Meet Jennifer Berns

We were lucky to catch up with Jennifer Berns recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

My work ethic comes from my history of being in sports at a young age and for a few years I played professional tennis. I also learned a lot from both working parents. As a family we got up at 5:30am, headed to the high school track and walked every day. Got home and got ready for school while they headed off to work. I was trusted with getting to school, doing homework and always calling mom when I got home. From there it was just a matter of doing what I was told to do and doing it. I never really had the opportunity to sway away from this. To this day, I am always early and focused on why I am where I need to be.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

What I do
I tell people what to do! This is actually what I tell people to get a reaction first. But in all actuality, I do tell people what to do. Nicely of course. I do a few things in my business, and here is the breakdown.
As a national recruiter it is my job to fill an empty seat that an employer needs to fill. They hire me to judge, screen, and more. With that said, my methodology is in reverse to most recruiters. My main goal is to make the applicant happy first. Why? Because they are the ones that will make my client happy, not me. So, I ask them first what they want and a lot more questions before they even know the company name or see a job description. And because of this method my average placement record is 90%. In 2024 I was 100% for the first time. (not a bad record to have if you ask me).
As a consultant there is no judging, at all. My clients range from entry level to “C” suite. They want to know more about themselves, how to move forward and backwards, and yes, at times people really want to go back to their roots and do the job that made them the happiest and money does not need to come into play. I also help with career transitioning. This is fun. I really like to take my clients to their edge. I ask a lot of questions that are hard, thought proving and more. They leave understanding the three words I specialize in , What is your Value, Purpose, and Why. Once they can answer these questions, they are free to move forward in their career. I also help with resumes too. I AM NOT A RESUME WRITER. I believe if you did the work, you should do your resume. I am there to help of course, but I want their tone, their story, and mostly, their voice on their resume and no one else’s.
I believe in what I do, how I do and why I do. Why? Because I can. I have been trained and have been around some amazing mentors in my life that taught me how to work in this industry and used my own spin to be successful.
My brand is simple; I am direct, to the point, and I don’t do fluff. If you have a question, I will answer it, if I can, that is. I don’t coddle and I don’t waste anyone’s time, especially mine. My reputation is all I have, and I build on it every day. I trust myself; I like myself, and I believe what I do is a service that people need depending on where they are at in their career. Am I for everyone? NOPE. Can’t be. Life has to much of too much and I am aware of that. So, I focus on what I can do, and I do it dang well if you ask me.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

My three qualities? Listen with intent, observe, and stay true to myself at all times. One of the biggest impacts earlier in my career was from the owner of my first company I worked for as a recruiter. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by working with senior decision makers that I thought were smarter and more advanced than me. I wasn’t to secure in myself and didn’t know how to approach them, let alone tell them and share with them how to be successful in finding the correct candidate for their job. So, the owner sat me down and said something I will never forget and still use to this day. “Never put anyone on a pedestal. respect them, but don’t ever think they are better than you.” From that point on I felt more confident in my work and how I approach it. If you are just starting out in your career, ask a lot of questions. I am sure you get that, a lot. But in all sincerity, the more questions I asked the smarter I became. I told people I was knew in this field and I did not understand all that they did for a living. They were all more than happy to share with me what they did, how they did it and why. I still ask a lot of questions because one can never know it all, thankfully!!

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

This question is not answered without a lot of thought and reflection, but the honest answer is, they left me alone. I had to fend for myself. School was never my thing. If it weren’t for tennis, I am not sure where I would be right now. My parents didn’t care if I got straight A’s. As long as I passed high school that was good enough for them. While in college I played tennis and went to school. I had to keep the grades to keep playing. Once tennis was taken out of my equation, (I hurt myself) I just went on my merry way. This all might sound a bit depressing, and yes, as I reflect on it, it would have been nice if they cared a bit more, but they didn’t. At least not in my eyes. But please note, they loved me, they just parented a different way. So, I fended for myself. And I still do, to this day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mastorrecruiting.com
• Instagram: Jennifer Lee Berns-Mastor
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/mastor

Image Credits

Image credit to Athan Mastor