Interviewer: From your experience, what are the differences in the interviewing processes
between a smaller and a larger company?
Maureen Conte: Well, I've been recruiting for a number of years and I've had the luxury
of working for some wonderful, very large companies, mid-size companies, and now ICES
as a small company.
There is definitely a difference.
Larger companies have a very process oriented type of arrangement as far as interview are
concerned and maybe more rigid, whereas ICES is very flexible.
If it means that I have to meet somebody at Starbucks in between meetings that they have
or whatever it takes, a small company has that type of flexibility to do those kinds
of things in the interview process.
It's not as formal, but I think we make our applicants feel comfortable.
We try to explain what our future growth plans are for the company and direction we want
to take the company and hopefully they'll be interested in being a part of that growth.
Interviewer: What should a candidate know about looking to work for a smaller company
versus a larger company?
Maureen Conte: Some of the concerns that people have working for a smaller company versus
a larger company is that they're always worried about job security.
If they should lose coverage on a contract, what's going to happen to them?
In my experience, I have found that a company like ICES will do everything that they possibly
can to find another opportunity for that employee or hopefully give them enough time to find
a job with another organization if that should happen.
Bigger companies don't always have that luxury.
Sometimes it's very cut and dried.
If you lose coverage, you know, you may have two weeks.
It just depends.
Sometimes I have found larger companies that I have worked for don't necessarily have the
time to really help an employee that has lost coverage and to find a job some place else
within the organization, because that particular recruiter is continuing to recruit for, that
particular vice president or a business unit and if there's not a fit for that candidate,
then you're kind of off that recruiter's radar.
And so, sometimes it's more difficult to move around.
I tell everyone that their security is based in their skill set and then in their security
clearance and that they carry their own bag of goodies with them wherever they go, and
as long as you keep your security clearance active, they should never have a problem finding
another job, and they shouldn't be so concerned about working for a smaller company that may
not have the same breadth as some of the larger companies have.
Interviewer: When an employee starts working with a smaller company, what are some of the
other things they should consider doing in their first few days or few weeks at their
new company?
Maureen Conte: Well, working for a smaller company, there's probably not gonna be the
orientation process that you would receive at a larger company.
Frequently, what happens is, the prime, the government wants someone to start right away.
So, the only contact you may have upfront with the small companies such as ICES would
be filling out your HR paperwork and then you would report directly on the contract.
We try to have leads on all of the different contracts so that you have someone from ICES
that you can go directly to if you have any questions.
We try to, through both phone and internet, make sure you understand how to do the time
charging and, you know, any questions about benefits.
We actually have a broker that works with us directly and sits down with every one of
our candidates to talk about our whole benefit package, options, any additional benefits
that they would like to get on their own, which I think is a really nice feature that
we have.
Sometimes, you may be the only individual on a contract which can be difficult at first.
But that also opens up our opportunities, because if you can help the company to grow
on a contract then you're gonna be rewarded for that.
You just have to remember that there is always someone out there, just a phone call away.
My company, I think, does something that's very nice as we alternate from month to month,
either have a breakfast or a lunch meeting where everyone who's available on the company
comes and we have lunch.
And so, that gives us the opportunity to sit down and discuss future growth for the company
reminding everybody of the referral program which is, we have a very healthy referral
program and it's very generous.
And also, any problems or issues that they may be dealing with that might be answered.
So we try our very best to stay in touch with our employees.
It's difficult for all companies because most people work on site.