"I can teach you a job, I can't teach you to care."
Name: Katherine
Role: Recruiter (Former DSP and TA Administrator at Sevita)
Tenure: 2.5 years
You’re having an interesting career journey at Sevita, from DSP to TAA and now a Recruiter. Tell us about your story.
I started with the company in June of 2022 as a part-time DSP (Direct Support Professional). I had 14 years of in-person health care experience, so it was a natural fit.
Within a few months I went from part-time to full-time, but then my son got diagnosed with autism and I needed to step away from the work. When things settled down I got a call from a friend who works here and she suggested I apply for a Talent Acquisition Administrator (TAA) role. It was a remote role and would give me the flexibility to coordinate care for my son. I was a little hesitant about going into the administrative side of things, but I ultimately applied and was offered the role. Interacting with candidates gave me a whole different perspective, and I learned a lot. A few months later a TA Manager asked if I’d be interested in stepping up and becoming a recruiter.
Now I help decide who is hired to support our participants in the homes. A lot of what I do is because of my autistic son. He's nonverbal, level three, has his own personal care assistant. I like to think one day if he ends up in a program like one of ours somebody will be out there trying to find good people to help care for him. So I'm personally invested in the kind of people I hire.
If you're interviewing potential DSPs, what are the qualities that you're looking for?
I love our interview questions that get a sense of their personalitiy and what they've done to go above and beyond for somebody else.
Role: Recruiter (Former DSP and TA Administrator at Sevita)
Tenure: 2.5 years
You’re having an interesting career journey at Sevita, from DSP to TAA and now a Recruiter. Tell us about your story.
I started with the company in June of 2022 as a part-time DSP (Direct Support Professional). I had 14 years of in-person health care experience, so it was a natural fit.
Within a few months I went from part-time to full-time, but then my son got diagnosed with autism and I needed to step away from the work. When things settled down I got a call from a friend who works here and she suggested I apply for a Talent Acquisition Administrator (TAA) role. It was a remote role and would give me the flexibility to coordinate care for my son. I was a little hesitant about going into the administrative side of things, but I ultimately applied and was offered the role. Interacting with candidates gave me a whole different perspective, and I learned a lot. A few months later a TA Manager asked if I’d be interested in stepping up and becoming a recruiter.
Now I help decide who is hired to support our participants in the homes. A lot of what I do is because of my autistic son. He's nonverbal, level three, has his own personal care assistant. I like to think one day if he ends up in a program like one of ours somebody will be out there trying to find good people to help care for him. So I'm personally invested in the kind of people I hire.
If you're interviewing potential DSPs, what are the qualities that you're looking for?
I love our interview questions that get a sense of their personalitiy and what they've done to go above and beyond for somebody else.
"The more they talk to me, the more they open up and share their personal stories.
I listen. That's how I get a sense of who they are and whether they'd be a good fit here."
I listen. That's how I get a sense of who they are and whether they'd be a good fit here."
Candidates talk a lot about their current job responsibilities, but I ask for an example of how they’ve helped people in their current role. That tells me they're the kind of people we want on our team. Sometimes that question stumps them, and I know they're probably not the kind of person who takes other people into account first. That's not who we're looking for to join our team.
At Sevita we have a culture of trust that gives us all the opportunity to put our ‘personal thumbprint’ on our work--do things our way. What’s your thumbprint, your legacy, that you’re leaving on the work you do?
When I was a DSP in one of our homes they really needed some help with nutrition and preparing meals from scratch. I love to cook "old school" and with a slightly different twist because I'm from the South. Like making a meatloaf, it sounds so simple. But I make mine with a secret ingredient and I never use ketchup. I make a turkey roast that I cook in a crock pot with homemade gravy, which is actually no secret. It's just cream of mushroom soup, but it cooks all day and it falls apart and everybody just loves it.
I worked mostly weekends, so I had the chance to spend all day on a weekend cooking, enjoying what I was doing, while I made homecooked food for our clients. They loved it too. They asked about the ingredients and interacted with the cooking process which was great.
Now a lot of my recipes are in their recipe book with my name on them like “Katherine's Meatloaf” and “Katherine's Turkey Roast” and “Katherine's Chicken Noodle Soup” – so I got to leave that little piece of myself behind and make things better for our clients. Coincidentally, my daughter is the Program Supervisor in that home now.
What's a fun fact about you?
I’m an avid reader. I’m a "sit in a hot tub, read a book with a nice glass of wine" kind of person. I also go camping quite often. I went 5 times this last year. Otherwise I like to go see my family who lives outside of Seattle, Washington. Every year we pack up all 13 family members and we drive cross country to do an annual family 10-day camping trip. There's almost 30 of us that join! We've already paid for next year!