Top Tips for Career Success

A business major who had never heard of HR, Karis Tucker, SHRM-CP, now plays an essential role in human resources at a leading logistics company (Kenco Group). Karis started her career working in campus ministry mentoring college freshmen. She started moving into the HR world when she joined a tech company (Skuid now Nintex). After building out their hiring and onboarding processes, Karis discovered she had a knack and a love for HR.

Now as Network HR Manager at Kenco, Karis oversees 500 employees in 80 locations with a team of 5. While her days are clearly filled to the brim, Karis was gracious enough to chat with us and share her wisdom on job searches and career development. Keep reading to hear her expertise!

What characteristics make for an ideal team player?

Curiosity, emotional intelligence, and flexibility - all three lead into each other.

Curiosity is important because, most of the time, the question someone is asking isn’t their actual question. You have to dig deeper and ask the right follow-ups to figure out what they truly need.

That also ties into emotional intelligence. You need to be able to read between the lines and manage both your own emotions and the emotions of others.

And flexibility is essential. In business, things are constantly changing, and you have to be able to pivot. A great example of this is our Emerging Leaders Program. We gave the participants a project to work on, and two or three months in, I had to tell them, “Hey, we actually already had to solve that problem for the sake of time, so we’re shifting directions.” I was glad they got to experience what it’s like in business when plans change unexpectedly and how to navigate that with a positive attitude instead of getting frustrated.

If you could give one piece of advice to job seekers, what would it be?

Be realistic about salary expectations. There’s a lot of social media messaging telling people that companies are trying to underpay them and recruiters are out to get them, but that’s not really the case. When recruiters look at your resume, they compare your experience to the job posting and figure out where you fit within the pay range. If a job says 5-10 years of experience and you have five, you’re likely going to be offered something closer to the lower or mid-range, not the top.

Also, come prepared for interviews. I always recommend writing out your biggest accomplishments from the past five years. Outline what happened, what you did, and what the outcome was. Even if you don’t know the exact questions the interviewer will ask, having those examples fresh in your mind will help you talk confidently about your experience.

What’s one thing job seekers should know about interviewing with Kenco?

Kenco is growing a lot, and if you’re interviewing with us, I’d encourage you to check out our guiding principles beforehand: Be Honest, Serve, and Get Better. Those aren’t just words on a wall. That’s why I’ve stayed here for six years. Our leaders and employees really do work by those principles every day, both internally and with our customers.

Thank you, Karis, for sharing your thoughts and advice with us.

If you’re interested in learning more about Karis or her work at Kenco, check out her LinkedIn here or Kenco’s website here.