Search Results - designed

Blog Post: Recruiting CRM vs ATS: What Are the Differences, and When Do You Need Them Both?: Cutting-edge technologies are breathing new life into the modern recruiting market. The two favorite systems for leading talent acquisition professionals are Applicant tracking systems (ATS) and…; Added by Rakuna at 11:28pm on November 14, 2024

Blog Post: What is A Recruiting CRM Solution, and What Are Its Top 7 Benefits?: The labor market is highly dynamic, and with change comes a shrinkage in the talented and capable labor force. As a recruiter, you must actively seek to draw in applicants if you want to hire the…; Added by Rakuna at 11:36pm on November 14, 2024

Topic: Meet Rob Wetzel, Recruiting Operations Manager & Three Decades of Staffing Innovation: eries please click here. • Rob Wetzel • Recruiting Operations Manager, Compucom • Rohrersville, MD • RecruitingBlogs Profile • Linkedin • Facebook • Email Rob Wetzel has served for nearly 3 decades as a strategic thinker and results driven staffing manager providing best in class recruiting innovations. His career has reflected an expertise in technology as it relates to recruiting processes, identifying talent and deploying Talent Management Systems. Rob has been responsible for creating and implementing the strategy to acquire 800 – 1,400 employees per year within North America. He partnered with business leaders across the company to understand their needs and deployed a strategic staffing solution which improved the retention rate by 35%. He created workforce planning to help forecast future talent needs, talent availability, areas of potential talent problems, and retention. Rob developed a new career website for US and Canada to focus on employment branding and talent cultivation which became the focus to show Getronics as a “best-in-class” employer and was highly recognized by Recruiting Roundtable. His contributions in ATS design and implementation led to major enhancements which increased ROI and enhanced recruiter performance by 40%. Rob was responsible for innovations in multiple system reports to build a metrics dashboard to reflect Recruiter performance, Hiring Manager performance, time to fill, time to interview, cost per hire, cost per source, etc. Q&A with Rob Wetzel Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world. Rob: I’ve been married to my wonderful wife for 27 years. We live in Maryland and have been blessed with 3 magnificent kids. It’s hard to believe they really aren’t kids any more. Our oldest daughter is successful in her career as a VP within her division. She has 2 sons that really keep us young. When my oldest grandson came home from his first day as a 6th grader, I asked him if he was smarter than a 5th grader. His response was “real funny Pap”. My younger grandson loves for me to do magic tricks for him. Our middle age daughter took up the Nursing route and works at our local hospital. She works crazy shifts and sometimes puts in 16 hours a day. She was a tom-boy growing up and played softball in high school and college. Our son is a Sophomore at West Virginia University where he is in the drumline. We enjoy attending the home football games to watch him perform. He is double majoring in Forestry Resource Management and Wildlife and Fisheries Management. He loves anything outdoors, especially hunting and fishing. Over the years, I have enjoyed building various additions to our home on my own. We have a 12 yr. old German Shepherd, a 5 yr. old pound dog who is a black border collie, and my daughters Jack Russell who has way too much energy. We also have 6 pigmy goats that everyone loves to play with. My wife and I have been very involved in all of the activities of our kids. Our daughters were selected to cheer at different Pro Bowl games in Hawaii. I coached baseball, basketball, and soccer when my son played. He also was the drum/percussion captain in our HS band. Although I’m very competitive in nature, I am a good sport. My wife tells me that I have a lot of patience, especially when things don’t always go right. I’ve learned through the years how to handle the bad with the good. Six Degrees: What do enjoy doing on your time off? Rob: I enjoy sports, the outdoors, and building/fixing things. Each year I look forward in going to the beach and hunting with my son. The family loves to travel and a few years ago we decided to take a month to travel out west. We logged just a little over 7,000 miles in our camper. It was amazing to see some of the beautiful sights of nature in person. For 10 years I was president of our local high school Athletic Boosters and my wife was secretary. I am very involved in my church and currently function as the Building Chair of a new $1.9 M facility that we are adding to our current structure. My wife and I were Youth leaders for many years. I am also a Certified Lay Speaker and have shared sermons at our church as well as other congregations. We are involved in “Partner’s In Hope” which is part of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. We look forward each month to receive an update on each child we are helping to battle that ugly 6 letter word “CANCER”. It’s gratifying to be able to help make a difference in another person’s life. My family has also been doing “Volunteers In Missions” work for 16 years with our church. We help to rebuild homes for those who have lost their homes usually by hurricanes or flooding in many states. The past 3 years we have gone to Mississippi and Louisiana in helping to rebuild from the disasters from Katrina and Ike. Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? Rob: I have been in the recruiting world for 29 years. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Rob: Since my dad owned an agency, he persuaded me to try it out for 6months. My first impression was why would I want to do this type of job and had the feeling that I wasn’t going to like it. My college education was leading me towards computer programming. After a few months I was surprised that I started to enjoy this profession and looked forward to talk with people and to figure out what made each person tick. As I look back on my interviewing techniques, I think I started doing behavioral interviewing on my own before I even became certified in it many years later at GE. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Rob: Early in my career, I helped to coach an applicant that had just moved to the states. This person was very intelligent and just needed a chance to prove herself. I worked hard in trying to find her an opportunity where she could grow with a company. After several months, I placed her with a Fortune 500 company. A number of years later, I ran into her and found that she was a Sr. Mgr. of a large technology group and was looking to fulfill a large development contract which she had out for bid. I would like to think she awarded this contract to me because I helped her out earlier in her career. She mentioned that she knew I would work hard on the project and felt comfortable that I would complete it on time. I did deliver the project on time and within budget. I have recognized over time that when you go the extra mile to help others, it always comes back tenfold. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? There are a few mentors out there, but I think I really gravitated to Jack Welch’s philosophy when I worked for GE. He communicated regularly that he wanted people to think outside of the box. I know that is an old cliché but I find myself one of those people. I’m always trying to streamline a process, increase the ROI, or finding a way to use technology to enhance productivity. Six Degrees: Tell us about your contributions in your various roles throughout your staffing career Rob: For many years I was the Recruiting Operations Manager at Getronics which recently was acquired by Compucom. My recruiting organization was honorably mentioned at ERE’s Excellence Award ceremony for “Most Strategic Use of Technology” and “Most Innovative Recruiting Process or Departmental Solutions”. I strived to make sure we had the best processes available within the recruiting organization. I enjoyed finding ways to make recruiting more efficient especially when we hired between 800 to 1,400 employees per year. I have about 15 yrs experience in developing, redesigning, and implementing several Applicant Tracking Systems. I also have served on the Advisory Board for several Talent Management companies. I enjoy mentoring my staff and working with senior management to create strategic plans to fill the staffing needs of the organization. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Rob: One of the areas is social networking. Many people have been using sites such as Linkedin, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. As more people continue to use these social networks, the dynamics in recruiting will continue to evolve as well as technology. These social avenues provide more opportunities to build larger networks and to tap into higher level forum groups. Six Degrees: Have you participated in speaking events, publications, or other recognitions where you have you represented your company: Rob: Spoke at the ERE convention in San Diego a few years ago regarding “Maximizing Your Metrics Across the Organization”. I mentioned earlier of the two awards we received from ERE which were “Most Strategic Use of Technology” and “Most Innovative Recruiting Process or Departmental Solutions”. Recruiting Roundtable also recognized Getronics recruiting website as “Best In Class” in 2006 after we spent time upgrading our branding presence. Six Degrees: Worst mistake, biggest goof, lousiest practice you thought would fly but didn’t…and how that was a learning experience? Rob: I worked for an agency a long time ago that started to use 90 second video clips on Program/Project Managers. We would invite them in and shoot a 90 second bio clip that we would share with our clients. One client that I visited had just upgraded from the old Beta tapes to VHS. Unfortunately, when I met with several VP’s to review these candidates profile, I realized very quickly that I couldn’t share the videos because I had Beta tapes. Lesson learned was to be better prepared to meet specific requirements of today’s ever-changing market. Six Degrees: How do you personally expect to facilitate change within our industry, and/or at your place of work? If you started that process, outline the problem, your solutions, and the vision. Rob: Integrating talent management modules within one application. Many companies today have multiple applications (onboarding, workforce planning, performance management, etc.) from different vendors and are having major issues in getting them to talk to one another. Getronics was one of those companies. Many man hours are spent in trying to integrate these modules and usually end up with a spider web nightmare. Most of your common ATS vendors offer these modules that integrate with one other as well as with Peoplesoft, SAP, Oracle, etc. It will cost some money on the front end but will save time, money, and many hours of frustration in the long run by purchasing these modules from your ATS vendor so you can track everything within the same application. Six Degrees: “Best practice” you are most proud of developing (now or in the past) in your recruiting career? Rob: At Getronics, I received an operational excellence award for being the driving force to streamline the recruiting process. I implemented and rolled out an electronic version of the old manual process to approve requisitions. I took a 2-3 week approval process down to an average of 1-2 days. Some requisitions were approved within hours utilizing this new application. I also was able to provide a bonus for the approvers so they could see where the requisition was in the process and who still needed to approve it in real-time. Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Rob: I’m currently searching for a management or consulting opportunity where I can be an integral part in driving and enhancing the overall recruiting process.…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 11:13pm on December 20, 2009

Comment on: Topic 'Recruiting Scientists News': te of the Southwest Florida economy • Also search foreclosure database; read readers' views on economy; read blogs by local business leaders; see what panel of economic experts had to say Lee County is wagering up to $25 million, and the region's vitality, on an Economic Development Office that's struggled to recruit and retain businesses. The agency's efforts to generate jobs have sputtered at the same time the county is suffering a 9.8 percent unemployment rate and the undesirable label as America's foreclosure capital. In the past 10 years, the taxpayer-supported Economic Development Office hasn't knocked the socks off many CEOs looking for greener pastures. According to its own data, the agency provided extensive logistical help in establishing 36 companies in target areas. Combined, they pledged to create 1,903 jobs, which amounts to less than 1 percent of Lee's labor force of 284,036 people. Agency projections turned out to be optimistic. The News-Press spent two months tracking down those 36 companies, finding that: - Eleven have ceased their operations here. - Ten remaining companies employ fewer workers than anticipated; two are about to call it quits. - Thirteen companies met or exceeded employment projections by a combined 242 jobs. - Two companies did not return multiple calls. All told, those 36 companies dwindled to 25, and those 1,903 jobs were cut to 1,005 positions, not counting the two non-responsive businesses. Those numbers have not deterred Lee commissioners from believing the economic development office can revolutionize our economy. "They've done an extremely exemplary job, from Sony to Source Interlink to Lynx Services," said Commission Chairman Ray Judah, referring to three companies the agency has assisted. "There are a number of organizations they attracted to Lee County that are expanding and hiring more employees." Commissioners authorized a $25 million incentive program to lure companies and help existing businesses expand operations. It's quick cash is meant to relieve the economic bedlam that's been plaguing our community. But if the agency hasn't succeeded in building a solid, diversified economy, why entrust it with an amount that's 14 times its annual budget? Ron Inge, former chairman of a community leadership group called the Horizon Council, initially suggested the incentives. He said Lee County has been at a disadvantage for the past decade as other regions wave cash at prospective businesses. "It's a huge competitive environment," Inge said. "In that 10-year period, we were competing against communities that had incentives already." Jim Moore, the agency's executive director since August, admits money won't fix a broader problem that Lee's economy is too reliant on construction, real estate and tourism. Today's business climate isn't exactly suitable for companies looking to expand or relocate. "The businessman would be foolish to go ahead with plans, given the economy," Moore said. Times are tough, but they're also tough in Brevard County, which managed to land the Brazilian jet manufacturer Embraer last May. Embraer inquired about building its $50 million, 150,000-square-foot aircraft assembly facility in Lee, but chose Melbourne, the beneficiary of 200 new jobs paying an average salary of $50,000. Embraer officials wouldn't say what qualities Lee was lacking, but Melbourne-area and state agencies ponied up $12 million in incentives. Brent Barkway, business development officer for Lee's economic development agency, suspects this region was missing one key ingredient. "The amount of aerospace engineers on that side of the state was too much for us to overcome," Barkway said. "It's not that there is anything wrong with us." To woo prospects, Lee recruiters boast of our high quality of life, pro-business climate and growing work force. Sounds good, but corporate executives hear the same, if not better, sales pitches elsewhere. In 2003, the Scripps Research Institute also checked into Lee, which emerged as one of four finalists. After evaluating contenders, the biomedical research group instead chose Jupiter for its 364,000-square-foot center. Keith McKeown, Scripps' vice president of communications and public relations, would not specify what Lee County lacked, but said Palm Beach County had six distinct advantages: - The county donated 100 acres and $157 million in construction costs, in addition to $310 million in startup costs from state government. - Palm Beach's housing inventory was ample for scientists and researchers. - Southeast Florida had easy national and international flight connections. - The Palm Beach area had variety in its cultural and physical amenities. - Scripps staff felt Palm Beach closely resembled the institute's headquarters near San Diego. - Palm Beach residents had money and influence. "Palm Beach is one of the philanthropic capitals of the country," McKeown said. Scripps' contract with Florida requires the institute to employ at least 545 people by 2013. Lee wants to land a few "Tiffany targets," as Moore calls them, but the lack of a clincher is not just a Lee County problem. In December, the Economic Development Foundation in Naples released its 2008 Florida Economic Scorecard, comparing the state's eight geographic regions in 26 categories. Southwest Florida as a whole - Collier, Lee and Charlotte counties - ranked dead last. Northwest Florida was first. There's no sense dwelling on the past, Lee officials say. Barkway believes Lee has 25 realistic, active prospects looking to relocate their businesses. Another bright spot is a 37 percent increase in recruitment and business assistance contacts logged by economic development staff in 2008 vs. 2007. The Economic Development Office is a small operation with 15 employees and a $1.7 million annual budget. Moore, who earns $124,615 a year, took the helm this summer after Regina Smith, agency head for five years, accepted a county buyout. The agency does not recruit restaurants, retail stores or hotels. It pursues companies in six target industries: aviation, shared services, corporate headquarters, information technology, life sciences and manufacturing. Staffers provide market research to anyone, but focus on target companies planning to create a minimum of 10 jobs, generate at least 51 percent of revenue outside Florida and offer salaries at 125 percent of Lee's average wage. The 36 companies Digital Telecom Access Control looked promising, a custom computer programming business projected to employ 15 workers earning $75,000 a year. It opened five years ago in Cape Coral. Today, callers are greeted by a recording: Press one for sales, press two for technical support, press three for the business office. Sounds like a big operation, but in actuality, all calls lead to owner and president Michael Fischer - the last man standing. "We had a couple of good contracts, but the economy started to go in a different direction," Fischer said. "The telecom sector has come to a screeching halt." D-TAC's decline isn't a rarity. CallTech, a global call center, opened its Fort Myers facility in 1999, quickly outlining a series of expansions to bump the employee count to 500. CallTech's work force disintegrated just as fast. Director of recruiting Jim Phillips said the center closed in 2007 because of a client reduction that coincided with a lease expiration. Its 25,000-square-foot facility remains vacant. BeSafe International, which manufactured protective vests for police officers, spent the past month moving its operation from Fort Myers to Miami after four years here. Flexi International, a software company that brought its regional office to Lee in 2000, moved to Naples five years later. BeSafe and Flexi are the types of business Lee County wants: manufacturing and high-tech industries that sell products outside the region and pay above-average wages. They also are the types of business Lee County has trouble attracting and trouble keeping. In December, the county hired Denver-based Atlas Advertising to create a campaign promoting Lee on a national level. Ben Wright, Atlas' CEO and founder, said losing businesses is not uncommon as company executives evaluate their options. Wright discerned that two Floridas have emerged in economic development, and Lee isn't necessarily vying for an Embraer or Scripps with Brevard or Palm Beach, counties that feature bigger, better-trained work forces. "Prospects and companies differentiate between the west coast of Florida and the east coast," Wright said. "We're not so sure we're competing with the rest of the state." The Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast helped bring 12 companies to Brevard County in the past five years, when it began tracking the data. Lee, by comparison, landed 14 companies in that timeframe. Brevard's companies generated 977 new jobs to Lee's 776. The true difference between Brevard and Lee are the types of new businesses opening shop. Brevard's include a glut of manufacturers: aircraft, airplane parts, medical supplies, electronics, guided missile and rubber. Lee's newcomers manufactured bulletproof vests, doors, metal products and pharmaceuticals, along with food packaging and headquarters for manufacturing and insurance firms. County incentive Four months after commissioners approved the $25 million incentive, the economic development office is revealing its first recommendation, the expansion of a marketing research and public opinion polling firm. The undisclosed company plans to build a 70,000-square-foot facility and create 200 jobs over five years, each averaging $60,000-a-year salaries. Commissioners will vote Tuesday on whether the project merits $350,000 in incentives. Jennifer Berg, marketing and communications manager for the economic office, said an 80-employee consumer finance company soon will announce it is relocating here. Moore repeatedly has stated he'd rather not spend a penny of the $25 million, calling the incentives a marketing tool. "The only way I'm going to use the $25 million is to close the deal," Moore said. "I'm not going to put it out there on the table and say 'please come have as much as you want.'" New vs. existing In the past decade, the economic development office helped 77 businesses expand their local presence, creating 3,403 new jobs. Just like new companies, some existing businesses also closed their doors. Paragon Marketing added 40 employees in 1999, but closed the office three years later. Neomedia Technologies was going strong when the software design company added 35 employees in 2000. The company restructured in 2007, uprooting its world headquarters to Atlanta so it could "offer close contact to potential customers and easier access to international markets," according to a news release. As the economy worsens, Lee's economic development office will monitor local businesses. "Who is more loyal to this community than the people who are already here, have their roots here, have their families here and would like to keep them here?" Moore said. That's fine, but Carlene Maurer, co-owner of Beach Bowl near Fort Myers Beach, admits she is struggling to keep the business afloat, but still wants to open a snack shop and arcade there. Beach Bowl, like a majority of local businesses, does not qualify for incentives because it's not a target industry looking to create 75 new jobs. Maurer relayed her idea after The News-Press solicited comments from the public. She suggested $100,000 grants for 250 existing businesses. That $25 million, she said, would inject cash flow into companies with desire to stay in business here. "What about us existing businesses?" Maurer said later in an interview. "We might have to shut down." Horizon Council chairman John Wiest said a future discussion can, and should, include existing businesses that need financial help, but the $25 million has a one purpose. "That is clearly to diversify the economy and mitigate against future economic problems," he said. Additional Facts About the series Lee County has always relied on two main industries: real estate and tourism. Despite a lot of time and money spent on the need to broaden our business base, the current downturn shows we still are not diversified enough. When the construction industry collapsed, it led to the loss of thousands of jobs from retailing and restaurants to government and financial services. Advertisement We solicited comments from the public and got dozens of suggestions on how to improve our economy. We held five meetings in which 38 business and community leaders gave us their thoughts and suggestions. And we’ve set up Web pages so the discussion can continue through the coming weeks and beyond. A rundown on the series: Today Millions: Lee County recently handed its Economic Development Office $25 million to spark economic growth. But that agency’s performance is mixed. What industries should the agency be looking to recruit? Jan. 18 Problems: How Lee’s lack of diversification hurts local residents. As we try to recover, there are plenty of stumbling blocks. Jan. 25 The upside: Lee County is well-positioned for a return to prosperity and should be able to reinvent itself. Solutions Beginning Jan. 26, we’ll have a daily solution to our economic problems based on your feedback and we’ll wrap up with a look ahead Feb. 1.…; Added by Melissa Furtwengler to Wanted Scientists, Energy experts, Engineers at 10:14am on January 12, 2009

Blog Post: How an ATS Software Can Enhance Your Organization's Diversity Recruiting Efforts: Diversity and inclusion have always been put close to the heart of many organizations’ recruiting campaigns. However, we would like to remind you of the importance…; Added by Rakuna at 12:17pm on June 26, 2021

Blog Post: Recruiting CRM vs ATS: What Are the Differences, and When Do You Need Them Both?: Cutting-edge technologies are breathing new life into the modern recruiting market. The two most favourite systems for leading talent acquisition professionals are…; Added by Rakuna at 12:06pm on June 26, 2021

Blog Post: Campus Recruiting Technologies to Adopt to Win the Campus Recruitment Battle: A 2020 article by …; Added by Rakuna at 12:05pm on August 20, 2021

Blog Post: GOOD HEADLINE FOR LINKEDIN: Added by Mandy Fard - CPRW, CMRW at 9:12pm on June 19, 2022

Blog Post: Campus Recruiting Technologies to Adopt to Win the Campus Recruitment Battle: A 2020 article by …; Added by Rakuna at 3:33am on April 5, 2021

Topic: Meet Erica Jayne Walsh, Former Sparky the Christmas Reindeer & Dedicated Geese Seducer: oor, New York, NY 10017 http://www.bountyjobs.com Linkedin Profile RecruitingBlogs.com Profile Personal Email Specialties: Negotiation, Strategic Sourcing, Marketing, Public Relations, Metrics/ SLAs, Website Optimization, & Branding I had the unique pleasure of meeting Erica Jayne Walsh at ONREC this past September. She catches your eye for many reasons, some by the merits of mother nature and others ... the more lasting impressions ... for reasons of a personality you can't help forget. She is a force of nature; charming, a pervasive wit and when you think she couldn't do more to compel you to send her a follow-up email - she impresses you with substantive intellect and a thorough understanding of business models within our industry. She may be young but not impressionable - she leaves you with impressions and all of them remarkable. I could make it all sound so simple, however, and simply tell you that of all my meals at ONREC, I recall most fondly sharing a deep dish pizza in Chicago with my new friend, Erica Jayne. Q&A with Erica Jayne Walsh Erica Jayne: My home life is interesting; I am a single twenty-something living in Midtown Manhattan. I bet that everyone is immediately thinking “Sex & the City” and though I do enjoy the shopping, restaurants, and nightlife lately my home life has been lacking because I am always working… so the TV show “The Apprentice” is far more relatable. To best answer this question and avoid seemly like a totally dull human, it probably makes sense to divide my life into two phases … “The Pre-BountyJobs Era” and “The BountyJobs Era”. Up until 6 months ago, I was living in downtown Indianapolis, working as a Sourcing Associate (paper-pusher, strategist, and spend analyst) for Eli Lilly and Company in the Procurement function. I had a robust life that would be much more interesting to your readers than my current home life… I raced sailboats competitively at the Indianapolis Sailing Club, was a Naturalist & Conservationist at the Indianapolis Zoo, a Mascot (Walrus, Reindeer, Rhinoceros, and Meerkat) at collegiate sporting events, parades, and around the zoo campus. [I wasn’t the best mascot… on one horrific day in December while dressed as Sparky the Reindeer (Rudolph is trademarked) I broke the two cardinal rules of mascoting. I not only spoke in costume but also was tackled by a 3 year old girl with pigtails and my reindeer head fell off… ruining the illusion of Christmas for hundreds of Indianapolis children forever]. I owned a beautiful condo on a lake and harassed the neighbors by attracting geese with food only to then sick my West Highlight White terrier, Lexi or “The Lexinator”, on the geese and the rest of the neighborhood. Aside from Lexi, sailing, and volunteering the other joy of my life was pro-bono business consulting. I have always been quite passionate about entrepreneurship, while in college I was president of the Society of Entrepreneurs and didn’t want to betray my fellow classmates by wasting away in the Corporate World, so I started and ran my own consulting practice and spent my evenings and weekends working with retailers, restaurants, and technology companies in the Indianapolis area. THE BOUNTYJOBS ERA In April of this year, I underwent a major life change and dropped everything for the opportunity a lifetime. When I say everything, I mean everything… I am no longer the proud owner of a beautiful condo on the lake, but instead squeeze myself into a 250 sq. ft. apartment in Manhattan that costs three times my mortgage. [The view from my apartment is spectacular; you actually can see “everything” going on in the apartments in the building just behind me. Actually, if you are willing to risk the guillotine of a window and stick your head out 5 inches, you can see the Empire State Building.] Lexi has moved to Ohio to spend quality time with my Mom and her dog “Belle”… and I am no longer sailing, volunteering, or working on my Masters. Instead, I have opted to work 16 hours a day, every day of the week. Now before you think I am crazy or start to feel sorry for the lack of luster in this era of my life… I’d like to mention that right now… I am living my ultimate dream. Actually, if we could decrease my city apartment rent by about 50% I’d be living the ultimate dream… right now we should stick with “dream” for the sake of realism. Six Degrees: Any other interests/ hobbies or surprising facts? Erica Jayne: Aside from everything I’ve already mentioned… my biggest interest is learning. I love finding out that I am an idiot… my grandpa always use to say “the more we learn, the more we learn we don’t know”. I wish I could specialize in everything, speak every language, relate to every culture, design buildings, engineer cities… essentially I want to be superwoman… but who doesn’t? The thing that would probably most surprise all of your readers is that I am a high-school dropout. I dropped out of an esteemed college prep school after 10th grade to pursue my career as an international fashion model. I moved on my own at 16 to Barcelona Spain to work the fashion circuit. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, September 11th occurred causing my mother to rethink the independent teenager strategy and pull me back home. The NY fashion industry took a major hit, causing the other US fashion markets to become flooded with top NYC models… eliminating my chances of breaking in. I worked for 2 years making minimum wage, doing strange jobs (gift basket arranger, greenhouse foliage caretaker, freelance event planner, hostess/ waitress, and freelance photographer). I spent most of my time during those two years helping better fashion models launch their careers, working with reporters in the Detroit area to identify modeling scams, and trying to convince whatever business owner currently suffering through my employment that there was a better way to run their business. By the time I turned 18, I realized that I would never make a difference if I wasn’t taken seriously, so I got my GED… applied to college… got in… attended… and graduated 3 years later Summa Cum Laude, with a BS in Business Administration. Six Degrees: How’d you end up at BountyJobs? Erica Jayne: While I was working in Indianapolis for Lilly, I became increasingly frustrated. Prior to joining, I had no idea that big business was so inefficient… for example, it took Lilly 3 years to move forward on a project that was projected to save the company 30 million dollars with almost no risk. One of my responsibilities at Lilly was to work with the Recruitment component to determine better ways to do business. This included a variety of projects such as redesigning how we orchestrated background checks, on-boarding a new recruitment advertising firm, organizing and resourcing our temporary labor division, streamlining contingency search vendors, forming strategic partnerships with executive search consultants, and outsourcing parts of the sourcing function. Just to give you a sample, one of my projects was to eliminate the number of search firms under contract from a number in the hundreds to a number in the low teens. This project seemed impossible. We had little record of who had made placements, where the relationships stood, how these firms came to be under contract, what functional roles they supported and who really was valuable. It seemed that each internal recruiter operated in their own silo, and this applied just to the corporate recruiters sitting together on one floor within our corporate headquarters… completing disregarding the chaos at the Lilly subsidiaries and international entities. We became so frustrated with the lack of organization within our internal recruitment arm that we decided to outsource a part of the function to an RPO. Then one day, I got a call from Jeremy Lappin, the CEO of BountyJobs to discuss a standard search firm contract that had been given to his firm when they called into pitch Lilly the BountyJobs solution. After going bountyjobs.com, I realized that BountyJobs was not a search firm and in fact eliminated all of the contingency search problems and inefficiencies that I had just spent two years complaining about and suffering through. BountyJobs had been in business less than 16 months when I first was exposed to it, was doubling every quarter and already had 20% of the Fortune 500 as clients. Jeremy then explained to me his plan to create a global solution that every recruiter (internal and third-party) used everyday. Then I pretty much begged and harassed Jeremy for weeks until he agreed to be my mentor by bringing me onboard and teaching my how to launch and run a company. Six Degrees: Tell us about BountyJobs? Erica Jayne: As a company, BountyJobs is refreshing… we are energized, agile, and always customer focused. Our product has been designed to help an old industry (contingency search) take advantage of the scale and reach of the internet and the efficiencies that technology provides. I joined the team long after the rocket was designed and launched, but the founders and core team realized that having each internal recruiter operate in isolation and without a strong technology system prevented companies from analyzing performance, sharing knowledge, and continuously improving. The team also realized that organizations were forced to limit the search firms they worked with because of the administrative hassles of on-boarding and managing the firms. When you think of global companies like Lilly, it is a little ridiculous to think that one RPO firm or 30 search firms can fill thousands of jobs all over the world in every specialty (Sales Reps from Anchorage to Dubai, PhD Research Scientists, Regulatory Advisors) … but when you have tens of thousands of professional search firms and headhunters that cover ever region of the globe and every specialty… the likelihood of filling the job dramatically increases. So BountyJobs took the concept of a marketplace and applied it to a technological platform that streamlines all of the inefficiencies, eliminates administrative burdens, and enables employers to take control of the search process and stay in control with real time information and detailed reporting. I’ll spare your readers the pitch, but if they are interesting in learning more they should check out our website (www.bountyjobs.com) and request a live demo… and we’ll walk them through it in about 5 minutes… it is really intuitive and there isn’t any cost to use the technology. Six Degrees: What do you do for BountyJobs? Erica Jayne: Jeremy has been kind enough to let me dabble in a bit everything. My two main focuses are marketing and business development. On the marketing side, I do brand management and positioning, develop and orchestra events, manage PR, build sales collateral, develop & execute the marketing plan, and form partnerships with industry thought leaders. Then on the biz dev side I analyze data to drive business development decisions and I work to close deals with other providers. This past week, my main focus has been on overhauling the front pages of the BountyJobs website, which we hope to be launching before the months end. Also, I should have another surprise for you in early Q1 of 2009. Six Degrees: What most excites you about working for BountyJobs? Erica Jayne: I love seeing the fills come through… we are doing thousands of fills in 2008. This is exciting, because each time I see another fill I realize… a candidate just found a way to improve their life, a headhunter just made money, and an employer just found the talent that is going to help their company achieve its objectives. It is really fun to be a part of something that is a win for everyone. I especially love seeing BountyJobs grow so quickly and knowing that I am a part of that growth. This week we just moved into a new office that is more than 5x our previous space… based on the constant stream of positive feedback and the rate at which we are growing domestically and internationally… I would be shocked if Jeremy’s projection [‘Every recruiter using BountyJobs every day’] didn’t come true. Six Degrees: How does BountyJobs fit into your life plan? Erica Jayne: Through this on-going experience, I’ve learned a lot about myself. I know who I am as a person and as a professional. Ultimately, I have the confidence and the where with all to know that I can provide BountyJobs with the right strategic insight, pursue an MBA at a top school, launch my own company, and ultimately build the life and world that I dream of. Everyone always asks entrepreneurs and people involved in entrepreneurial enterprises about their exit strategy. Honestly, when you are growing fast, living your dream, traveling the world, and making friends with amazing people… an exit strategy is the last thing on the mind. Six Degrees: Any final comments? Erica Jayne: Thanks so much for letting me be a part of sixdegreesfromdave. As I indicated I love learning from people and forming partnerships. If anyone wants to chat more with me about entrepreneurship, life, and/or workaholism, please reach out to me… I’d be glad to help however I can.…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 1:20am on November 10, 2008