“Work That Matters” is a series in which ECS experts discuss their roles and responsibilities and the larger impact they have in the workplace, community, and world. In this installment, we interview Greg Sigmundsson, Director of ECS Recruiting. Greg works with his team to identify and recruit top talent committed to the ECS mission.
GREG SIGMUNDSSON
DIRECTOR OF RECRUITING
Q: You’ve been with ECS for seven years. In today’s professional world, that is considered a long stint. What has kept you engaged for all this time?
A: Through my years at ECS, we have tripled in both size and revenue. This has brought a lot of opportunity for my team and my personal career growth. I came on as a technical recruiter, then took up a role as a recruiting manager before coming into my current position as Director of Recruiting. I’ve been given so many opportunities to thrive and learn here. Also, I met my wife at ECS—so they even play a part in my personal life.
What really keeps me engaged day after day is twofold: my team and ECS’ mission. As a team, we work tremendously hard, collaborating and sharing candidates and opportunities, to ensure we are placing top talent into roles that will allow them to shine. Also, it is easy to attract top talent with our mission to solve complex problems. Our portfolio of projects makes my job easy when talking to candidates who want to tackle challenging, world-impacting issues that really make a difference in people’s lives.
Q: COVID-19 has impacted employment for millions of Americans. How will candidates and employees adjust to the new normal?
A: We have been fortunate that the pandemic has changed very little at ECS. Because of the nature of our work, our employees are able to do their jobs from the safety of home. During the transition to remote work, we actually saw some of our highest weekly numbers of new-hire orientations.
At first for most job seekers, the video conferencing interview was a completely novel thing, but now it’s commonplace. I think candidates are actually starting to find it comfortable to interview from home. As we transition to the new normal, we’ll have the flexibly to work with candidates and hiring managers to tailor the interview process to make sure everyone is feeling safe while at the same time communicating the necessary details of the job and the company’s culture.
Q: Speaking of culture, recruiters are one of the first points of contact at ECS. What is it like being the champion for our mission and values?
A: My team enjoys being the first introduction to ECS ad our employees during the recruiting process. We hope to inspire recruits with the same sense of drive and fulfillment that our team feels each day at work. Because our recruiters have deep knowledge of the programs and projects for which they are recruiting, they treat the interview as an opportunity to share details about not only the role under consideration, but also the project and its broader impact. For our cyber and cloud teams, that means protecting our nation’s data and cyber infrastructure, and for our science and engineering teams, that’s driving innovation and research for cutting edge technology.
ECS is an organization that really lives its values of community, grit, excellence, and drive. Fortunately, we have a recruiting team who really embodies these values as well, so in these first conversations, the recruit can get an idea of what it would be like to work at ECS. Because we have built and trained our team to work with our values as guiding principles, it feels good to show that off to candidates. Finding the candidates that are a good culture fit is so exciting, because we know we are building the next generation of ECSers to achieve our goals and meet our mission.
