Meet Ben Marincovich, People Operations Business Partner

by CyberGRX

1. Where did you grow up? 

I grew up in a small town in northwest Iowa. The Midwest is the land of corn, where people are honest, hardworking, and super passive-aggressive.

2. What brought you to CyberGRX? 

After moving to Colorado in 2014 I bounced around a little. I did some contract work and had a couple of swings and misses with opportunities that didn’t line up to what I was looking for. I had helped to scale 2 start-ups, so I knew that the start-up environment was right for me. I just needed to find the right company with the right values. They say people choose bosses not jobs, and this was true for me. My leader Colleen is who really drew me to the opportunity. When I came in for my interview, I fell in love with everything else about CyberGRX. The vision, the leadership, the pain points, and the huge opportunity for me to bring my passions and experience to help them scale the right way is what sold me. It’s been one of the best decisions of my life so far.

3. What do you do at CyberGRX/what’s your typical day like? 

I started as a Recruiter, although my opportunities to impact outside of traditional recruiting grew quickly. After about a year, I was promoted to a People Operations Business Partner. I am responsible for Engineering, Product, and Marketing as their dedicated Business Partner. I lead all of recruiting as well. 

I don’t know that anyone here has a typical day but I spend a lot of time recruiting, working on our Employer Brand, getting us involved in awards for best places to work, managing all external recruiting vendors, listening to employees, removing barriers, bridging communication gaps, guiding performance discussions, 1:1’s with leaders, shaping our hiring process and candidate experience, and hopefully being a trusted “go to” person for any and all employee and leadership challenges. I also contribute an above average amount of cheesy puns and Dad jokes.

4. What advice would you give to your teenage self? 

It’s ok, to not follow a traditional path in life and that doesn’t make you less able to succeed. The things you see as failures now, will turn out to be great experiences to make you the person you will become. Accept that life will give you difficult paths and challenges and it all comes down to your attitude. “We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude…I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes.” ― Charles Swindoll

5. What is your most memorable travel experience? 

I’ve been to a lot of places and love to travel, but I think the most memorable was when I came to visit Denver to see if I wanted to move here from Omaha. Life gave me all kinds of small affirmations while I visited, telling me I needed to move here. My brother flew out to meet me here to look at apartments together and it became almost comical how many signs there were for me to move here. I am a huge believer in trusting the Universe to guide you and it was clear that I needed to be in Denver. So I went home and put my house on the market the next day. I got a list price offer in 10 days and packed up and moved here without a job or knowing anyone other than 2 friends that had moved out here a few years earlier. It remains one of the top 3 best decisions of my life. 

6. What’s your hidden superpower?

I don’t know if it is a super power, but I have the ability to see the glass half full almost every day. Of course I have my bad days, but overall I see challenges as opportunities. I’ve had a pretty rocky road throughout my life and have battled my share of demons but I have always come out on top. I blindly trust that everything happens for a reason and I think that helps me to stay mostly positive through some pretty choppy waters. 

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