Kathleen Smith 00:51
Hello everyone out there in podcast world. Welcome to another episode of Security Cleared Jobs: Who's Hiring & How. And today we are missing Rachel. Don't worry fans, she's still with us. She's just stuck in an airport. So today joining us we have Jay June, Director of Talent Management with PingWind. And joining me as my co-host is our wonderful producer, Ashley Jones.
Ashley Jones 01:18
Hello, hello.
Kathleen Smith 01:19
Jay, welcome to the show.
Jay June Jr 01:21
Thank you for having me both.
Kathleen Smith 01:22
So Jay, you've gone from being a captain of your college football team to running recruiting at PingWind. Tell us how you scored such a career touchdown.
Jay June Jr 01:33
Thanks for bringing it up. You know, football has meant a lot to me. It's taken me places I never thought I'd go just from playing a simple sport. But it's not the most ideal path, right? I think recruiting and football have a lot of similarities. One of the things is just the passion and the want to. When you're out on that field, when you're trying to make plays, when you're trying to stand out amongst a group of individuals, that carries over to the recruiting life as well. So just trying to find that talent that stands out from the rest of the group has a lot of say so in that.
Kathleen Smith 02:04
So the first question on everyone's mind is the name of the company. What is the origin of the company name? I know when you and I met at a most recent Cleared Job Fair, you were giving away penguins. So what is the connection between penguins, the animals, and PingWind, the company name?
Jay June Jr 02:24
I actually went to the CEO, because I wanted to get it right for you guys on the podcast. So it was actually the CEO, Aaron Moak and his wife, they were actually engaged in Antarctica, and they saw a lot of penguins. And from there as far as family tradition, their family gives them a lot of penguin items like dishes, towels, things of that nature. And then as a result of that, when they started their first big step into entrepreneurship, his wife came up with PingWind instead of Penguin as a reference back to IT.
Kathleen Smith 02:53
You always have to have sort of those keywords so that you can show your company culture right there in the name. And we'll get to the company culture later in our podcast. So what are some of the contracts or agencies that PingWind works with in the cleared community?
Jay June Jr 03:11
So we work with a lot of DoD contracts. So we have a DoD side, offensive side, so a lot of Army contracts, or some Navy, Air Force as well, but mostly a DoD offensive side of the house.
Ashley Jones 03:23
Awesome. And I'm excited because I know this is one of Rachel's favorite questions, and I get to throw it in there today. So Jay, what security cleared positions or skill sets are you typically hiring for?
Jay June Jr 03:33
Yeah, so I would say, it's a vast majority of different skill sets. So a lot of cybersecurity, network engineering systems, cloud migration, data analysts. All different areas of technology, even project and program management.
Ashley Jones 03:48
Jay, you mentioned all different areas of technology, but what kind of areas, geographically speaking, are we looking at? Where are the positions located?
Jay June Jr 03:56
Even though we're based out of Annandale, Virginia -- so the DC, Maryland, Virginia areas is where a lot of positions are located. Some remote. We have some contracts in the Orlando area, some in the Tampa area, some in the Miami, Florida area. So we're throughout the US and overseas. So you have some stuff in Honduras and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as well.
Kathleen Smith 04:16
So Jay, is it correct to say that most of your positions require a Secret or Top Secret security clearance?
Jay June Jr 04:24
It is, yes. So for most of our positions, a higher majority of them do require a Secret clearance, especially on the DoD side. Some of them do require Top Secret, but not a lot of them. A good thing is that some of our positions, even though it might start with a Secret, there's a possibility to upgrade to either a Top Secret or Top Secret SCI. So it's almost like a win-win for both the candidate and organization, because you as the candidate, you're coming in with a Secret clearance and we're upgrading you to a Top Secret and that also gives us some leverage to upgrade you and uplift you in your career path.
Kathleen Smith 05:02
Wonderful. Now, since you're in the Secret and Top Secret cleared community, does this give you opportunities for hybrid or remote positions? And if so, what are they?
Jay June Jr 05:14
On our offensive side, the non-cleared positions, those positions are the ones that are more likely remote or hybrid, just because the simple fact that it can be done almost anywhere. Some of our contracts that require a more Secret or Top Secret clearance, those contracts are a little bit more strict. They might want to have eyeballs on you more and more in office, it seems like the higher the clearance goes up. So if you have a Top Secret or Full Scope, it's predominantly going to be 100% on-site.
Ashley Jones 05:43
And Jay, I know that Kathleen mentioned the penguins that you were giving away at the recent job fair, but I also heard that you've hired three or four job seekers. That's very exciting to us. We love to see when job seekers land those jobs, but what did they do to stand out? Do you want to share any tips for cleared professionals on how they can impress you when they're at a job fair?
Jay June Jr 06:03
So I think one of the things that stood out with those four individuals was, they came into the job fair knowing the job that they wanted. They came to the table and those were the people that we met first off. I remember specifically, the two individuals, we met them, they were our first two people that walked over to the table, gave us their name, they let us know that, "hey, I've looked at your company online. I like what you do, what the company does. I like what you guys stand for. I've applied for this position, brought my resume, and I'm ready to showcase my skills, and I just need an opportunity." So based off of that, all we did was just kind of navigate and divvy out. So we took the resumes and gave those resumes over to the hiring manager and just let them know the passion that they came over to the table with. So there's always things that I like for candidates to just bring to our attention. If you're passionate about a certain position, let us know. You're always going to be the best advocate for yourself when seeking a new job.
Kathleen Smith 06:58
So Jay, when you were speaking with our team on the pre-call, I heard this really great quote and I loved it. So your quote is, "You never know the impact you're going to have on somebody. You never know what somebody is going to remember you for." So why is that important to a cleared job seeker?
Jay June Jr 07:19
I think it's very important just because the simple fact that like you said there, you never know what you're gonna remember someone for. Something as small as your nails, your hair, your shoes, your speech patterns, your behavior, your passion, your energy. One of the biggest things from a recruiting standpoint is energy. We read energy. Like if you're giving us exciting energy, we're going to reflect that back.
Kathleen Smith 07:40
And do you have any sort of examples of when you remembered somebody for something they did? Or maybe some great energy they brought and how that came back to you being able to offer them a job?
Jay June Jr 07:55
Yeah, I do. Actually, I can't remember if it was this job fair or it might have been another one. But what really stood out to me was a gentleman that fell on tough times. He was actually in between jobs. He had got laid off. His contract came to an end, but he had a great skill set. He wasn't out there on the job market very long. But he came to our table at a booth and he said, "Hey, I saw this job online. I'm at this job fair, because I was laid off." he was squeezed out of a position. And he was just letting us know his real life challenges. He has a family at home. He's the breadwinner for his household. He has bills coming in. He's been out of work for the past month or so. I think he might have been a developer. And as we all know, in this community developers are very hard to find. It's a very niche skill set, depending on which area of expertise it is. And he came over, let us know he was interested in the position. And I remember stepping aside and away from the table, and we usually do twos at the job fair. I let my second in charge know, "Hey, I'm gonna step away from the table." So what I did was I gave the program manager or hiring manager call and I said, "Hey, this guy just walked over to the table and poured out his life story to me. He let us know he's in between jobs. He has a family. And he has a really good skill set and background. I know I'm not ultimately the one in charge for the hiring of this individual, but I can definitely tell you that he's very passionate about it. And I think he's a person that you want to have on your team." So what I did was just divvy out the resume to the manager. An interview was scheduled and then ultimately, that individual was hired. And he was very gracious for the opportunity. He was grateful. He was able to support his family. We live in a real world, we do have a lot of real life challenges. For recruiters, we wear a lot of different hats. And it was one of the ones that I was very happy to say that I could wear at that point in time.
Ashley Jones 09:37
That's a great story. And I'm sure that you have lots of great stories. It sounds like you have a fabulous culture there. So can you tell us more about that culture and why a candidate would want to come work with you guys?
Jay June Jr 09:47
We are very family-oriented. I think it's comes from the aspect of we're a large company, but we're not too large, right? We're about 200-300+ employees. So we're right at that number where you can recognize names, we're not one of the big boys where you're just a number. Each and every person, you can see their impact within the organization. So I will say, that's one of the things that definitely stands out.
Kathleen Smith 10:11
That's something that we hear frequently on the podcast. And I think it's one thing that people don't really realize about the cleared community is, many of the companies are very family-oriented. You're all bonded together by a mission to support national security, to support the country. And you watch everyone's back, you take care of each other. And I always love it when someone shares that they have a very family-oriented culture, because I think it is one of the things that stands out about the government contracting and the defense industry. Everyone thinks that it's boring or nerdy or something like that, when it's actually exciting and very family-oriented, and people have lifelong friendships. So thank you for sharing that. I understand that you have some interesting interviewing experiences with one of your colleagues. I hear you chuckling at this. And it's always great to share these stories on interviewing with our audience, because I think everyone can have a takeaway and something that they can learn. So what is this interesting experience you would like to share with our listeners?
Jay June Jr 11:28
You guys are gonna laugh when you hear this. So there happened to be this individual position that we were hiring for, I think it might have been a cyber position. And we came across this great candidate, very well qualified on paper. I think one of our previous recruiters screened them very well. He spoke very eloquently. He had an active clearance, he had some of the certification requirements that usually some of these positions of this magnitude require. And during the course of the interview -- they scheduled the interview, I think it might have been around noon Eastern Standard Time. And I think that he had a high level clearance. So I say that to say it might have been, you know, a lot of those individuals, they might not have access to a phone, or they have a specific window where they can eat lunch, or do those types of things. And this specific individual, I'm guessing it might have been his lunch break. But during the course of the interview, he was eating, like eating his lunch very loudly, like it might have been some crackers. You heard munching, you heard everything. And although I was not on the interview, I heard it from both my internal recruiter, the one that's dedicated for sourcing that position, and from the program manager. I was like, you got to be kidding me. From my understanding, he was making sounds like "Mmm."
Kathleen Smith 12:42
You wanted him to share it.
Jay June Jr 12:44
Right, exactly. So I mean, I think ultimately, that hiring experience for that individual, I think we didn't ultimately hire him, because it was a very professional position and the customer was just a little different. But like I said, it just kind of relates back to like, we live in the real world, real world challenges, real life environments. And that was just one of the stories that really stuck out to me, even though I wasn't there. But just hearing the story of how it happened was just hilarious to me.
Kathleen Smith 13:12
So you just touched on something very unique, that I think people in our audience really need to understand, that there are the technical skills, there are the certifications, there are the experience. And then there's the culture of the company. But then there's also the culture of the client. And that is one of the best reasons to embrace a relationship with a recruiter so that you can find out about the company's culture, but they can also give you insight into the culture of the client, the client site of where you're going to sit, what you're going to do. That is one of the reasons why recruiters like coming to job fairs because they can understand the candidate's culture, the candidate's attitude, prior to the entire hiring process. Because a lot of companies say they have the skills, they have the certification, they have the energy, they have everything, but they don't like wearing Argyle sweaters and our client is an all Argyle sweater wearing client and it's just not going to work. And that's one of the hard things in our community is it all boils down to that last step. And one of the reasons why a job fair is great is that you can sort of see upfront what that overall process is. So good thing to our job seekers in the audience, be sure you ask in the interview or even at a job fair, what is the culture of the client? How am I going to be successful there? Do you agree Jay? I mean, because there are many times I'm sure you've recruited a candidate and then they've gotten down to the point and they didn't want to wear an argyle sweater.
Jay June Jr 13:41
Yes, and we have multiple contracts with different work environments. We have some environments where it's very stressful, very fast pace. We have some environments where it's very relaxed. I can remember this one specific contract. This gentleman came in to interview and he wore a suit. But we're a very relaxed, chilled environment. Whereas you might see some other people around the office wearing khaki shorts or something like that. You don't have to wear a suit. And there are certain contracts that you might have to wear a suit, you might have to be very professional, there's no joking. It's very serious from the time you step in till you clock out. So I think like you said, I mean, just building that relationship and the camaraderie with the recruiter and kind of just knowing the work environments, even different hiring managers. Each and every hiring manager is different. Some of them might be more sticklers for certain areas. If you're not a person that is accustomed to that, it might not be a great fit. So I think all those things really mean a lot when sourcing and looking for a new job.
Ashley Jones 15:00
Well Jay, thank you for sharing all those insights. I know you've gotten some of our listeners really excited about possible opportunities with your company. So how can they get in touch with you and your team?
Jay June Jr 16:12
Yes, I can be reached at jerome.june@pingwind.com and then you can reach me on LinkedIn. I go by Jerome June. My nickname is Jay, but you can reach me at Jerome June Jr on LinkedIn. And you can reach out to some our recruiters, Zel Girma, Ashma Icbol, and Christine Gould, some excellent recruiters that you can kind of build relationships with, learn more about the company and some of our open positions.
Kathleen Smith 16:36
Wonderful, thanks for joining us today.
Jay June Jr 16:39
Thank you.
Ashley Jones 16:39
Thank you, Jay.
Kathleen Smith 16:42
So it was really great talking with Jerome, or Jay, as his nickname is Jay June from PingWind today. And I really liked the story he shared about the interesting interview and sort of reminding us that first impressions really make a big difference and understanding if you can't take the call for the interview, if you can't do it, reschedule. There's nothing wrong with rescheduling. So Ashley, what did you like about today's podcast?
Ashley Jones 17:14
It's all about first impressions. So whether it's rescheduling the interview, or making sure that you have done your homework ahead of a job fair so that you can storm the table, not just for swag but for conversations to further your job search. And not just asking about what does your company do, but coming ready with a position that you're interested in so you can really dig down into the meat and make that impression that is hopefully going to land you your next cleared job.
Kathleen Smith 17:39
Storm to give us our next five-star review. We really look forward to having you part of our podcast audience again. Make sure that everyone you know knows about the podcast and all the things you are learning. Bye.