Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Haefner.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Melissa. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
After college I got an internship at a staffing firm. Who would have known that 17 years later I would have started my own, as that was just a pit stop before I started grad school and became the HR generalist that I thought I would be. After grad school I started at Target Corporation and became an HR Generalist. It was a mentor or at the time the Regional HR Manager that saw potential in me at a young age and promoted me to a campus recruiter role. This is where my recruiting career started and although I continued to want to try a more complex HR generalist role, my career kept leading me to continue on a recruitment path. I held a series of roles at Target that started from a single store and got more complex and grew into District, Regional and eventually National recruitment roles.
After 7 1/2 years there, I knew I was never going to move to Minneapolis where the corporate HQs were and I wanted to continue to grow, so I changed course and went to an IT company where the local HQs were located in Chicago. I changed gears and recruited for IT outside sales which was a departure from my latest role at Target, hiring Pharmacists and Family Nurse Practitioners. Again I was happy that my future manager at CDW saw potential in me and gave me a chance to hire within IT sales, as this changed my course and now years later is a big focus on what I place for today. It was a great place to work and I grew in many ways, but had an opportunity to grow into a leadership role for a smaller similar IT company and I jumped on the opportunity to continue to gain to experience that I needed and wanted.
Again, my new Manager at Zones saw my potential and gave me an opportunity to build a team and manage salaried employees. My newest position brought many opportunities for me to wear multiple hats as a player-coach, building a team and a recruitment practice that focused on National IT inside and outside sales. We grew quickly over a 3 year period and then I continued to grow to lead Talent and all of the recruitment to include engineering and corporate for the company. This allowed me to manage again other areas of recruitment than I was accustomed to as well as work and implement recruiting systems, marketing, manage budgets etc. which I feel helped me lay the foundation for starting my own business. When I was deciding on my next move, after talking to many different professionals in the industry, it became clear that I wanted to start my own business. Everyone always had told me “you should be in sales” and I finally listened and in July of 2017, I started Haefner Consulting & Staffing.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Surprisingly, it has been a smooth road, with some learnings along the way. That doesn’t mean that it has been easy, but I feel that all my hard work, reputation, relationships and experience in the past helped me get to where I am today. I also feel like it was the right time and the recruitment market is hot right now. The advice I would give is to believe in yourself and your abilities, build genuine relationships, take the time to be there for people and always do great work and people will remember that.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Haefner Consulting & Staffing – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Essentially, I am a headhunter. Companies hire me to help them find the best of the best or fill hard to staff roles nationally. I specialize in the technology space and sales/sales leadership is my forte. However, I hire for companies across many several industries and also different roles like engineering, project management, HR, etc.
I am known for finding hard to find talent, experienced producers. What sets me apart is my work ethic, follow up and candidate and hiring manager experience along with understanding the business I am recruiting for. I have heard several managers say that I am an extension of their business unit. What I am the most proud of is that my network rallies around me. I am a small firm and one that is growing, but my clients are large and they hire me, based on my reputation and past relationships. They don’t care that I am as large as they are because they know the service and quality I will provide and know I will find a way to scale to get the job done.
Do you think there are structural or other barriers impeding the emergence of more female leaders?
The biggest barriers sometimes, I feel are women themselves. I say that because I have experienced as well as seen other women try to keep women down. We need to be confident in ourselves and bring other women up and not feel threatened. I had 3 female mentors that I mentioned at the 3 companies above that saw potential in me, so I was able to grow with their guidance. I also feel that women put a lot of pressure on themselves and limit their own potential. They think they need to stay at home or they can not do it all, but with a little help i.e family, nannies, cleaning ladies, a community, you can get the help you need if you are ambitious and want to keep forging ahead. Don’t get me wrong, it is not easy and I feel burnt out at times, but I have this inner drive that keeps me going and also rewards myself along the way. To each their own.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.haefnerstaffing.com
- Phone: 630-624-4580
- Email: mhaefner@haefnerstaffing.com
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haefner/
Image Credit:
Lisa Miller photography
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