What to Expect When You Pursue a Career with Mission Critical Partners

Learn more about A-players here.

If you are reviewing our current openings and do not find an open position that matches your passions and skill sets, do not be discouraged. There are two opportunities via which you can engage with our firm.

1. The first is by registering as a candidate in our careers portal. Taking this step enables us to begin building a relationship with you and guiding you on the types of career opportunities that we offer. Additionally, this helps to ensure that you can be readily accessible to our recruiters as a member of our virtual bench. Our virtual bench enables us to meet the demands of our clients with the subject-matter expertise and experience they need when they need them.
   
   
2. The second way we recommend that you remain engaged with MCP throughout your career journey is by joining the MCP Talent Network. As a member of the network, you’ll receive regular updates from the recruiting team, including personalized job updates, interviews with MCP subject-matter experts and leaders, information on our most challenging projects, and information regarding new career opportunities and life at MCP.

Step Two: Connecting with an MCP Talent Specialist

If you are a match for one of MCP’s opportunities, you will hear from one of MCP’s talent acquisition managers for a preliminary pre-screen interview. This interview identifies candidates who possess the requirements and characteristics for the role and eliminates those who do not. Candidates generally will meet with us by telephone, but also could meet in a live environment depending on the type of role. The pre-screen interview generally will last up to 60 minutes. During the interview, we ask each candidate to state their career goals, identify their best professional attributes, and acknowledge their weaknesses. We will discuss your work history, MCP’s core values, and the team-oriented characteristics that you can bring to our company.

If both parties, the candidate and the talent specialist, indicate interest in proceeding to the next step, you’ll be scheduled for a formal interview.

Step Three: The MCP Topgrading Interview

We use an objective approach known as “Topgrading,” a methodology that was developed by Dr. Brad Smart, who widely is considered the world’s top hiring expert. We describe Topgrading as a structural approach to interviewing candidates, and we use it to fill our positions. The actual Topgrading interview is a chronological, in-depth, structured session.

We invite candidates to our corporate headquarters, one of our regional offices, or to interview via video conference. The session typically lasts about three hours. Our interviewers spend considerable time collecting information and identifying predictive performance patterns. The methodology enables us to capture critical details about each candidate’s background to include their education, key skill sets, and competencies, achievements and failures, relationships, goals, and potential.

During this stage, we also have reference discussions with former managers and supervisors to confirm what we learned about the candidate during the Topgrading session. Such discussions validate competencies, past performance, and the relationship each candidate had with their former manager/supervisor, as well as the potential that person felt the candidate exhibited while they worked together.

Step Four: Congratulations! The Offer Stage

Your talent specialist will initiate your offer, with input from the hiring team, and both will be available for any questions regarding your offer or the position. They will be the first to congratulate you once you accept our offer. An MCP representative also will be in touch to give you an overview of the forms that need to be completed, such as background and clearance check, prior to your start date.

Step Five: Orientation and Onboarding

You will be scheduled for orientation, either in-person in MCP’s headquarters in State College, Pennsylvania, or virtually. Our orientation program is an immersive onboarding experience designed to set you up for success at our firm. During the orientation, you will interface and interact with members of MCP’s leadership team. As part of the onboarding experience, you also will be assigned an MCP mentor who will guide you during the first three months as you become acclimated to the organization.

For MCP, it’s all about building lasting relationships with our staff members and maintaining an environment that is a culture of commitment versus compliance.

Sheila Carl is MCP’s human resources manager. She can be emailed at SheilaCarl@MissionCriticalPartners.com.