1. What is/was your relationship with candidate Saru Brochu (Manager, Peer, Friend,
etc.)? Manager/Friend – Saru reported to me in our database department. We had a very tight
knit team and many of us have kept in touch over the years.
Where and how long did you work with the candidate? I was the Database Manager for IBC
USA Conferences (a subsidiary of Informa) and Saru worked for me as a Marketing Data
Analyst almost 4 years.
Can you describe the candidate's work performance? Saru’s work performance was
excellent. The bulk of our department’s work was to fulfill various marketing campaigns (mail,
fax, email) with a fairly high volume of individual jobs. Saru was very good at this, turning
these jobs around quickly and accurately.
Can you describe the candidate’s interpersonal skills with others? Saru’s interpersonal skills
were also excellent. Our department worked closely with several conference marketers, working
for multiple departments. From the marketers’ perspective, their jobs were always “high
priority”, so since everything cannot always be done immediately, part of Saru’s job was to work
with these people and prioritize the jobs in a way that satisfied them as much as possible. Saru
had good relationships with the marketers and was very good at accomplishing this.
Can you describe this person's experience working as a member of a team? At the time, the
Database team consisted of myself and 3 other team members. Saru worked very well with the
other team members. She was always happy to help out when necessary and was good a picking
up the slack when volume was extremely high.
Where did the candidate excel in her duties/position? I would say that Saru excelled at picking
up new things. At the time, we were constantly looking for ways to improve our performance
and turnaround time, which led to making changes to our systems and procedures on a fairly
regular basis. Saru was very good at picking up on these changes and in some cases it was due
to her suggestions that we made changes.
Where did the candidate need to improve? Honestly, I can’t really think of much that Saru need
to improve on during her time at IBC. She quickly picked up on the work, made suggestions on
how to improve some of our procedures and was always happy to help the other team members
when necessary. I guess if I have to pick something, it was that Saru was reluctant to ask for
help when she needed it. When I say that, I’m referring to the amount of work, not the
understanding of what needed to be done. In that area, if Saru was unsure of something she
would always ask.
Did the candidate ever have difficulty meeting deadlines or completing projects on time? Saru
was very good at meeting the daily deadlines. Based on the volume of work vs. the resources
available, our department was always asked to turn around more than was possible in a given
day. Part of the job was to work with the marketers to come to a workable compromise as to
when a given job could go out, and Saru was very good at this. As to the “official” meeting of
deadlines, we had 48 hours to turn around a given job and Saru always met that. More often than
not, it was done in much less time.
Would you rehire/work with the candidate if the opportunity presented itself? I would
absolutely rehire Saru if that situation and opportunity presented itself. I enjoyed working with
Saru and could always count on her when I gave her work beyond her normal duties.
Do you see the candidate as a fit for a Solutions Delivery Analyst within a fast paced and
growing department? I think Saru will do very well there. As I said above, our procedures and
systems were changing and updating constantly and Saru always did well in that environment.