CXR Announcer 0:00
Welcome to the CXR channel. Our prayer podcast for talent acquisition and Talent Management listen in as the CXR community discusses a wide range of topics focused on attracting, engaging and retaining the best talent. We’re glad you’re here

Chris Hoyt 0:29
All right, welcome, everybody. I’m Chris Hoyt, President career crossroads, you have either just found our weekly podcast show or like 1000s of others, you have dialed back in for more. If you are joining us on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, if you’re listening live, you can use the chat feature to say hi, or drop in any questions that you’ve got there. I’d like to before we get in, I’ll just thank our sponsors for sort of making this show happen. Me, I’m the sponsor, we don’t have any sponsors. Nobody pays to actually be on our show. We just call people up that are doing cool stuff, or who want to catch up. And we just flick on the microphones. And today, of course, is no exception to that. And as you may have read in the show description, if you have ever wondered what learnings a person may get from being in talent acquisition on the recruiting side, and then moving over to the vendor side, and then moving back again to the talent side that today is definitely going to be the show for you. I want to welcome Brenton Hart Burton, how are you today?

Brenton Hard 1:24
I’m doing great, Chris, how are you today?

Chris Hoyt 1:26
I’m lovely. Always lovely. It’s good to catch up. You’ve been on the show. I think before we’ve had you as a guest. Certainly before you’ve been to some meetings. We have known you at Koch Industries. I think prior to that Molex, then you did a stint at Parker, Dewey. And now you’re at train technologies. So Brenton before we kind of just jump all in, I’m going to ask you to give, give that escalator pitch on who is Brenton?

Brenton Hard 1:54
Well, thank you, Chris. And I just want to say how much I appreciate being here and the whole CXR team, it’s really just been a privilege getting to know you over the years and what what you’re trying to do and how it so aligns with some of the industry leaders. Um, so you know, my role is I’m really appreciative of the opportunities that I’ve had over my career, I’ve jumped from not just big cities, but big companies. I’ve been in New York City, Phoenix, Chicago, and all those roles. I was connecting candidates, with, with recruiters and managers in New York City, I started working in the nonprofit space and doing connecting and preparing candidates with disabilities and from other underrepresented communities. For fortune 500 companies in Phoenix, I got to work at a community college, working with a lot of Hispanic Serving Institution and getting them prepared for the world of work in a lot of ways, and then, at that time, I took the opportunity to get a master’s degree in HR and I just, from those experiences just made me fall in love with HR and talent acquisition, and just all the functions. And so when I moved to Chicago, I had this amazing opportunity to join Molex, and start working on their, their college team on recruiting talent, and I fell in love with early talent and then was there for a while and joined the coke team as they acquired the organization and centralize the HR practices. And as you mentioned, one of the reasons I’m here is because then took an opportunity to join Parker do which is a vendor really innovative thinker in the space, who’s looking to do micro internships for companies and connect, connect early to grew talent, opportunities that they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to. And companies that they wouldn’t be companies to candidates they wouldn’t be opposed to. And so I was an account manager for them for a bit, getting to build those relationships and give that that inside knowledge on what on what HR is looking for from vendors. And I really enjoyed that experience. But I just during that time, I fell back in love with corporate I fell back in love with going to going to campus events being engaged with these multi dimensional HR teams and thinking about the business 24/7 And how do we assist the business in succeeding and so took a brief stint at US bank and then train technologies came over and said, Hey, do you want to be a senior town Epson partner and lead some of our town acquisition strategies for for our technical sales recruiting program, and they just had this amazing model that I just fell in love with and I so right now I’m doing the recruiting strategies for for this for all of Canada, the Western United States, upper midwest, most of them central United States, and I just, I love the team that I’m on. So

Chris Hoyt 4:40
and but you’re still tied to early career, right?

Brenton Hard 4:43
Absolutely. I’m still tied to early career. It’s it’s the space that I, I embraced. And I love the candidates in it and then the enthusiasm and showing showing them something that they never thought was possible for themselves.

Chris Hoyt 4:56
Yeah, well, that’s what I think so interesting about you. So your journey right as you shared it with us. If you have been early career from the beginning, early career in campus sort of right from the beginning, I mean, is there just one element of that that just just gets your heart beating? Is there something about it that just keeps keeps powerwizard? Just when I’m out? They pulled me back in? I mean, a little bit. That’s Jerry second favorite Godfather impersonation?

Brenton Hard 5:19
Yeah, great question. So I would say it’s, it’s, it’s constantly evolving. It’s, you know, we’ve got, we’ve got our, for a while I was working with millennials. And now I’m getting to work with Gen Z, and each person is a little bit different. But you’ve got these these groups of people who are who are just excited, excited to work and find their career journey. And hopefully, it can be within an organization that you work for. But at the end of the day, you’re just, you’re just trying to get them in a space that they’re going to succeed in the business can succeed as well. What I love about a lot of the organizations I’ve been working with, is they really focus on development. And so it’s not a, you know, some organizations, you know, for their business purposes, they need to kind of move quickly. And we’re looking at long term retention of our candidates

Chris Hoyt 6:06
like that. Well, Brendon, do you have? Do you have a big takeaway, or like a big sort of aha moment from your, from your brief stint in the vendor space, right on that side of the equation, the dark side, if you will,

Brenton Hard 6:19
definitely not dark side, I would say the appreciation that I have, on these, the organization that I got to work with Parker, Dewey, they were just in that time, we were just constantly being entrepreneurs pivoting at a moment’s notice, trying to figure out how to best communicate to a multitude of organizations that we thought that our products could work for, and be a benefit towards. And so we have to tailor it, but also broadly, and then being resilient at all times. Because, you know, I know, coming from the corporate space, we get a lot of notifications about vendors, and how we can how those vendors can make our life better. And honestly, they they have great ideas. And it’s just how do we strategically think, and think outside the box as vendors to help them see the value that we can create for them, and also defining our value proposition statement.

Chris Hoyt 7:20
So So did you bring some of that entrepreneurial? Spirit some of that flexibility back into corporate with you? I mean, is that is that the, I think that’s what I hear you saying is that there’s this wow factor of that being able to pivot, being able to sort of, you know, make these changes happen? Are you saying that you took some of that, and you bringing it back into early career campus now in corporate a train? Yeah, I

Brenton Hard 7:43
would say so the the biggest thing that I think about is how do we use it when we start working with vendors, and when we start evaluating them for their potential value, is, how do we add to the value that they identify for us? So how can we think outside the box and say, Okay, well, they’ve said that they’ve used it this way in the past, but can we make it better for ourselves, look at the core piece of what they’re looking to do. And then and then promote it, and then also use it at a multi multi level part for our organization. The other piece, and this is more particular from my role is, is that I’m, I get to work and recruit technical sales engineers, and technical sales engineers embody all of the same on most of the same characteristics that we see from really good vendors, we look at people who are engaged, they’re self starters, they’re entrepreneurial. They’re relationship managers. They’re resilient, inquisitive, focused on customer experience, and they love to do research, and good vendors do all of those things. And so now I get to see like, if I was in that space, again, of account management, how can I, you know, what would I have done? And then evaluating that talent from that lens really helps a lot?

Chris Hoyt 9:02
Wait, Brennan, are you going to go back to the vendor side? Again?

Brenton Hard 9:06
I don’t, I don’t think so. I really love my my position here at train technologies and the work that we’re doing and the focus that we have on sustainability, and diversity, equity, inclusion in our space, and really boldly challenging what sustainability means across the world for each company, inspires me on a day to day basis.

Chris Hoyt 9:26
But I will tell you, so just something you said sort of resonated with me is, is being back on the corporate side and working with some vendors, you have a different perspective. And now you’re starting to look at well, I know that they made the product to do this, but maybe maybe I can use it to do that. And that really resonates with me some of my favorite talent. You know, solutions providers, were the folks that were a little more flexible with regards to what they let the product do or when they listen to other TA leaders and let them kind of put their fingerprints all over it to make a shift in sort of how that product maybe could extend band, right and do a little bit more or that maybe gets a little more niche, right in that regard too. Is there um, I tell you what the learnings you’ve had in the last couple of years Brenton? Is there? Is there anything that you would go back and tell your three year younger self? Right? Just like like if three if you went back, pre pandemic, obviously the pandemic stuff out of it, right. But if you went back, what would you tell yourself three years ago?

Brenton Hard 10:26
Um, I would say it, it’s it stems from a long, long journey of coming, coming from all these different spaces and being purposeful. But sometimes in our purposeful journey, we forget to be flexible. And so having those goals that we want of where we want to go, but embracing those, those different experiences that we each bring to the table, and that you can find value in each of those. And then bring that to an interview that you you have with an organization or how do you connect with candidates, I use it every single day, in terms of where I’ve lived, how I’ve worked to connect with the candidates on a personal level in an authentic way. But I always keep my priorities in mind, family, intrinsic motivational values. I’ve moved around the country for my wife every single time. And that’s okay. You know, I you know, this is her journey. And I’m here to support her. And I’m just lucky that each time I get to land on my feet in some capacity, but keep keep driving forward.

Chris Hoyt 11:32
I love that. I love that. So So Brenton if I am, let’s say I’m up and coming again, re graduate college, I’m kind of interested in maybe taking on recruiting and maybe in that college space, because of my experience, like, what’s a piece of sort of practical advice you might give to someone who’s sort of just starting on that same journey you were on who maybe wants to get into recruiting at some level, if not college, but at some level right out of school is is there a piece of advice or wisdom that you would bestow upon them?

Brenton Hard 12:04
Um, I would say first of all, it is resilience. I think for anybody who’s taken that time to apply to jobs it is it’s still even though there’s a talent demand, it still takes a lot of time to get through to the talent acquisition specialists that need to review your resume and so keep applying to roles. Um, but the other piece is keep, keep learning there’s an contacting people trying to make your way in the space and understand where you can create value. I always think that your personal employee value proposition is super important for you to understand in the way that you communicate with companies and then target the HR spaces that you want to be in and not just to focus on one role and realize that when you get into an organization, you can pivot and move and create opportunities for yourself.

Chris Hoyt 12:51
So realizing there’s some flexibility no matter what, no matter what’s that thing you don’t you don’t have to know exactly what you’re going to do. You just gotta have a direction. Right? Exactly. Nation, you just need direction and Go.

Brenton Hard 13:01
It all the journey starts with a single step.

Chris Hoyt 13:05
I love that. Thanks Brendon. You got a good heart. You fun to hang out with. We enjoy talking to you. Thank you so much for being on the show. Brandon, we

Brenton Hard 13:11
appreciate you. Appreciate your time today. Chris, thank you so much.

Chris Hoyt 13:14
Thanks, look upcoming our next CXR book club. It is open to everyone. That meeting is on April 1 We’re discussing the Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary. So you’ve still got some time to watch it if you haven’t already. I think it’s on Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, couple of other places anywhere streaming media. I think we’re watching it most of us on Netflix, incredible legacy. We’ll have some fun talking about that on the first you can see more on that at cxr.org/books. And for our members. We have an upcoming solution showcase with shaker recruitment marketing, and that is where Joe shaker himself is going to join us and share some of the work that goes on at shaker That’s April 7, and on April 13. You’re gonna want to join us for our next healthcare recruiting meeting. We know a lot of recruiting challenges sort of cross industries, but we also recognize that some are specific to various disciplines or areas and we have dozens of healthcare recruiters signal join us and share and talk about that then these more can obviously be found at CXR dot works slash events until next week, we’ll see you on the community site where we hope you’ll take advantage some pretty significant updates and community events and of course, you’re going to find that out at CXR dot works thanks everybody

CXR Announcer 14:26
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