoc, CA

So, the “A players” that I really enjoy working with. Who I hire goes back to how do you present yourself in that interview process and of course your resume. The high potential candidates are those individuals who didn’t shy away from hard work, who were creative, and those willing to present new ideas.

So not just identifying a problem but presenting solutions and then being willing to work on those solutions, it’s those kinds of individuals that can quickly adapt to and identify where solutions are needed, provide them, and be willing to work on those and identify resources or make the connections. Those are the types of “A players” that have long-term success. At the same time, these players are humble enough to realize it’s still going to take guidance, input, learning, and making some mistakes along the way. Knowing that those mistakes, as long as you don’t repeat them, are lessons is important to learning as well. Those are the types of personalities that work well.

Answer: John Glanville, CEO of MAPS.COM

I like to smile, I like people around me smiling, and I like to have a good time but achieving goals and building a high-performance team requires more than that. Having fun at work and achieving goals comes naturally to “A Players”. They have a different kind of amusement listening and understanding to make a process work. Where people are coming from attitude is a good 90 percent of it.

Question, Hannah Kiblinger, College Ambassador of Amtec:

What are some red flags in a resume that would cause you to not want to hire that person?

Moving away from those “A players” and going all the way back to the hiring process, what are some red flags in a resume that would cause you to not want to hire that person?

John Glanville, CEO of MAPS.COM

The first thing that always drives me nuts is grammar. If I’m hiring someone who has either gone through high school or gone through college, the writing skill has to be there. If someone misspells “maps” to me it just shows a carelessness about even proofing their own work. Second thing is that it’s not that hard to tell when people are inflating their resume. We see this when we ask them to run us through some examples of things they have worked on and they stall. 

Janelle Osborne, Mayor of Lompoc, CA

I think in this day and age a lot of the old-school things that might have caused a red flag are now exploratory questions. Like gaps in employment or if the candidate seems too young for the job position they held. I throw those old red flag standards out nowadays and I really try and look at the resume as a conversation starter and then ask deeper questions to learn their actual experience and ability. So for me, I’ve changed that attitude about what’s a red flag and instead apply it as a conversation starter.

Dave Giannini, Director of Software Engineering at Apeel Sciences

For a recent position, I had 800 resumes to go through.

Meeting the qualifications for the position…

So, there’s an educational background or experience I’m looking for. If you don’t have a GPA that’s a red flag for me. I’ll still take a look and I’ll scan the resume a bit further but it’s a big deal to me.

Shannon Kenny, Founder and CEO of Prontopia

I think it’s pretty obvious from where we sit and reviewing resumes, but misrepresentations. Be proud of your achievements and represent them.

Question: Hannah Kiblinger, College Ambassador of Amtec

What is one thing that you wish you had known when you first entered the workforce after school?

Answer: Shannon Kenny, Founder and CEO of Prontopia

When I first entered the workforce after school, of course it’s as you all know as college students today, our perspectives are really tied to the socio-economic environment occurring at the date at which you’re graduating. I wish I had known how much flexibility would serve my capacity to achieve my goals. I think when you graduate you have a certain idea of one specific industry or career path to follow and of course that’s always a start but there are likely to be many bends in the river. So I would say understand that on the path ahead you will achieve your goals with a flexible growth mindset and that will enable you to look for opportunities where you may have not thought you would find them.

Answer: Dave Giannini, Director of Software Engineering at Apeel Sciences

The importance of a cover letter. It’s important to really focus on what it is you love about the company that you’re interviewing at. There’s not a high expectation that you have a lot of experience so don’t worry too much about that. Just make sure you focus on your degree program, how you did, and maybe internships that you worked in. 

KEY POINTS

The advice from Amtec’s Employment Champions is a valuable addition to any recent college graduate’s repertoire of tips and knowledge to apply to any interview. Some points I found most illuminating were these:

What are some qualities and characteristics that you’ve noticed that the “A players” you’ve hired all have in common?

“Individuals that can quickly adapt to and identify where solutions are needed, provide them, and be willing to work on those and identify resources or make the connections.” -Janelle Osborne, Mayor of Lompoc, CA. 

“They can’t wait to get to it, be a part of it, and it’s not work at all.” -Dave Giannini, Director of Software Engineering at Apeel Sciences.

What are some red flags in a resume that would cause you to not want to hire that person?

“If I’m hiring someone who has either gone through high school or gone through college, the writing skill has to be there.” -John Glanville, CEO of MAPS.COM. 

What is one thing that you wish you had known when you first entered the workforce after school?

“Understand that on the path ahead you will achieve your goals with a flexible growth mindset and that will enable you to look for opportunities where you may have not thought you would find them.” -Shannon Kenny, Founder and CEO of Prontopia.