April 19, 2023

The Hirewell Hot Corner: F1 Racing / Starting New Jobs & Knowing Who to Hire

Hosts:

Episode Highlights

Starting A New Job? Patience And Curiosity Will Be Your New Bestfriends

I
4:07

Choosing Between The Experienced Or Unexperienced Candidate

I
9:31

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In this week’s episode, Louie takes the reins and welcomes Matt Mulcahy to the show. Matt is an avid F1 racing fan and we use the new F1 season to talk about Rookie Drivers and how that can relate to starting new jobs in the corporate world. We also dive into how veteran drivers change teams and how similarly, companies assess bringing on a more experienced candidate vs a candidate that this role would be the next step up in their career.

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to the Hirewell Hot Corner, where sports and recruitment meet. I am your host, Louis Morici joined this week by my fellow Hirewellian, Matt Mulcahy. Dan is still off gallivanting in Europe on his honeymoon, so Matt and I are taking the reins this week. Matt, why don’t you introduce yourself? Talk about your Hirewell career, what team you’re on, and any of your sports interests.

Yeah, sure. Thanks for having me on this week, Louie. My name’s Matt Mulcahy. Been with Hirewell for about a year and a half now. I’m on our managed tech recruiting team, so yeah. Happy to be here. Happy to talk about some sports with ya, with baseball starting, playoff hockey, playoff basketball.

But really what we’re here for is to talk about some Formula One Racing. Love that. Love that. Not an area of my expertise. I think the previous mentioned sports are probably more my wheelhouse, but yeah. Let’s talk about F1. Yeah. Can you kind of give us the overview and things like that? Sure.

Happy to give you some taste of motor sports on this show and make a recruiting twist to it of why starting a new job can be hard and usually always is hard. And also why companies might want to hire an experienced candidate over an inexperienced candidate. So F1, we’re three races into the season right now on a month long break before the first of three US races.

That first one’s in Miami in May. And there’s three rookie drivers in F1 this year. So a lot has happened so far, so excited to dive in and tell you all about it. Nice. Nice. Well, why don’t we start there? So again, on the Hirewell Hot Corner we take sports and recruitment and kind of combine them.

So let’s talk about those rookies. There’s, you know- yeah. Three rookies. So let’s talk about how did they do? Have they shown any signs of inexperience? And then we’ll relate that to kind of starting a new job. Sure, sure. So three rookie drivers: one on McLaren, one on Williams and one on AlphaTauri.

None of them are really front running teams, so that’s typically how it goes. A rookie driver kind of starts at a kind of a back marker team, and then they work their way up to the winning teams as they prove themselves. But definitely a rocky start for the three of them. You score points in Formula One by coming in the top 10.

So, first race one of the rookies crashed out and didn’t finish, came in dead last. The other two also didn’t finish in the top 10. In the second race, they all came in a row 14th, 15th, and 16th. So again, no points. But then in the most recent race in Australia, the Australian rookie Oscar Piastri, he scored points for the first time. He came

eighth, but there were three giant crashes in that race and only 12 cars finished. So maybe a little bit of luck, maybe a little bit of intrinsic motivation in front of your home crowd. But yeah. So there’s been some signs of, you know, good things to come, but definitely tough for all those rookies in the first three races.

Well I can imagine. I mean it’s such a- to get to the top level of any sport is difficult. But I believe the numbers at this level are even tougher. So starting- yeah, there’s only 20. There’s only 20 people in the world that do it, so. That’s a small margin. That’s a small margin. So let’s hope those rookies can take the next step.

So let’s talk about it from a recruiting standpoint. So, when you’re starting a new role, there’s things that as recruiters we can prepare things for or I guess what would be advice, as us being recruiters, to people starting new jobs? Like what would you say is some best practices maybe they can use to be helpful?

Sure. Well from the recruiter perspective, when I’m working with a more junior candidate, always want to coach them through the process of leaving a job and starting a new one, right. And you want to prep them on kind of like the mindset to go into that new job with. And then it’s our job as a recruiter

to check in with them, you know, first day, end of the first week, and then every couple months you want to keep that relationship with them. But you always also want to make sure that the role aligns with their expectations of what was shared with them throughout the interview process.

No surprises, no red flags, that kind of thing. No, I totally agree. Sometimes candidates think, you know, even after a short amount of time in the industry that they might know it all, you know? Sure. Tell them, keep an open mind, be curious. It’s something that you don’t know everything yet, or really from any level role, even if you’re going from CEO job to CO, there’s still things you can learn.

It’s a different product, a different company. So just be curious, I think is probably one of the biggest things I would mention. And then I guess to flip it to advice for being a new employee, how would you like- other than the mindset, but if you’re a new employee, specificly- Sure.

You or I start a new job, what would be some things that you think would lead to success? Yeah. So I mean, you’ve said it with like the curiosity thing, but al also just patience. There’s going to be a ramp up time at any new job, no matter if you’re a rookie or if you’re experienced. So you got to take those steps to be proactive, seek out resources, take

time on your own when you’ve got some downtime and maybe not a whole ton of responsibilities to learn as much as you can. Read through company documentation. Go online, Google’s your best friend. And also you want to be making connections with your coworkers and people in leadership who have been at the company longer and can show you the ropes.

Thousand percent. When I started at Hirewell just over two years ago, like it was my first time being in agency recruiting. So, yep. Same. This is my first agency gig. Yeah. There’s a learning curve there. Selling or selling multiple companies- well, selling for multiple companies and selling them as a company to candidates is different than just one company that you’re working for.

Yeah. And utilizing some of the higher end leaderships, the team leads, the managers, the VPs, and just learning and being a sponge, I thought helped me find success in a pretty quick fashion. So, totally. Yeah. Think, you know, just the open mind and the curiosity I think is huge.

So to stray away from the rookies, people just joining new roles, to a different avenue. You know, you mentioned to me that there’s some experienced drivers in F1 that have moved several times to other teams. Now talk to me about that. When it comes to changing teams, does it happen frequently?

How are those transitions, those people doing? And what are some of the reasons they move? Sure, sure. So pretty much every season there’s a little bit of movement between teams or new drivers coming in, old drivers coming out. But who I want to talk about today is Fernando Alonzo, and I’m repping his team right now, Aston Martin.

Sharp shirt, I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. But yeah, so he is the oldest driver in Formula One. He’s 41, which is old for a Formula One driver. He’s on his second stint in the sport after taking a two year break.

And he’s already changed teams once since he’s been back. So I think for like a total of seven times throughout his career. But he’s doing great. He’s come in third place in all three of the races so far, and I think he’s pretty happy there. It’s kind of a surprise that Aston Martin is doing so well, compared to last year where they were

back to middle of the pack. But even coming in third, I think because he is late in his career, he’s totally content in that spot. And knows that Aston Martin probably isn’t going to win a whole ton of races, but that’s fine with him. No. Yeah, I mean it just kind of goes to be said, it’s not always about pushing and pushing for better and better.

Sometimes it is about just kind of locking in, enjoying where you’re at and really just using your expertise in an area where you feel really comfortable, not always looking for the next step. So to kind of flip that to recruiting, when it comes to hiring, whether you’re hiring someone who can do the job that’s done the job or something similar

compared to someone who this role, the next role for them would be a step up from where they’re currently at. Sure. You know, talk to me about from a company standpoint, what are the risks? And maybe just your opinion on how that works. Sure. You know, my thoughts on that is not everyone wants to keep climbing the corporate ladder until they become CEO, right?

People get to a certain point in their career where they’re really good at what they do. They like what they’re doing, they’re getting paid a fair amount that affords their lifestyle and that’s, they’re fine with that. Those kind of candidates are great hires and probably would be less antsy for their next promotion, their next raise, they get up to speed quicker,

they can handle more situations, can really hit the ground running. So I think a lot of companies get afraid that like, okay, this person’s got so much experience, they’re going to be so expensive or they’re not going to be happy in this role. But that’s not always the case, you know?

Yeah. People like what they like. Totally, totally get that. And I mean, I guess it could even be said, like it kind of changes by industry. Being in sales, you know, being hungry and wanting to really take on more and prove your worth, I think probably speaks more to the rookie or the person who the next step would be an upgrade from what they’re currently doing.

Maybe it’s a role they haven’t had before, but they’re going to attack it with curiosity, with no habits, whether they’re good or bad. Sure. A little bit more notables, but at the same time, there’s going to be that learning curve compared to a more veteran person who could be more expensive but has done the role,

so probably less risk. I guess it really can be case by case how important this hire is. Now, we know every hire is important. But at the same time, are there multiple VPs or is this the only one? Yep. So there’s things that need to be looked at. All right. Well, no this is great. I think touching on how F1, there’s these racer or these drivers- sorry, racers.

I don’t know where that came from. That works too. One and the same, but I think drivers definitely sounds better. Yeah. You know, these drivers, it’s about sometimes finding a better situation. And sometimes it’s about just finding one that is very content. You’re not pushing to be the leader, but top three, top five, and making good money doing it, and just kind of

being where you’re at. So with that, we like to do a segment called to- well, really to cap things off, called the Two Minute Drill, obviously a play on NFL Football. So talk to me. Let’s wrap this up. Sounds good. If it was an F1 reference, it’d be like the white flag, which is the final lap.

So, yeah. Thanks for having me on today. I love sharing about rookies in F1, some of their struggles, how that relates to starting a new job when you don’t have a lot of experience. You know, you got to be patient. got to be proactive. You got to seek out answers. And also just the whole experienced versus inexperienced hire, sometimes going and finding someone more experienced could be more beneficial for you, even if you’ve got some preconceived notions about those experienced people being unhappy in more of like an individual contributor type role, for example.

Couldn’t agree more. And yeah, when it comes to rookies, I think my advice would just be, be curious. Ask questions, don’t assume anything. And really listen, actively listen and take good notes. And then the whole kind of debate between experienced verse, I guess maybe you call it more hungry or less

experienced, it can be case by case. In certain industries, having the up and comer, the hungry, I think could benefit well. But in other aspects, having the knowledge, the tenure, could also be a benefit. So, appreciate your thoughts on that and thank you guys for tuning in.

On behalf of Matt and myself, this is my first time kind of hosting. Dan usually does this. So I appreciate everyone sticking with us and join us again in to weeks. Dan will be back. Thank God. And as always, stay classy LinkedIn.

 

 

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