Hot jobs!

1. M&A Manager
2. Director of Procurement for Solar
3. Business Development Manager, Southwest Region

What People Are Talking About

• Helion Energy inked a 50MW off-take agreement with Microsoft for the world’s first commercial nuclear fusion power plant, scheduled to start in 2028
• Air Liquide and the U.S. Department of Energy are collaborating on the “Houston to Los Angeles (H2LA) – I-10 Hydrogen Corridor Project”
• rPlus Energy to deliver energy from 200MW Pleasant Valley Solar in Idaho to Meta’s datacenter
• Ambient Fuels, a green hydrogen developer focused on heavy industry, raised $250M from Generate Capital for its Port of Corpus Christi project
• Ryse Energy raised $15M, led by RWE Energy Transition Investments, to grow manufacturing for high-performance, small wind turbines and technologies to integrate wind with solar and energy storage
• Energix Partners signed an agreement to use All-Terrain Trackers from Nevados on three new projects in rural Virginia totalling 82MW, two on rolling topography
• Greenbacker Capital Management led investment of $35M into Peak Power, a Canadian clean-tech company, focused on energy optimization for C&I and

Recent Personnel Moves and Promotions

• The Board of Directors for SunPower welcomed Audrey Zibelman. SunPower also hired Beth Eby as Chief Financial Officer
• David Schmauch was appointed CEO of Kelsun Energy, formerly Managing Director of Project Development for Delaware River Solar
• David Energy hired Alex Crawford as Head of Sales for Distributed Energy
• RWE Clean Energy promoted Scott Schwartz from Director and Head of Energy Storage for the West to Vice President of Development for the East
• Raphaela Hsu-Flanders joined Solar Landscape as Director of Market Development focused on community solar. She was previously at Bonneville Environmental Foundation where she focused on community solar project partnerships in tribal and low-income communities
• Bill Behling moved from INNERGEX Renewables, where he was Director of Development, to Solarpack where he is now Senior Director of Project Development
• Idemitsu enters the US hydrogen market with the hire of Alex Jorion as Director of Development for Hydrogen, previously in a similar role at NextEra Energy. Additional recent joiners include Patrick Rust, Adrienne Andrews, Leana Sossikian and John Jackson as Project Development Managers, and Edward Chen as Junior Analyst for Project Finance
• Mackenzie Deminico joined Luminia as Senior Development Manager for Commercial Solar from Heliovaas where she was an Operations Manager
• Microsoft onboarded Michael Pariser as Principal Renewable Energy Originator, previously Senior Director II of Renewable Energy Services for Walmart

The Importance of Rejection

Nobody likes finding out their application for a job was rejected. Or do they?

Studies show that candidates who receive rejection letters actually have a more positive outlook on the rejecting company’s brand than on companies that provide no feedback at all. Often overlooked as a branding and marketing tool, rejection letters are another way companies can communicate with not only candidates for jobs, but with fellow industry professionals who may end up working alongside your company a consulting, co-development, or professional services role at an adjacent company.

According to a 2019 study called “The Effect of Different Rejection Letters on Applicants’ Reactions” by Michela Cortini, Teresa Galanti, and Massimiliano Barattucci, the authors found “that providing a timely, customised and informal notification…is able to affect, above all, fairness perceptions and intention to re-apply.”

In another study, authors found that “job applicants take into account both explicit and implicit communication they receive from the organisation during the selection procedure to develop their personal view about the organization itself” (Lievens F., Slaughter J.E. Employer image and employer branding: What we know and what we need to know).

One way to look at the job application process is through the analogy of having a conversation. In the first instance, the company posts a job description and invites potential candidates to have a conversation. In the second instance, the candidate polishes up his or her resume and submits it to the company, a volley back to the company. When the volley is not returned through the absence of feedback, this implicit form of communication can foster negative feelings about the candidate’s own self-image as well as his or her image of the company.

In an industry as vibrant as the US Renewable Energy industry, where many companies are competing for the same pool of candidates, it is all the more important to take advantage of all means of building a positive corporate image. There may be a candidate who did not have the right skills and experience for one job posting but could be ideal for one on another team a few months or even years later. If, however, the professional courtesy of a rejection letter was not extended for the first job, the candidate may be reluctant to enter your selection process in the future.

As a full-service, turnkey recruitment agency, when you work with Megawatt Recruitment, we take care of this sometimes mundane and awkward task of managing candidate rejections. When we work with you, we understand that we become an implicit ambassador of your brand and will treat it as if it were our own.

Sources:
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6826967/
2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289556181_Employer_Image_and_Employer_Branding_What_We_Know_and_What_We_Need_to_Know

Thank you for joining us for another issue of Interconnection: Renewable Energy USA. We hope you enjoyed it and we look forward to keeping in touch and exchanging ideas, insights, and opinions. If you are a company considering hiring, we welcome the opportunity to present our services and capabilities. If you are a candidate, please check our jobs page or reach out to us to discuss your background, skills, and future aspirations.