Our Blog

BY Joel Junker

The Matching Process & the November 2018 Career Conference

Our fifth and final Career Conference of 2018 is now upon us!!  My colleague, Pete Van Epps, recently published a blog post about the accuracy of a Cameron-Brooks Career Conference and if you’d like, you can read the post here.  In this post, he outlines several key statistics that I believe are pretty unique to a Cameron-Brooks Career Conference as opposed to other types of Conferences, Job Fairs, etc.  What I wanted to address in this blog post is a short “behind the scenes” look as to why the Conference is so precise.  When the November Candidates arrive in Charlotte tomorrow and Friday, they won’t find a single booth, a meet & greet session, nor will they be walking the hallways of the hotel aimlessly trying to figure out which company they should speak with.  Our candidates will be averaging over 12 interviews apiece at this Conference; and when I say interviews I mean pre-arranged interviews with the hiring managers that have been matched to their specific backgrounds, qualifications, and interests.

This is because the Cameron-Brooks matching process is an extensive, 3-week process, but in reality it really starts months to even years before a candidate attends a Conference.  At Cameron-Brooks, we believe in, and value, spending a considerable amount of time meeting and getting to know our candidates (average time in our program is 12 months) and our client companies.  For the candidates, we spend extensive time, money, and effort to travel to various bases and posts to meet our candidates in person, get to know them as individuals beyond their evaluations and military records, and better understand their goals, strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, preferences for career fields and locations, etc.  At the same time, we are helping them develop in our program to grow as leaders and future business professionals.  We also spend extensive time getting to know our client companies through multiple conversations to understand their hiring needs, why they are interested in a JMO, helping them understand your background, etc.

So by the time we are ready to begin the matching process, we have a clear picture of our candidates and our client companies.  The matching phase consists of 3 rounds helping to put together a candidate’s interview schedule for opportunities that fit their backgrounds, qualifications, interests, location preferences, etc.  So when the candidates show up at the Career Conference, they are able to conduct a very high quality, broad search across multiple industries, career fields, positions, and locations to help them determine what their very best fit will be.  We have a great lineup of companies and opportunities awaiting the November Career Conference Candidates and expect the average number of interviews to be 12+ per Candidate!  Here is a quick sampling of what we have in store for the November Candidates:

Sample industries include:  Consumer Package Goods, Medical Device, Energy Sector, Consulting, Banking, Pharmaceutical, Building Materials, Construction, Professional Services, and more.

Sample companies include:  Eli Lilly, AmerisourceBergen, EY, Johnson & Johnson, Pactiv Corporation, KeyBank, USAA, Mars Petcare, Stryker Corporation, Gallo Winery, ExxonMobil, Asurion, SC Johnson, DaVita Healthcare, and many more.

Sample positions include: Program Operations Manager, Field Clinical Representative, Senior Financial Analyst, Technical Services Engineer, IT Analyst, Director of Operations, Quality Team Leader, Strategic Operations Leader, Senior Consultant, Manufacturing Engineer Team Leader, Investment Banking Analyst, Product Manager, Sales Account Manager, and many more.

Sample locations include:  Nashville, TN; Chicago, IL; Indianapolis, IN; Dallas, TX; Minneapolis, MN; Houston, TX; Kansas City, MO; New York City, NY, Birmingham, AL; Boston, MA; Jacksonville, FL: San Francisco, CA; Cleveland, OH; San Jose, CA; Saint Louis, MO; Austin, TX and many more.

Finally, if you haven’t already, check out our iTunes podcast either on your podcast app or here. On the podcast, we interview Cameron-Brooks alumni who are making an impact in the business world. The podcast features alumni from different military backgrounds who went into a variety of roles across companies and industries.

Stay tuned until next week – I’ll be back to post the results of the November 2018 Career Conference!

Rob