Debbie Celado, Vice President of Employer Brand Marketing at Citizens Bank, became a Recruitment Marketer by following her passions, having the courage to ask for what she wants and finding a way to get leadership to say “Yes.”
Her tenacity is one of the reasons we asked Debbie to become a Rally Recruitment Marketing Mentor. She has a way of motivating recruiters to learn new Recruitment Marketing skills or even consider becoming a dedicated Recruitment Marketer like her.
How Did You Become a Recruitment Marketer?
Debbie’s started her career as a financial advisor at John Hancock right out of college. But when an opportunity in recruiting presented itself, she seized it.
“Within my first three weeks, the recruiter who was hired for campus recruitment left and they asked if anyone in our class was interested,” Debbie recalls. “I thought, ‘I really love working with people. I love building relationships. I love making connections. I like the sales aspect.’”
After running the campus recruitment program for four years, Debbie was ready for her next challenge, and that led her to join Partners Healthcare in Boston.
Debbie’s inspiration to become a Recruitment Marketer happened while she was attending a SHRM conference. She remembers listing to a speaker and saying, “This is it. This is what I want to do.”
With her next career goal in mind, Debbie did what she isn’t afraid to do: she asked for it. “I worked with my boss, who was a great mentor to me, to figure out where was the business need so I could gain the marketing skills needed to start doing Recruitment Marketing,” she said.
What Skills Do You Need to be a Recruitment Marketer?
In addition to creativity, Debbie recommends having a clear-cut plan as to how you’re going to implement that creative approach.
And attitude and approach are key.
“I think to be in this space, you need to be comfortable being innovative and creative and thinking about things that nobody else in your company does. You don’t necessarily have a person in your company that you can go to and say, ‘Hey, how did you do this before?’” (That’s one of our reasons for starting Rally, so you can learn from Debbie and other Recruitment Marketing and Employer Branding pioneers.)
“I think you need to also have a vision. It’s one thing to be creative and have all these ideas, but have a vision on how to bring that forward and execute, deliver and measure what you are proposing,” Debbie continued.
“Resilience is also important because what you’re going to take on can be hard and you’re going to face road blocks. Because Recruitment Marketing is relatively new, you’re going to be asked to prove the value of what you’re doing, what you’re proposing and why you should do this.”
How Do You Explain What is a Recruitment Marketer?
“It’s a tricky question and a little bit hard to explain that I’m a marketer that works in HR,” Debbie smiles. “I tell people that I work in HR, but I’m a marketer and I work to develop strategies and tactics to recruit talent to Citizens Bank using marketing to do that.”
Debbie recommends anyone wanting to pursue a career in Recruitment Marketing should follow companies they admire on social media. “I learn by watching what they’re doing, what campaigns they’re running, what creative they’re using and what type of content they’re sharing,” she said.
Great advice Debbie, and we look forward to learning lots more from you in the Rally community!
