MEET THE ELYSIAN TEAM: JORGE BATISTA

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! So this month, you’ll be able to read our Meet the Team series to learn about our history as recruiters and members of the creative field. We’ll also be sharing some of our best advice with you.

We look forward to working with you!

Jorge Batista

Jorge’s work pre-recruiting
I was a long time project manager in the ad agency world, but more and more I wanted to do something different and affect people on a more personal level and have a satisfying role in someone’s life. It’s a nice thing to be able to say that you can help somebody find their dream job so that’s what brought me into this space. I actually went to Elysian because I found a role that could fit me in the project management space and then didn’t get it, did a lot of thinking and soul searching and realized I wanted to be a recruiter, and expressed that.

While I was a project manager, I gained a lot of respect from people because of the way that I spoke to them and worked with them. I learned how far little things like that really go and I had a really enjoyable time in that space and part of why I wanted to become a recruiter is to help other people learn those things.

Top 3 pieces of advice for talent job searching

1. Make sure your resume is up to date and that there are no strange gaps in your employment history.
2. Learn what a typical resume looks like in your field and do the research on how to format your resume correctly depending on who you are: copywriter, art director… your resume should follow a similar format but look a little different from someone else’s to stand out. Match your LinkedIn information up perfectly with your resume, too.
3. Be an advocate for yourself. Don’t lay back and wait. Be a go-getter and find what you want. Networking is a big deal. There are ways to do it and ways not to. A smart way to do it is to speak to different staffing and recruiting agencies, because those are the places that have inside information.

Biggest interview “don’t”
Try to have good posture and body language and make eye contact to show your interviewer that you’re engaged. You should also never leave without asking questions because this shows interest and will help you interview them as well. It’s a two way street and questions will impress your interviewer if you ask thoughtful, passionate and researched questions.

Biggest resume “don’t”
Don’t do too much with the fonts or design of your resume. Your resume should be focused and catered to the specific company or role you’re applying for. Don’t send the same resume to every company. Instead, customize and tailor each resume depending on the job.

Greatest professional strength
The main thing I’ve learned through the years is that you really need to follow through, whether with every e-mail or voicemail. I’m a big sports fan and still play a lot of softball so I relate it to a team setting. I relate it to my team winning a championship. To win, you have got to be a team player and be reliable. When you follow through and respond to e-mails quickly or work on your weaknesses, you’ll gain respect and the attention of a potential employer.

Greatest professional weakness
Sometimes talking to people and telling them they didn’t get the job is hard but being able to speak to people when hard conversations come up is a good skill even if it’s not easy. It’s not easy to be confident and comfortable doing it. What I’m learning though is that a great way to put it is there are always going to be more opportunities out there and to always let the person know you’ll contact them again.

Jorge’s future goals
I would say I want to do coaching down the line after I learn more and get a real handle on recruiting. I would love to use my expertise to coach project managers and be able to understand what people’s challenges are. I respect career coaches so much because if you help someone to make just one improvement, it could help them get a job--that’s totally needed in the industry of today. Mainly for now I’m very happy to learn from Jessica and Hilary who are two of the most awesome people to learn from and I feel blessed to work with people who are so nice and patient and understanding and willing to help.

Skills learned from project management
I try to be very conscientious of people and read the room--understand how things need to be said and done. I learned how to be a good communicator and understand other people’s roles. I’ve also learned to juggle a lot of things at once. However, one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is how to understand what flies and what shouldn’t be said in internal communications and e-mails, and how to have tact. I started as a young kid and my first job was as a messenger in 1989 at an advertising company in New York City, so you learn a lot from growing up around and learning all the basics of different roles and how people need to work together to get things done best. And I’ve really been able to transfer all of these skills over to recruiting.

Jorge’s favorite thing about Elysian
I love learning from Hilary and Jessica, who are two of the very best recruiters. I’m like a sponge and I’m very happy that I can ask them anything any time and they’ll be very happy to respond and help me. I also love meeting different people and helping them to hone their professional strengths. The main thing is getting to wake up every day and help people with their career--that’s awesome.

We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about Jorge, and that you’ll check back next week to learn about more of our team members!

All the best,
The Elysian team