Recruiter of the Week featuring Barclay Burns

Well, let’s get things started on what has become our favorite segment: the recruiter of the week. We have one of our COVID hires joining us today. One of our first COVID hires. Exactly! Was he the first? I don’t know if he was the first. We’re going to ask him. Yes. Him and Shpresa I think. Although our viewers can’t see him nodding yes, I can. He is.

So he said, yes, he is. But without further ado, let’s bring in Barclay. Hey Barclay! How’s it going? Hey, how you doing? Thank you for having me. Of course. We’re so excited to have you in. Thanks for the prompt. Although, you know, the viewers can see acknowledging that you were the first COVID hire. Before we get started on our rapid fire questions

game, how was that? How was joining Hirewell in the middle of the pandemic? Yeah, it was last August and I had already been working from home in my previous role. So I was sort of, I had been through this before where you have to onboard without actually meeting anyone. The good news here was everyone mostly is in Chicago.

So it was very limited, but there were a few opportunities to meet in person. I think last November we did the charity then, and that was kind of the first time seeing people. And then a few things here and there. And then the summer outing was like seeing everyone in real life. It was like seeing celebrities or something you seen on screen.

And suddenly I’m like, oh my God, they’re right there. I didn’t realize how tall you were. I was like fascinated to see how tall folks were, because you just have no frame of reference. So Barclay is pretty tall for those of you that are watching. 6’2. So it’s like- I think that’s pretty tall. That’s almost a full foot taller than I am.

So in my opinion, it’s really tall. That is a thing though, for people meeting each other for the first time in real life because everyone on the zoom is the same size. Exactly. True, true, true! We’re all in our little box. Well, we’re so excited to have you on. Now we know who you are. We’re going to play our rapid fire question games.

Two minutes. We’ll go on the clock. You have two minutes to answer as many questions as possible, answer them quickly but of course, thoughtfully. We will go as rapidly as possible. Are you ready for this? I think so. I’ve seen a few of these. I kind of know what to expect, but not always. I know you guys are going to throw a curve ball at me. We’re going to keep you on your toes for sure.

Ryan likes to ask some tough questions. All right, Ryan will ask your first question in three, in two, go. What’s your favorite thing about working in Hirewell? Okay.

So I know the people, I know, but let me go, let me get deeper on this. It’s the teamwork and collaborative nature of how we all work together, which I think is rare in the agency world.

I think we have something special there in terms of how much we collaborate.

Yeah, I like it. Went a little bit deeper, I’ll take it, I’ll take it. Fall is so close. We’re hanging on to summer though. What is your favorite fall activity? Fall activity? Oh, it has to be my probably watching- well football of course. My son is playing tackle football for the first year.

So that’s really exciting. So I’m looking forward to that. What position? He is playing running back and linebacker. So he’s in seventh grade and they’re all like learning. So it’s fun to watch. That’ll be my Sundays this fall, for sure. So fun! Well follow up football question. Who is your favorite NFL team?

The Bears, of course. I grew up in the St. Louis area, but we didn’t have much of a team back in the day. And I was gone by the time the Rams came. So the Bears were my adopted and now my hometown team for sure. I love it. When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grow up? Doesn’t everyone want to be an astronaut at some point in their life, you know? Personally

no, but I’m the odd person out? Well, science was fun when I was a little kid and then at some point it starts to get real and get really mathy. And I was like, Hmm, maybe this is not for me. Math is hard. So I get that for sure. If there’s one movie that you could watch like over and over and over again, what movie is that? Goodfellas probably.

I mean, it’s still hilarious and awesome and funny. I don’t know. It’s still the best, so I know that’s kind of a standard answer, but- I love the question too. Good question. Good answer. Another good question. Ryan’s questions are so good on this sheet. If you were in a zombie apocalypse, okay so just imagine you’re in a zombie apocalypse right now, who are three people that you would want on your team?

Okay. Yeah, my wife who always has the best street sense and kind of has basically been making the big decisions for most of my adult life.

Yas! Shoutout wifey! And then it has to be my father-in-law, who’s an ex-Chicago cop and he double downing on the streets since. So he’s a must have for sure, for sure. And then, um, let’s see. Oh my God. I have two sons, so I can’t make a selfish choice on that. I have to go- just leave them out. I’m going to leave that out. I’ll go with my dog, Sadie.

I got to bring him along as well. Well that sounds like a jam pack team for sure. We’re finishing on that. There’s no other question we can ask that will top that. I do hope though that your sons don’t see this. Dad, you chose the dog over us. Yeah. Well he’s in high school and he’s got access to the- he’s what’s LinkedIn? Let me check that out.

I’m like, okay. Whatever you want. You’ll be the high schooler doing that. Now you have to ask the same question. See if you make his team or not. Yeah, for sure. That’s too good. You’re really good at that game. You’re quick. You’re recruiter of the week, because you were just able to answer all those questions, gave us a ton of insight to who you are.

So thanks for sharing. Absolutely. This is really fun, but yeah. We should- I mean, this might be as like, it could be just like a standard interview for Hirewell going forward. Maybe we should add this to the interview process, like the final step is joining us on the live show, ask you all these questions. Oh my god, we would be able to hire no one.

We always talk about clients about like they’re challenging interview processes and that would be next level. I think a lot of folks may drop out, but once you’re at Hirewell, you have no choice. So that’s, I think that’s kind of how we sucker people into doing this but you killed it Barclay! So thanks for joining us.

We’ll have you back for another round and just go through the rest of the questions. Yeah more questions. Let’s do it again. I love it. Well, thank you so much. We’re going to see you another time. I’m excited, that was great. But thanks for joining- we’ll see you soon see you soon! Thank you both.