On January 3rd, 2011, we opened the doors to start-up Jobspring Partners Silicon Valley. Day One we stood there, business partner Scott and I, taking in an open space of roughly 2500 square feet filled with new desks, chairs and white boards. It also came with a top-floor view from downtown San Jose overlooking all of Silicon Valley to the north and northwest. As the morning sun dawned on our new balcony, we watched a plane take off from the most technically advanced airport in the world, as if signifying it was time for us to get started. We had a culture, a network and a business to build.



The next week was spent figuring out the new VOIP system (we are still figuring it out) and coordinating with the water cooler person, coffee machine person, Staples person, paper person, new office manager/admin, property management, parking, local cuisine, etc. We started Day One with two experienced leaders, two early hires just past initial training and two new hires beginning their careers. Let the fun, challenging mission begin!

Our team quickly grew to ten, with three new hires. Keep in mind, we have a unique business model where the norm is to hire entry-level or recent graduate professionals, train them and promote from within. This is referenced internally as an “organic meritocracy.” This means that the most rewarding part of the challenge for Scott and me is to train our new team, lead by example and give them the opportunity to grow into impressive business professionals.

To keep a long story short, it is now April 2nd (entering Q2) and I am finally posting my first blog since introducing my start-up venture just before it launched. In my third week, I got sick for the first time in three years and could not figure out why. My wife Kaella kindly pointed out it may have been the 18 hours total, I slept the previous week. Some say I work too much but, frankly, when you love what you do it is not work. Even so, it is important to take care of yourself and maintain a healthy lifestyle and a healthy work/life balance.

From a performance standpoint, Jobspring Partners Silicon Valley has improved its efforts each month and plans to continue the trend in Q2. The positive response and proactive contacts generated from the community, social media and repeat business amazes me and makes me very grateful to be in this town and in this business, day in and day out. The opportunity to learn every day while helping people around me, improving myself along the way, is something I truly cherish.

Thanks to a welcoming community, we have become an established business very quickly and developed amazing relationships with clients, candidates and impressive contacts alike. We are looking forward to Q2 and the chance to help even more people than before. Despite the typical perception of a sales-oriented recruitment office, we retain talented, driven individuals who care about more than “slinging software engineers” to make a quick buck. While we cannot guarantee the placement of every candidate or the filling of every position, we can guarantee we will work extremely hard with a personalized approach. Communicating openly and often is one of our core principles and seems to be well-received in the high-tech community. Great work, team!

Next blog: I have met with over 4000 software engineers and web developers in the past three and a half years. In our conversations, past experiences with recruiters come up and give me insight into how to be a better recruiter for candidates. After all, without great candidate relationships a recruiter has nothing. My next few blogs will share insight as it relates to good recruitment techniques and more importantly, how to build better candidate relationships.