Shawnita Mays

I honestly can attribute my success to my two bosses. I report to two directors, both of whom are very supportive of everything. If I need something, or if I can't do something, or I'm not doing something, I have them to go to. I can ask them, hey, how do we do this, or how can we fix this? They're there, they're very supportive of me. And I feel like that's why I have grown in my career, is because of them. Because they've been very supportive of me and allowing me to kind of develop and learn, as well as being very understanding when I've had my children, just being very understanding. I feel like that's helped me in staying in the field and build, and allowing me to advance. Because I started off and I worked my way up.

Be honest in what you do. I had a former manager who said, no matter what, always be honest in what you do, because when you start not being honest - and by that, she meant just being very transparent with the client and what we can and cannot do - because if you start saying you can do things that you can't, that's where we start missing deliverables and not meeting the objectives. So she said, always be honest in what you do and communicate with the client. I always keep that with me. It's either we can, or sometimes I've even told a client, like, I'm not sure if we can, but we can try. If you let us, we can try. But I can't guarantee. That's always stuck with me.

I would honestly find a career that is going to be rewarding, because I've also had friends where they're working a job that they liked, but didn't love, because the environment that they were in was just not happy. If you're working for a company and you're very miserable, I don't feel you can really succeed in an environment that you're not happy in. Find a company where you can talk to your boss. Both my directors have an open-door policy, and I really am comfortable going to both of them and asking or telling them something, because we've established that relationship. So it's nice to have that, because I've also heard where other companies or other people haven't had that, where they're scared to say something to their boss, and I can't imagine being scared to go to your boss.

I feel like AI is kind of changing the recruiting industry. A lot of the tools now with chat GPT and Indeed starting to use AI features a lot - it's a good and a bad. While it can help us identify candidates, sometimes I feel like it also kicks out candidates that I've seen are actually really good candidates. I've double-checked behind the tool to make sure, and I've noticed sometimes it keeps out those really good candidates that ended up being a good fit for the project. But according to the AI tool, they didn't meet the qualifications because they didn't either have something listed on the resume that it kicked them out. So I wouldn't fully be dependent on the AI tool yet, because I feel like it really just doesn't give people the fair chance. I always check on my end because I've just seen recently there's a couple that it's kicked out, and I'm like, actually, I'm gonna call this person. Another thing that's also been affecting our field is just funding. Some of our projects have been losing their funding, which is also decreasing the likelihood of field interviewers finding another project to get on.

Balance is really important to me, having the balance with my clients. My clients right now are very understanding that I have kids, and if something comes up and I'm like, hey, unfortunately, you know, I need to go get my child, my clients are very understanding. I have that relationship with them that I can explain to them, like, hey, this came up, I'll need to reschedule this meeting, and they're very accommodating. So I do value that with my clients - having that understanding with them. It makes a big difference.