I joined this site because of an invitation by someone from SixDegrees at LinkedIn.com.


You can see my company here:



http://trantor.ca



You can see my (rather ancient) personal site here:



http://truebob.com



I exist in a number of other places on the Internet, have written articles, etc. It is easy to find me with "Google" and find out what is going on with me.



I am very much hoping to get myself 'wired into' the recruiting community a little more because they seem to be linked to many more of the people I would like to meet than anybody else is.



I am also a contract consultant at times and have lots of friends that do consulting. We might be able to do both of us a favor by putting people together.



I have a TON of Blogs and other types Internet presence, so it will likely be a while before I post here again. However, I am shameless in the way that I move around cyberspace. I might just be back tomorrow



With respect to recruiting, I would like to offer the following insight: As a consultant, I worked with recruiters for many years and with the exception of one excellent company in Toronto, I have had nothing but wasted time with other recruiting people in Information Services. Clients ask for specific buzzwords in my industry (Information Systems) and recruiters then do blanket searches for those buzzwords. They present terrible consultants sometimes who are very bad fits. I was on a project where the company simply refused to pay for the consultant; the fit was that bad.



The best recruiters that I know look for good fits between clients and consultants that both have a good reputation. Short-lived 'buzz-word' type 'skills' and 'qualifications' come and go and even ones with staying power do not provide value. Most of the world runs on things built by professionals with many years of experience. I expect that someone capable of BUILDING the tool you are talking about is likely capable of using it in short order. More importantly (politics aside), they may very well convince you to save your money dumping the tool and going with a better solution.



I once contracted to do an RFP for a large project -- about $250 million dollar budget. The RFP I was creating was for about a $25 million dollar leg of the project. They were $50 million into it already, but it was clear to me that their best bet would be simply to cancel the project. It was going nowhere and throwing another $25 million at it was not going to change that. I did not suggest this to them directly, but I agonized over my role in spending even more money on a doomed project. I whispered gently in a few ears that I had some concerns, but I did not make waves. They canceled the project shortly after that. I do not think I played a role in that, but I expect that some other ethical consultant did.



The point of the above is this: projects that need consultants on short notice already are in a bit of a bind. Rather than follow the letter of what they have requested, you should focus on the actual need that brought them to you. Whatever you do, you should try to fill that need with quality professionals that will deliver true value. As a consultant, I have put approximately $300,000 dollars straight through to the bottom line of one recruiting company. It is good to place someone like me. I recently had a recruiter waste both my time and money on a bizarre situation that brought me to another city to work on a contract only to discover it was an interview, not a contract and the company had offered contracting terms they subsequently refused to honor. You can bet that recruiter will not be making $300,000 from my work any time soon.



I have no idea what recruiters in my area are up against in terms of demand. However, I know that the world's aging computing infrastructure is in great need of updates and maintenance. A lot more 'real' technical professionals should be working to improve this situation.



Well, enough for now. Best wishes to everyone here.



Feel free to get in touch. Even though I already get an enormous volume of mail, I answer it all and I came here precisely to expand my network of contacts. I would love to hear from you.