Patricia Karam With Mission Recruit

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio brought to you by on pay built in Atlanta. On Pay is the top rated payroll and HR software anywhere. Get one month free at onpay. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one, but before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories today on Atlanta Business Radio. We have Patricia Karam with Mission Recruit. Welcome, Patricia.

Patricia Karam: [00:00:50] Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:53] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Mission Recruit. How are you serving, folks?

Patricia Karam: [00:00:58] Yeah, of course. So I started Mission Recruit about two and a half years ago after giving birth to my third child. So at Mission Recruit, we are a recruiting services firm, so we have three primary pillars. First is foremost best in class recruiting services for a midsize and Fortune 500 companies. Second is our mission to give back. So we partner with a local domestic violence shelter and human trafficking center to donate back for every placement we make. And then thirdly, to keep the human and H.R. through human design. So we’re really excited about it.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:35] So tell us about that last pillar. How did that come about?

Patricia Karam: [00:01:39] Yeah. And you know, that’s kind of our pivot pillar if you think about 20 20 and how we can change with the times historically with personality assessments, it’s a long questionnaire. And usually when people respond or answer the questions, people think of leaders in mind or what the company would want an employee. So maybe consciously or unconsciously, people don’t have the most authentic answers. And that’s why I really like human design, especially with everyone working remotely. I feel like it’s very important to keep the human in H.R.. So what human design is? It takes the eastern and western practices, principles and science to create your unique human design profile in. There’s five specific types, which I have a human design expert on team who leads these, and we offer it through individualized PDFs as well as workshops for team members. So it’s really exciting.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:45] And then, as you mentioned, as a lot more organizations are going remote to have this kind of congruent culture fit is so much more important. I would think now it’s always been important. But now it’s even harder when you know humans and humans aren’t interacting face to face, it’s all done remotely. You really have to be mindful about this.

Patricia Karam: [00:03:06] Oh, exactly, exactly. And that’s why I think it’s so important, because I believe I truly believe human design helps you professionally, but also personally to understand yourself and how you work with others and understanding everyone else’s human design type, especially if you’re a leader. And if you’re looking at your team, it’ll help you as a leader, figure out how to motivate team members specifically based on their design type.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:31] Now, can you talk a little bit about your back story? How did you get into this line of work?

Patricia Karam: [00:03:36] Yeah, well, I don’t want to date myself, but when I graduated from university back in the 2000s, I remember the hottest trend was pharmaceutical sales, and I wanted so badly to be in pharmaceutical sales, but instead I got an internship with Intuit, which I’m so thankful for because I love the IT industry. And so I started there, and eventually I realized I wanted to be more, more interacting with humans. So I I got into it staffing, and I worked everywhere from the largest I.T. staffing firm in the nation to the largest staffing firm globally to a small mom and pop shop. And I realized I saw what didn’t work and what didn’t work, what did and didn’t work, and I just decided to create my my own with the intention to give back also.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:31] So now what kind of drives you to have this kind of philanthropic portion of your business? Like why is that such a core part of the DNA of the firm and not just something that, OK, this is something I want to do on the side, but to actually incorporate it as part of the organization?

Patricia Karam: [00:04:49] Oh gosh, yeah, that’s a really great question. And I think it’s I think a lot of it has to do with being first generation here in the States. My parents are from the Philippines, and so I saw what it looked like to not be as abundant when you first move over here and they really worked hard to give us a really great life. And along the way, I’ve heard stories friends who’ve been involved with domestic violence and human trafficking. It’s huge in the Philippines. And so I thought if I if I can create a company and be abundant with my company, why not give back? There’s there’s no harm in that. So that’s. Always been something important to me.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:32] So now, how has it been for you kind of creating this firm around, you know, around these kind of key core values to you and also just being an entrepreneur as as opposed to coming from, like you said, you work for some of the largest companies in the industry to now doing your own thing. And you know, that’s a different kind of experience.

Patricia Karam: [00:05:58] Yeah. You know, it was really big for me to offer a more personalized solution when you’re working for a company that’s too big, which there are great, huge companies out there, of course. And a lot of huge companies are my clients. But I just wanted to give an individual approach a more authentic approach where I could be myself, and that would be OK. And I also wanted the freedom to do do anything I wanted in this role, too. So it’s been a lot of fun for me.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:25] But how has it been from kind of when you’re working for somebody else, you’re kind of a cog in the machine and then now you’re running your own firm and you’re deciding kind of what’s what and where everything goes. So. Has that been a challenge or was this a smooth transition to working for yourself from working with a larger enterprise?

Patricia Karam: [00:06:44] You know, it’s always a challenge. And and when you go from having a great salary to doing it yourself, you know, that’s a lot of investment and a lot of risk. And I definitely wasn’t making as much I was as I was used to when I first started out. But with great risk comes great reward. So I think it I think overall it’s been really great. But yeah, it was very hard, especially. I was my second year during the pandemic, but we were still able to be profitable, which I’m super thankful for.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:19] Yeah. Now do you have any advice for other kind of entrepreneurs that are thinking about making that leap from having a corporate job to going out on their own? Like what? What would be some advice around recruiting team members to join you on this adventure?

Patricia Karam: [00:07:35] Yeah, I would say do it in the staffing industry. Specifically, you have a non-compete, so you have to make sure to abide by that non-compete. But I would say start while you can. And when when your company becomes more profitable and it’s right financially, then turn in your notice. But I wouldn’t I wouldn’t quit until you’re you have something going financially.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:01] Now, recently your firm was recognized as one of the top 10 Asian American businesses. How did that come about?

Patricia Karam: [00:08:10] Oh yeah. Oh gosh, what an honor that was. I I have a client who, a client and a friend who is on the board and she nominated me. And when you’re nominated, they go through a review process. And I think because I was able to pivot and I was able to introduce human design and also philanthropy, I think that I was chosen to be one of the top 10, which is a huge honor, especially because the month that I received the award was the same month as the Filipino-American History Month in the U.S., so it was very cool.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:45] Wow. That was kind of serendipitous. Now talk about your decision to become a certified woman business enterprise. Has that helped you in your kind of in finding new clients and kind of separating yourself from others?

Patricia Karam: [00:09:01] Yes, absolutely. Actually, this was another reason why I wanted to branch out on my own because I realized companies, especially these huge Fortune 500 companies, have diverse spend. So this is also another recommendation if anyone’s looking to start a company. If you’re in any way diverse minority woman, veteran owned, any type of diversity, you can obtain a certification. I would highly recommend it because of the diverse spend budget that companies have. So, yes, I have been able to get in a couple of my clients specifically because of the certification.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:35] Now, who is the ideal client for you? What is the kind of the perfect fit for your firm?

Patricia Karam: [00:09:41] Oh yeah. Any and all. So usually we place high level I.T. professionals as well as executive level, and I do some marketing and sales, so it could be anywhere from startup to midsize to Fortune 500 companies. I welcome all clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:59] And then the pain they’re having is they’re just frustrated. I mean, in this kind of job market is it’s extremely challenging and it’s hard to do it on your own. So that’s why you would kind of partner with Mission Recruit to help you fill those hard to fill roles.

Patricia Karam: [00:10:14] Absolutely. Not only that, but we also screen for culture fit. So you have some companies who want heads down in other companies who want someone who’s collaborative. And so we also help with not only the technical fit, but also the culture. All fit.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:31] So that sounds a little different than some other recruiting firms.

Patricia Karam: [00:10:35] Yeah, you have some that just for every opening that would send 10 to 15 resumes. It’s really, really our responsibility and core value to only send the top two to three candidates per opening because we want to save time for our clients. That’s that’s the whole purpose.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:54] Now, if somebody wants to learn more about your firm or get a hold of you or somebody on the team, what is the website?

Patricia Karam: [00:11:01] Yes, it’s mission recruit and we’re on all the socials and I would love to hear from anyone and everyone.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:07] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the success.

Patricia Karam: [00:11:11] Thank you, Lee. I so appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:13] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.