Kathleen Smith  00:47

Hello everyone, and welcome back to our podcast world. We're so happy today to bring a new episode of our show, and joining me is a special guest. We have two special guests today. First is a special guest, Bob Wheeler, who is co-hosting.

Bob Wheeler  01:02

Hey, thanks. I always love getting a chance to fill in for Rachel. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, I really have a great time. And we're excited to learn more about some folks. Who are we talking to today?

Kathleen Smith  01:11

So today we have with us Steve Hatch. He's the Head of Human Resources and Communications for Technica Corporation. Steve, welcome to the show this morning.

Steve Hatch  01:21

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be with you both.

Bob Wheeler  01:24

Hey, Steve. Before we got kicked off, I was looking at your LinkedIn profile. You've got a lot of experience. You've been around the block in the recruiting world for some time now. Give us a little update. How did you get to Technica? What's the story there?

Steve Hatch  01:35

So I actually started out with Lockheed Martin when I graduated college and was fortunate enough to have a 22-year career with Lockheed, where I got involved in a number of different areas of human resources and recruiting. I then moved on to Booz Allen Hamilton for a couple years, and I got involved with some HR consulting work with a startup company. And then that expanded into doing some additional consulting with a small government contracting company. And so, as I was looking at my next opportunity, my career had always been in the government defense industry, and that was primarily where I was focusing. But for me, I had been with large companies pretty much my whole career, and so I wasn't necessarily focusing on smaller companies until I got into HR consulting. So that sort of opened my horizons a little bit. And I got the opportunity to get on with Technica, heading up their human resources, talent acquisition, communications functions for the company. And I’ve been here a little over three years now.

Kathleen Smith  02:41

Technica is unique in the sense that you have your own innovations Lab, which must be very exciting. Can you share with our listeners about the company and the work that you do with the innovation labs and sort of what does that mean for your broader presence within the cleared community?

Steve Hatch  02:58

Great question. So Technica has been around 33 years, and had initially started out in the telecommunications IT space. And as it grew, got into network security, software development-type backgrounds, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and has, I would say, specialized over the past several years in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cybersecurity space. Most all of our positions are working for either the federal government, the defense industry, Intel space, so most all our positions require top secret clearances, SCI, and all of those wonderful tickets. The innovations lab has been from the foundation of the company. And part of our culture is one of looking at developing new technology, new solutions for our customers that are looking two, three years ahead. So to do that, we developed a lab where we have engineers, we have software developers, scientists who are looking at what is not just the technology that's out there today, but what are potential issues, challenges that we're going to be facing, our customers are going to be facing down the road. And how do we start creating holistic solutions to go address those? And so a lot of that starts in our innovations lab, where we develop solutions, and then go back to our customers and say, oh, by the way, we're doing this contract with you. By the way, we can add this on with this capability, and it'll provide this much more functionality for what you need to do in accomplishing your mission.

Kathleen Smith  04:39

That must be really exciting, because you can go and add value to the project or to the contract. Does that really help you maintain the contract?

Steve Hatch  04:48

Yeah, that's a great way of looking at it. When you're constantly looking at what is possible, what are new ways of doing business, then you are looking at, where do you create the value? So that is definitely a way to enhance your contract, potentially grow a contract from its initial scope, and then hopefully position yourself for future competes and opportunities down the road.

Bob Wheeler  05:11

The innovation lab is cool. You mentioned some of the different fields that you're talking about. You know, machine learning, AI type stuff, but getting into the nitty gritty, our listeners really like to kind of know, the big question they always have is, what are you hiring for? If you had to break it down and look at it, what are the specific skillsets that are going into this that you're looking for there at Technica?

Steve Hatch  05:28

If we look at the software developer side of the house, Python is huge from a language standpoint, agile is pretty much expected and how we go to develop solutions. Obviously, there's different certifications that the government requires, Security+, other certifications to get onto those contracts. So that is, I would say, a core area from a language standpoint, C, C++, obviously are big languages out there. We are also looking for individuals that have expertise in artificial intelligence, cloud engineering, network security, cybersecurity are also core areas that we hire into. So individuals that have network engineering backgrounds, the hardware side, as well as on the systems side of the house doing IT operations. But the core I would say, is software, network security, cybersecurity, systems administration.

Bob Wheeler  06:27

Lots of stuff that's out there definitely. When we say out there, we’re talking about just in the Northern Virginia National Capital Region? What's your location look like as far as the footprint goes for your work?

Steve Hatch  06:38

So currently, the core footprint is in the metro DC areas. That's Maryland, Virginia, DC. We do have individuals that are working in other states remotely. We did have a core group of individuals down in San Antonio, Texas. Unfortunately, we did not win the recompete of that contract. But what we are finding with a lot of the customers that we interface with, Air Force, FBI, Navy, they require individuals to be on-site, so you're working at the customer site. They're starting to become a little more liberal in allowing for some hybrid, but some of our customers are pretty much 100% on-site.

Kathleen Smith  07:16

Yeah, we've talked to a lot of our customers over the last three years about hybrid remote and how you handle that. And I think that one thing that has really helped a lot of people is they realize that it's the professional’s responsibility to build their street cred with the customer, and then have that relationship with the customer and say there are maybe one or two projects that I can work from home one or two days. But again, that's something where you have to build the relationship with the customer. You have to have a reputation of building the project, and delivering it on time, and not slacking off. Is that something you've been seeing, or is it still yes/no hybrid remote.

Steve Hatch  07:57

That's absolutely true. Having that strong relationship, where they have that trust factor, and then they'll allow certain individuals, depending on their job, work a few days from home. So yes, they are starting to expand a little bit, and hopefully they'll be a little more progressive on the federal government side, just because you're fishing in a very finite pool. So it just makes it really challenging finding talent that's available.

Kathleen Smith  08:25

Well, I could talk about that for hours, and you only have a short amount of time. So we're sort of dovetailing here into culture, and we know that this culture is a very major decision-making factor for people who are picking their next place of work. And you shared a little bit earlier about Technica’s history with the innovation lab and that's sort of been building along. Can you sort of tell us a little bit more about what type of person would really thrive at Technica? It sounds like you should be innovative. You should be agile. Yes, I'm using those words from before in a different way, but tell us, who's going to thrive at Technica?

Steve Hatch  09:03

No, I think those are good words to keep using, because when you're innovating, you're constantly having to learn new things. So people that thrive at Technica are ones that enjoy continuous learning. And that isn't learning that your manager says, okay, you got to go understand this particular capability and this particular skill set. It is the mindset of always wanting to learn something new and to stretch beyond what your current capabilities are. So having an inquisitive mind, challenging the status quo, looking for areas that could be increased in productivity or efficiency, understanding the why behind certain things are happening, and don't just accept it, but to question, why are we doing this? And through that, hopefully better solutions become available to our customers. And I would say the third core area is, for the work that we do in support of the US government, we are very customer-focused and customer mission-driven, and so having that desire to provide services and capabilities in support of not only our national security, but the protection of our troops overseas is, I would say, an important mindset to have in this field and who we support.

Bob Wheeler  10:28

That's great stuff. Steve, in part of the pre-call, you talked about interviews too, and that's something that you have some good knowledge on and get a little passion for helping people do better at interviews. When we talk about interviewing advice, first of all, you mentioned a lot of stuff, like agile and Python, a lot of that stuff can be on the resume. But then you started talking about culture, and I’ve got to imagine that the interview is where you're looking for that real fit for the organization. So what are you looking for in an interview? And what kind of tips would you give to someone who's going to try to bring that stuff out in the interview process?

Steve Hatch  10:56

It's important for somebody to research the company that they're interviewing with, not just what the job is, but understand a little bit about the company, their history, what type of work they do, who are their customers. By having that foundation, you can bring that knowledge and information to the interview. And as an interviewer, I can tell when somebody has actually done some research. To me that's a critical factor in assessing somebody for a position, if they're going to put in the time and effort to learn a little bit about your company, that will hopefully translate into how they approach their job. And then obviously, being excited about the job that you're interviewing for. Virtually makes it a little tougher when you’re not able to have eye contact. Look at the actual camera, versus just looking at the computer screen every now and then. Being excited about the job, smiling, engaging, asking questions, those are all pieces that are not on the resume that you can sit there and get a sense of that person's sort of behavioral components.

Bob Wheeler  12:02

Yeah. And you know, one of the things that I know can be frustrating for recruiters, for hiring managers, is when the candidate sits down and their first question to you is, so tell me what Technica does. What do you guys do?

Steve Hatch  12:14

You don’t need to be an expert, obviously, but if you just do some basic research, that will help create a few questions that you could be prepared to ask, because typically at the end of an interview or during the interview, they'll say, “Well, do you have any questions for us?” And so to have some actual questions related to the company is more meaningful than just “What's your salary?” or “What are the benefits?” And to your point, “What do you do at Technica?” I don't know. I just get turned off really quick, if that's going to be the question. As a matter of fact, I've been in HR for so long now that in the interview, if they ask me that question, I say, “Well, what have you looked at to understand what we do?” I just put it back on them.

Kathleen Smith  12:54

That's a great thing to do, especially because then, can they understand that they flubbed it? How can they backpedal? I always love it's not what you stepped in, but how you get it off your shoe. So I heard that you had someone, a cleared professional, who really impressed you right at the start of their interview. So can you tell us that story and why it impressed you so that maybe other people in the audience can learn from that?

Steve Hatch  13:21

Yeah. So we were actually looking for a BD Director supporting one of our DoD customers. I did the first interview with that individual virtually, so we're on camera, but the minute he got on, smiling, engaging, greeted me by name, asked how I was doing, sort of took control in a way, of the beginning part of the conversation, not extending it a long time with a bunch of questions that are just wasting time, but actually was confident in who he was and being able to have a dialog. Now, obviously, from a business development standpoint, you want somebody who can engage with customers and so forth, but he was just exuding that skillset that you want to see as they go knock on the door of potential customers down the road. Then as we were going through the interview, he pulled in specific examples of what he had done related to the question. This is something that I always try to tell individuals when they're going in and interviewing is to utilize what's called the STAR model. That stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. So as you prepare for an interview, and he obviously did, it was having him communicate what was the particular situation or task that he was dealing with, and then what was the specific actions he took and the results of that? I mean, there's team components, right? And you hear about it's important to be able to work in a team and all of that. But when you're interviewing, you want to be able to identify what you did and how you either led a team or what you did as an individual contributor. And so by understanding those situations, being able to identify the actions you took and the results, it was just a nice, sort of perfect way of answering the questions, so you don't have to do three, four follow-up questions trying to get at the details. And so he just did that so well, and you just got a sense that he was very confident in who he is. And that's the other thing I would tell somebody that's interviewing, be confident. You don't have to stretch the truth of what you've done, but be confident in what your skills are and what you've accomplished. And that came across very early on in the interview, and it just made the interview a lot more engaging. And so it was more of a conversation, frankly, as we were going along, versus question one, give me an answer. Question two, etc.

Bob Wheeler  15:48

Adding to what you said Steve, STAR statement is not a new idea as a concept, but I just love how you talk about that as an interview piece, because I see it mostly in the aspect of just for the resume. So that's a great way of looking at things.

Steve Hatch  16:02

The way that I view it is, your resume, as you look at those bullets, in that STAR model, are the action and the result. What were the actions you took and what were the results? Because you have to distinguish yourself from everybody else that's applying to that job. And it comes down to what the results are of the actions that you took. Everybody has similar duties in a job. I mean, it's harder when you're entry-level getting into your career. You don't necessarily have a lot of accomplishments, but as you start developing those accomplishments, your resume bullets really focus on the action and the results. When you get into the interview, the fact that you've done that on your resume, now you sit there and you put it into a verbalization of, okay, here was the situation that I was in, and here are the actions that I took and the results.

Bob Wheeler  16:50

We'll jump back to the next part there. Somebody has, they have the skills, great interview. They've been hired. Now, we know in recruiting and in human resources, we don't want to have to rehire. We want people to succeed. If we've hired them, we want them to stick around. So what does it take to get off on the right foot at Technica, or maybe any other company, but it may be Technica specifically as well, with those first few days, weeks, months? What's that look like for a successful new employee?

Steve Hatch  17:15

Be inquisitive, and I mentioned that earlier, asking questions. So obviously, you get into a job, there's certain foundational skills and understanding that you have, but there are things that you have to learn, whether it's about the company, whether it's about the customer, aspects of the job that you're doing. So asking questions, trying to get as much knowledge up front to help you be more successful and to frankly, assimilate quicker is really important. Not sitting back waiting for your manager to say, here's task A, I need you go complete that. When that's done, you wait for task B. So taking the initiative, looking for work assignments. If you get done quickly, say, what else is there for me to do? Focus on having that initiative. Those are individuals that will thrive here in Technica, because, again, our sort of culture is focused on continuous learning and continuous process improvement. And to do that, you have to be looking and observing, asking questions, and then from there, offer up solutions. You don't need to sit and wait until you've been on the job six months, a year, and go, you know what? This has really been a poor way of doing this for the past year. And so then you offer up your solution. You have a new view of looking at a particular job. You can bring a different perspective. And so offer up those solutions, those ideas to your manager, to the team, because in many cases, they've been looking at that problem the same way for a long time, and so having an outside perspective coming in gives you a great opportunity to offer up new ideas.

Kathleen Smith  18:55

Steve, great tips. Absolutely love everything you said. How can our cleared professionals get in touch with you?

Steve Hatch  19:00

Email wise would be to reach out to us at recruiting@technicacorp.com, or obviously going onto our website, looking at the positions, applying. But to reach out to our recruiting team would be through that email.

Kathleen Smith  19:15

Well, Steve, thank you so much for all of your great tips for our cleared job seekers. It was a pleasure talking with you today.

Steve Hatch  19:23

Well, thank you. It was a pleasure talking to you both.

Kathleen Smith  19:27

Steve had some really great interviewing tips, and I really liked when he was talking about virtual interviewing. He was really talking about owning the stage, owning the little screen, being confident, smiling, and engaging. Even though his example was BD, I think that's a really good tip for everyone. How about you, Bob, what did you like?

Bob Wheeler  19:48

Yeah, I'm on I'm on board with the interview part too, Kathleen. The part about the STAR statements, I mentioned to him that usually, you see that talked about in the resume thing, but bringing that type of an answer to the interview was really, I thought that was gold. And I think that's the kind of thing that anybody, whether you're going to tech and everybody else, can take home with them.

Kathleen Smith  20:07

So our thanks to everyone in the audience for listening to us. Thank you for being with us. We're really proud to have year three of our podcast. Please follow our show, share it with your colleagues, and we'll talk to you again. Bye, bye.