We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nikki Santello. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nikki below.

Nikki, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry?

Corporate America in general, not just in my industry, lacks the support of women, specifically working moms. The United States is far behind the rest of the world in offering mandatory paid parental leave. Working moms in this country go back to work too soon because they need the financial support or because they lack the job security that is too big of a risk to forego. Women are also subject to discrimination on a regular basis for being of childbearing age or being married. We are constantly having to work harder than our male colleagues for raises, promotions, or at the bare minimum, equal pay. Women make amazing leaders. We are compassionate, loyal, and great listeners. Corporate America would benefit from a stronger presence of women in leadership as well as a true program that supports working parents to offer them enough bonding time with their babies, time to heal from birth, and balance the new normal ahead of them.

Nikki, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Nikki and I am the owner of Modern Candidate. I grew up in Pittsburgh and have been living in Philadelphia since 2015. I entered into Corporate America in 2015 in the talent acquisition space. I quickly picked up on the inefficiencies of the business and knew I could gain further insight and knowledge to change the industry one candidate at a time. Throughout my career I kept a running list of what I wanted to change, essentially how to turn lemons into corporate lemonade, and when I felt confident in my skill set to take off in my entrepreneurial journey. I started Modern Candidate in 2020 after the birth of my daughter and felt a purpose I never felt in corporate. I started on the candidate side working with individuals but soon realized I could make a difference with clients. My services offered:

Candidate side: resume building, cover letter building, LinkedIn profile creation/audit, job search help, interview prep, offer negotiation, networking, career pathing.

Company side: direct hire recruitment, outplacement services, recruiter intensive training.

The job search process shouldn’t be scary, intimidating, nor should it be a power struggle between candidate and company. I have positioned myself in business as a true advocate to both sides and provide knowledge that teaches an individual skills that will last far beyond our work together. There is no gatekeeping at Modern Candidate! I feel where I set myself apart from others in my line of business is the compassion to my clients. It is never lost on me that someone doesn’t know what to do to get past the application and start interviewing, that they need to provide for their families and I could be that key to make it happen. It makes me feel good at the end of the day making me love what I do.

I am most proud of the work I have done building my business and being an example to my daughter. I haven’t slowed down now in my second pregnancy, but rather have used my voice even more to also speak up for working moms in the United States.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I am pretty into TikTok these days and have really sunk into my niche of working mom in Corporate America. Though I work with everyone in my business, I get such joy from receiving messages or comments from working moms about not knowing about something I shared before coming across my videos or letting me know how I have helped them or given them confidence to ask for a raise, promotion, or even move on from a toxic work environment they once didn’t think was possible.

I built my audience off of pure authenticity. I share my raw, genuine thoughts and know that the algorithm will send the right people my way. I only show up as myself because I have too much going on outside of the app to worry about what I say on it. I focus more on nurturing my current audience versus growing a bigger one which I feel like a lot of businesses and individuals forget to do. It’s essentially remembering who is building my business and sharing my content. The answer to that is who was there all along. I love new followers, but absolutely adore my day 1 audience.

Remember: it’s less about the follower count and more about the engagement.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Every negative thing that has happened to me in Corporate America has turned into a business idea for me. I refuse to be defined by those stories, rather prefer to capitalize on them. I could share them (and I do!) but would rather focus on the good. Each negative experience has also given me a stronger, louder voice that I am confident and proud to use, very much knowing there are people who have gone through similar situations as me and are afraid to speak on it. Being a woman in Corporate America is hard, there is no way sugarcoating that one. But why do I have to work harder to prove that I am a high performer to someone else when I have believed in myself all along? I like to keep that thought in my back pocket during tough times.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.moderncandidate.com
• Instagram: @moderncandidate
• Other: TikTok: @moderncandidate

Image Credits
They are all my photos, taken by my husband.