Recruiting News Recruiting Jobs Recruiting Social Network Human Resources

Search Results - concentrate

Blog Post: Ace Your Next Interview: 16 Practice Question & Answer Strategies: Added by Gregory Saukulak at 9:45am on May 23, 2012

Topic: Meet Miguel Terrizzano, CEO at PierPoint: y Shally Steckerl at an ERE Conference. Since that time we have had a running quasi-joke (you are not off the hook my friend!) about how Miguel owes me empenadas. You see few in the world who understand empenadas would argue my contention that Argentina has the best of these pastries among latin countries. That said, he promised to have them shipped to me. I saw Miguel at the Recruiting Roadshow and he informed me that a world famous Argentine chef had just opened a restaurant in Silicon Valley and that I was invited to delight myself with a taste I missed as a lad. Of course, it happened to be the day I flew back to Denver. (Note fist in air ..."This will not be the last my friend Miguel! Grrr!) All quasi jokes aside, we can agree I made clear either that I have an unnatural hunger for a pastry or that Miguel has an excellent sense of humor and I feel comfortable making a few jabs at a CEO I have grown to respect. The answer is equally in the affirmative. Miguel has run a global RPO for several years now. He has been keen to appreciating the significance of sourcing as a value added solution for his customers, before it was popular - and he has therefore been always attentive the latest in JobMachine techniques and innovations. In a nutshell, Miguel 'gets it' - so much so he was featured in Fortune Magazine recently. Few recognize an opportunity in a storm like he does and, that said, those that do, win. Today, meet my Argentine friend, a regular exhibitor at every conference ... Miguel Terrizzano Q & A with Miguel Terrizzano Miguel : I met my wife – Alyssa Thatch – in 2001 when I was working at Cisco Systems supporting WW Sales. She was a recruiter supporting Corporate Finance. Once the tech bubble burst Alyssa was one of the first casualties of the downsizing of our 800 strong global recruitment team. I got to know Alyssa more as I helped her with her new job search. We were married in September 2002, and recently had our first beautiful baby Emma on the 14th of July which of course if one of the happiest moments of my life. In addition to being a loving wife Its great to have a person with knowledge of our industry who I can trust to provide advice on my business. I have one lovable and hard working border collie named Tango who joins me for my daily jog in my San Jose, California neighborhood. Alyssa and I usually go out for dinner when she gets home from work and we love trying all varieties of food from Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, American, Malaysian and Mexican etc. My hobbies are the four Fs: in no particular order that translates into food, family, friends, and that all encompassing word…F U N. As far as community support goes I currently provide employment for hundreds of people in several countries and generally err on the generous side. I love the fact that my family and I spend 65% of our time in the states and the remaining 35% abroad. I really like to run in the early mornings. Six Degrees: How many years as a recruiter? Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Miguel : I was selling and installing cellular phones at a time when they were not a commodity but rather a luxury item which only the “privileged” few could afford. As such, the bulk of phones I installed usually ended up on the dash of upscale cars. Now being the curious person that a recruiter needs to be, I would usually ask the owner what they did for a living. I was surprised to hear that a fair number were recruiters. Now I thought to myself that the Army must be desperate for new recruits given the tremendous salaries they are paying recruitment sergeants who are now driving luxury cars with installed cell phones. Anyway, I told my branch manager that I wanted to be the one selecting the new sales people and installers since I knew the business, was college degreed and a “people person”. The bosses agreed and I was on my way to becoming a full fledged recruiter. I began my recruiting career with GTE mobile division in 1992, then joined an east coast professional services organization in a professional services sales capacity, followed by corporate recruitment for PeopleSoft in 1996, before moving on to Siebel Systems, and Cisco from 1999 through 2003. I established my own company Pierpoint in 2004 and have been doing so ever since. By January of 07 I had opened my 4th delivery center and hired my 227th Pierpoint sourcer. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Miguel : The systematic expulsion of an 800 strong staffing team while I was at Cisco Systems in favor of an RPO implementation. I was one of 30 that survived the 2 year onslaught. I learned quite a bit in those 2 years as we implemented the new RPO. I learned what worked from what did not work. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Miguel : Erlina Rusty formerly with Peoplesoft, now with Intuit. At my first job interview with her she quickly came to the conclusion that I would be most effective servicing the SVP of sales and provided great support throughout my three year tenure there. I have kept up with Erlina over the years remain very strong friends. Six Degrees: Yell us about your position as CEO and more about your staffing organization: Miguel : I am the CEO of Pierpoint, a global sourcing and candidate pre-screening company, and take a strong leadership role in our global sales and marketing efforts, in addition to overseeing our ongoing operational delivery centers of excellence for our global clientele. We traditionally have upwards of 100 in house employees and another 50-100 contractors who source, telephone screen and profile candidates, then tee them up to internal recruiters so they don’t have to spend valuable time doing it themselves. As CEO my job is to set overall direction, delegate to those that know more than I, over communicate with existing clients and always look for areas of improvement. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Miguel : The trend is for companies to do away with any task or function that is not core to the business and to reduce fixed costs wherever possible. This is where the Hybrid RPI (recruitment process integration) is going to thrive. Companies will not want to go full RPO because they know they will lose control, hard to implement and implies getting rid of your best in-house recruiters. I say keep the very best recruiters in house but outsource the time consuming and repetitive portions such as background checks, sourcing for resumes, telephone pre-screening, offer letter writing, rejection notices etc. Once candidates are narrowed down from say a 100 raw stack to a manageable 10 who are interested in the position, compensation and travel compatible, technically sound and culturally fit then those few 10 are handled by the internal recruiter. An internal recruiter should not spend the greatest part of her day on repetitive and monotonous work. We recruiters need to be focused on what is truly important to our internal clients and that is not to spend all day reading resumes, making countless phone calls and sending rejection notices. Six Degrees: Tell us about speaking events, awards, publications, where you have you represented your company: Miguel : IQPC conference in Arizona where I co-presented with my client, the Aimco corporation, recipient of countless awards at the 2007 ERE. I usually attend the ERE shows with a booth and have sometimes thrown a party but have not done much in the way of marketing or mindshare. The bulk of my business has come from my rolodex and referrals. Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Miguel : I would like to grow Pierpoint even larger by being able to offer our sourcing and pre-screening services to every corporate recruiter who does not have the bandwidth or desire to engage in candidate identification and telephone pre-screening. As a former corporate recruiter I relished those wonderful times where the corporation(s) had a sourcing partner that could go through stacks of resumes and make the initial contact for me. It allowed me to have more meaningful dialogue with my internal clients as well as being able to concentrate on closing the right candidates and not spend my life finding resumes, then sorting through stacks to only then have to put out 50 calls to get 5 people on the line. PART 2 Six Degrees: Tell us about Your Company Miguel : Pierpoint International specializes in candidate sourcing and telephone prescreening with a delivery emphasis on the Americas and Europe. We have several delivery centers with a fluently multilingual workforce. Six Degrees: How was Your Company Founded? Miguel : After going through two very large but unsuccessful RPO implementations on the client side I always wished there would have been a solution available like Pierpoint, so, when I was let go during on ongoing HR downsizing at Cisco I realized now was the right time for me to create and “build a better mousetrap”. When I was a corporate recruiter my peers and I were often working on 25 or more requisitions simultaneously with only 50 hours in the average recruiter’s workweek. Once the meetings, reports, and other tasks for the week were subtracted there was not a lot of effective sourcing and screening we could do in the hour or so had left for each requisition. So the first item we focused on when partnering with our clients was to help them manage the critical but time consuming tasks of sourcing and prescreening candidates. When we tame the wide end of the recruiting funnel by furnishing them with candidates we ensure that effective and thorough screening and sourcing is actually being carried out allowing the client’s recruitment team more time for higher value activities with their internal clientele. If you don’t get the sourcing and screening bit right you inevitably end up hiring more of the wrong candidates and increase your 30, 60, and 90 day turnover raising havoc in your business. We only focus on the time consuming but critical services which should be outsourced and which do not require lengthy implementations, overly complex contracts, and over priced add ons. Six Degrees: Where did you go and find investors? My own personal savings since what the investor community wanted at that time was to take control for peanuts. Six Degrees: Your Company’s Value Proposition Miguel : Pierpoint helps internal recruiters source, telephone and pre-screen candidates so they don’t have to. Our on demand model is easy to implement and is scalable up or down with the flick of a switch. So we boost your recruitment horsepower and effectiveness while saving you money. Recruiters are bogged down with too many reqs and too many reports and meetings. They are in constant reactionary mode. Pierpoint helps them be more strategic. Six Degrees: What is the pricing structure for your services/products? Miguel : We charge an average of 30$ USD per sourcing and pre-screening hour for the United States, 25 Euros for Europe regardless of region, $30 Canadian and $25 USD for Latin America. The prices include the costs of all boards and sourcing tools, including our own proprietary search tool Candidate Hunter. The price also includes day to day management and reports. Six Degrees: What is the future for Your Company? Miguel : We will keep growing organically, hopefully opening our 4th sourcing center in 09, and letting companies know that there is an alternative to full RPO where they can simultaneously lower their costs and retain a core internal staff. It’s a very similar model to a company’s legal department where in house counsel is both a vendor manager to the external law firms while at the same time a trusted business partner to their internal clients. When a case comes forward requiring outside expertise then the internal counsel will “outsource” that particular expertise to their external law firm. I envision being able to open many more centers with trained sourcers that are up to date on the latest sourcing methodologies, tools and technology, and recruitment best practices. Six Degrees: Do you blog? Miguel : Unfortunately I do not currently blog. I know I should, just like I know I should probably exercise more. Six Degrees: Tell me something others may not know about you. Miguel : My iPod has AC/DC, Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, some American Idol moments, and even some Madonna/Dido/KidRock thrown into the mix. I run ever morning religiously regardless of location, weather or time.…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 3:19pm on October 26, 2008

Blog Post: Building a Social Media Recruiting Strategy - Full Time!: Added by Stacy Van Meter at 4:58pm on August 20, 2010

Blog Post: Recruiting Metrics and Its Importance

Rich Peterson insists recruiting metrics are important.

The quantity of recruiter activity and quality of hires produced by a recruiting team are important figures to understand. Metrics…

Added by Richard Peterson at 12:11am on September 25, 2013

Blog Post: The essential checklist for your new recruitment business.: If you haven’t built or run a business yourself and don’t have…; Added by Rhys Jones at 9:16am on May 11, 2016

Blog Post: The Discerners A New Series by Steve Levy and Maureen Sharib Chapter 1 Ballscon #2: Added by Maureen Sharib at 4:45am on September 24, 2015

Blog Post: Does YOUR business have the HR department it REALLY needs….“teaching dogs to tango”: Added by Peter Lanc at 5:32pm on October 27, 2010

Topic: How to deliver quality headhunts that WILL win more business.: earch technique they can only aspire to understand one day, or those who think a few direct approach calls producing a handful of candidates will suffice. In my opinion both are wrong. Conducting a headhunt does take application and an ability to see things through, however the skills required aren’t that far away from contingent recruitment. However making a few calls producing a handful of candidates is not a headhunt, and certainly will not result in loyal clients who will call you with their next senior appointment. The ways the headhunting businesses I’ve built conduct their assignments are to excel in two very key areas. Fill the position with the very best possible candidate available Do it in a way the client feels they’ve had real value for money and come back for more! What is a genuine headhunt? My definition of a genuine headhunt is where you as a recruiter identify all the professionals possible who fit the criteria of the person specification for the headhunt you’re retained on, and make direct approaches to every single one possible (and that’s not an Inmail on LinkedIn!) If your headhunt assignment is a “generalist” headhunt i.e. not sector specific, this is one heck of a task. But even for a market specific role this means not only the clients sector but also any allied sectors where someone might exist with the skills that match your job brief. This means being very, very thorough and delivering real quality, which is the big differentiator. For the purposes of this blog I’m going to deal only with sector specific searches, because these are the most common and the type I get asked about the most. The generalist headhunt is for another blog. Also for this blog, I’ll keep it focused on how to deliver a headhunt, not sell one (again this is another blog). However, I will touch on some aspects of search delivery you will use to sell to your client, so if you want to learn to sell search read on, this blog might help. The mind-set for first class headhunt assignment delivery. The vast majority of recruiters are brought up to believe getting a candidate placed is the most important thing, not necessarily getting the best candidate for your client. Just fill it fast, get paid, and spend your commission! Yes this can make you a big biller in contingent recruiting, but it does mean you’ll always have to do new business as you won’t get as many repeat, loyal clients as you need. My ethos has always been quality, quality, quality. This ethos delivers clients who value you and return that with loyalty, your positive reputation spreads, and hey presto you spend virtually all of your recruitment day just filling assignments with clients ringing you every time they want a new hire. This is how I became such a big biller, and was reflected in the culture of the recruitment businesses I built. I also feel recruiting with quality as the main driver is a far more enjoyable and rewarding way to work. This is also why I think I found moving to headhunting so easy; I had the right mindset. If your client is going to give you a third of the fee up front and pay you a 50% higher rate than you get for your success only work, believe me they will expect quality. This is not just the quality of candidates you put forward, but the whole process needs to be so much better than your usual candidate search. So if you’re the sort to see tasks through to the end and/ or don’t have a resourcer to do it for you, then you may struggle with the delivery aspect. There’s no room for “that’ll do” in true search delivery. Sorry if this has put you off, but this is a blog to help you complete searches in a way that I have experienced will generate regular repeat business from your client, not hit and run recruitment. Where to start. During the sales process you should have sold to your client that you will not only show them the list of target companies you will headhunt from, but also a report to show who you have identified and what their responses were to your approach. This is important in the sales pitch because it reassures the client that they will be able to see what they get for their money. It also transforms your intangible “trust me” to that of substance. Showing your client the source company list is great for both sides. This allows the client to remove any companies that a) they don’t respect and so wouldn’t take someone from, b) have too good a relationship with to headhunt from and c) any group companies you may have unwittingly included! This saves you wasted time, plus it reassures the client on the work you’ll be doing on their search. The latter is extremely helpful for two reasons: - a) Your client is far more likely to leave you alone to get on with the headhunt rather than asking for constant updates. b) Your client is far more likely to take someone from your shortlist, secure in the knowledge there are no other places as a recruiter you could’ve looked. This second reason is key; having the millstone round your neck of a client who has paid you a retainer but expects you to do the search again because they’re not satisfied with your shortlist is no fun at all. So you need to do all you can to get your client to see the shortlist you present as the very best they could possibly get, with no doubt there may be more out there. Word of caution. Before you show your client the list of target companies, here’s a clever little safe guard. Compile your list, then name gather on that list of companies BEFORE you show the list of companies to the client. “But I thought them seeing the list first saved me time?” you ask. Yes, but it could also leave you open to looking like you don’t know your market, plus a search report list with lots of companies with no names identified to headhunt. Your list of source companies should cover every single company out there that could contain your placement/candidate. To put this list together, in addition to your sector knowledge, you will have to use Internet research to cover all bases. In doing this you are open to old or misleading information e.g. businesses that have gone bump or changed their name, one-man bands and businesses that purport to be in the sector you’re targeting but in reality it’s only a tiny part of what they do. If you do your name gathering and research before you give your list to your client, you have a far higher chance of eliminating these businesses out. It also means you’re only presenting companies you can actually gather names from. Some companies you may come up against a brick wall in identifying who in that business can do your role, or there being no one in the company who undertakes that role. So finding this out first, and taking these companies off your list removes those conspicuous gaps with no name next to any companies on your report. Lastly, you can be picking up market info during this process. So when you give your client the list, if they ask any challenging questions on your market knowledge you’re more likely to have the smart answers ready! It’s also good practice to go through the list with your client and probe for any candidates known to them in these companies they wouldn’t take, any they’ve already spoken to, and importantly any they know of that they rate. Again, another way of saving yourself time. You can also be quite smart in dropping a few names into the conversation you’ve picked up at the name gathering stage and look even more well connected! To present your list to your client, ask that they add or omit any businesses from the list and “sign it off”. Getting them to sign off or OK the list means they are semi committed to your list as the only place you need to conduct your search, leading them to be far more likely to simply choose from your candidates shorltist, safe in the knowledge you’ve looked everywhere. ###################################### Name gathering Otherwise known as mining for candidates, but regardless of what you call it, it’s compiling your target list of people to approach. How to name gather well is a key subject and will be influenced on the type of role you are headhunting on and the sector. It could also be another blog as it is a skill in itself. But for as much as illustrative purposes I’ll touch on a few techniques to get those names. Call the company This is where I prefer my recruiters to start. It’s too easy to rely on LinkedIn, often this info is old, candidates use poetic license to describe their role, and wont allow you to be thorough. Lazy recruiters rely too heavily on LinkedIn and you can’t be lazy if you want to deliver a quality headhunt. So start with ringing the company and using whatever story you think best to get the info of the name of person or people that cover the role you’re headhunting on. You may want to pretend to be a potential client, trade association or discipline association. Simply be creative to gather the name(s) you need. Depending on the role, I’d suggest you find out who else is in the surrounding roles in case they also fit your spec. LinkedIn Yes still use LinkedIn, it is an amazing tool. You can check out the profiles of “people similar” and “people also viewed” to those you’ve identified on the phone that could also be right for your job. Google Playing around with search terms, look for job titles in the sector, discipline directories, and trade directories. Again depending on the role, there could be some smart search string to use here. Also boolean searching … Some of the good database systems will allow you to Boolean search through their interface, and there are also other tools that conduct long tail Boolean string searches from a variety of sources all in one place, a good example is Source Hub. To x-ray search LinkedIn yourself directly via Google (particularly useful at the moment if you don’t have some of the higher level LinkedIn subscriptions to access full profiles of 3rd degree connections). Use the below command followed by any additional search phrases such as job title, skill or location, separated by the syntax operators (), “”, AND, OR. ((site:www.linkedin.com AND (inurl:linkedin.com/pub/ OR inurl:linkedin.com/in/)) AND -dir) ********************************** Do you show the client the populated target list? You can show your client the list of names identified before you make your calls, however if it’s a new client I’d probably hold back. The reasons for this is, on the odd rare occasion it can lead to reminding your client of someone they “know”, commenting they’re already in conversation with the prospect when in fact its someone they know is right for the job and they’re kicking themselves for not tapping them up before retaining you! Also as it’s the first time they’ve used you for a headhunt, they may read your list thoroughly and spot some mistakes you’ve made in the name gathering or some of your web research maybe out of date and which will undermine their confidence in you. One you’ve conducted one or more searches for your client I would suggest showing them the list, by then you should have built trust and respect so the above shouldn’t apply. How to make the headhunt call. Since the advent of LinkedIn, it’s handy to have it open on the target candidates profile for every call. This way when you do get into a conversation with the target candidate you can drop in details of their career to sound like you’ve really done your research, so inflating their ego plus gaining respect for your work. It can also help if they aren’t interested, to use the follow up referral question “I understand you used to work at ABC company who there in your opinion would be best suited to this role”. How to make your approach call. We all know most candidates complain about “recruiters pestering me all the time” so this can bring on the PPI call syndrome i.e. they just fob you off without even listening to the fantastic new employment opportunity you’re offering them . The pre pitch intro should at the very least get past this ever increasing PPI call syndrome, plus it may not actually be convenient for your target to concentrate on what you’re saying so if you pile into your pitch you could lose a great candidate who’ll just fob you off. The pre pitch intro is your greeting and opening hook of what the call is about, before you sell the opportunity to your target candidate. As an example, below is a standard intro I have passed on to some of the headhunters I had in my businesses to use as a starting point. The reason I say starting point is, I do recommend measuring the ratio of success of call-to -interest in your pre pitch intro, then altering your pitch, measuring again, and over time honing a pitch that has the best call to interest ratio for you and your sector. “Good morning/ afternoon Mr. /Mrs. X or Christian name (your sector will generally prefer one of Christian name or Mr. /Mrs. so you choose) we’ve not spoken before my name is Joe Bloggs, I’m a specialist headhunter for the ABC sector. I’ve found specialist headhunter gets the attention more than recruiter. “The reason why I’m calling you is I’ve been retained by one of my key clients.” Keeps the senior headhunter style going. “to search for the very best person possible (optional insert of generic role e.g. in the Design arena) for a role that’s pivotal to the growth of their business.” This bit may need some finessing depending on your role but make sure you pump up your need to find the best talent, and a phrase that ups the importance of the role in your clients business. “You’ve been recommended to me as being highly regarded in this area.” People love to think someone else is saying good things about them hence the recommended and the phrase highly regarded. “and I wanted to speak with you about this role, is now a good time to speak?” As you want to speak with them about this role even if they’re not interested in the role themselves, hopefully you’ll have pumped up their ego and your headhunter status enough they’ll still be happy to talk more to you, which may lead to a referral, them as a future candidate or even better a future client. This might need to be adapted depending on the role but it’s a very good starting point. Try using this against your usual intro and measure the ratio of success, adapt and find the best one for you. Do you initially leave a voice mail? I prefer not to so I would suggest you try a few times, and leave no message . But this can’t go on forever, so you will eventually have to leave a message. I’d also vary between calling from a landline, mobile and even a second mobile number. If your office number is withheld a lot of people now won’t take anonymous calls to avoid the dreaded telesales of PPI, plus if you have alternate numbers you can use you won’t look like a stalker! To increase the chances of a return call, I try the vanity card again; “Hi Christian name (Mr. or Mrs. will sound like sales call) you’ve been recommended to me can you call me back on” and leave a mobile number. They won’t always call back but this isn’t a bad way to increase your chances through intrigue. The second blog in this series of two covers: The headhunt call to get the highest interest to call ratio How to interview the candidate in a way that creates business and gives you plenty for your interview notes How to present your client with the shortlist in a way they see huge value and commit to interviewing all your shortlist And finally how to add the real value to ensure your clients come back to you every time for more. - Written by Davidson Gray Managing Director Rhys Jones. Rhys’ experience has come from progressing from a big billing contingent recruiter to a successful headhunter and onto building two Headhunting firms. Rhys sold out of those businesses in 2014 to focus on working with recruitment start ups with every one to date being a success.…; Added by Rhys Jones at 6:38am on March 18, 2016

Blog Post: How to Set Up a Recruitment Business: The Davidson Gray eBook: Welcome to my eBook. As you’re taking the time out to read my guide on how to set up and build your own recruitment business, I don’t think that it’s a huge assumption to make that you are…; Added by Rhys Jones at 8:33am on September 29, 2020

Blog Post: Irritating co-workers. The definitive list.: I originally wrote these observations with the intent of making some kind of HR Top Trumps game out of them. I thought it would make a nice leave-behind gift for recruiters, but as I am no…; Added by Alasdair Murray at 10:24am on January 10, 2010