Search Results - difference

Topic: Meet Jeff Newman, Empathetic Eccentricity: Passion in Recruitment, Punjabi Cooking To History of Baltic Republics: thenticity. My friends, rarely has someone been so transparent in his quirks, been so effusive in his passion in our trade, and so in love with candy, wife and gaming ... but within it all ... a love for his fellow man. He identified the 9/11 perspective, one I share ... a crisis which taught lessons. We found the inner core of what drives this business for not only successful people but also successful human beings. Jeff is one of those successful 'human beings' because he has been shaped, by circumstance, to view his own personal mortality. Even so ... its also part of who Jeff truly is as a person to pull himself forward, look his client in the eyes, and be driven to know what he can do for his fellow man. He is the embodiment of the reality our friend Steve Levy often speaks of ... the People skills 1.0 few people pay mind to, preferring a run from basics and onwards to all things 2.0 We know that without people skills 1.0 we have fads and gimmickry. In Jeff, we have someone who can count 1.0, 2.0 and so forth and having lived them before they were terms. A 'people' person in a people 'industry' - imagine that. Jeff reflects the conscience of Industry Leader, Don Ramer and his themes of bringing empathy, transparency and love to our passion for humanity and I am esteemed to have observed this in his own words. We have authenticity as a driving force in a veteran recruiter like Jeff, not for love of dollar alone, but for love of looking in his reflection and valuing what he represents. It matters to Jeff, it matters to me and it should matter to all of us. It isn't a value that is fait accompli in this industry regretfully. I see talent in Jeff, his colleagues at the office do as well. but today my friends, it is important all of you see it as well which is why I take great pleasure in introducing a valued contributor to our community today. Meet Our friend .... Jeff Newman. Jeff Newman, Senior Technical Recruiter at Genesis10 • RecruitingBlogs Profile • Linkedin Profile • Office Email and Personal Email • Office Number: 212.688.5522 ext. 20 Q&A with Jeff Newman Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world. Jeff: One of my strongest recruiting traits is that I really am not much of a game player. I am the same guy at home, as I am talking with a candidate, talking with a peer or making friends with someone in Human Resources. My essence, the core of Jeff Newman, is to take everything with a smile, good and bad, and remember that this too will pass. I do this at the office, at home and occasionally at the Gym (to know me is to hug me). I am married 11 years as of January 18th. The key to my marriage is communication, being friends first, and nodding, leaning forward, and looking right in her eyes while saying “I agree”. It is kind of cool that that works in Sales relationships too, eh? Senda is my wife’s name and she is an MSW/CSW who specializes in HIV/AIDS. She works as a Senior Social Worker for St. Mary's in Harlem http://www.stmarysharlem.com/jsp/. I figure that her good work might make up for some of the things I've done while, what’s the word the hardcore ethicists use now, “rusing”? When I started, we called it Pirating...kinda like the folks in Somalia but without the heavy weaponry. Most important in my home life is the fact that Senda knows that recruiting often has lot more failure then success. We get hung up on more then we get to hear “AWESOME, I have been WAITING for someone to call me at work who I never heard of!” I had a boss once say to me that this is a Business of Failure. What do you call a baseball player who only succeeds three times out of ten? Very rich. The trick is to try and take that home as little as possible. At least in NYC, non-corporate side recruiters (especially in IT) are looked at better than muggers but still worse than building contractors, in terms of social status. You can't behave like that or you will start to believe you are that. Most of all, you cannot take the fact that out of 75 calls you made that day, 70 amounted to nothing. You take home the 5 that were successful and leave the negative ones in the office. I also am the pet human of 2 of the coolest cats in the world. Cleo has had Senda and I for 11 years, she is all black and she has had us since she was still taking milk in the bottle. She likes to lie in our bed and she sleeps with us every night. Goofy, our tabby, is about 2 years old and he is chock full of energy. Senda taught him how to play fetch with toy mice and he can do this for hours on end. He and Cleo are not the best of friends, however. Six Degrees: Tell us about the after-hours version of Jeff Newman Jeff: As anyone who has spent more then 10 minutes with me will tell you, I am quite unusual. If I was richer, they’d call me eccentric and I’d be on the front page of the NY Post. I feel that you can never have enough knowledge, learn enough things, and or try enough new things. I try to keep my span of knowledge broad, even if just to use as tidbits when forming a relationship. I genuinely am interested in everything from Punjabi cooking to the history of the Baltic republics. One thing unusual in our house is that we don't own a television. We watch DVDs through the PC and all the major networks post their shows through their websites so we don't miss much. At then end of the day, I think we only watch Lost, Fringe and 30 Rock, anyway. We watched the Presidential Debates streamed live through MSNBC.com and Meet the Press on the treadmill at the Gym. With the rest of the time, we talk, we read and we go out with friends. We'll play board or card games together and PC Games alone. My wife is an Everquest addict, she has been playing since 1999. In fact, I'll often call her by her EQ name. I'll pick up a new PC game every so often, from Spore (which stunk) to anything by Paradox Entertainment. Senda and I are also big Science Fiction fans, especially with Star Wars, but not limited to that. We go to I-Con every year and other Sci-Fi conventions when they hit NYC. As a Technical Recruiter, I have often made great connections through this world. Between us, I'd still be involved even if I was hunting for Admins. If that wasn't enough, I am also a StumbleUpon fan. If you are unfamiliar with that, check out the site. Make sure you have a good block of free time and don't say I didn't warn you. One more thing that I think really is important to understanding me is that I have Multiple Sclerosis. Go figure: I survived 9/11 yet was diagnosed shortly thereafter with MS. Nothing gives you greater focus and better understanding of whom you are that having a challenge of that nature. I usually don't mention it, or make a big deal about it but in terms of recruiting it has been very helpful. I can empathize and understand much better the unique challenges that everyone faces, even if I have never walked in those shoes. And it really does make for great stories. Every candidate has different and unique needs and helping them get through often means the difference between a placement and a turn down. Six Degrees: How many years as a recruiter? Jeff: I have been an Staffing Firm side recruiter for 10+ years. I have always done technical/IT staffing, through the good and bad times. I have never hesitated to place a different skill set if that was what the client wanted from me however. In recruiting you can specialize but you should never limit yourself. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Jeff: Ahh, I wish I could say I was embarrassed to admit it, but, another thing that people who know me will tell you is that Newman doesn't really get embarrassed much. I graduated Columbia University http://www.columbia.edu/ in May 1998. I was married for 6 months and had spent the majority of my college career enjoying myself as opposed to studying. I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up but I knew I needed a job. I sent out 200 plus resumes. A Technical Recruiting firm, Recruit Dynamics, had called me in because I had JAVA on my resume. I had JAVA there, because I was pumping that resume as much as I could, and once I had read a book on JAVA. They had a 6 month contract in Rochester, Minnesota for an entry level programmer. I replied that I really wasn't a developer I had applied for the recruiter role. You know, the one with no experience needed. The lady who brought me in came out and said the boss would meet with me, but not until lunch. It was about 8:30 AM at the time... I said no worries and was it OK if I waited here. I waited 6+ hours, to finally interview with the President of the firm. After an hour or so, he said, “Jeff, you know nothing about recruiting, in fact you know nothing about business. I do like the persistence of someone who will wait hours for an interview. Let's try it for 30 days and see what happens.” The irony is what kept me in the office wasn't truly persistence. It was the air-conditioning, free coffee and a bunch of magazines. I had no money and no place else I had to be. That's why I stuck around. 10 years later. I think it was a good decision. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Jeff: For me, it was the Death of COBOL following Y2k. For the year leading up to Y2K, COBOL developers were naming their rates. People who had taken a class in COBOL in 1978 and had been driving a cab ever since, were getting high paying contracting gigs. Everyone needed COBOL/MAINFRAME experts, they were paying for them through the nose and you couldn't find one not booked up to save your life. It was fun, the money was great, and I was very busy. Then came January 1st, 2000. The world didn't end, the machines stayed A-OK and I had to fire 50+ contractors. Developers, who a year ago wouldn't take your calls, were calling everyday. There was nothing we could do to help any of them. This taught me two very important lessons. First, it said don't focus your recruiting in one area or skill set. Diversity is the spice of life and to spread out as much as possible. The second thing it taught me was to keep your skills cutting edge or you could wake up one day and find yourself as obsolete as a Blacksmith after the invention of the personal automobile. A close runner up is the .Com bubble. The lesson I learned there was do not take commission payments in stock. Speaking of which, if anyone is interested in shares of Flooz, I have PLENTY! Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Jeff: I cannot name one specific person who I model myself on, but I have taken many different pieces from people over the years. The Big Boss at APS-Botal was a guy name Steve Sayetta. He had arranged for me to attend an 8 hour NYATS seminar. I complained as it was really focused on Admin recruiters and I only did IT. He said, “Newman, if you learn one thing, it will have been worth the time you spend.” I really believe that and have applied it to my recruiting career. I have worked with some amazing people over the years. TK Sheridan, Tom Sheridan and Paul Sheridan at E-Claro taught me the basics of the industry, from how to calculate a bill rate to the best way to close off a call without hurting someone’s feelings. Peter Elia, from APS-BOTAL (now Infinity Staffing), got me to better appreciate the importance of details. Peter is also one of the best relationship managers out there. He was also the best boss I ever had, because he had served “in the trenches” and knew what it was all about. Darren Greif, the IT Staffing Director from the Bachrach Group, is the best closer you have ever seen. He could see all the problems in a deal that would need to be gotten over before anyone else. As a manager, his policy of helping you to do better without interfering with what was working was amazing. Lately, I have been introduced and begun working with Steve Levy. I had read his blog, seen his comments on recruitingblogs.com, his blog and ERE and then I got to meet him in person. At first I was a bit star struck. But then I got to work with him and I thought, “And I got all veklempt of this?” Kids may admire and want to emulate sports heroes and guitar wizards, but since I started reading their works, for me it has been guys like Glenn Gutmacher, Shally Steckerl and Steve. What I have learned from him has just been fantastic. I try to learn as much from everyone I work with as I can get. Your talents can only get better through knowledge and practice. [I had other things to say about Steve but he knows where I live and work] Six Degrees: Tell us about your day in the life at the office Jeff: Well, right now I am with Genesis10. Genesis10 is one of the largest privately held business and IT staffing firms in the nation. The company was started in 1999, and has grown, on average, at a rate of 44%. One of the main reasons I chose to join Genesis10 is founder/CEO Harley Lippman. His bio really impressed me. Every company is a sailing ship and much can be told about how it will travel if you know her captain. Personally, I am a senior recruiter on a team dedicated to supporting one client in midtown NYC. The client has an awe inspiring need for excellent developers, especially in C++/UNIX. The process is one of the most difficult hurdles I have ever seen candidates need to get through, including two technical screens, a code review and then a final interview. It does ensure that our client is only getting the crème de le crème of the industry. This was the first time in about 6 years that I have ever been just recruiting, as opposed to a full desk. It is also the first time since the start of my career that I have been just supporting one client. With Genesis10's depth of resources and it's commitment to providing the best people, both technically and personality wise, I feel very comfortable in this role. It was an adjustment for a bit however. Six Degrees: (A) What other companies' recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples? Jeff: I am mainly acquainted with the firms in NYC. Our business, especially in IT, all seems to be 6 degrees of one another. I have heard buzz about many of the firms in our sphere, good and bad. Recruiters and sales people tend to gossip. Based on my second sentence in this paragraph, I will go with discretion being the better part of valor. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Jeff: The way you can wake up and have the market give you a surprise, I'd be uncomfortable guessing anything at this point. I don't just think our industry will change, I think the United States is changing. I couldn't even hazard a guess as to where we will be in a year. To quote myself from above, all you can do is “take everything with a smile, good and bad, and remember that this too will pass.” Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Jeff: While at the Bachrach Group I helped to train a number of Junior recruiters. This was one of the most satisfying experiences of my career. It was a talent I didn't know I had and I really enjoyed it. At some point, I'd really like to be able to that again. Past that, I'd like to retire at 50 but if you look at my 401k.... To get there, you just need to work hard and get lucky.…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 12:34am on January 19, 2009

Topic: Meet Richard Kenny, Talent Acquisition Consultant: "When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Recruiter": In college I knew I wanted to be in Recruiting. I went to the local bank and asked if ... I could work for free as long as they will allow me to learn about recruiting. Since I had a compelling argument why they should hire me, they said sure. "I attended a two day training session that was put on by David Szary, founder of The Recruiter Academy. I still keep in contact with David today. He is one of the early influencers that energized me around recruiting and thankfully I still have that passion today" • Richard (Rich) Kenny) • Talent Acquisition Consultant • Minneapolis, MN • Recruitingblogs.com • Linkedin • Facebook • Twitter • Community Volunteering: Habitat for Humanity • Personal Causes: United Way • Cell: 612-860-1116 • Email • Business Website: www.talentacquisitionconsulting.com • Personal Website: www.richardakenny.com I had the pleasure of meeting Rich at ERE and shook his hand at the reception. It so happened that Rich sat behind me during several of the speaker events and we got to know one another and his passion for our industry expressed itself in earnest. As an accomplished talent acquisition professional with experience across multiple industries. we shared a deep appreciation for sourcing passive candidates, but as a modest individual, you dig deeper and you find that Rich merged the recruiting programs of two of the world’s largest airlines; not a small feat. He has earned a diverse resume of certifications: • SPHR (Senior Professional Human Resources) • AIRS (Advanced Internet Recruiting Strategy) • CSSR (Certified Social Sourcing Recruiter) • CIR (Certified Internet Recruiter), 2008 • CDR (Certified Diversity Recruiter), 2008 • ACIR (Advanced Certified Internet Recruiter), 2008 • DDI (Development Dimensions International) • Targeted Selection: Interviewer, 2008 His experience has substance, his desire to enrich his capabilities to a worthy recruitment methodology is endless. The question remains, what makes Rich interesting aside from his resume credentials? My friends, this is one of the few people I have ever met in my career who KNEW they wanted to be a recruiter when they grew up. How he became a recruiter and what he offered to enter the industry says as much about his tenacity then as it does for his future success. He lays it on the line. Q&A with Richard (Rich) Kenny Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world. Richard: I am very close to my family. My parents have been married for 40 years. I have two older sisters, two nephews and two nieces. What I do have is a wonderful group of friends all around the country that I enjoy spending time with. For the last 10 years, I have been in talent acquisition roles where I traveled a majority of the time, allowing me the opportunity to meet great people around the country. I currently live in Minneapolis, MN, but previously lived in Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit and Toledo. I am a passionate football fan. Specifically, I have been a Michigan football fan my entire life. I have traveled several times to watch them in bowl games and attended many games while living in Michigan. Reading is something I do avidly; I read on average a book a week. I try to rotate in a fun book, industry book and professional development books. Currently, I am reading Dan Brown’s book “The Lost Symbol”, while also reading a book by Clay Shirky, called of “Here Comes Everybody”. There is one TV show that I watch every week either on TV or on the internet and that is 24. I have been addicted to it since the very first episode. If I seriously think about it, I think I have watched the entire series at least two times. Philanthropically, I volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and I am a supporter of the United Way. While working on a Habitat for Humanity home I realized that I could give back to the community in so many ways. I still want to remain active with Habitat builds, but I also realized that I could gain and give others value by helping people in their career search. Recently, I started a networking group in Minneapolis for HR professionals that are in transition that meets every Tuesday. Also, I speak to college student groups on networking, dinner etiquette and the transition from college to corporate. Additionally, I developed and delivered a presentation in Orlando, FL to The Institute of Internal Auditors local chapter and at Right Management in Minneapolis, MN on how to use social media in the job search for candidates. Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? Richard: I recently consulted for C&S Wholesale Grocers and Compass Airlines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines. I am actively looking for my next role in talent acquisition or to continue consulting for companies. I have been in the staffing industry for 12+ years, most recently with Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines. I was recruited by Northwest Airlines after speaking at a client conference for Peoplescout in Chicago. Northwest offer me an opportunity to design their recruiting program and after the merger with Delta, I merged the two recruiting programs of two of the world’s largest airlines. Prior to Delta and Northwest, I lead the field recruiting program at 7-Eleven. We hired over 20,000 people every year for our stores, management and district management roles. My first role out of college ended up being with Comerica Bank thanks to that experience. I started as a Sourcing Specialist and I had to source candidates for our operations center without a budget. I actually was very successful finding candidates; it was an awesome role. After that I was involved in college recruiting with Comerica. In college I knew I wanted to be in Recruiting. I went to the local bank and asked if I could work for the summer. They told me that they were not hiring. Since I am determined, I asked if I could work for free as long as they will allow me to learn about recruiting. Since I had a compelling argument why they should hire me, they said sure. After all, I was a very low cost employee. A few days after starting, the only recruiter they had resigned, this allowed me to jump in and learn about recruiting. I was still an unpaid intern but a great experience. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Richard: As a kid, I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps. He was in sales as a buyer and seller of metals—always building relationships, traveling occasionally and loving what he did. I see recruiting as the best sales job; you get to match people with companies and great opportunities. While I was in college, I knew I wanted to be in human resources, and while I looked at the other disciplines in HR, recruiting seemed to be the perfect fit for my personality and passion. After starting my first job out of college I attended a two day training session that was put on by David Szary, founder of The Recruiter Academy. I still keep in contact with David today. He is one of the early influencers that energized me around recruiting and thankfully I still have that passion today. His training, thought process, as well as his energy around this industry inspired me to make my mark in recruiting as well. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Richard: I think it was that I loved to learn new things and be involved and provide input to the recruiting processes within the companies I worked at. At 7-Eleven, I truly had my big break in the industry. I was involved with our corporate office on many projects and initiatives, so when the staffing leader in our headquarters made the decision to leave, it opened up an opportunity for me to move into that role. Since I was heavily involved in all the projects, contributing content, it made me an ideal candidate for that role. It also helped that I was willing to pack up my life and start over in a new city. If you are willing to relocate and start over, you will be presented with greater opportunities. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Richard: My father is my true mentor and the person that I look up to every day in my life. Aside from him, I have a couple mentors in my live. My first Mentor would be James Nyhan III. He was the first person to hire me at 14 - well actually the second. For my first job, I worked at a golf course picking up golf balls on the driving range. The owner gave me a bucket and a hard hat and asked me to pick up golf balls while all the golfers where trying to hit the kid with their best shot. I decided I needed a new job, so I ended up working for Jim at his family owned sports complex. It was a bowling center, volleyball facility and miniature golf course all in one. Jim inspired me to work hard and be the best that I could be and he definitely was the person that inspired me to have the work ethic that I have today. I consider the entire Nyhan family an extension of my own family and I still consult for the company today. Beyond that, in the recruiting profession, there are so many people that have inspired me, guided me, supported me and made me who I am today. It would be difficult to identify all of them now. So many people have given me the opportunity to succeed. I have gained knowledge, insight, and inspiration from so many people and I continue to build new relationships and grow existing ones. There are a lot of talented people in this industry, so I feel that having one mentor is not enough. You need to model your career off of everyone you come in contact with, because everyone has something to contribute; good, bad or indifferent. The key is that you have to take those learning and figure out how to apply them. Six Degrees: Tell us about your latest gig Richard: I recently consulted for C&S Wholesale Grocers, I implemented iCIMS – iRecruiter Talent Management Platform and worked on some process improvement for their volume hiring program. I also consulted for Compass Airlines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines. I worked on re-implementing Taleo Talent Management Platform, sourcing strategy and redesigned their recruitment process for the entire organization. Six Degrees: (A) What other companies' recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples? Richard: I spent most of my time in the high volume hiring side of recruiting. I led efforts to hire hourly employees across multiple industries, retail managers and district managers. There are several companies that have great recruiting programs. For inspiration, I look at company like AT&T with Chris Hoyt, who built an application for mobile devices. I also look at companies like Sodexo that are trying the social media route and making a significant commitment to this avenue. There are so many other great companies and talent acquisition professionals out there. Too many to individually identify. (B) In what aspects are they superior? Richard: Everyone is saying that recruiting has changed and social media and mobile devices are the future and in some cases have already taken over. I agree that they are the future but what they really are is an extension of what recruiting was and is today. It is still about relationships, networking, picking up the phone and talking to someone, meeting someone for coffee, shaking someone’s hand. Social media just allows us to do it more efficiently. I think these companies are superior because they are embracing social media and mobile recruiting. There is no manual on how to do it, they are trying, retooling, rethinking, and making it work. If you are not willing to try new things, and old things that maybe did not even work the last time, you will not expand your recruiting toolkit. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Richard: While I think social media and mobile devices are important, you really need to have a great employment brand, career website, applicant tracking system and the ability to manage your candidate pool through a talent community. Without these things, nothing else matters. You have to have the basics right first. Six Degrees: Tell us about your broader involvement within the staffing industry: Richard: I attended several conferences a year. I normally attend the Staffing Management conference, SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) conference and ERE Expo. I have also attended NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) and some of the regional conferences as well. I have spoken at several conferences around the country, as well as client conferences, organizations, and on college campuses. My focus is typically on social media in the job search, high volume hiring strategies, technology in recruiting, successful college recruiting programs and relationships with student groups, including networking topics, dinner etiquette and transition from college to corporate. I personally have received several awards for my efforts in college recruiting. In addition, my recruiting teams have received several awards for our contributions to the organizations successes related to recruiting efforts. Six Degrees: How has the recession effected your particular industry niche? Richard: The recession has impacted so many great people. I have many colleagues in the airline industry that have been impacted by the recession, fuel prices and mergers. Recently, I decided not to move to Atlanta after the merger between Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines, but I did spend nine months in Atlanta leading the program and merging the two processes. Several members of my team that followed me to Atlanta had their positions recently eliminated due to the economy. Due to this recession so many great people will change industries, some will change functions, some may retire and others may do other things. I think that all professionals need to pay it forward and try to help all of our colleagues find that next great thing. If we all just help one person, think of the difference we can make. Six Degrees: Aside from simply the generic term “Networking” what specific efforts have you made on your own behalf, or on behalf of colleagues to broaden your opportunities. Are there specific groups, both online and in-person that have proved fruitful in extending your personal brand and job seeking prospects? Richard: Networking is important, but there are so many other things that are important too. Be a sponge. Read as much as you can (online, print, books, blogs, etc.) and not just about your industry, but world events and leadership too. Share your knowledge with others and listen to others, because they have great things to say. If you are not employed, attend conferences, renew your memberships, gain certifications, be active. There are so many things you can do to stay connected. I recently attended the ERE Expo in Hollywood, FL. At this event, I connected with so many great people, thought leaders and people passionate about recruiting. I also landed an opportunity for a short term consulting project, which I recently finished. It is also important to attend vendor presentations. Not only to stay up on what is going on, but also to network. People that have jobs in our profession are attending these types of events. I have spent a considerable amount of time working on my personal online brand, website, and I am also planning on starting blogging as well. Six Degrees: Given your own Trial and Error experiences as a Networker, what advice do you have for your peers on what NOT to do? Richard: The biggest thing you can do would be pick up the phone and call someone, meet for coffee and communicate regularly. As your network grows, it gets harder and harder to keep up with people. If you could just send an email on someone’s birthday, if you know that someone is getting married, etc. Try to find reasons to connect with people. Personalize everything! Make sure that you respond to every message, follow-up on what you say you will do. Take virtual connections to real life when possible. If someone sends you an invitation to connect, you should also thank them for the connection and offer to help them in some way. Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Richard: I am looking at a couple career options. I am looking for that next leadership role in talent acquisition or to continue to be an independent consultant. Most of my background has been in high volume hourly and salary hiring. I also have significant background in system implementations (Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), applicant tracking systems (ATS), etc.). I have been heavily involved in sourcing, internet strategy, website design, branding, process management and improvement. I am also looking at some opportunities on the vendor side with ATS and RPO providers. I am doing so many things to find my next opportunity but also the right opportunity. I have been attending conferences, vendor meetings, speaking on recruiting, helping others with their search, reading, networking and applying for opportunities. This profile is one in a series titled Monday Member Showcase. It was originally published on RecruitingBlogs.com, a recruiting and HR community, where I am a featured contributor. To read the whole series please click here.…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 11:31pm on January 10, 2010

Blog Post: What Prospects & Candidate Say About Recruiting Calls: Originally Posted at Bearing Fruit Consulting on Wednesday June 3, 2009…; Added by Michael Homula at 8:56am on June 23, 2009

Blog Post: 275 Creative Employee Award Titles for Recognition [2022]: Managers often focus their energy on ensuring employees live up to customer expectations and facilitate movement in the needed direction. But, exceeding their employees’ expectations of…; Added by Phil Strazzulla at 10:18pm on November 6, 2022

Topic: Meet Dan Harris, My Personal Apprentice and Sourcing Guru at NetApp: com Daniel Harris is one the bright stars within the constellation of strategic sourcing talent developing within Silicon Valley. He has been developing his name generation and overall research capabilities over the last seven years, and in that time, has been a passionate evangelist for his vocation as a distinctive fine art within the staffing realm. Daniel Harris recently was a Sourcer/Talent Researcher at NetApp Sunnyvale headquarters since February 2007. He Reported directly to Sr Staffing Managers, building a pipeline of talent lead generation supporting different recruiters on a daily basis. Dan actively sources both active and passive passive leads on behalf of NetApp, finance/accounting, sales, consulting and marketing departments. Prior to NetApp he worked at VeriSign for a year supporting multiple recruiters from engineering to sales/marketing. It is suffice to say that Dan cares deeply for people, his work, and about living life to the fullest. He takes time to smell the roses so to speak. He is an international traveler, always looking over the horizon for his next experience overseas year after year. Dan prides himself in being part of the American dream, and likewise in being traditional; maintaining tight familial bonds. He visits his family often in Vacaville, about 1.5 hours away from his home in San Jose. His parents have since retired; his mother was a florist and father was in the Air Force and a part-time car mechanic, and he is mindful of his younger brother, and their family dog, "Momo" He is just as animated about speaking about those he loves as he is about the passion he has for his profession, sourcing. And for all these stated reasons and more, I am proud to have Dan as my first personal apprentice in the JobMachine Advanced Cybersleuth's program. It has been my personal observation that Dan Harris has a particular passion for life, one which resonates in each of the opportunities I have had the pleasure of meeting him. He has often been seen passing out sheets of the latest niche sites he has discovered to colleagues with a large grin and a sincere enthusiasm, and never seeks reciprocity for his generosity. He is often one of the first to register for a webinar or workshop, with a tenacious desire to maintain his cutting edge. When Research Goddess in Training, AmyBeth Hale visited the Bay Area, Dan provided legendary tour guide assistance. Of special note, Dan is one of the most modest people I have met in this industry. He is if anything, bashful when it comes to recognition, always thankful for the smallest of favors, and never a braggart. It is a significant quality for someone whose career is noteworthy for accomplishments and destined with the high expectations of his peers. Dan is respected for many reasons, but because he is a genuinely kind and thoughtful person he is a person who develops bonds in his friendships that go beyond the professional meet and greets. Dan is one of the small circle of colleagues I contact within the Bay Area to assess hiring trends for recruiters in the technology economy. Someone of Dan Harris' talent and work ethic is in demand and the availability of sharp sourcers is in limited supply. I can honestly say, Dan is one of my personal bell weathers “ if Dan isn't on a contract, I promptly surmise the bay area economy is slowing down. Q&A with Daniel Harris, Sourcing Expert Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world Daniel. Daniel: I bought a Nintendo Wii and I like to play video games but haven't lately at all. I've been spending my time reading more books to sourcing/research on the internet. I am picking up Golf and enjoying that greatly. Mainly my time is spent at work/home in research and sourcing (passion for it). Currently reading books on Competitive Intelligence as I am finding the subject and topics it covers extremely interesting. I love listening to self improvement audio books at my desk everyday (for about 1 hr while I'm working). I listen to webinars to CDs from others such as Bill Vicks Big Biller audio dvd to Lou Adler zoominfo webinars to Shally Steckerl recorded webinars I have. I also enjoy volunteering at my local church serving as an usher to help setup and takedown on Sundays. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Daniel: I got pulled into recruiting from retail. I was working for Best Buy as a Merchandising/Media Supervisor and one of the General Managers left to join a small boutique Name Generation/Profiling company (HTC Research). He recommended me and I was hired on the day I interviewed. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Daniel: Well, I would say itâ€™s multiple events, but if I had to nail one it would be Jack Young, a coworker I had at HTC Research who stated to me, "Dan, BE YOUR BEST" just before I left there. Its has been a lasting effect over me and the changes I've made within my career in my learning development, growth, thoughts, work ethic, understanding and how I go about in research and sourcing for the best passive talent. Six Degrees: Tell us about your job Daniel: I'm most currently a Contract Sourcer/Talent Researcher at NetApp working onsite in Sunnyvale, California. My responsibilities are delivering a pipeline of talent of names/profiles/resumes to senior recruiters covering marketing, sales, to finance position opportunities we have. Six Degrees: Are there occasions in which you share best practices with your colleagues? Daniel: In-house at NetApp I gave presentations & my cheat sheets on some of the newest techniques, websites, and sourcing strategies I share with the recruiting teams I worked with every quarter. In November and December this last quarter I Led and contributed to sourcing training via phone/web conferencing to the NetApp India recruiting team along with the help of two additional sourcers within NetApp. I love to teach and also learn from others! HOW DOES DAN DO IT? Our continuing series on the rank and file and thought leaders who make us proud of our vocation. Dan Harris is a worthy role model to spotlight. He is modest, - truly uneffected by each of his successes, suffice to say it is because his inner core is driven by a certain, most unique love for his profession in life. It is comparable to a professional football player remembering the first time he held a pigskin in his grip or a baseball player recalling that warm summer afternoon as a youth playing catch with his dad. It is a sincere passion, a bliss few of us can maintain given our daily chores, and it is for that reason, that Dan Harris is respected and admired by his peers - his focus and drive being all the more infectious to us all. Today we continue our discussion from the trenches in this War for Talent. Q&A with Daniel Harris, Sourcing Expert Six Degrees: How many applicants at your present employer do you estimate are hired from your corporate website as compared to how many are hired through referrals? Daniel: While I won't give an exact number, I will state we have a higher percent of employee referrals that are hired and come onboard vs through our corporate website but its almost equal I would say. Six Degrees: What is the source of the "Most Hires" collected from at your present employer? (In terms of Quantity #) Daniel: Employee Referrals and directly through our Company Website are representative of our highest quantity hires. Both are about equal. Six Degrees: What is the source of your "LOWEST COST OF HIRES" - (least amount of invested resources for the easiest hires, regardless of quality) at your present employer? Daniel: Employee Referrals and Internal mobility. Six Degrees: What talent niche groups do you target and are these particular talent areas specialized under your review? Daniel: One of my focuses is building out a talent pipeline at NetApp. I am the orginal creator of our NetApp Facebook page which now boasts over 700+ fans. I'm proud I was able to create something that will now contribute to more overall branding and social networking relationships for NetApp. I also targeted specific competitor companies and built out handmade directories/contact title lists for multiple recruiters with a majority of names that won't be found using any resume board, Linkedin, or via the internet. Six Degrees: What types of training in sourcing/recruitment are available to you and have you taken advantage of? Daniel: Well, I am currently Secretary of HRCA and actively assist putting together great speakers here locally in the bay area every quarter. I usually try and attend great webinars given by Humancapitalinstitute.org. I also look at ERE.net to taking Shally Steckerl's Jobmachine, Inc. webinars. Six Degrees: What recruitment software tools do you use in your day to day recruitment activities & do they translate effectively within all of the different countries where you recruit? Daniel: I would say my biggest three tools I used everyday at NetApp are jigsaw, spoke, linkedin, and talenthook. There are some other tools I am itching to get but for now I must use these. Six Degrees: What tools (technology or old school file folder, for example) did you first encounter early in your recruitment career? Daniel: I was originally trained via telephone methods while at HTC Research. I then started using the internet more and found search engines like Yahoo, Dogpile, or Google helpful. Six Degrees: How did your expectations of being a recruiter compare to the actual, first time you got on the phone or in the cubicle? To this day would you say people's assumptions about our vocation differ from reality? Daniel: Found it pretty exciting and challenging at the same time. The expectations and what I thought I would be doing was extremely hard but I was able to reinvent myself by a combination of using both the phone and the internet. While I had a lot of personal interaction while working retail before I found a lot of my skill sets I learned did carry over but still had to work and learn at recruiting, specifically the biggest being just really understanding the job and what the hiring manager was looking for. Six Degrees: Worst mistake, biggest goof, lousiest practice you thought would fly but didn't and how that was a learning experience? Daniel: Ha ha! I've made so many and learned a lot. I can't say I could single out any single practice in my mind this moment. However, One point I would say the you can't really start a job without first really understanding it and knowing what your looking for and requirements. 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. Daniel: Its starts with me! I openly share my research/sourcing knowledge with my coworkers and friends I have in recruiting. I believe in sharing knowledge and skills as it comes 100x back. I think the biggest differentiator is that I do feel confident in the work quality/quantity I can produce, how I think and can best bring value and talent into a top organization. I believe the YOU can be the biggest component in your success along with meeting and surrounding yourself with the right people/talent and knowledge along the way. Continually Learning and I never give up plus I love the thrill of hunting talent and winning. Six Degrees: Best practice you are most proud of developing (now or in the past) in your recruiting career? Daniel: Striving to Be My Best everyday. Continually learning and improving. Understanding the position, having focus and then taking the right actions to get the results I need. Six Degrees: What are some of the frustrating aspects/obstacles to your day to day as a staffing professional and in general? Daniel: The biggest obstacle I still face internally sometimes is when hiring manager(s) or certain upper management within companies doesn't understand the challenges that sourcer/researchers go through in the recruiting process. Sometimes the hiring manager needs coaching and understanding on what is realistic (both in timetable to the multi-faceted skill level candidates the hiring manager is wanting). Six Degrees: What are the most common themes of strategic and/or tactical mishaps involving past or present HR/Staffing org? Daniel: Maybe an HR Business Partner or Upper Management at many companies that don't have a fully understanding grasp of what research/sourcing can do within their staffing organization (not to mention help possibly impact marketing, sales, and Competitive Intelligence). Six Degrees: Considering all of the frustrations you have experienced in your career as a recruiter, -- what inspires you as you continue in your career? Daniel: People Do! What motivates me everyday is People. I truly want to help impact and make a difference in their lives. Yes, while I do acknowledge I reach out and connect to passive talent mostly, I really do want to make a positive impact and create that great win/win in their career and financially for their families. Six Degrees: What one thing do you ideally hope to implement that hasn't been done before? Daniel: I would like to lead and take part in implementing some very low-cost training & networking luncheons starting here in the silicon valley/bay area that would provide more opportunities for face-to-face networking of industry leaders, HR staffing mgmt, and recruiting peers as we truly are only a couple degrees of knowing each other. We can help each other and others through this as People and the connections we know is one of our most powerful assets throughout our career and through our lives. If we can build lives, help build each other, we all get better and get through challenges and challenging times together! Six Degrees: Anything you want to plug? Daniel: Well, I love to make great connections on linkedin so I can be found there Six Degrees: How Are You Going To Change The Recruitment Industry? Daniel: This feels like a Pinky and the Brain question! I will endeavor to get research and sourcing more well known, valued, and an understood function within industry organizations. Also see above on networking luncheons. Recommendations For Daniel Harris "Dan's generous spirit and ebullient enthusiasm are absolutely contagious. Few people in our industry have such a hunger for learning even after they have developed a deep wealth of knowledge, yet remain so openly willing to share. Dan is sharp and engaging, making him not only a pleasure to work with but someone with whom to enjoy exploring new ideas. I strongly recommend Dan among the elite CyberSleuths" September 21, 2007 Shally Steckerl, Chief CyberSleuth & Founder, JobMachine, Inc, "I hired Dan based on a recommendation from one of my Name Generation Managers and I'm glad I did. Dan is probably one of the best Internet Name Generators I've every trained. We trained him to take a project and "make it his". When he first started he had never even heard of Name Generation and within a year he was taking ownership of projects and runing the research from start to finish. He made tons and tons of mistakes but never allowed his ego to get in the way of what was best for the research and the client and was easily corrected and put back on the right track. He was always eager to learn new tricks and invested a few new ones himself. He has the highest integrity and truely appreciates the skills he has acquired. He is an absolute pleasure to work with and I highly recommend him as I know he will go very far in this career." February 21, 2007 Jeff Weidner, COO, HTC Research Corp "Dan worked for me at HTC for 4+years. Was sorry to lose him. Great work ethic and super employee. Knows his way around the internet too! Solid researcher. Would love to have him back!" June 9, 2005 Jeff Shiverdaker, President, HTC Research "Dan is an excellent sourcer and team player. He is up to the second on what's new in sourcing techniques and tools and so willing to share what he knows with others. He is always positive and always willing to go the extra mile to help the team be successful." September 20, 2007 Andrea Schmidt, Recruiter, VeriSign, Inc. "Dan is passionate about his role and committed to providing value to the team. He is a fearless researcher and has freely shared his insights and techniques with me. I feel I've learned a lot from his cutting edge techniques and his take on the future of recruiting plays out for me in my bid to secure top technical talent daily." September 19, 2007 Kate Gordon, Senior Recruiter, VeriSign "Dan is great guy, very professional, focused and interested on getting to know the actual person to find the best fit." March 27, 2007 Federico Bockel, Sr Network Engineer, DTCC "Dan is one of the best sourcers of the industry and is always well equipped with new sourcing techniques and ways to find qualified talent for "hard to fill " jobs .He is very talented in sourcing and always ready to share information.I would highly recommend him." September 25, 2007 Nikhila Bhingarkar, Human Resources-Staffing, Oracle ( formerly Hyperion Solutions Corporation) "Dan has an incredible sense of how to best utilize information technology to attain and maintain a true competitive advantage. Use his resources and watch his amazing network bring you the results you need almost magically." October 18, 2006 Kevin Nations (kevinnations@gmail.com), Owner, SilverBack Marketing Corp View my profile on RecruitingBlogs.com…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 11:20am on January 8, 2009

Topic: Meet Claudia Faust, "Pearls of Wisdom Delivered Not Only on Wednesdays": book Profile Email: claudia@improvedexperience.com Phone: 954-692-3553 OR 877-344-4300 Meet my friend Claudia Faust, Independent provider of recruiting services including executive search, professional staffing and passive candidate sourcing. As a recruiter and leader of corporate recruiting organizations for 14 years, Claudia Faust brings her passion for people and analytics to hiring and retention. Over the years she has recruited and managed staffing organizations for globally recognized brands such as T-Mobile USA, Amazon.com, Microsoft, Sprint PCS, and Burger King Corporation; her expertise includes executive search, staffing, recruiter development and training, metrics development and implementation, workforce planning, recruiting technology and vendor selection. Claudia took this opportunity as a featured member in our interview series to do something those who know her are quite accustomed to: she shared of herself for others, and in the most personal, poignant way. When you venture forward, her responses regarding home and history, - be it children, marriage, and career, - she shares the type of deeply personal and introspective flashbacks that good friends do on a warm summer night sharing a few spirits under a full moon. When all is said and done, you leave refreshed and empowered someone cared enough about you to entrust a part of themselves. For anyone who knows Claudia, it is a familiar take away in what it is to befriend her. She is entirely authentic and even more formidable if you recognize her wisdom is not solely pertaining to a certain day in a week. Truth be told, I look forward to conference season each Fall and Spring, it gives me an opportunity to see friends new and old, and in each venture I get a hug from my friend Claudia and that endearing smile that is so sincerely welcoming. Claudia is many things, not least among them a class act and someone who so consistently provides value to her industry. More importantly, Claudia is a friend to something far bigger than you or I - she is a confidante and mentor to the daily visitors of RecruitingBlogs.com, not to mention the spotlight featured guest sharing "Wednesday Wisdom" Improved Experience builds feedback portals to help companies measure and improve the engagement and retention of their best talent. From earliest contact and throughout the employment life cycle, the Better HiresTM suite of products measures and benchmarks critical indicators of workforce engagement, employer brand, and recruiting effectiveness. Improved Experience products are real-time and subscription-based, utilizing patent-pending survey technology. Sales, operations and customer support are provided from Dallas, Miami and Copenhagen Q&A with Claudia Faust Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world, Claudia. CLAUDIA: I currently live in Plantation, Florida, about 10 miles inland from Fort Lauderdale. I say “currently” because my husband and I speak often about other places we’d like to live, and who knows where we’ll be five years from now. My husband is a brilliant, kind, wonderful engineer, and we’ve been married for three years; it took me forever to find my match (you’d think that as a matchmaker I would have been better at choosing a life partner for myself, but that wasn’t the case for me), so he sits firmly at the top of the list of blessings I count every day. I also happen to think he’s the cutest boy in the world, but that’s another story. I didn’t know my husband when I moved to Florida six years ago, and the story of how we met is too good not to tell you. At the time I was actually dating someone else: an Italian Count I had met while on a cruise from Venice to Istanbul; I dated the Count for over a year while thinking long and hard about what I wanted next from my life. In the summer of 2003 I decided to leave T-Mobile and step headlong into his world; we traveled frequently between his homes and businesses in Italy and south Florida for many months before I concluded that this nomadic life was not for me; I missed my kids and my friends, and even my work -- alas, I was living someone else’s fairy tale; it seemed only fair to acknowledge it and move on. It was the middle of January by then, and I had a choice: I could return to Seattle, or stay in Florida for a while. I chose the second option (no brainer), and took a condo on the beach for a much-needed sabbatical. It was a life-changing four months: I ate when I was hungry, slept when I was tired, and even recruited a bit here and there to replenish my savings account. But mostly, I walked the beach for hours every day. Family and friends came to visit, and I began to feel like an improved version of my old self once again. It was at sunset on one of those beach walks that I had a chance meeting with the cousin of one of my neighbors, a dark-eyed Turk with a quiet smile and a European accent wasn’t easy to place (turned out to be Denmark, where he had spent many years on his own journey). We chatted for a moment and then I went for my walk, returning an hour later to discover that he was gone, but a note in a bottle was carefully tucked into my sandals. The rest, as they say, is history; we were married two years later at sunset on that same beach, and my life feels like it has come full circle. Our blended family is split between two continents: in Denmark it includes a son, two daughters, and four amazing grandchildren, and here in the US, two sons and two more amazing grandchildren. Note the underscore on amazing , and yes I do love being a Grammie. Last summer our family expanded again with the adoption of three feral kittens that have since domesticated well and taken over both the house and our hearts. Life suits me just fine these days. SIX DEGREES: Tell us about a day in the life, what is that eclectic past time that makes you tick? Make us believe, Teresa “We Hardly Knew Ye!” CLAUDIA: Travel is perhaps the most visible pleasure for me – it doesn’t matter where I go or how I get there: I can be packed in a heartbeat, and if I forget something they probably sell it there too. There are so many beautiful places to see in the world, and fascinating people from every culture to meet. How can my feet not itch to start the next great adventure? I’m not athletic by any stretch of the imagination, but my interests are eclectic; I like to bike, ski (the jet-, water-, and downhill variety), snorkel, sail, and go for road trips in my Z3 (straight six, open road, let the big dog eat…you know what mean). I’ve also started working on a dive certification this year because the Bimini Road is both in my back yard and on my Bucket List. I love baseball (to watch, not to play); hate pub crawls (although hanging out for a while is lots of fun); love dancing (took belly dancing lessons my first year in Florida); and learned to hate golf the minute someone insisted I had to keep score. Pretty much a classic Gemini. SIX DEGREES: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? CLAUDIA: It feels like a lifetime, but it’s only been 14 years. Even though I’ve run a software company for several years now I still tend to think of myself as a recruiter first. SIX DEGREES: How did you get started in recruiting? CLAUDIA: I took a job at an executive search firm in Seattle back in 1995. The owner wanted to train someone to do candidate development for his clients in the wireless telecom industry; I spent the next two and a half years working beside him on what I like to call my hands-on MBA. I didn’t know much of anything about how big business worked before I met Marc, and I soaked up everything he was willing to teach me. It was an excellent education, and I’m thankful for it to this day. In 1997 my curiosity about the software industry drew me to a consulting firm that placed contractors at Microsoft; it was my introduction to technical product development and the “back office” side of the Internet, and I grilled the developers and architects I placed there to understand how all the parts fit together. This is where I also accepted what a geek I am at heart: my recruiting library contains books like “C for Dummies,” and “From Cloud to Code” that opened for me the world of a well run software organization. There was no shortage of recruiting opportunities in the late 90s in Seattle; I was recruited to Amazon.com next (where at one point my work load exceeded 400 requisitions); rather than obsess over the obvious, I mostly focused on sourcing and headhunting executive talent for new lines of business. This part of my job was pretty funny, by the way. Recruiting as a function was new to Amazon at the time and there wasn’t a lot of respect for the role there yet. So I was instructed to “go find candidates for the executive team to talk to” – but new business lines were so top secret before launch that I wasn’t even allowed to know what they were. So calls to prospects were interesting to say the least (“Hello Fortune 500 Executive, we’re looking for exceptional leaders with full P&L experience to lead business lines that I can’t tell you about or I’ll have to kill you. Interested?”). Lucky for me the Amazon.com brand was powerful even then, and the doors that it opened with candidates were truly amazing. In 1999 I joined yet another great Seattle company, T-Mobile USA, where I had the good fortune of leading Corporate Talent Acquisition for several years. If my time at the executive search firm was an experiential MBA, T-Mobile was my final exam. TMO was in a massive growth mode that year that came to a screeching halt when the Internet bubble burst in the economic recession of early 2000, and then rebuilt with locomotive speed in the years that followed. TMO gave me hands-on experience as a recruiting leader; I worked with an amazing team of recruiters, and had a front row seat to the effects of both good and bad HR and recruiting practices on every functional area of the business. It was, as Charles Dickens penned, “the best of times and the worst of times” as the company grew from fewer than 10 thousand employees to more than 22 thousand in four short years, and simultaneously grappled with stunning turnover rates in many departments. There’s a silver lining to every cloud though, as what I learned there became the catalyst for product development that would follow at Improved Experience. SIX DEGREES: Tell us about your company, “Improved Experience” CLAUDIA: Improved Experience is the company I founded with Alise Cortez in 2006, to provide enterprise feedback solutions for HR and recruiting. Some of my biggest frustrations as a recruiting leader came from the incredible lack of data (and data collection systems, for that matter) that were available to feed the decision making process when allocating recruiting resources, or planning outreach initiatives. It occurred to me that if I could somehow capture feedback from all of the stakeholders in the hiring process – candidates, new hires, hiring managers, recruiters, even my boss sometimes – and present it in a simple and compelling way, I could put critical business intelligence into the hands of recruiting and HR leaders to measure and improve business performance. So we built an online “feedback portal” technology – a diagnostic platform that measures and manages perception in the hiring process, after onboarding, and throughout the first year of employment. It took two years to finish the engine and the interactive survey technology that feeds it. Since then, we’ve released two products: Get Better Hires, a tool that explores candidate and new hire feedback and engagement; and Make Better Hires, a tool that explores feedback from the internal business customer about Quality of Hire, recruiting services and support, and talent market conditions. SIX DEGREES: What single event had the most impact on your career? CLAUDIA: I don’t think that for me it was a single event; rather, it was the opportunity to see recruiting from so many different perspectives: executive search, contract agency, corporate recruiting and corporate leadership. Each has its own unique drivers for success, and that understanding has powerfully impacted my view of recruiting as well as the business solutions my company offers today. SIX DEGREES: Do you have a mentor? CLAUDIA: I’ve been fortunate to work for some great companies along the way, and some very smart people. Janice Dilworth hired me at T-Mobile, and I still consider her a mentor; I wasn’t sure if it would work so well at the beginning, because she was a veteran HR administrator and I had a lot of assumptions about HR that came from years of working in a third-party environment (the old “us versus them” mindset). Janice trusted my expertise when it came to setting a bar of excellence for the team, and I came to deeply to trust her abilities to set broader strategy and protect us from the politics inherent in really big, rapidly growing companies. I learned not only from her knowledge, but by her example. SIX DEGREES: How do you personally expect to facilitate change within our industry? CLAUDIA: I truly believe that if something can be measured, it can be improved. My work at Improved Experience is about leveraging perception to improve business performance. By creating a mechanism that collects and reports this data in a transparent and compelling way, we can deepen communication between all of the stakeholders: the internal business customers who drive the hire, the recruiters who make it happen, and the talented candidates and employees they want so dearly want to attract and retain. And if that helps to solve the problem of the dreaded black hole in recruiting, while building stronger businesses, I think we’ll have accomplished something amazing. SIX DEGREES: What inspires you as you continue in your career? CLAUDIA: I’m inspired by people who don’t give up, ever. Churchill once said, quite simply, “Never, never, never quit,” and I think that that is perfectly said. I’m inspired by the part of the human spirit that rises in adversity, that stands its ground, that finds courage, that clings to hope. My youngest son spent ten years in the hell of drug addiction; watching in horror, I was there with him. My first year as a recruiter was his first failed attempt at recovery; he was 14 years old at the time. He tried again to get clean when he was 18, and failed again. At 22 he tried a third time; 60 pounds under weight for his six foot frame by then, we all knew that he didn’t have many chances left. He finally did it, and remains clean and sober 4 years later. People who don’t give up are rock stars to me. SIX DEGREES: What is your next career goal? How do you expect to get there? CLAUDIA: You know, I still can’t believe I’m doing what’s on my plate today. In the past three years I’ve taken all I know of recruiting and built a couple of software products, filed a patent, and worked with developers all over the world to get it done. I still have two more products that need to be built to complete this suite of enterprise feedback tools. Who knows what will happen after that? All I can say is that I’m pretty darned sure I won’t be bored. Recommendations For Claudia “You have an amazing concept that will revolutionize the industry. Treating applicants with respect will allow a company to attract the best candidates, and maintain a large labor pool!” February 27, 2006 Kathy Gillen “Claudia is a very talented professional with the ability to make candidates feel relaxed during all phases. She follows up with candidates and lets him know the status in an inspiring manner whether the results are positive or not. Claudia is difinitely a champion among executive search professionals.” July 19, 2005 Jonathan Jordan, client “As an executive recruiter, Claudia shines! She possesses all of the technical skills and knowledge of a superb recruiter, as well as the innate ability to align with clients and candidates. Her even cadence and unfaltering delivery have earned the trust of top executives world-wide. Claudia reels-in candidates that had no intention of "leaving home". With Claudia you truly get what you pay for.” June 23, 2005 Christy Miller, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition, T-Mobile USA “Claudia is the very definition of what recruiters can and should be. In a world where so much focus is placed on process, Claudia is always looking for the desired outcome and managing to it with her stakeholders. A true a thought leader in her field, and among the most genuine people I know. I would highly recommend as a trusted advisor.” May 21, 2008 Michael Gaul, Director of Compliance & Fulfillment, American Background “Claudia was a great leader for myself and the entire recruiting team at T-Mobile. Her leadership and support never faulted and her consultative skills are beyond reproach.” August 6, 2007 Nathalie Becker, Manager, Talent Acquisition, T-Mobile USA “Claudia Faust was more than my manager, she is my mentor. She is a strong leader and extremely relationship oriented. She truly understands the recruiting industry and how talent is a competitive difference for companies. She is strategic in her approach to bring people and opportunites together. I recommend her highly to do retained search work or consult on best practices. Judy Wright” June 21, 2005 Judy Wright, Employment Brand Manager, T-Mobile “Claudia implicitly understands both the art and science of ALL aspects of recruitment. She is an incredible coach and mentor and very generous with her time and knowledge. I can’t recommend enough to partner with Claudia for any recruitment related needs. You are guaranteed a positive experience and solid results!” June 21, 2005 Annie Rihn, Sr. Recruiter, Zillow “Claudia has shown time and again her ability to find not only the right skillset but also the necessary personal qualities for senior level positions. Her attentiveness to the process makes candidates feel honored to have been considered no matter what the outcome.” June 14, 2005 Sharon Fitzpatrick, SPHR (LION), Senior HR Manager, T-Mobile “I worked with Claudia at T-Mobile. She is an exceptional recruiter and evaluator of executive talent. In addition to her great senior recruiting work she put together very good processes to improve the evaluation process and make the interview experience better for candidates. Claudia is very knowledgeable, and just as importantly, is a great person to work with. I recommend her highly.” June 10, 2005 Randall Birkwood, Director of Talent Acquistion, T-Mobile “I am pleased to endorse Claudia on two counts. First, as my manager, she was easily the most professional, supportive, instructive, competent manager I have had in my 20+ years in the workforce. As a recruiting professional, she has the best command of executive recruiting I have ever encountered and is a true class act.” June 8, 2005 Alise Cortez, Technical Recruiter, T-Mobile…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 4:40am on March 9, 2009

Topic: Meet Beth Havens, A Corporate Recruiter with a Physics Degree & Love Ancient Architecture: ue. Personal Causes: Saving Edith Wharton’s Home in the Hamptons, it’s a very unique bit of history Office/Cell Number: 805-212-0612 Personal Email: msbhavens1@yahoo.com *** Beth is Available for New Opportunities Beth Havens has been a Full Cycle Contract Technical Recruiter with more than 12 years exempt recruitment experience in high-volume, high profile technical and scientific fields. Beth takes pride in her expertise in areas such as risk reduction, ability to work independently or in teams, vendor negotiation, collecting and defining business requirements, executing strategic searches, workforce planning, strong flexibility to adjust to demanding environments with attention to details and deadlines. Q&A with Beth Havens Six Degrees: Tell us about your home world Beth Beth I am an empty nester with a busy year ahead of me! My youngest Daughter Graduates from the University of Louisville, in Kentucky, on the 9th of May. (Yes that is the week after the Kentucky Derby, for you horse racing fans out there) My Oldest Daughter is getting Married in August, and finishes her Masters at USC in December (her BA is from UCLA, she has a fine sense of humor) otherwise it is just me and the critters at home these days! Have Dog will travel! Hobbies! Oh my! Aside from the obvious hobbies of gardening and hiking, I am known to write poetry, I have a book on lulu dot com that I put together for the friends and family who complained, “Toads Pond”. I’m known to hang out with the Society for Creative Anachronism on occasion. I enjoy medieval engineering, heraldry, textile hobbies and other interesting tidbits to be found within that group. I love ancient architecture. I’m far more likely to be found in the museum or the garden than on the beach. I’m terribly unsocial in my private life for a recruiter. Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? Beth I started recruiting in 1995. My BS is in Physics and Computer Science and finding a job in that market was a bit tough, when I stumbled across a recruiter who thought I’d make a good recruiter. I think a good many recruiters stumbled into the industry via odd roads. I had the pleasure of working for an IT staffing company called XXCAL for a good many years before I went into contract recruiting. Since then I have been doing contract and freelance recruiting. Generally I get called for one of two things, either hard to find Scientific, Engineering, IT or Technical people, OR oddly enough, hard to work with hiring managers. I have worked with both very large companies like Citibank, and Sony electronics, and small companies(less than 100 employees), like Xencor. I find either can be great opportunities as long as there are interesting requirements to work on. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Beth Full Cycle Contract Technical Recruiter with more than 12 years exempt recruitment experience in high-volume, high profile technical and scientific fields. I am dedicated and work to give a high level of professionalism. My abilities include strong written and verbal communication, risk reduction, ability to work independently or in teams, vendor negotiation, collecting and defining business requirements, executing strategic searches, workforce planning, strong flexibility to adjust to demanding environments with attention to details and deadlines. Most recently, Beth serviced at Sony Electronics, Inc. through Integrity Placements, performing full cycle recruiting, mainly for ISSA, Legal, Marketing and Controller groups. Recruiting mainly SAP manufacturing and finance project lead and management for ISSA. Participating in research and development for a strong print ad campaign, as well as searching for and developing stronger presence in recruiting online in niche arena’s for specific job functions, mainly seeking Project experience for large ERP projects. Helped to re-create the in house staffing function at Sony. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Beth Transitioning from Agency Staffing to Contract Recruiting - it allowed me to really do the parts of recruiting I like best! Working directly with hiring managers to fill needs, and working on finding the candidates to fill those needs, while not having to do the part I dislike which is hunting for prospective opportunities. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Beth I have to say the person I learned the most about recruiting and business in general from, was Marv Hoffman. Marv not only provided a great deal of recruiting training, but encouraged his recruiting teams to participate in groups that they could learn more from. For instance while working with XXCAL I belonged to several users groups that were great souring pools. (NT users group and a VB Testing group for example) We attended recruiting conferences and Marv had his own training sessions as well. It would have been hard to spend any length of time in that group and NOT learn a great deal. Six Degrees: Tell us about your position, (responsibilities, size of your staffing organization) : Beth Currently I am doing freelance work, taking on requirements from staffing firms who need a bit of help, and doing splits while seeking that next contracting opportunity! Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Beth I am hoping the Trend in new Energy Development and Deployment will have a great boost in my future opportunities, as I’ve been keenly interested in alternate energy sources since I was a teen. Be it thermal heating systems, Wind turbines, solar (recently read a great white paper from MIT on some solar energy changes that would radically alter the amount of energy you are ABLE to use from solar cells) or even passive energy creation or conservation. (for instance if you don’t lose as much heat from a home, you don’t need to create as much, etc.) But then I’m always interested in engineering and architecture, so this shouldn’t’ be too big a shock for those who’ve been reading along. I am a geek by nature, and no! That is not a negative statement! Six Degrees: Tell us about your broader involvement within the staffing industry: (Do you attend conferences? Which ones? List/detail speaking events, awards, publications, where you have you represented your company) Beth I have attended conferences in the past, SHRM, ERE and many conferences that were directly related to my recruiting needs, Like the Optical Electronic Industry conferences, or Computer conferences which were related to industries I was recruiting for. My personal favorite is the OPIE. I have to admit, I have a couple Schott glasses from the Schott glass company. That has to be one of the best give aways ever. Six Degrees: Can you detail how the recession has affected your particular industry niche? Has it effected your job or that of your fellow team members within the organization - If so, to what extent? (If you have been laid off, tell us about the experience, when it happened) Beth My last contract ended at the end of January in 2008. I was very surprised that I didn’t have several opportunities in the wings when it ended, but still, I didn’t think I’d be working freelance as long as I have. I had remarked to some friends in 2007 that some banking transactions I’d had reason to observe worried me as to the state of several banks stability. I really hate to be right some days. It seems to me that the media began paying attention to the recession in Late 2008, but that the recession itself began early 2007. I began seeing a great deal more recruiters looking for work peaking in the winter months of 2008 and finally starting to subside in about March of this year. Of course in times like this, Good Sales Staff are worth their weight in gold, but they aren’t automatically created from thin air, so both staffing agencies and corporate business have found themselves going through sales staff and training at a rather intense rate (good training is far too under rated and under utilized in my opinion) while other business find themselves holding their collective breath, so to speak waiting to see what is happening on the world stage, or even failing in the interim. We will recover, economies do, sometimes more slowly than others, but we will recover. Now, where we will all be at the other end of that recovery, that is the question! I admit to having some Thoughts about the viability of changing direction, but to what purpose? Important questions these! I think one of the best indications that the bleeding of the economy is slowing down is that there are more advertisements for recruiters and a big slowdown in the number of NEWLY unemployed recruiters. If there are Jobs, there will be a need for recruiters, so it is, I think, the number one job listing to look for in a recovering economy. Interestingly there seem to be a great deal more ads for the east coast than west coast coming up on my searches. That too may be an indication of what we need to watch in the coming year. Are other economies recovering faster than the California economy? And which industries are recovering fastest. Which seem to be failing completely? I enjoy searching through this information on a regular basis lately. Also I would expect some staffing agencies to do really well when the economy begins to heal because when applicants are abundant, what manager wants to wade through hundreds of resumes to find a few gems? So the pick up in Agency hiring is to me another indication that the recession is beginning to ease just a bit. I am looking forward to a happier year! Six Degrees: Aside from simply the generic term “Networking” what specific efforts have you made on your own behalf, or on behalf of colleagues to broaden your opportunities. Are there specific groups, both online and in-person that have proved fruitful in extending your personal brand and job seeking prospects? Beth You know that is a great question! I have joined a few interesting groups in an effort to get more visibility. I joined the “Ruthie List” and “Carecruit” (California recruiting) groups. I also started receiving other industry communications that I thought might be useful for finding companies that might need my services. I found a few browsers that have been uniquely helpful. Indeed.com is a site that lets you see jobs on several boards and even private company sites at once. Which also just brings to light several possible companies that might be useful. Six Degrees: Given your own Trial and Error experiences as a Networker, what advice do you have for your peers on what NOT to do? Be specific Beth I should advise against sharing too much personal information, there really is (and I believe, should be!) a difference between your personal and public life. Other than that, be interested in others as much as you are interested in promoting your own needs, because if you don’t listen to others, you will miss opportunities for yourself! (or maybe even an opportunity for a friend) Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Beth There are a couple things I’d like to do. One objective is to work with a small company helping build a solid team from the ground up. Possibly working that effort into an operations Lead position later on. Another thing that I’d be interested in doing is leading a recruiting team for a large company. Either objective is highly dependent upon opportunity. I have my eyes open for just such an occurrence! “HOW DOES BETH IT?” Six Degrees: How many applicants at your present employer do you estimate are hired from your corporate website as compared to how many are hired through referrals? Beth When corporate recruiting, it has been my experience that the overwhelming vast majority of the hiring was the result of sourcing efforts on my part, which included, corporate advertising, searching internal and external databases and networking. I found that a good candidate was just as likely to be found by anyone of these methods as the other, which is why I employ all these methods. . Six Degrees: What is the source of your "LOWEST COST OF HIRES" - (least amount of invested resources for the easiest hires, regardless of quality) at your present employer? Beth Without doubt the lowest cost per hire I have found has been with previously known candidates, or internal transfers. An internal transfer does not always mean another opening. One of the things smart companies do, is to review the personnel they have to let go from One team, for the likelihood they can fill openings in another group. The cost savings can be tremendous there. Six Degrees: What talent niche groups do you target and are these particular talent areas specialized under your review? Beth I generally focus on hard to find IT, Engineering or Scientific candidates, though I’ve been asked to fill legal openings as well. While at Sony my main focus was in hiring High level SAP management and design level candidates and Law candidates. While at Amgen it was chemists and other high level R&D scientists, at Citibank embedded Unix developers, and Oracle programmers. If it is a complex opportunity, I may be the recruiter you need. Six Degrees: What recruitment software tools do you use in your day to day recruitment activities & do they translate effectively within all of the different countries where you recruit? Beth I have probably used just about every ATS system out there, at one time or another, having an ATS is invaluable, which one you have is certainly up to you or your company, my favorite is Bond. The one I’ve used most is Taleo. Secondly I think one should have access to posting on Some job boards, one doesn’t necessarily need every board out there, but one universal board, and a few niche boards that fit your company needs really do make networking easier. Not to mention advertise your company and give you more opportunities to network. And contact with niche groups that support whatever activity you most need in your hiring, be it MBA groups or some users group that services a particular type of prospective candidate, these can be invaluable. My brain, is also known to be a fairly useful tool, though I don’t claim to share all its contents. Six Degrees: What tools (technology or old school file folder, for example) did you first encounter early in your recruitment career? Beth I came into recruiting when databases and search engines were already in use. And being a geek I really don’t think I would have gotten into it otherwise. If I file it, it isn’t likely to be seen again for years. I file things that Might be useful sometime, not things I use on a regular basis. That is why databases are so useful, its filing for things you plan on using regularly. I also think I drove my first bosses crazy because I hired more candidates on email than I ever called, and that drove the metrics crazy. But then a lot of the candidates I deal with don’t like(and occasionally don’t answer) the phone. Six Degrees: How did your expectations of being a recruiter compare to the actual, first time you got on the phone or in the cubicle? In your opinion, how do people's assumptions about our vocation differ from reality? Beth I didn’t have any idea of what to expect when I first started recruiting, since it wasn’t anything I ever imagined I’d be doing! So no expectations to live up to or crush. I think the biggest assumption people have about recruiting is that it in any way is an HR function. Recruiting is a management function, and is diabolically opposed to HR. the sole function of HR is to protect a companies assets. This means if you have someone in HR doing your recruiting, they often will not show resumes to hiring managers that they think are a pain to HR. a recruiter puts the position and the hiring managers needs before HR preferences. Recruiting assumes the responsibilities of a hiring manager to detail, advertise and find suitable candidates for an opening. Some of the odd HR jobs recruiters take on in order to fulfill that duty, are for our own convenience, to get the job done. They aren’t a recruiting function per se’. The most foolish thing any business can do in my opinion, is to put recruiting under the auspices of HR. If they aren’t under their own separate heading altogether, then they should be under operations. Six Degrees: Worst mistake, biggest goof, lousiest practice you thought would fly but didn’t…and how that was a learning experience? Beth I will have to hold a contest to see. Though possibly the one I thought the silliest was parking in boss’ favorite (though unmarked) parking place when I went for an interview. 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. Beth I think that the best way to make any industry better is to do your best at what you do. Lead by example and change will occur naturally. Well it’s a theory anyway. Six Degrees: “Best practice” you are most proud of developing (now or in the past) in your recruiting career? Beth The best recruiting practice is to stick to process. Six Degrees: What are some of the frustrating aspects/obstacles to your day to day as a staffing professional and in general? Beth I think the biggest obstacle to recruiting, are hiring managers whose personal hiring goals clash with their companies hiring goals. They most often take up the most time. This time waster is followed closely by un-necessary meetings. Six Degrees: Considering all of the frustrations you have experienced in your career as a recruiter, -- what inspires you as you continue in your career? Beth I’m happiest when working on an interesting opportunity. Finding that one odd placement no one else can find. Six Degrees: What one thing do you ideally hope to accomplish in 2009? (OR) Six Degrees: What one thing do you find most ideal given the opportunity to develop/ implementing/ invent professionally that has yet to be done. Beth Actually I’d like to see an MRP (manufacturing resource planner) that is similar to a job board for investors and communities to use to help manufacturing stay strong. The idea being that resources, inventors and investors really need a place to network to make opportunity happen. The thought comes out of my recruiting experience. Six Degrees: Anything you want to plug? Beth Only the hole in the economic dyke…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 2:54am on May 18, 2009

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