As American recruiters, we oftentimes are handcuffed from asking direct or personal questions about our candidates. In some cases, our labor laws prevent us from doing so. Birthdates? Marital status? Fuggettaboutit!

Years ago, our firm developed an artful strategy for asking--without actually asking--a candidate about his/her requirements for working in the U.S.

BAD QUESTION (WE WILL NEVER ASK THIS): "Do you have a green card?"

GOOD QUESTION (WE'LL CAREFULLY ASK THIS):…

Cross-posted from The Green Suits:

Visitors to The Green Suits likely know my devotion to the AMC TV dramatic series, MAD MEN--or as it is known in my household--art imitating life times two. Both my wife and I are veterans of large MADison Avenue ad agencies.

The art…

Cross-posted from The Green Suits:

Paul Courtemanche has enjoyed a storied career in direct/interactive marketing and product management. In 2012, he became a "corporate escapee" when he co-founded Cincinnati-based KDL Alliance, a business accelerator that helps entrepreneurs scale their businesses. We recently caught up with Paul to discuss his new endeavor:…

Cross-posted from The Green Suits:

LinkedIn has revolutionized the executive search process. And, as of January 2013, the business executive social community passed the 200 million member mark. LinkedIn may have a fraction of Facebook's total membership, but there is no denying that…

Regular readers of TheGreenSuits.com know that we embrace telework. We believe that talent who are allowed to work remotely tend to work longer hours than their traditionally officed counterparts; they are nimble, creative, productive, well-rested, and inspired. Typically, they achieve some semblance of work/life balance that eludes talent who must work from a…

photo h/t amctv.com

Recently, fans of the hit series Mad Men watched sadly as copywriter Peggy Olson tendered her resignation to Don Draper. Although Don tried in vain to retain his protegé with a solid counter-offer, Peggy resisted; she promptly left Don and the firm to become Copy Chief at another…

It arrived as a WORD file--about 2.4 megabytes large.

At first, I thought someone emailed me a PowerPoint presentation converted to WORD. But upon opening it, I discovered that the file in my inbox was actually a candidate résumé--the largest one which, in over 14 years of hunting heads, I had ever received. Here, the stats:


• 14 pages
• 1,800+…

Greetings, one and all!

We hope that you have gotten March 2012 off to a truly great start. Indeed, we have: the executive job market has picked up considerably, and, we are busier than we've been in a very long time.

At The Green Suits, all this new activity has us reconnecting with many people who have been off our radar screens for a few months or for several years. And we are meeting lots of great talent who we have never engaged before.…

We are very pleased to announce to the world that Randall Byrn has joined The Green Suits as Executive Recruiter. Over the weekend, we got to interview our newest talent hunter.

TGS: Welcome to The Green Suits. Please tell everyone about you: Where are you from? Where did you attend college?

Randall Byrn: I grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee and at first studied…

Cross-posted from The Green Suits:

In every year past, we predicted that things were going to get better on the green and sustainable career track. While some of us have made gains and landed great jobs, most of the rest of us struggle to establish…

Cross-posted from The Green Suits:

Season's greetings! We hope you are enjoying the run up to Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or whatever it is that you celebrate.

And we keep good thoughts that 2012 will bring…

Well, at least my mother will be very proud of me for this.

PM Network is the official magazine of the Project Management Institute, the world's largest association for project management professionals. PM Network is read by over a half million PMI members, worldwide.

The December 2011 issue…

Cross-posted from The Green Suits:

Greetings on 11.11.11--Veteran's Day in the U.S.

On this day, we honor those who served our country as members of the armed forces.

Public schools are closed. So too are banks and state and federal government offices. Today, wreaths were laid at…

Next week will surely be very exciting!

The afternoon of Thursday Nov. 3 marks my return to Ithaca College. Later that evening, I will present Tailoring the Green Suit: Establishing…

Cross-posted from The Green Suits:

For sure, we'll be playing Steely Dan's "My Old School" on the drive up to Ithaca College on November 3rd.

We look forward to returning to South Hill after so many years; during this visit, we will meet with many aspiring green careerists interested in becoming The Green…

Cross-posted to The Green Suits:



Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Chris Golden. He is the full-of-energy Millennial who co-founded and runs myImpact.org.



From the website:

 …

Cross-posted to The Green Suits:

Aided by my wonderful but eye-straining Kindle for Android app I read Millennial Momentum, Morley Winograd’s and Mike Hais’ great new book about the U.S.’s Millennial Generation.

The Millennials (otherwise known as the “Gen Y” cohort) are Americans born between 1982 and 2001. Milllennials stand in stark contrast to the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers that preceded them; they…

Cross-posted to The Green Suits: Happy after Labor Day.

Children across the U.S. returned to school and their parents went back to work--or went back to work looking for work (or additional work).

Today at breakfast I looked across the table to my daughter who was pulling herself together for…