Meet the Elysian Team: Jessica Ozrek

One of our core values at Elysian is that the work we do is about people–not just numbers and filling positions. We want to help place the best talent in the best positions in the creative field–and to do that, we look at each professional as a whole person with likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, and hobbies, passions, and skills apart from a job title or area of interest.

We want to know about you and your passions, and we want you to know us, too! For the last portion of our Meet the Team series, you can learn about Elysian founder Jessica Ozrek and hear her best stories about what recruiting is like, and her best advice for job seekers.

We look forward to working with you!

Jessica Ozrek

Jessica's work pre-Elysian

I’ve been recruiting in creative for the past 14 years so for most of my career, I’ve been doing some form of recruiting. Starting my own business was a goal I’ve had for a while. I just didn’t know what the business would look like or when I would work on launching it. I decided to found Elysian because it seemed to be the best next step. I had worked with three staffing agencies previously and having seen what worked well and what hadn’t, I was able to apply my experience to creating Elysian as a customer first business. A lot of staffing agencies were moving into creative recruitment because the industry offered a lot of opportunity. That said, creative recruitment is an animal of its own. Creatives are so collaborative and finding the right fit is beyond filling a seat, it’s being able to fulfill a need where someone can think and mesh well with the team and contribute ideas. Creative recruitment is a unique and fun service to offer.

What would your top 3 pieces of advice be for talent currently job searching?

1. If you’re looking for a job, make sure to cast a wide net in your network. Reach out to family, friends and colleagues. You may be surprised by who knows who and word of mouth is a great avenue to landing your next position.
2. Be professional throughout the whole process. Job searching can be long, or short, and frustrating. Jobs are so important to most people. Understanding that it is a small world and you don’t want to burn any bridges or make any bad impressions throughout the process can lead to more open doors in the future.
3. Keep track of everything. Who you talk to, where you send your resume to, where you’ve applied. As you’re going through the process and working with more and more people, it’s important to have that information available.

Biggest interview "don't"

I would say that being too casual is a big don’t. Sometimes hiring managers want to make you feel comfortable so they may disclose personal information or even use foul language, but it’s important to always keep utmost professionalism during the interview process.

Biggest resume "don't"

Don’t make it too wordy--you want to keep your resume clear and concise. You need to be able to sell yourself by providing the most information in a quick and clean manner. You want to be able to catch someone’s attention and sell yourself within thirty seconds or less, so making your resume to-the-point ensures that you catch the eye of the person reading your resume, or they might move onto the next one.

Greatest professional strength

I tend to be resourceful and have a can-do attitude, which is very helpful. If I’m approached with a challenge, it’s usually “how do I overcome this challenge?” as opposed to thinking “this isn’t going to happen.” I do believe that where there’s a will there’s a way, and I find whatever resources I need to get through that.

Greatest professional weakness

My greatest professional weakness is that I’m impatient. But I’ve learned to utilize it and I’m very aware of it, and it’s been something that I’ve had to work with for many years. I now know when to put my impatience aside and distract myself with something else or when I can really harness it, because timeliness is extremely important in recruiting so it can work to my benefit as well.

Jessica's future goals

My goal is to continue to grow Elysian as a holistic staffing service so we can provide job seekers and employers with a 360 staffing solution. I want this to include career coaching as well as recruiting, providing helpful online content and resources for talent, and potentially some others ideas we’re exploring.

Skills learned from recruiting

Some of the hard skills would be my business development and recruiting experience, which have both been key in starting Elysian. Soft skills would be knowing how important it is to connect with people at a personal level like being excited for them about their career advancements, taking the time to guide talent who are on the fence to follow their gut for their next career move, and understanding what the client’s challenge is in hiring the right person.

Jessica's favorite thing about Elysian

My favorite thing is that it’s a dream of mine that has come to fruition, and that’s very exciting for me. To be able to offer Elysian employees a working opportunity that’s flexible and accommodating to their lifestyle while providing talent and clients with a high standard service is very rewarding. Starting my own business has required risk, personal growth that’s taken me out of my comfort zone, and it continues to challenge me with navigating uncertainty. I am very grateful for the whole experience and I look forward to what’s to come.

Something you would have told your younger self about what you've learned in your career

I would have assured my younger self to keep making decisions about my career by following my gut and say that it will lead me in the right direction. I would tell myself to trust the process that I’m in. Although there were times throughout my career where I was worried and uncertain about where I was or what next step I should take, I  feel that I’ve followed my intuition during my journey and it’s led me to a place that I feel good about and a career that I enjoy.

Want to reach out to Jessica? Find her onLinkedIn.

We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about Jessica and the other Elysian team members, and that our thoughts and advice have been helpful to you. Thanks so much for joining us. If you have any more questions or you're interested in working with us, reach out.

All the best

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