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S5 E24 | Recruiting Community: CXR Foundation Annual Scholarship Awardee
Barb Ruess, CXR
We can hear all the monkeys and macaws in the background
Gerry Crispin, CXR 0:03
Costa Rica
Chris Hoyt, CXR 0:04
I’m coming at you live sort of.
Christine Brown 0:11
Hello, everyone.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 0:19
Carmen are you are you done with your high your hiatus? You traveling hiatus?
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 0:23
Oh, I am working. I have a new job.
Barb Ruess, CXR 0:26
Chris, is way behind.
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 0:28
I am working for the man.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 0:29
I last I heard you were writing a book. It was.
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 0:33
I could be a CXR member.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 0:36
Oh, that’s right. I forgot about that. Well, let’s get the checkbook out. Let’s make that happen.
Gerry Crispin, CXR 0:43
Who is she working for?
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 0:45
I’m working for a company called what the hell do I work for? I swear I lost my mind, people, I am working for a company that does. What the hell do we do?
Barb Ruess, CXR 1:06
This is a great commercial.
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 1:11
Great commercial. This is for everyone.
Gerry Crispin, CXR 1:13
I hope you’re not incharge of employer brand.
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 1:19
We prevent cyber, we help secure your company assets to cybersecurity.
Gerry Crispin, CXR 1:28
Cool.
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 1:28
Yes.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 1:29
Okay, All right. Well, are we ready to get going?
Barb Ruess, CXR 1:33
I think we’re ready, Chris.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 1:35
I think we’re ready. Christine. Are you ready?
Christine Brown 1:37
Yes, I am
Chris Hoyt, CXR 1:39
She doesn’t know what to think. All right, here we go.
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 1:44
I was watching hearings and doing…
Announcer 1:46
Welcome to the CXR channel. Our premier 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, CXR 2:16
All right, everybody. Welcome to another CareerXroads podcast. I am excited to tell you I’m coming at you sort of live from Costa Rica today. So I’m sort of dialed in somewhat remotely. So if you hear some battling macaws in the background, that’s what it is. It’s not Gerry having a hard time or Barb struggling to get back online. But with that, I want to I want to introduce we have this is probably the most populated podcast that we have done yet. I just see we had somebody else pop into the greenroom also. So I’m going to slowly bring everybody in. Let’s see here, the Gerry. And we’ve got Barb right there. And I’m gonna bring in Carmen. And Terra, it’s wonderful to see you. Somebody else in here. And then with that, I also, I also want to introduce the guest of honor today. And that’s Christine Brown. Christine, how are you?
Christine Brown 3:12
I’m doing great. How are you guys?
Chris Hoyt, CXR 3:16
So I think we’re doing quite wonderfully. But I think we what we should probably do is just a little bit of a round robin, for some folks who were in the last, Christine because we’re just gonna talk all about you for the next 15 minutes. But we’re gonna go around there. I’m gonna call on everybody in our little virtual room. And we can just give a quick heads up who we are what we do. I like to call it the escalator pitch. So you can watch how this is done. And Christine, you’re going to be up next. How’s that?
Christine Brown 3:39
Great. Sounds great.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 3:41
Gerry. Gerry want to kick us off?
Gerry Crispin, CXR 3:43
Well, I’m a student, but a lifelong student, and I have no support really, but other than that we’re great. Life is good.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 3:54
No support, zero support. So speaking of support, Barb, why don’t you introduce yourself?
Barb Ruess, CXR 4:00
I’m feeling a little hurt by that comment Gerry Crispin, so
Gerry Crispin, CXR 4:04
I didn’t I didn’t when I didn’t win any kind of contest for you know, going to school.
Barb Ruess, CXR 4:13
Okay, so my name is Barb Reese, and I do not support Gerry Crispin. But I do support a lot of the other operations and marketing at CareerXroads. But today I am wearing the hat of the chair of the scholarship committee for the CXR Foundation. And I’m super excited to have this conversation and meet our award winner for this year.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 4:32
Absolutely. I love that. Carmen, how about yourself? Want to introduce yourself?
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 4:35
Sure thing. I’m Carmen Hudson, based in outside of Seattle these days, and I lead talent acquisition at Extrahop. And we provide cybersecurity for the world.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 4:47
Good stuff. Congrats on the new gig by the way.
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 4:49
Thank you. Thank you.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 4:52
All right. And Terra, how about yourself? It’s been a minute since you’ve been on the show.
Christine Brown 4:57
It is nice to see everyone Again, very nice to meet you, Christine. So my name is Terra Doyle. I work for Roche, I am based out of Indianapolis. And my role is head of recruiting for the Americas region. And I also was a member of the committee that helped with the scholarship. So I’m very excited to be here and very excited to meet you. Congratulations.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 5:20
Love it. Good stuff. And then Curtis before before our guests, you get to be the last non guest. That’s a guest.
Curtis Dorsey, Salesforce 5:27
Awesome. Thank you, Curtis Dorsey, worked for Salesforce as an engineering tech recruiting later. I’m also based temporarily here in Indianapolis soon, soon to be Atlanta based. But also was part of the the committee that was involved in the scholarship. So super excited to be here as well.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 5:48
Oh, I love it. Good stuff. And then of course, last but not least, Christine, who are our scholarship winner, and we’re going to talk a little bit about that. But can you give us a little bit of an escalator pitch about who’s Christine Brown?
Christine Brown 6:01
Yes, I’m Christine Brown. I currently live in New Orleans, Louisiana. I’m a student at Southern New Hampshire University. And I also work for a nonprofit as a human resource specialist.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 6:12
I love that. And Christine, I don’t know if you know this, but you and I are actually related in a way.
Christine Brown 6:21
Okay.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 6:27
Good. Christine. You used to work at Frito Lay? Yes.
Christine Brown 6:32
Yes, I did.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 6:34
I worked at PepsiCo, we are PepsiCo family. We are PepsiCo love.
Christine Brown 6:38
Yes, we are yes, we are wonderful place.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 6:42
Good stuff. Yeah, it’s really good stuff. So I just I’m so excited that you can be here. Now we’ve moved this around a couple of times on you. So we appreciate your patience, and really working with us and your calendar. But to give a little bit of a backstory, the CXR Foundation has been around, I guess, informally and formally for about two years now. We kicked off with an initiative called recruiters recruiting recruiters, it’s one of the first things we were doing actually, I guess, technically, before that. We were doing CXR cares, which was, which was an initiative that we would come in a little bit early to some of our CXR events. And at those events, we would meet a day or so early to go to a shelter or a food pantry or a local community effort to try to raise up build up the community there. And our members would volunteer and go with it. So we got some snappy T shirts. So that was always fun. But then that should have matured a little bit. And we kicked it off formally last year. And then of course, one of the first big things we did was this scholarship Initiative, where we’re giving away a notable sum of money to a recipient that is somehow tied to the recruiting industry, the recruiting space. So I want to give it to the committee really quickly. Before before we go any further and ask Is there anything I missed? Or that you maybe would add to that? No, I nailed it.
Barb Ruess, CXR 8:03
I think you did nail it Chris, I was very excited. This is the the second year that we’ve offered this scholarship and we had almost 500 Total applicants. we whittled that down and willed it down and whittled it down. And then our committees, many of which are on this call did a really nice job having some some pretty lengthy phone conversations. And Christine, I have to tell you, every committee member that talked to you just came back glowing after hearing your story. So I think it was a pretty easy decision for everybody.
Christine Brown 8:35
Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 8:38
So Christine, with one of the things the CXR foundation is all about is community. Right? So when we say Community, I’m spring a question on you. So as as we as when we say community, and we talked about community, what does that word mean to you? Does it does it stand out? Does it resonate with you a little bit?
Christine Brown 8:57
Yes, community means togetherness, you know, a collaborative effort to get things done. actually how I found the organization was because I was looking for organizations that really cared about social responsibility. And when I started researching you guys and saw what you were doing in the community, I was really excited and really passionate about that, and about helping my community and just being all around a great person and a great leader and you know, showing that you know, you do care and we care that people are still getting jobs, you guys give me the food pantries, making sure that we eat making sure that people eat is also a great thing right now with all of the shortages that’s really important to what’s going on as far as for economically and people struggling. So that really made me want to look more into the company and I was excited about that.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 9:53
I love it. Can you share a little bit about what you’re studying what you’re working on in school?
Christine Brown 9:57
Yes, I’m actually what I’m doing. doing in school is human resource, but I’m also focusing on project management, I feel that human resource and project management is actually somewhat related. Because we all are working on projects, like you can look at a project anywhere, within your actual job that you’re doing, you know, the project never continues and human resource never continues, is going to always go on, and there’s going to always be a thing. So you know, just learning about that and learn about organizational leadership, and how to be a leader, as an HR professional is really important to me. So that’s I’m pretty doing a dual degree, but it’s really interesting in the morning, a lot
Chris Hoyt, CXR 10:42
of a love that, is there something that you have in mind, specifically, when you graduate? I mean, is there an ideal you got a couple of employers on here, is there an ideal sort of place of employment you’d like to land at?
Christine Brown 10:55
Well, for me, it’s not so much of a place, it’s more of the actual environment, I really want to be at a place that can drive I can grow continuously. And somewhere that I can bring my ideas to the table, and I’m not afraid to speak that, you know, companies say there’s an open door policy, but when you get there, you don’t experience that. So just the creative of thought, you know, making sure that I can bring my ideas, you know, to, you know, up the chain, and let I know, I know you’re gonna see your crystal, I know, sometimes we don’t really get a chance to reach out and touch you, employers and employees as much as we want to. But I will, I would like for to be able to one day have lunch with the CEO. So that’s more of what I’m looking for. It’s not so much of a company, but it’s more of a culture.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 11:38
I love that. Well, I want what I’d like to do, Christine is go through and put everybody in here on the spot. So not just you. But I want to ask everybody in here if there was something that stood out with regards to your application, or that the interview that they conducted with you. And then and then we’ll go from there. So Terra, I’m gonna have to pick on you because you are the first in my little Brady Bunch lineup of people on the screen. So So what was it about Christine? What What got you kind of excited about selecting Christina as the scholarship winner?
Christine Brown 12:09
Yeah, I think it was. And I know, we didn’t have a chance to connect directly. But it was really what was related in terms of the passion, the drive the interest. And it just, it even just came through what you were just describing, with what you’re looking for, like there’s just there’s something really special and unique, I think with individuals that really have a clear idea of what they want, what they’re going for how to get there, overcoming obstacles, or even those somewhere, it might be really super easy for them. But at the end of the day, having that fortitude, that’s special. And not everyone has that was great success. And it came across not only in such a really brilliantly articulated way, but also where people wanted to follow immediately you and that’s really special and unique. So if I was to say it, I think that’s it for me.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 12:58
I love that Carmen, I’m gonna pick on you next.
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 13:00
Awesome. Well, I actually had the opportunity to zoom interview, Christine. And it was immediately apparent to me that she should be among the top tier of candidates that we had applying for the award. And then by the end of our conversation, it became apparent to me that she should win the entire award. And with over 500 applicants, I you know, I figured there would be a battle. So I had a long list of here are the things and I was ready to battle everyone. And when it came back that this was one of the choices. I’m like, this is way too easy. This that this is but it was obviously to me and to others that her passion for what we do. Her passion for just having that ability to impact others and to share what she knows with others was just an incredible quality that I don’t see in all the candidates that I interview, much less someone who is still in school, so it was pretty apparent to me. Who should who should win this. And I’m just glad that many of my colleagues agreed with me. I was I was ready to go to battle though. I had
Chris Hoyt, CXR 14:14
You were ready.
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 14:15
I was ready.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 14:17
I have to say I didn’t get to do one of the interviews with Christine, but I did get the summary of the finalists as we went through them. And to me as strong as every one of the candidates were. It was when I read it, it was kind of a no brainer. Yeah. Yeah. And all of them were great candidates, they really were.
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 14:37
The other woman that we talked to was just fantastic as well. I don’t want to denigrate any of the candidates, anyone who’s out there really going for, you know their education to figure out how to break into this world. But there are some people who see very clearly the work that’s ahead of them and Christine’s one of them.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 14:57
Absolutely Curtis How about yourself?
Curtis Dorsey, Salesforce 14:59
Yeah, I think I think the two things that stood out for me and it also did come come through loud and clear, as Christine was, was just speaking is, was first our passion for the space. And, and equally and almost more importantly, her interest in putting it to use on a much it was not just about her, it was about how do I put this to use for the greater good. And I think that that, you know, when you talk about values, and what we do, that is a, such a big piece of why people are passionate about the space that we’re in. And those are the couple of things that really just stood out to me. And, and we were all up and ready to ready to battle. But I agree with everything that was before that it just really came through loud and clear. You know that she shouldn’t be the winner. So congratulations.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 15:49
And Barb, what would you add to that?
Barb Ruess, CXR 15:51
So I’m gonna piggyback off of what Curtis said, it’s just that it’s that intangible. I will say when it came down to our finalists, they were all very impressive individuals. But there was just something a little bit different when it came to Christine’s story and what she plans to do with it. And for me, a lot of that had to do with even the work that she’s doing right now, in an organization that serving the community. That’s something that’s obviously pretty dear to my heart. And it’s something that you know, we’ve we’ve pushed a lot through the CXR Foundation, and it just felt like that synergy could not be ignored.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 16:20
Yeah, well said. And Gerry, you know, last but not least.
Gerry Crispin, CXR 16:26
I just love listening to this. I know, I didn’t have the opportunity to interview Christina, I’m so very sorry. I hope that you know, going forward for all of us, you know, there’ll be an opportunity for us to follow that path. And see and perhaps be of help to you as you as you grow. I love the fact that you’re did you grow up in in New Orleans?
Christine Brown 16:51
Yes, born and raised.
Gerry Crispin, CXR 16:53
You’re born and raised? I love it. Yeah, it’s my favorite city. I just go crazy when I go down to New Orleans, just between the food and the music and whatever. But there’s not a lot of industry, there’s Oh, it’s it’s, you sort of have to find your own way a little bit. How did how did growing up in New Orleans in inform your interests in getting into human resources.
Christine Brown 17:16
Um, I, I told the story once that it’s pretty crazy. When I graduated with my bachelor’s degree, I had a degree in entrepreneurship. So my mind frame was that if I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I better get down to understanding human resource, because it’s the foundation to all industries. So in New Orleans is really complicated to actually find the job. We say that and human resource, people don’t leave until they die. You know, it’s one of those things where we, you know, you deal with a grandfather in and just not having a lot of experience. And the thing is, I waited seven years to actually get a human resource rule, I worked in many organizations that I had actual transferable skills. But now I’m actually in the HR roles. So I just stay committed to it. You know, I believe that if it’s something you want to do, it may take you a while, but you just can’t give up. And it’s working out for me right now. And I’m really excited about the work that I’m doing in the community. And my current job, we were really affected by Hurricane Ida. Basically, we’re, it’s one of my buildings, one of the buildings I work at was totally destroyed. So, and just going through that, and after Katrina, and you know, experiencing that, and not experiencing that in a total nother city, but still in Louisiana. It’s like, really, no, the community really needs us. And as human resource professionals, people look to us for jobs, they look to us for help and aid. So it’s just been working out for me. And I just like I said, I stay committed to it. And I just love HR, it’s always something new is always something to learn, you know, even when it comes down to employment law, you know, and recruiting is also interesting, because it’s so many different ways now with technology that you can recruit someone, and you will, you know, all of these different platforms that we’re using and how technology is going to grow them the resource. Oh, it’s, it’s interesting, it’s fun.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 19:16
I think we’re gonna, we’re gonna have to do a cut of that, we’ll come back and I’ve met it where you said, recruiting is interesting, where it changed that to the best.
Gerry Crispin, CXR 19:29
I also think that as you as you continue to your studies and everything and your work, if you want, you know, identify some of the companies that are in New Orleans or trying to contribute to New Orleans, that might might be the kind of place where that culture could exist for the long term. And let us know a little bit about it, because we can maybe beat the door down and make sure that you get a chance to interview there.
Christine Brown 19:55
Oh, I appreciate it. Thank you.
Carmen Hudson, Extrahop 19:59
I’ll double down on that.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 20:01
Well, you didn’t know it was going to be a love fest today. But I will tell you, and this is My Hair Club for Men farts heard me say it a million times. But you know, I was a member before I was the president at CXR. And what Gerry had founded here, and so many of us have been part of 1000s of people have been part of it truly as a family. And I would say it’s just a fun community and a way to give and we’re just so excited to pull you into that so so now you and I have this PepsiCo family thing going, which feels really good. I feel really good about that. But now you have you’ve expanded that family a little bit with this connection through the CXR Foundation and I’m just so excited. If you’re ever in Austin please call me we’ll do the dinner. I know Gerry’s gonna say I beat you to it Gerry material is gonna say the same thing for the New York area. I’ll bet it stands the same for everybody else. And we I’m sure we can find a cool place to go to dinner in New Orleans.
Christine Brown 20:56
Oh, yes, I can bring you to some of the best places great food.
Gerry Crispin, CXR 21:03
I’ll bring us to some of the places we had never thought about
Christine Brown 21:07
No, I’m not gonna bring you to. Right I’m gonna bring you to some of the places that are locals and you know the quarters. But there are some local places that are outstanding.
Barb Ruess, CXR 21:17
Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 21:20
If you say that to Gerry, Gerry gets in his Airstream he shows up.
Gerry Crispin, CXR 21:24
I will be showing up down here. That’s you know, Christine, I will be showing up.
Chris Hoyt, CXR 21:31
Man, well, look, I just want to give just a quick, quick shout out to the CXR Foundation, all the people behind the scenes that helped to make that work that and there are a tremendous amount of people. There’s not just the Board of Directors, the volunteers that are piece of that we do several different projects. I am so grateful for everybody that does that that enables us to do a $10,000 scholarship every year and continue this Christina want to say congrats again. And I hope you’ll point you and your colleagues over to CXR.Foundation to find out more.
Christine Brown 21:59
Yes, we’ll do
Chris Hoyt, CXR 22:00
All right thank you so much for joining us with that I guess we’re out everybody say goodbye
All 22:05
Bye
Announcer 22:10
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