The second episode of this season includes HR Associate, Duncan Owen. The hosts, Demetrius Norman and Aly Sharp, dive into Duncan’s exceptional collegiate involvements and how they helped his career thus far!
In the second episode of Season 7, HR Associate Duncan Owen joins hosts Demetrius Norman and Aly Sharp to discuss his exceptional collegiate involvements and how they’ve helped his career thus far!
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Aly Sharp:
Welcome back to season seven of Career Compass, a podcast from SHRM and the SHRM Foundation. Career Compass prepares the future leaders today for better workplaces tomorrow.
Demetrius Norman:
Thank you so much for joining us for this episode. My name is Demetrius Norman.
Aly Sharp:
And my name is Aly Sharp. Together we're going to be talking about the college to career transition of an HR associate.
Demetrius Norman:
We are ready to jump into today's conversation, and Career Compass would like to warmly welcome Duncan Owen, a professional technical recruiter at Summit Human Capital on their government services team. He helps connect candidates' career passions to client missions within the federal and SLED government contracting community.
Duncan Owen:
Thank you for the invitation. It's my pleasure to join y'all.
Aly Sharp:
And with that, let's get started. My fellow Christopher Newport University Captain, can you give the audience a brief breakdown on your college experience involvements and studies?
Duncan Owen:
Absolutely. I kept my college years pretty tightly packed with activities because I wanted to learn as much outside the classroom as I did inside the classroom. I did study communication studies and I focused more on the interpersonal side, which translated directly into my involvement. I kept myself pretty busy across a variety of disciplines. I was in the campus activities board on their student programming board to kind of gain the foundation with event planning, and then I was heavily involved in the social Greek community. I was in a social fraternity and was on the executive board, and then I was in the inner fraternity council on the executive board with Allie as well. She was in Panhellenic, so that's how I got to know her. And then outside of the Greek community, I was in Lambda Piata, which was a communication honors society. I was a freshman orientation leader, and then I helped participate in undergraduate research as well.
Aly Sharp:
This guy, he literally did it all.
Demetrius Norman:
I know.
Aly Sharp:
And that was in four years.
Demetrius Norman:
Wow.
Duncan Owen:
In four years, yes.
Demetrius Norman:
That is impressive. That is impressive. Now look, I heard you mentioned that you studied communications. How did you know that although you studied communications, you wanted to go into the area of HR?
Duncan Owen:
Absolutely. I knew that I always wanted to work with people. Going into college, I knew that I wanted to do something involving communications and helping people. I kind of had the idea that I could turn this into a career option because I was a tour guide as well. I knew how to recruit people and how to talk to people in a variety of situations. Combined with my interpersonal focus in my classes, I knew how to study and react to situations, not necessarily on a psychology based standpoint, but how to just use my ability to chat in different situations.
Demetrius Norman:
No, that's good. And even with that, it's interesting because communications, you learn how to share varying messages to varying different groups. Even with that, can you talk even about how the messaging aspect of communication helped you to transition or prepare for HR? What did that look like? How were you using that to basically inform what it is that you do now?
Duncan Owen:
Sure. A lot of what we've studied in our interpersonal classes is focusing on communication that went wrong. I took a business ethics class as well, and it kind of was like an elective and was able to see on business cases where the phrasing and messaging didn't go to plan or could it be interpreted differently. Another one of the classes I took is rhetoric. It focuses on how a messaging is conveyed across a variety of situations. Really being able to understand how you can say something and it not be coming across that way. But a lot of what I did was practiced with real life situations and just real life practice.
Demetrius Norman:
Wow, that's good.
Aly Sharp:
I heard those classes were really hard too.
Duncan Owen:
They were challenging. I will say as much as I love the media studies aspect, I did take a couple media studies classes. I did want to try something that I probably wouldn't already know just through being on my phone all the time. I did kind of be always aware of the media and it would've been cool to take a critical cultural approach, but I figured might as well challenge myself a little bit and take these interpersonal classes because it will pay off.
Aly Sharp:
Definitely. That's something we focus on at our conferences, we started to this year is focusing on having those difficult conversations because a lot of times when students have the business background or they study HR specifically, they're not getting the communication tips that you would get in a communications kind of background. At least I didn't. I studied business at CNU, so I didn't have to take those classes. I was like, he, he, I'll just make my graphic design and write this paper. But since I know that you are also involved over the summer, how was your HR internship and how do you recommend that students kind of get their foot in the door with HR?
Duncan Owen:
Absolutely. Prior to starting an official internship in HR, I think this is really beneficial for people wanting to get their foot in the door is customer service based roles. I was a lifeguard and lifeguard manager. That taught me not only how to react in a professional setting outside of what is considered a traditional corporate world, just how to handle a crisis management, how to communicate to parents and people of all ages, but also that really strong customer service background. And I did that for about six years. I was promoted up from entry level, if you want to say, to managing and training a staff. That definitely helped in interviewing for HR associate internships. And then the internship I initially had because of COVID, it was pushed back and initially canceled. I decided to really try something different and I worked at Chick-fil-A and Old Navy as well.
That gave you the real strong customer service background at Chick-fil-A. It really taught me a lot about how to deal with stressful situation and still maintaining that platinum level service. Then the following summer, I worked at Canon Virginia Incorporated in Newport News, and I did a rotational internship. My main focus was in corporate communications, so helping with member engagement and internal communications and helping communicate that to the members. But then also I shadowed different departments, so I studied benefits and talent acquisition, and that kind of was where I was more leaning towards is just kind of getting a passion because I was doing campus tours as a tour guide as well, so I knew that liked getting people to follow what I was doing as well. After that summer, they decided to keep me on as a recruiting intern. I got to gain my first experience to what goes into the talent acquisition lifecycle, and that's ultimately the path that I ended up choosing.
Aly Sharp:
That's so cool. And I totally forgot that COVID was even a thing just because of how many things you listed that you were involved in. It doesn't seem like you would've had time to take a year off campus.
Demetrius Norman:
It didn't slow down at all. It was moving. No, that's good.
Duncan Owen:
Thank you. No, I did want to add as much experience as possible because if I was looking at it, nothing was guaranteed with a corporate internship. If I was always trying to build my resume that if you could always spend an experience and a life lesson so it wouldn't hold you back.
Aly Sharp:
Yeah. It's definitely where that communication comes in handy when you have to spin things like you just did. You were like, I was a lifeguard, but I wouldn't have even thought by the end of how you were explaining that you were talking about being a lifeguard.
Duncan Owen:
Thank you.
Aly Sharp:
Which is so important.
Duncan Owen:
Yes. I'll say that was probably one of the coolest summer jobs I've ever had because I wasn't having to save someone, work a tan. And the overtime pay, that was very nice.
Aly Sharp:
Yeah.
Demetrius Norman:
And you've successfully moved from college to now a career. You've talked a little bit about your career journey. Can you talk a little bit about what skills are beneficial for this career path and what skills did you develop along your career journey?
Duncan Owen:
Absolutely. One of the beautiful things about the role that I'm in right now as a technical recruiter is that I do a lot of the HR functions each day because when we're working with different clients and candidates, it's kind of condensing everything. Probably the biggest thing that I see as a necessary skill point for working in HR is a sense of empathy and wanting to work with and help people. A lot of people are driven and kind of clinging to the field just because we like to help people want to ultimately resolve problems. A sense of problem solving and creativity and really just being an empathetic leader. But one thing that is really important is communication, not both just interpersonally, but being able to vary your approaches and not be very rigid. One thing that I've learned to develop in my career is you can't always approach every situation the same. You can't be very rigid. You have to learn to be very flexible. That's something that I've had to learn throughout the last year, I will say, of post-grad, is being able to be flexible and vary each approach and not just go through one approach one way.
Demetrius Norman:
I like that. I like that. And as you were talking, even in being in recruiting, the thought that came to mind is you now get exposed to the talent pool, right? Can you share a little bit about what you're noticing in today's market with the talent that's out there? What are you seeing in terms of what folks are expecting or looking for when joining an organization?
Duncan Owen:
I think a lot of people are looking for consistent messaging. During the rise of the great resignation and different changes after people have been inherently working from home for a couple of years, they were looking for something different, and I think a lot of organizations were promising certain aspects. And then once the market and the economy kind of changed, they unfortunately had to lay off en masse. And I think that's why a lot of people are looking for the same messaging and strong presence from brands, companies that they've been that backbone, honestly. I think a lot of people, when they're looking at a fit, they're not immediately just looking at salary or perks. They're looking at long-term stability and trust. I think a lot of people are mainly wondering why this position is opening and the value they'd add to the team rather than just immediately what's in it for them. And then I think a lot of people are just taking their time to really reevaluate their choices if they are making a move right now.
But a lot of people are motivated, I will say, to find opportunities once they are looking for new opportunity. A lot of people are relying more on their network. And instead of just finding a role on their own, they're leaning into referrals and who they know.
Demetrius Norman:
Definitely.
Aly Sharp:
Definitely.
Demetrius Norman:
And Allie, that theme of stability and trust keeps coming up, right?
Aly Sharp:
I know. It's my generation, man. That's what's most important because we did, I mean, granted, we weren't really old enough to understand what was happening during 2008, so I don't know why I was going to say 2008, but we weren't really aware of what was going on.
Demetrius Norman:
Mm-hmm.
Aly Sharp:
We knew that the economy was in shambles and groceries were super expensive. And I think, genuinely I can't say that with full confidence, but the threat of that happening to us is terrifying.
Demetrius Norman:
Yeah.
Aly Sharp:
I mean, it's terrifying to happen to anyone, but just because we haven't experienced that yet and we've heard about how awful it was, and meanwhile we're just getting our feet set in our careers, it's terrifying.
Demetrius Norman:
Yeah. And I can only imagine, but I would say it sounds like you had an amazing path and you continue to develop. Yeah, it's all good stuff. And even the experiences from the way that I agree with Allie, the way that you took your experience and just framed it with lifeguard, I would say that's pretty similar to HR. When it's smooth and quiet, it's smooth and quiet, but when there's an emergency, there is an emergency. How great is it that you've had the varying experiences to help prepare you for where you are right now and where you're going. All good stuff.
Duncan Owen:
I don't want to say you have to learn how to think on your feet, but you might literally have to jump into action and necessary in the field.
Aly Sharp:
We are having such a great conversation, but I want to pause for just a second. Those of you listening to this podcast who are seeking professional development credit, this program is valid for 0.5 PDCs for the SHRM CP or SHRM SCP. The code to redeem your PDC is 24-ES2JJ. Please note that this code will expire on October 3rd, 2024. Again, that code is 24-ES2JJ. Back to the convo.
Demetrius Norman:
Thanks, Allie. Now listen, we are having a good time here with Duncan. And Duncan, I want to ask you, so being a recent grad, you were once a student and now you're working in your career. Do you have any advice for students who might not be studying HR specifically, but want to get into the field?
Duncan Owen:
Absolutely. I recommend looking for entry-level internships. I know my senior year, I was able to get class credit for a remote internship. Being able to find those opportunities where not only you could earn class credit, but as I was saying earlier about how job seekers are looking into their network, I'd say ask your professors. Your professors are often some of the best resources for students, but also look on campus for campus involvement. By the time you're in your senior year, I would've hoped you have kind of joined other organizations on campus and held leadership roles. But leaning into those as well, since alumni oftentimes have connections into field, but being able to use those leadership roles and everything that you've learned, being able to kind of spin that into experience definitely helps throughout an interview. I also think one of the most important skills with looking to get into HR is being able to learn the skill of, tell me about yourself.
When I was applying to CNU, my dad taught me the most important piece of interviewing. It's going to be one of the questions is tell me more about yourself or what should I know about yourself. Being able to sell yourself inherently in just under 30 seconds is an important life skill when you're narrating all of your past experiences and involvements on campus looking for that role.
Aly Sharp:
I kind of have a follow-up on that. Since you were exposed to so many people and you referenced alumni, did you have a mentor at any point, maybe multiple mentors who could give you advice or were just there for you to bounce ideas off of?
Duncan Owen:
Yes. I will say that in my fraternity, there was an alumni network. There's an alumni page with about 60,000 members on it, on LinkedIn, for example. But in the chapter specifically, we were kind of sent a Google form and this was a program that they were piloting at the time where alumni would then reach out with, this is where my current role is at. And then they would rank your interests as an undergraduate. Would be like, would you be interested in HR or consulting or something in finance accounting? Then they would kind of steer you towards alumni of that respected area. I did reach out to a couple of alumni that were working in the human resources space and they critiqued my resume and gave me tips. And then I was given great advice on how to format a resume with making it shorter and doing more with less, for example, because it's easy sometimes when you're narrating your experiences to over communicate what you've done. That's an important skill that I was taught is how to do more with less.
Aly Sharp:
That's really important. And I would say that my fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, that's the business fraternity. It was co-ed. They kind of did a similar thing where we would do the Google form for an alumni brother and we were each matched up and it was actually part of our rush experience. One of the qualifications to become a brother was to basically have one of those conversations where you're just like, what do you do? What's going on? How did you get there? How did Alpha Kappa Psi help you? How did being at CNU help you? And basically they were forcing us to have a mentor and growing those relationships, but it helped so much because we were able to learn more about that outside of campus experience, what was going to happen when we graduated.
Demetrius Norman:
And it sounds like what's important in what you both are saying is making sure that you have a community around you that can help support and fine tune and help you cultivate that skillset. And then most importantly, that networking, the value of networking and making sure that you leverage that to push you into whether it's your next job or either the next opportunity. All good stuff, all good stuff. I have another question. During the SHRM conference this year in our booth, we actually had this exercise where we were encouraging HR professionals to write a letter to themselves. And we are actually mailing those letters to individuals who participated, and it's to your future self. And what I want you to do is envision yourself five years from now. If you right now had to write a letter to the Duncan who was five years older, what would you tell, remind, or just tell Duncan to do, go for or just to stop? Or what encouragement would you give to Duncan whose now five years older?
Duncan Owen:
That's a good question. I definitely would say continue to take advantage of every opportunity. As I continue to advance in my career, there are definitely more opportunities that would come my way. If anything, there would be larger and fewer in between as they would scale up. I'd say continuously just to say yes. One thing that I've challenged myself for this year, both for my career and outside of work, is to take advantage of opportunities as they come, because you never know what they could lead to. I definitely would love for myself to keep continuing on that.
Demetrius Norman:
I like that. Take advantage of every opportunity.
Aly Sharp:
Mm-hmm. Anything that you want to tell yourself to stop doing, perhaps? In my mind it would be stop overthinking or stop rushing, because I feel like another thing that's really common with people our age or new to a job is that we expect everything to come so quickly.
Demetrius Norman:
Mm-hmm.
Aly Sharp:
And a lot of times being patient has never been my strong suit, but especially now where I'm like, well, I'm just waiting. But I'm like, you don't always have to be in line for a promotion. You can have time in your job.
Duncan Owen:
Right.
Aly Sharp:
That's one thing I really struggle with. I don't know if you feel the same way.
Duncan Owen:
I definitely do feel the same way of the process I'm waiting. I'm very motivated and can get impatient when things aren't according to my timeline. I would love for things to happen. And so I would love for myself to stay more in the moment and to be present with the experience that I'm having now. I definitely think that's one thing I've really challenged myself for this year, instead of to just be thinking forward about everything, to live more into what's happening now and to just strengthen the relationships that I have right now. It has been a bit of an interesting challenge just to balance the different relationships both in your corporate life, but then also friendship wise from people in the past. Maintaining those relationships is one thing that I would love to keep working on.
Aly Sharp:
I think that's [inaudible 00:20:34] perspective.
Demetrius Norman:
I love that. It's a whole life lesson. Staying in the moment and pacing yourself. I love it, I love it.
Aly Sharp:
Right. That's a great way to put it too.
Demetrius Norman:
Yeah.
Aly Sharp:
It's just like, be in the moment.
Demetrius Norman:
No, all good stuff. All good stuff.
Aly Sharp:
But thank you, Duncan, so much for joining us on Career Compass. It's so great to catch up with you.
Duncan Owen:
Of course. Great to catch up with y'all, and thank you so much for having me.
Demetrius Norman:
No, you are so welcome. And with that, we're going to bring this episode of Career Compass to a close. We just want to say thank you all for joining us, and we hope you stay with us throughout this season as we continue to discuss more topics like this episode.
Aly Sharp:
For more exclusive content, resources and tools to help you succeed in your career, consider joining SHRM as a student member. You can visit us at shrm.org/students to learn more.
Demetrius Norman:
And lastly, are you looking for more work and career related podcasts? Check out all things work and honest HR at shrm.org/podcast. And with that said, thank you again for listening, and we'll catch you in the next episode of Career Compass.