Investing in People's Potential: Katie Breault's Journey The Importance of Internships and Work-Based Learning

[00:00:00] But I went and then, you know, I sat down and she said, so what do you want to talk about? And I told her

[00:00:06] I'm looking for a mentor. I want to learn all the things that there are and

[00:00:11] She asked me what specifically do you want to learn about nice?

[00:00:14] I kind of want to just pick your brain and that is where I got the most

[00:00:18] I received the most valuable advice as a mentee and has also informed me as a mentor

[00:00:23] She said well my first piece of advice would be when you get the opportunity to have a meeting with somebody

[00:00:31] At my level come in with an agenda and a plan

[00:00:35] Never set this kind of meeting to just pick somebody's brain

[00:00:39] All right, I want to talk to you for a moment about retaining and developing your workforce

[00:00:44] It's hard recruiting is hard retaining top employees is hard

[00:00:48] Then you've got onboarding payroll benefits time in labor management

[00:00:52] You need to take care of your workforce and you can only do this successfully if you commit to transforming your employee experience

[00:01:00] This is where I solve comes in they empower you to be successful

[00:01:05] We've seen it with a number of companies that we've worked with and this is why we partner with them here at work

[00:01:11] Defined we trust them and you should too check them out at I solved

[00:01:16] HCM comm

[00:01:19] I

[00:01:25] Am

[00:01:27] My co-host here mr. William tin cup today, we've got a special guest. I always say that though, so I'm not sure

[00:01:35] That means anything is special it is by always a my very special guest

[00:01:41] but Katie bro and

[00:01:44] I'm saying that right so for everyone that's listening they're like why did you just say bro?

[00:01:49] It's Katie. Oh, Katie welcome into the show. I'm having some fun with your name

[00:01:55] Why don't we kick off with a little bit of an intro just introduce yourself to the audience and let everyone know who you are

[00:02:01] Thank you so much for the kind introduction. I'm really excited to be here

[00:02:05] And also it's for broadcasting the pronunciation of my last name. I am Katie bro

[00:02:11] And I'm chief delivery officer at you pro placement

[00:02:16] Use with Katie brah brah. It's it depends on your dialect. I mean it can

[00:02:25] What is you pro what does you produce we are a dedicated skills first placement firm and

[00:02:31] We are an aggregator of opportunity connecting non-profit

[00:02:36] workforce development training program graduates

[00:02:39] With our vast

[00:02:41] Network of corporate partners looking to hire really exceptional talent Wow

[00:02:48] So you're a game of opportunity. Yeah, what does that mean? Yes a great question

[00:02:53] So we are

[00:02:54] We're acting as a connector. We are staffing firm first and foremost

[00:02:59] There are a lot of employers out there who are trying to find the right talent

[00:03:04] With the support and upskilling that we all know is valuable in helping

[00:03:09] Early career mid-career talent be successful in their roles. And so we are that connector

[00:03:15] Who are building relationships with non-profit?

[00:03:20] workforce development

[00:03:21] graduates and

[00:03:23] Serving them for life upskilling them throughout their entire careers and connecting them to opportunities

[00:03:29] Where they can be successful

[00:03:31] What schools are the the best at non-profit management

[00:03:36] What's yeah colleges the degrees that people come out with because

[00:03:42] Usually a BA sometimes they'll get a masters etc. But like where are they coming out?

[00:03:47] Because you speak like Indiana was was really good at one point

[00:03:51] But I've kind of lost track of who's good at non-profit

[00:03:55] Management because sometimes it's tethered to a business goal

[00:04:02] There are non-profit management programs in a different life

[00:04:06] I was exploring those masters degree programs and there are specialties on those areas

[00:04:11] Yeah, especially if they were joint like you could see someone I think Indiana's why it's sticking with me is is

[00:04:19] You do an MBA and an MNO masters nonprofits

[00:04:24] And it was a joint degree for curators

[00:04:27] So that people would understand the business side of of art business side of curating art, which I thought was fascinating

[00:04:33] Yeah

[00:04:36] I've never heard of a staffing firm that's focused to help the nonprofit sector

[00:04:41] We are focused on those those graduates, you know oftentimes they're coming out of a training program

[00:04:46] They might have a very limited amount of work experience

[00:04:50] They have varying levels of career search readiness

[00:04:53] So maybe their resumes aren't going to perfectly align with the job description

[00:04:57] And we're helped they're here to help them kind of navigate that process

[00:05:01] Because we know that they're the right talent for the job

[00:05:03] We just have to help get them past some of those initial hiring barriers

[00:05:07] So let's make sure right now on the same page

[00:05:09] So you're not placing in nonprofits like a united way

[00:05:13] You're taking talent that has kind of come up to the Peace Corps score or whatever type of

[00:05:19] Non-profit experience that they have and bringing them into the corporate environment. That is correct

[00:05:25] So we are a staffing firm exclusively serving

[00:05:28] Talent who have graduated from these training programs. I've seen this with the military

[00:05:34] People that work with veterans that basically help veterans kind of transition from a military career

[00:05:40] Career and

[00:05:42] Translate their entire resume into here's what how that kind of works corporate environment now this makes sense. Okay

[00:05:49] Now your job at you pro is you said earlier

[00:05:54] So I'm the chief delivery officer overseeing our sales recruiting and client delivery

[00:06:00] Functions, right?

[00:06:03] Not exactly sure what you do so we're gonna figure this out sales marketing delivery customers

[00:06:09] She did just tell me that didn't she she did

[00:06:12] recruiting

[00:06:14] And client delivery

[00:06:17] Ability of active listening

[00:06:21] Because this is day two in this new title and so what you're

[00:06:28] A little bit better about describing this

[00:06:30] I'm saying this is what I heard you say this is what I actually said. Yeah, this is great

[00:06:34] Oh, what did you do? What was the title before I was a senior vice president of growth and impact

[00:06:40] Let's see I would I would have gotten it right what yeah

[00:06:44] I'll go with that title instead

[00:06:49] Chief chief Trump's VP. Yes, sorry guys stick with it. Yeah, I stick with the chief

[00:06:56] From start to finish our services that is I'm overseeing all of that

[00:07:01] Well, and why it makes sense to growth is because you and your team are dealing with customers

[00:07:06] And they might have other needs

[00:07:09] So not just the need that you're fulfilling all the contracts you're fulfilling on it's a land and expand

[00:07:14] There's other things there

[00:07:16] Sometimes when those teams don't talk to each other sales over here deliveries over there

[00:07:21] Then they don't maximize those

[00:07:24] Those opportunities so it tracks for me. Yeah, 100% so Katie this is

[00:07:31] This is one of this one of our probably one of our more fun shows

[00:07:34] The practitioners corner because we that's our audience. It's a lot of practitioners and they love hearing the stories of

[00:07:43] other practitioners who have gone through a

[00:07:47] Growth process and have gotten to a point where they feel and I'm assuming you feel

[00:07:53] Like you've succeeded at some level and so it's always helpful to share these stories

[00:07:59] What you're thinking about where you started some of the challenges and things like that

[00:08:03] So that's where we're gonna spend most of the time today on

[00:08:07] That so where do we want to go to want to go all the way back?

[00:08:11] How you gonna go today?

[00:08:14] How'd you get roped into this bit?

[00:08:18] What a great question

[00:08:20] So I was at a nonprofit

[00:08:24] And you know really trying to figure out what is it that I want to do with the rest of my career?

[00:08:29] I

[00:08:30] Was exploring becoming a facilitator of different swords. I became a certified strengths coach

[00:08:37] Oh, yeah strengths finder and I learned through that assessment that I have five main strengths

[00:08:43] And one of those strengths was one called developer and that developer strength is a part of me that

[00:08:49] Is especially skilled and passionate about

[00:08:52] Investing in people reaching their full potential and I looked at everything I was doing in my job and realized

[00:08:58] I'm not doing that anywhere. I am going to figure out what I need to do to leverage this strength and I became a mentor

[00:09:05] For an organization a national nonprofit called you're up

[00:09:10] And it took me maybe

[00:09:13] Three months of mentoring an incredible young woman who was taking a bus two hours to and from her internship

[00:09:21] To just get her foot in the door

[00:09:24] Making sure she got there an hour early just in case anything happened along the ride

[00:09:30] To realize oh my goodness. This is what I've been missing. This is the piece and I quickly

[00:09:37] Had an opportunity to to join year up and

[00:09:41] You know five years later. I joined their staffing arm

[00:09:45] Because it kind of brought all the pieces together with things that are important to me and I think that

[00:09:51] Job placement is is probably the most impactful work in my opinion that I can spend my time doing

[00:10:00] Love that so

[00:10:02] You worked for the nonprofit for five years. What was the role? What did you do there?

[00:10:08] I started by overseeing their corporate partnerships in the state of Rhode Island

[00:10:14] So it was your island a local site

[00:10:17] Also overseeing the interns who were at those corporate partners

[00:10:20] So you're up as a one-year program for the first six months

[00:10:24] They're learning these hard and soft skills to be successful in an internship for the second six months

[00:10:29] they're interning at one of our corporate partners and then

[00:10:33] Either converting into a contractor full-time role or launching their career with another opportunity

[00:10:40] What's typically the skills that they're learning

[00:10:43] In the pre-part not just the internship that got other skills that they're learning but in the first six months

[00:10:49] It's an equal

[00:10:52] Emphasis on soft and hard skills. So for hard skills, we're focused on

[00:10:56] IT software development

[00:10:58] financial services

[00:11:00] And and financial operations sales and customer support

[00:11:05] And so really bringing in some of those fundamental skills to be successful at a work-based learning opportunity

[00:11:11] But then the secret sauce is really in the soft skills training

[00:11:15] So, you know really teaching through their their curriculum and their their coaching and feedback processes

[00:11:22] Why you show up early?

[00:11:24] Really driving home that early is on time on time is late

[00:11:29] And they don't get fired because they're learning those lessons

[00:11:32] But we know how that saying goes

[00:11:34] And some of those things that I would used to speak to our interns and say

[00:11:39] Working at it in the corporate environment is kind of like going through a different country

[00:11:43] There are all these rules that you might not be familiar with there are all of these expectations

[00:11:48] And we're here to help you learn that before you're in that environment and getting judged for it

[00:11:53] Because as a young person I myself had plenty that I didn't know I used to show up

[00:11:58] I used to think that if I was put on the schedule

[00:12:02] For my my job as a server that if I couldn't work a shift

[00:12:05] I just exit off on the schedule and then I have to work it

[00:12:11] My daughter does that and I want to just ring her neck. Oh my god

[00:12:16] Not that she would ever listen to this, but I hope she's listening to this. I love that

[00:12:21] I absolutely love that. She was like well, I exit off

[00:12:25] Yeah

[00:12:28] There are so many assumptions we make that people know in their first job

[00:12:32] I mean I used to marry the ketchup

[00:12:34] But what I thought that meant was taking all of the ketchup and evenly dividing all of the ketchup in the jar

[00:12:39] So not filling them up. Just making sure they were all completely even

[00:12:50] Well now most restaurants don't even give you ketchup

[00:12:53] You've got an ass for it and that

[00:12:55] That is a major pain. You're sitting at the table eating

[00:13:00] Where's the ketchup I got a wave somebody down. Yeah

[00:13:04] You don't deal with that here in Massachusetts

[00:13:07] We do you have plastic bags?

[00:13:11] It depends on the town, but that is getting phased out. We're starting that now

[00:13:16] We don't give plastic bags like you go to you go to a local like convenience store

[00:13:21] You got yourself a sandwich or three some drinks and it you got to carry it out for you now for those listening

[00:13:28] I'm

[00:13:36] Going to describe weighty again, so one food. I don't want to bring a bag

[00:13:40] That's fair

[00:13:42] Canvas bag. I always see you with a little canvas bag going into it

[00:13:46] 711

[00:13:47] See get your loot my my girl is to here's things that will not happen in Texas in the next decade that

[00:13:55] I remember back in the day if you came into a store the bag they were just assuming that you're at a shoplift so yeah

[00:14:02] Yeah, right?

[00:14:04] You're environmentalist that cares about things. Yeah now it's paper straws and they took away the plastic bags

[00:14:10] And I can't drink paper straw or something it actually my lips stick to it

[00:14:16] Yeah, so anytime someone is usually California someone gives me a paper straw

[00:14:20] I'm like yeah, you may as well pour it on my head

[00:14:24] I'm not gonna use that

[00:14:26] I thought this was a practitioners corner you're talking about me

[00:14:29] No, I'm just being very I am loving the camaraderie around a bar on paper straws. I am also

[00:14:37] You've got some you've got some history you've got some hate in your heart for paper

[00:14:41] for straws as well. This is a Dateline episode about to happen

[00:14:44] It is good. It's a Dateline it told ya slip it in there somewhere

[00:14:48] It all started Jim didn't like paper straws

[00:14:52] And then up under the driveway paved

[00:14:55] So if you get to actually interact with a lot of practitioners as well

[00:14:59] So I mean a part of the job now is you get to the people that have your customers I would say

[00:15:05] A lot of them are practitioners as well. What's what's some of the conversations with them like what's what it's driving them

[00:15:13] Sure, so on the on the customer side

[00:15:16] Who we end up speaking with I mean they're typically looking for

[00:15:20] Entry level talent or early career talent

[00:15:23] And you know some of the some of the struggles that they might be facing is finding the right talent

[00:15:27] And so I'm here to help partner with them and figure out what is what is the challenge?

[00:15:32] We know that we have we serve here at your replacement over 120,000

[00:15:37] People who are looking for a job and so we know the talent is out there

[00:15:41] We know that the skills are there. So what are the barriers?

[00:15:44] Sometimes it might be a four-year degree

[00:15:47] And then we're working with our partners to really understand. Okay, is a four-year degree really required for this role

[00:15:53] Um, is it you know, maybe falling into the trap that we got into decades ago of bringing out candidates to narrow the pool?

[00:16:01] Um, because if you're narrowing the pool and you're not finding the talent

[00:16:05] Then man, oh man, do I have a solution for you?

[00:16:08] Um, and removing that degree requirement is often the biggest quickest impact that we can make

[00:16:14] So oftentimes it's about not being able to find the talent and then also once they find the talent

[00:16:21] How do they how do they get that retention that they're looking at?

[00:16:23] They're looking for and conversion into a full-time employee and that's really where we shine

[00:16:29] In investing back into our talent through our upskilling and our coaching

[00:16:34] And connecting them with social care resources because for us we are a mission-driven public benefit corporation

[00:16:41] So we're measured based on our social metrics

[00:16:45] And because we're driven by this and that's at our core

[00:16:48] Their success is truly our success in converting our talent into full-time jobs

[00:16:54] And then there there is both the candidates and the and the companies

[00:16:58] Both of them being successful

[00:17:00] The collective that right

[00:17:04] So

[00:17:05] Okay, let's go back we started to talk about you and we went back to how you ended up in nonprofit

[00:17:11] But curious, uh, to let this just go back there and continue that path to learn kind of how you how you've come up

[00:17:19] What was the motive? So you said the mentoring was your first?

[00:17:23] kind of

[00:17:24] Touch here and that was really motivating. What what motivated you in that mentorship? What drove you there?

[00:17:32] of course, so um

[00:17:34] Realizing that there was something missing that I wasn't aware. It was a level of self-awareness that I gained

[00:17:39] Um from the training that I took to become a a strengths coach

[00:17:44] That helped me realize there's something that I need to actively be seeking

[00:17:48] I'm not just going to my job and you know putting in x number of hours per week

[00:17:52] But really I need to be intentional about what is what is driving me because that was one of the biggest guiding questions

[00:17:57] As a young person that I was never able to answer

[00:18:00] I remember being a young person and looking around

[00:18:03] You know some of my friends wanted to be doctors and some were super passionate about going into

[00:18:09] um

[00:18:11] Goodness gracious. I can't even remember what the money

[00:18:16] Exactly and I never felt that draw and I always felt like there's something wrong with me

[00:18:21] I don't know what the thing is that I want to do

[00:18:23] I know the impact that I want to make so when people would ask

[00:18:26] What do you want to be when you grow up? I would say I want to do something

[00:18:30] so

[00:18:31] So big and so positive in this world that it gets two full pages in a world history book

[00:18:38] Not us history world history

[00:18:41] And that's what I wanted to do and wherever my skills align and however I can make this positive impact

[00:18:48] I don't care. I just want to I want to make an impact

[00:18:52] and so

[00:18:53] You know, I went to college

[00:18:55] I double majored in classics and philosophy and my parents quickly course corrected me to let me know no, no

[00:19:01] One of those how to go

[00:19:02] You were going to be a doctor young lady

[00:19:05] I love both those

[00:19:08] I do too. Um, I traded in classics for government

[00:19:12] So there was still there's still a lot of connections there, but I

[00:19:15] The conflict between philosophy and government is fantastic. Thank you. I'm pretty proud of my choice. I was a very smart smart kid

[00:19:24] But then I graduated college and went into policy. There was the government like thank you parents for helping me get that first job

[00:19:30] I don't know what the classic job job. I would have gone would have been but went into policy

[00:19:36] I

[00:19:37] You know had a great opportunity

[00:19:39] to be to launch the national all-cymer strategic

[00:19:43] Plan and I was doing all this really cool work in dc, but it wasn't

[00:19:48] Something wasn't clicking wasn't all that so I decided in a really brilliant move

[00:19:54] To just ditch, you know the the degree that I had and ditched the

[00:19:59] Opportunity that I had and decided to be a professional chef

[00:20:03] Uh, which my parents were so thrilled about because I like to cook so I figured hey

[00:20:09] Let's try it. Um

[00:20:11] See we're back to school for that

[00:20:13] I got into school and then I had to do an externship and learned very quickly that just because you love something

[00:20:20] Doesn't mean that it's something you should necessarily get paid to do

[00:20:23] Uh, and to this day

[00:20:26] This is great. You know, I I love this and I want to say why because

[00:20:30] So so many people

[00:20:32] are confused

[00:20:34] And I think they're lost right and it's you know, it will say young people and that may not be acceptable today

[00:20:41] I don't know

[00:20:43] But people coming out of college like it's like I remember being lost myself. I took my last final did I graduate?

[00:20:50] No one said a word. They just said have a great summer

[00:20:55] Sure

[00:20:56] And that was it and I literally I left and I got a letter that said congratulations

[00:21:01] Between the time I left until that I didn't know

[00:21:05] And so

[00:21:06] I I love I love hearing this story because I think this benefits a lot of people

[00:21:11] Oh, 100% yeah, good. Well, I I often hear with the staffing industry

[00:21:16] Um, you know, you just kind of fall into staffing nobody

[00:21:19] You know grows up thinking I want to be in staffing but for me

[00:21:22] With what I wanted to do and making an impact and I am going to get those two pages

[00:21:27] I truly feel like the most impactful work that I work that I can do

[00:21:31] And some of the most important work there is to do is connecting people looking for jobs with

[00:21:36] With a career it's it's so important. I experienced in so many ways throughout my life

[00:21:42] The impact of of that choice and that decision and that opportunity and or lack thereof

[00:21:48] Some incredibly passionate about the work I do now. I think I was always meant to be in staffing

[00:21:53] So let me ask you about because mentorships really

[00:21:56] I might ask you about mentorship and then later I'll ask you about internships, but mentors

[00:22:03] Where do we get that right and where do we fail in mentors?

[00:22:08] And being a mentor

[00:22:10] um

[00:22:12] I would not claim to be an expert mentor. Oh come on

[00:22:16] Um, but I was I would say I was never

[00:22:19] I was never terribly concerned about what a mentor is supposed to be

[00:22:24] And being like that person

[00:22:26] Um, like now I'm a mentor so I have to put on my mentor mentor face and suddenly become wise

[00:22:31] I think that

[00:22:33] I think that you know all of us have some wisdom in some area that we can be sharing with others

[00:22:39] And so for for me personally, I like to think that what went well with my mentoring experience

[00:22:46] Has been continues to be

[00:22:48] Just you know being a human being and sharing what lessons learned I can and

[00:22:55] Truly having the perspective of somebody seeking advice from a mentor is

[00:22:59] They might be seeking answers, but I found 99 of the time

[00:23:04] People have the answers already. It's just about helping them think through it and look at all the different perspectives and really empowering

[00:23:11] Those being mentored to make the decisions that are right for them and doing it without judgment

[00:23:16] I think there's different levels of a mentor as well. And when I think you probably agreed it is

[00:23:23] I've heard you on calls with people that

[00:23:27] Blow my mind

[00:23:29] But there's and I was I can never do that like I can't talk that way

[00:23:34] But there are people that I wouldn't call myself a mentor to but they use me as a sounding board

[00:23:39] Right, right, and I'm a sounding board for that person

[00:23:43] And they just want to like you said Katie, they just want to bounce ideas

[00:23:46] And they want to

[00:23:48] Get your opinion on it and get your thought and some guidance on that

[00:23:52] So I think there's different. There's definitely different levels of of mentorship. So that's yeah, that's a good point

[00:23:58] I think it's serving the the person

[00:24:00] And making sure that they get something out of it. I think that's where I've seen mentorships

[00:24:06] kind of the ones that are

[00:24:08] kind of

[00:24:10] created in corporations

[00:24:12] basically to kind of

[00:24:14] Facilitate conversations between kind of younger generations and older generations when it's forced

[00:24:21] I've seen that fail

[00:24:23] Secondly, I've seen

[00:24:25] it fail

[00:24:27] When the person that's a mentor just wants to talk

[00:24:31] About whatever they want to talk about they're not really

[00:24:35] receptive to like what do they need to learn? What do they want to learn?

[00:24:40] And and kind of serving that person so I've seen it fail in a couple different ways

[00:24:46] Well often and not just comes down to your heart if you want to help somebody and they want to be helped

[00:24:51] All right. Well, you didn't then you figure it out like like I like I like what she said Katie

[00:24:55] You're around just being human just being a decent human being and well you're halfway there

[00:25:01] No, let's think I've been a I've been a mentor. I've been a mentee. I am a mentor. I am a mentee

[00:25:08] And I think that if I've learned anything on the mentee side

[00:25:11] The greatest advice that I received and I think one of the secrets to a good mentorship

[00:25:17] Um, it's really driven by the mentee

[00:25:19] So when I was trying to um, I'm getting a notification that I'm disconnecting

[00:25:25] Haha, you're good. Hope that there's editing. Um, you're good

[00:25:29] But when I I remember when I finally got a meeting with somebody who I had targeted

[00:25:35] I want this person to be my mentor. I want to learn everything there is from her

[00:25:40] And she was this powerhouse is this powerhouse?

[00:25:44] I can't believe still that I met that I ended up getting a meeting with her over coffee

[00:25:49] And so I went I got the meeting

[00:25:51] Um, I sat down. I bought her a coffee. You know, I I sped

[00:25:56] Because I was also running a little bit late. So thank goodness I made it on time

[00:25:59] So lesson number one don't be don't be late for a really important meeting with somebody you want to mentor you

[00:26:05] Just cry and you'll get out of the ticket. I 100 we know people that have experience

[00:26:11] Every time

[00:26:14] But I went and then you know, I sat down and she said so what do you want to talk about and I told her

[00:26:20] I'm looking for a mentor. I want to learn all the things that there are

[00:26:25] And she asked me what specifically do you want to learn about and I said I kind of want to just pick your brain

[00:26:30] And that is where I got the most I received the most valuable advice as a mentee and has also informed me as a mentor

[00:26:37] Uh

[00:26:38] She said well my first piece of advice would be when you get

[00:26:42] The opportunity to have a meeting with somebody

[00:26:45] At my level come in with an agenda and a plan

[00:26:49] Never set this kind of meeting to just pick somebody's brain

[00:26:53] Especially you don't know what you want to pick my brain about and I was mortified

[00:26:59] No, it's great advice. That's great advice never made that mistake again

[00:27:04] Well, I mean it's also

[00:27:06] I mean I had there was when I was first out of college

[00:27:08] I worked this guy had a company next to ours

[00:27:12] And he wouldn't take a meeting

[00:27:14] Like he wouldn't put a meeting on his calendar

[00:27:17] No agenda unless there was agenda

[00:27:20] Like there was an agenda that you had to get back then you had to like print stuff out and give them an agenda or whatever

[00:27:26] And it was just a company next door. So I'm like

[00:27:29] I had nothing to do with me but every once in a while I'd want to talk to him about some stuff

[00:27:32] And so hey love to talk to you

[00:27:35] Let's set the let's set the agenda wouldn't would not put something on his calendar unless there was a gender. I'm like it's awfully disciplined

[00:27:42] It's awfully

[00:27:44] Very efficient because if someone can't create an agenda, then you're gonna wander and I think google did this

[00:27:50] at the beginning or maybe

[00:27:52] They had a bit around agendas too where the meeting couldn't happen if the person

[00:27:59] That could make the decision wasn't in the meeting and also if there wasn't a gender

[00:28:03] So like I thought it was brilliant

[00:28:05] Um, let me let me ask you about internships real quick. Yeah

[00:28:10] What makes for a great internship because you're also you have corporate partners. So you placed people in these situations

[00:28:19] Uh, and what makes for a great experience for all parties?

[00:28:23] so everybody involves

[00:28:25] so I um

[00:28:26] When I think about the successful internship part partnerships that we have

[00:28:31] It's not too different from my answer about mentorship

[00:28:35] So the an internship is a work-based learning experience. It is not a job

[00:28:41] it is the objective is for somebody to learn on the job and

[00:28:44] Um and have that experience and there was no greater time in a person's career than that that very first

[00:28:52] Work-based experience, whether it's a job or an internship

[00:28:56] To be getting that guidance from somebody

[00:28:59] And so whether that's coming from an internal mentor or coming from their manager directly

[00:29:04] If the if somebody is hosting a an intern and they don't have the time to invest to coach

[00:29:11] Or don't have time to invest to you know, give feedback

[00:29:16] I think feedback is at the very least. This should be the fundamental

[00:29:19] um

[00:29:21] Decision point of that can I host an intern to have time to give them feedback and help course correct?

[00:29:26] So they're not just making all the ketchup levels the same. So they're filling them up all the way

[00:29:30] All right, um, because otherwise they're not learning on the job. And what is the point?

[00:29:35] So I it's definitely that time

[00:29:38] Should a company have

[00:29:41] If a company is going to host interns or they want to use interns should they have a formal program

[00:29:48] For in or intern they have someone running internships. It's not just let's go hire an intern and get cheap labor

[00:29:56] And have them work and then get mad at them when the work isn't done properly

[00:30:02] um, that is a complicated question because should they have

[00:30:06] Uh either I would say it's an either or they should I would say that they either should have some sort of formal internship program internally or

[00:30:14] Organizations like our parent company year up. They exist to make that easier for companies to host

[00:30:21] So they have built into their internship model that feedback mechanism the support the coaching

[00:30:26] um, and similarly at u-pro placement

[00:30:29] Um, if you're looking to launch a a skills based apprenticeship program if you're looking to launch an early career

[00:30:37] um

[00:30:38] Hiring initiative we're here to do all of those pieces that you might feel

[00:30:43] Overwhelmed by having to build internally. We're doing that for our partners

[00:30:48] So oh I did 11 internships when I was in college

[00:30:53] so I can give you

[00:30:55] Probably some really interesting experiences that I personally had and

[00:31:00] I subscribed back then I subscribed to an internship should inform you as to if you really love this

[00:31:10] Or if you really hate this

[00:31:12] There's no middle ground

[00:31:14] And so I would take internships and advertising and pr and different places

[00:31:20] Just to see if I liked it

[00:31:23] So again, I would add value wherever I went like that was just part of the bit

[00:31:28] But I was really trying to figure out like do I can I see myself doing this?

[00:31:33] And uh, I I don't know if that if it's part of your model or not because but for me

[00:31:39] It was because you don't know like Ryan was talking about in college. You don't know what you don't know

[00:31:44] You have no idea and if you don't have a lot of work experience

[00:31:47] You really you really don't know what's out there or available

[00:31:51] Etc

[00:31:51] So I would just throw myself into internships and then go

[00:31:55] Stay there for 30

[00:31:57] through

[00:31:58] 90 days or three months or whatever and just to find out

[00:32:01] Do I even like this?

[00:32:04] Do I even want to like do I want another goal for me and every internship that I got into was to get a job offer

[00:32:12] Whether or not I would take the job offer

[00:32:14] eh

[00:32:15] That that in fact in all 11. I didn't take the job

[00:32:19] But I always wanted to get a job offer sort of work hard enough and be a student enough to get a job offer

[00:32:26] But if it was something that I hated then I would never take the job no matter what but I wanted to get that

[00:32:31] so the question is is

[00:32:34] With you with your with your student population

[00:32:37] or early stage cost

[00:32:39] talent

[00:32:42] If they don't know what they like if they don't know what they want

[00:32:46] How do you put them in that situation to then go join one of your partners and add value?

[00:32:52] But maybe not maybe the goal isn't to get an offer at the end of that

[00:32:58] Because maybe they don't fall in love with it

[00:33:00] Well part of our admissions process and part of serving the population that we do

[00:33:06] Our our interns are looking for that job offer and

[00:33:10] I want to take that job in the first six months of training

[00:33:13] They're in theory that should kind of be the testing ground learning those hard skills

[00:33:18] to your point

[00:33:20] I mean if I waited until I

[00:33:22] Loved a job and found my passion

[00:33:26] I wouldn't have been employed until my 30s

[00:33:29] So

[00:33:30] I think I remember the

[00:33:32] interview that President Obama did and one of his

[00:33:36] pieces of advice was about you know focus on doing your job well

[00:33:41] And then things will come and so I think for a young person or a person early in their career especially

[00:33:48] Not boring and putting that pressure on themselves to have found the thing

[00:33:53] But focusing on doing a really good job

[00:33:56] And it's hard to do when you're early in your career, but trusting

[00:34:01] If you keep proving yourself as in doing a good job and focusing on that and not worrying about the next thing

[00:34:06] Good things come

[00:34:09] Good things come

[00:34:11] In addition to advocating for yourself, but focus really on the job you're in

[00:34:18] But I commend you on all 11 internship

[00:34:22] That you received. Oh, yeah

[00:34:24] No, it's a but that was the game

[00:34:28] Well, I mean when I say that sometimes people I need to actually clarify that was three degrees

[00:34:35] So eight years of education three degrees and so there was plenty of plenty of opportunities to do internships

[00:34:41] That is even more exhausting

[00:34:43] Yeah, that's it was easy easy

[00:34:46] so

[00:34:48] So

[00:34:49] So

[00:34:50] I do need to ask you just because I think the audience would be curious in terms of where do y'all get paid

[00:34:57] Where do you make your money in this process?

[00:34:59] So I'm going to separate our parent company from us because that is a completely different organization

[00:35:04] We are a staffing company. So we are paid the same way that any other staffing company would be paid

[00:35:11] For a contract direct hire or skills to staff professional apprenticeship

[00:35:17] We're getting paid for our services

[00:35:19] For like they would be paying any other company. The difference is we're investing that revenue back into our mission and the talent we serve

[00:35:27] Um versus operating

[00:35:30] In that way like any other staffing company. So does the corporate partner pay for the six months of training?

[00:35:35] For our parent company they do

[00:35:38] Got it and then once they're placed

[00:35:40] Then they move over and it's like you charge out 25

[00:35:45] And the the candidate earns 20. That's awful numbers

[00:35:48] But the idea is there's a there's a there's an in between that the company makes their money on like like all staffing

[00:35:55] I mean if they're if they're the dream scenario that happens for

[00:35:59] Many of our talent is

[00:36:01] They go through that training program. They go to the internship

[00:36:03] They convert full-time and we have nothing to do with any of that

[00:36:06] They're just hiring them on and that's where they get their investment

[00:36:09] We're serving them for the rest of their lives. So that's fantastic. So there's there's no there's not a conversion fee

[00:36:16] Not for hiring them full time. That's the goal. That's the goal. That's fantastic

[00:36:21] That's unusual by the way most staffing firms as you know

[00:36:24] There's a conversion fee from from talent to

[00:36:28] To a full-time employee. So that's actually really cool

[00:36:32] On the staffing side if it's a contract role like to your point

[00:36:36] It's a bill raid and you know, it's

[00:36:39] But we're also serving them again for their entire career. So we we just placed somebody with 20 years of experience

[00:36:46] Right. That's different than our recent graduate from the program

[00:36:50] All right

[00:36:51] If you I don't know if you have these

[00:36:53] This off the top of your head

[00:36:54] But how many or I guess maybe a percentage of people that you placed coming out of

[00:37:02] school

[00:37:03] As an entry level. Are you still working with today?

[00:37:07] That is a great question and I would probably have to get back to you

[00:37:10] The goal is

[00:37:12] That they launch their careers that we're helping them find that great first job

[00:37:16] And they

[00:37:17] They might come back to us two to three years later if they're looking for that next opportunity

[00:37:21] But the goal isn't that they have to keep coming back to us

[00:37:24] The goal is that they get that professional career and then they're building their network

[00:37:28] Um, but I mean we it depends on their their distance from the program

[00:37:33] We see them tend to start tapering off somewhere around like five or six years

[00:37:38] um

[00:37:39] Do they do do you get a lot of people that come back in to become to become mentors as well?

[00:37:45] We do and we have alumni from our program who come back as mentors speakers

[00:37:50] They host their own interns. They're hiring our graduates. They're on our board

[00:37:56] um

[00:37:57] So they I mean the non-profit parent company that we have you're up. They've been around for over 20 years

[00:38:05] So you have some pretty experienced graduates from the program. Oh, that's fantastic

[00:38:11] so

[00:38:13] We've talked about a lot of things one of the things I want to ask you is

[00:38:16] How best should practitioners work with staffing firms?

[00:38:20] Because ryan grew up in the rpo business with connexa and i've

[00:38:26] I've worked in staffing but not not in a traditional sense

[00:38:30] So I just like for practitioners that are listening. What's what are the questions I say they should be asking you and how should I

[00:38:38] Best be working with you

[00:38:40] Sure, I mean we

[00:38:43] This is going to sound so canned but we really do approach

[00:38:47] Our relationships as partnerships because and we are a little bit different. Uh, yeah

[00:38:51] So I would say, you know coming coming into a partnership with the pro placement

[00:38:58] Um, we are we're just trying to help our partners reach their goals

[00:39:02] We are we know that we have the talent to build those jobs

[00:39:06] We know our talent are skilled. We know we have the resources to support them while on the job

[00:39:12] So really just coming to us

[00:39:14] Um helping us understand what the exact need is your pain points

[00:39:18] Um

[00:39:19] And we're we're really committed if they're

[00:39:22] If they're looking to hire talent

[00:39:24] If they're invested in this being a successful placement, we find a way to make it work

[00:39:29] um

[00:39:31] So that was

[00:39:32] It's just our approach

[00:39:34] Chop's mic walks off stage

[00:39:36] Katie thank you so much. Uh, this has been fantastic. I love your journey to me

[00:39:42] And uh, I love what you'll do. I mean it's just it's

[00:39:45] Absolutely needed and uh, I'm glad for your corporate partners

[00:39:49] Uh for making the investment because again without that investment a lot of this stuff doesn't happen

[00:39:55] And you found a lot of early stage talent just kind of

[00:39:59] Just

[00:40:00] Figuring trying to figure it out on their own and it's it's hard

[00:40:04] So I like that there's structure to that. So thank you very much for being on the show