Teaming Up with Talent & Companies

Cassy Hendrix, Talent Partner

How did you start your career?

I got my start with Helmerich & Payne in 2009 as a recruiting coordinator. I moved into a recruiting role after that, and I’ve been doing it ever since. I’ve been recruiting for over 11 years.

What drew you to recruiting?

Recruiting seems to be more positive than many other areas of HR. Although you may have to tell someone they didn't get a job, that's about the extent of the negativity you're going to bring. You're scheduling interviews, telling people they did get a job and then building relationships with them and their hiring managers. I am a very relationship-driven person, so it fits my personality.

What gets you excited to get up and go to work in the morning?

For this role, my day is a lot more diverse than it used to be in other recruiting roles. I have a lot of ownership over things that I haven't had ownership of before. Being that we're a startup, I get to make more decisions, and you don’t get this freedom with a corporate role.

It's easy to get behind our organization's mission and tell people I'm working with who I'm connected to and how we're helping grow the city of Tulsa to be more vibrant and inclusive.

I had looked for a long time to see if there was something that blended doing good with what I was doing as a profession and where I like to add value. I found that in this role.

What's it like to recruit for multiple companies?

There are pros and cons. The con would be that we don't always know their culture as well as you would if you worked there as a full-time employee. Still, I think we get to develop a relationship with each hiring manager; we get to know them and understand what they're looking for. Working with so many different companies and not just selling one industry or one type of company or position is rewarding.

What are the essential elements to consider when you are partnering with a candidate to help them land a job in Tulsa?

All the companies that I work with are very different, but they are similar in that they're primarily startups. So, from a recruiting perspective, there's a lot of consulting and education. Some of the companies I work with have never hired, and it might be an international company's first US hire. There's a lot they don't know, and they look at me as the expert. It's not about only finding great talent, but understanding the culture, the needs of the company, and how I can make everything work together.

Some companies have hired before, but maybe they want to look at different ways of doing things because they don’t have established best practices. I create light bulb moments for them. When you're recruiting with Talent inTulsa, you're not just a recruiter. You're a consultant.

What are the essential elements to consider when you're partnering with a candidate to help them land a job in Tulsa?

A lot of the candidates we work with are already in Tulsa; some of them are not. A big piece of what we do is focus on candidates here because we want to develop the talent in our backyard. Most of the companies we work with are startups. I enjoy working with people to figure out precisely what type of work they want to do. The startup life is not for everyone, so I need to uncover whether they’ll be comfortable in a changing flexible environment.

What can a candidate expect when working with you?

I want to get to know someone individually first, and then maybe there's a role we'll explore. I start off with a 30-minute, deep-dive call and usually do weekly, if not more, check-ins to make sure that I know where they're at in their job search or with a client that we're working with, so I can be there with them along the way. If we don't have a role, I try to check in on them, see how they're doing, and send them jobs I find that could be a fit. I am a partner to them.

Where do you see growth and opportunities in Tulsa?

I think people go into college not realizing what they want to do, but many of them get told to be more versatile with their degrees. That's what my father told me, so I earned a business degree. I tell people who are earlier on in their degree or careers the exact opposite: Do something to make yourself marketable so that you can hold a job now and try new things. I help people identify job titles they should be looking for when searching. I also educate them on career paths not being linear.  

What do you love most about Tulsa?

I mostly grew up here and both my parents are from here. I lived in Oklahoma City for a while, but I've been here since the summer before my sophomore year of college. My whole family's here; my husband's entire family's here. We've built our community here, and there's a lot to do. My husband and I are into music, arts, and festivals. Tulsa has all this and more.

Who is your favorite band or musical artist?

My favorite band is probably Local Natives.