Chris Hopper

 Chris Hopper wears 2 different hats at Imperastaff.  Imperastaff is a recruiting company in Houston.  They specialize in the IT field, filling positions where their customers have a hard time filling.  Imperastaff fill both contract and full-time positions.  Chris is a tech recruiter and is also in sales.

 In school, Chris didn’t know what he wanted to major in.  He made an appointment with a career counselor and from there, his counselor advised him to go into IT or accounting based on the demand in the job market.  After giving it much thought, he decided to purse with a degree in Information Systems.  He thought he would be a good fit and long term it will be steady pay.  He started his career as a consultant on the technical side.  After about 16 year he was burnt out and with his connections, the owner of Imperastaff wanted to start a CRM recruiting division and hired Chris as a recruiter, from there Chris used LinkedIn heavily to help brand himself.

 Helping those to get to the next level of their career and having someone to lean on are just a couple of benefits Chris has found in his work.  Chris provides resume reviews, prepping for interviews rounds, coaching for during the job offer process, and helping his connections make career changes.  However, there are some downfalls in his field, such as not having control on who his clients would like to hire.  There have been times when he has coached a candidate for a position and have gotten great feedback just to find out they did not get the position, which can be disappointing.

 When Chris was consulting one of his Sr Managers was a great mentor to him.  They had a good personality fit together and his mentor had driven and passion which he admired.  When Chris worked at Accenture, he was a career counselor to many coworkers and helped them excel in their career.

 Reflecting on the importance of social media, specifically LinkedIn and the importance when looking for a new position.  Companies don’t just look at resumes anymore, as they also look at your social media account.  By sharing valuable content, videos, and posts on LinkedIn you’ll start to get noticed by potential employers, as well as keeping your profile up to date is equally important.  Don’t wait until the last minute to post or update your account and it’s best to try and share content at least on a bi-weekly or monthly basis.

 Perseverance and having a routine have made Chris successful.  His ability to want to continue to learn, good communications skills, and being a work alcoholic has helped him become successful.  Without him wanting to learn and taking the initiative to learn he wouldn’t have become as successful as he.  Additionally, Chris has a 7-year-old at home who is involved in a lot of different activities.  His work/personal life balance can sometimes be a bit crazy, but he manages to balance both well.  Chris has found he is more productive when he starts the workday early.  He can accomplish what needs to be done and then has time at night for family activities and putting his little one to bed.  There are some days/nights when the workload can be overwhelming, and he’ll need to jump back on his computer later in the evening.  In the end it is worth waking up early and at times going to be later to make sure you carve out some time for yourself and your family.

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