Interview with Claudia M. Meer, CIO and CFO of AlphaStruxure ​

Interview with Claudia M. Meer, CIO and CFO of AlphaStruxure 

Part 1 - Is the resumé outdated?

Part 2 - Resume Typos

Part 3 - Assessing a Candidate's cultural fit in workplace

Part 4 - Confidence vs. Competence in a Interview

Part 1 - Transcript

Catherine: Hi, I’m Catherine McLean, managing director of Dylan Green. Today I have Claudia Meer with me from alpha structure. Claudia is the CIO and CFO of Alpha structure. Claudia, the resume, is it outdated?

Claudia: Well, to me I would say I’d say no. I think the resume is a great vehicle for really trying to crystallize and summarize in a short, one page, two page format to really be able to say, what are you about? What have you done? What’s most relevant? I think it’s a nice vehicle that goes hand in glove with a LinkedIn profile. often they actually say different things, which is interesting, but I think I really find the resume meaningful and I really find it important that the people do not have typos.

Part 2 - Transcript

Catherine: You see a resumé looks really good, you see, LinkedIn profile looks really good, but the dreaded typo appears – not once, not twice, but three times. What do you do?

Claudia: It’s a really tough call. I think it’s a sign of a lack of attention to detail. So I would say the person has to really show in other ways that they really have that attention to detail. They have to kind of make up for the, for the typos and find ways to prove out that they have that capability. I think that’s something that comes to the reference process, frankly, is really checking out whether that person has what it takes to be a individual contributor. And to run forward with less oversight.

Catherine: So you heard it here first. If you have typos, you have to make up for it in other ways.

Part 3 - Transcript

Catherine: Hi, I’m Catherine McLean, managing director of Dylan Green. I’m here with Claudia Meer from alpha structure. Claudia is the CFO and CIO of our infrastructure. Claudia, I’m curious, what advice would you give someone like me, a recruiter trying to help alpha structure grow?

Claudia: Well, you know, to me one of the hardest things is fine is figuring out fit. And so a lot of what I believe that a recruiter can really help us with is understanding the fit of a person in the environment that is being cultivated when you come together as a team of people that have never worked together before, you’re creating your own corporate culture and really finding those people that not only have the capability and the competence and the confidence, but having also the, the ability to work well in a team and, and kind of be the leader in some situations and maybe be more of a team player and others to fit well in that culture. 

Catherine: I think that’s what I love so much about networking is that you are able to assess that culture first before you happen to read somebody’s resume. You’re meeting them first, right? 

Claudia: No, that’s critical. And I think that that’s when, especially when you’re in a small company like AlphaStruxure that’s growing really rapidly, we really need the assistance of someone who’s capable and able to help us in that capacity so it can find good fits.

Part 4 - Transcript

Catherine: One thing that I’ve run into when I’ve interviewed is the competence versus confidence dilemma. I would be interested to know from your point of view, how you assess that in an interview.

Claudia: That’s a great question. I would say it’s a, it’s a combination of factors. I mean certainly I think when someone comes across in a very self confident way that gives you the belief that they have the skills underlying that.

That’s not always the case. So you really have to dive more deeply into their experience and how they’ve worked with other people, what they see as their areas of weakness and areas of strength. And, and also in the, in the reference checking process, I think it’s important to really dive into how they’ve worked with other people and in teams. I also do think that people have different styles and so some of that is, is a function of how they come across. So there’s the diversity of thought, the diversity of, of delivery that comes across. So it’s really looking at a mix of styles and trying to suss out the competence versus competence piece.

Catherine: Do you think that it’s a gender issue? It’s very rare that I approach a  male, for example, on LinkedIn about a role and they say that they’re not qualified for it. Where I find quite often when I approach women on LinkedIn about opportunities, they tend to feel a little bit more cautious if their experience is going to be enough for the position.

Claudia: No, I think, I mean, in general, I would say from a gender perspective, women tend to be much more circumspect and much more reserved and unsure, less expressing of their capabilities. Um, and they want to make sure that they can dot every I and cross every T before they take on a new role.