Summit Interview with Ray Malouf

1. Give us a short description of your job, scope and team: As the director of Recruitment Marketing and Technology, I lead a wonderful team responsible for the implementation and support of GRS globally as well as our recruitment marketing efforts in the U.S.  In addition to the back-end applicant tracking system, my team manages walmart.com/careers (http://walmart.com/careers), and the Walmart brand presence on LinkedIn and @WalmartCareers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  Our goal is to provide a simple and easy user experience to the candidates that engage with our site, as well as improve our employment brand reputation around the world.

2. Tell us about you  (home town, residence, family, education, etc) I'm originally from Trenton, New Jersey and I've been fortunate enough to have had a variety of experiences living in other states including Arizona and Ohio before moving to Arkansas in 1998.  I consider Fort Smith, Arkansas my hometown since that's where I graduated high school and met my wife, Monica.  We moved to Northwest Arkansas in 2005 to allow me to attend graduate business school at John Brown University where I earned my MBA and was a Soderquist Fellow.  After finishing business school in 2007, I immediately began my career with Walmart.Monica and I have two beautiful children.  My son, Owen, is 3 years old and my daughter, Cora, is 10 months old.

3. How did you get into recruiting? I initially got into recruiting through my background in communications and marketing.  Prior to joining the Walmart recruiting team, I provided support as it related to recruiting ads for the Global Office of Diversity.  This led into other work that I did to support the VP of Recruiting.

4, How many years have you been in recruiting? I'm a newbie.  I've only "officially" been in recruiting for about 1 1/2 years.

5. What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you? I'm the only person in my family to go to college.

6. What are your top 3 goals you hope you and your team accomplish in the next year?

* Strengthening our employment brand in the U.S. and abroad
*  Redesigning our currently online apply process to be a better, more-simplified user experiences, rolling out GRS into new markets and helping our international markets enhance their web experience.  
*  In the next 3 – 5 years, I hope that all markets will be on GRS and we will be able to create a global careers site with visibility to all jobs.

7. What do you like most about your current job? What do you dislike? I love being a part of team that is responsible for innovating the candidate experience for our online applicants.  It's also exciting to work with partners all over the world.

8. What is the best thing for you about working for Walmart? The best thing is the wide-variety of experiences that I've had over the past 7 years that I've been with the company.  I've been privileged to work in 3 different departments and have 6 different roles.

9. When does the day start for you? How early can I have my first cup of coffee?  :)

10. When you are off work how you do relax? Spending time with my wife, kids and friends and enjoying the outdoors.

11. What was your top take-a-way from the 2013 Global Walmart Recruiting Summit? I was amazed at all of the recruiting talent that we have across the globe.  My key take-a-way was definitely the need to collaborate with our partners and share best practices globally.  It was always helpful to note that some markets are further along in their recruiting efforts and that we can learn from them.

12. Fill in the blank: “I’ve been fortunate____: to work and travel with Don Soderquist – former Senior Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Walmart - retired”

13. Where do you spend most of your disposable income: Walmart! Where else?!

14. What is your biggest productivity challenge? Having enough time in the day to get everything I need to done.

15. Do you have one internet tool / smart-phone app that you cannot do without? Instagram / Facebook. Walmart email on my iPhone.

16. One word to sum you up: Ambitious