The more difficult, the more impossible the job sounds, the more Dr. Harry Keller wants it.
Keller, a high tech consultant with a doctoral degree in chemistry, is in the business of proving he can do what some say can’t be done. He proved as much to a Boston firm a few years ago that needed him to design a system enabling clients, voting by proxy, to dial up the company computer and check the vote’s status. He had to build the system from scratch. He had to produce 10,000 lines of code. He was working alone. And he had three months to do it.
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“That was a very high pressure, very tough sort of job,” recalled Keller, who lives in Hermosa Beach, Calif. and Cambridge, Mass. “The more impossible people say it is, the more interesting it is to work on.”
Such is the life of the high tech consultant. He or she darts from job to job, seeking high pay, high challenge, high perks. Increasingly, companies are relying on them for their most vital projects. And more and more, they’re relying on high tech recruiters to find people like Keller in an arid employee market.
“Our biggest challenge right now is getting people,” said Shane Hughes, owner of Pyxis Consulting, a Boston Information Technology company specializing in technical project management for financial services companies. “If I had the people now I could probably get 50
percent more business.”
Pyxis, like many IT firms, is now turning to the recruiting industry for help — an industry experts say has grown tremendously in recent years. For example, revenues for high tech consulting firms have leaped from $4 billion in 1991 to $17 billion today, according to the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses, a trade group for contract staffing firms.
Demand is soaring despite its cost. Recruiters typically charge clients 25 to 30 percent of each referred employee’s first year’s salary. Companies referring contract consultants receive a fee on top of the consultant’s wages.
“Absolutely gangbusters,” said Sheila Kochmer, operations manager for Management Recruiters International in Scranton, Pa., a national recruiting firm, when asked for her prediction on the industry’s growth. “Technology is racing. Companies are trying to keep up, (and) they need bright people. And it’s getting harder and harder to attract some of the people they’re looking for.”
Numerous tactics
Recruiters use numerous tactics. They post jobs on their web pages. They operate extensive resume databases. And they contact candidates referred by people they’ve placed. But the primary method is networking — finding out from industry peers who’s looking.
“You ask someone if they’re aware of someone who might appreciate the kinds of opportunities you’re working on, who might appreciate a quiet call,” explained Brian Hoffman, managing partner of the IT division of Winter, Wyman and Co., a recruiting company with offices in Boston and Atlanta. “Sometimes you’re able to use the name of the person who shared the name with you, and sometimes you’re not, but you have to respect that confidentiality.”
That confidentiality is part of a self-imposed code of ethics that many recruiters, in an attempt to distance themselves from their less scrupulous brethren, are advertising. The companies pledge to represent clients and candidates honestly. The 400 members of the association of computer consultant businesses has a specific code of ethics each member swears to follow, including a promise not to submit a candidate’s resume without his or her permission. Double submittals — in which an employer receives the same resume from more than one recruiting firm — reflect poorly on the candidate, industry leaders say. Therefore, they recommend that prospective employees work with only two or three recruiting firms at once, and that all of them adhere to a code of ethics.
Determining needs
Hoffman, who has been in the business 19 years, lives by this code: “No matter what happens, make sure you wouldn’t mind seeing anything you said on a billboard on the Mass Pike,” he said. “There’s plenty of horror stories about the staffing industry to go around, we don’t want to be a the source of any of them.”
Recruiters do more than find employees. They work with clients to determine their needs. Then they advertise the job, conduct preliminary interviews, background checks, and set up employment interviews with the top prospects. Often they are also in on salary negotiations.
In the case of contract referrals, the recruiter is actually the consultant’s employer, while the company is the recruiting agency’s client. Recruiting companies offer benefits packages that consultants may buy into. They also deduct taxes from the consultant’s pay check — unless the consultant is registered as a corporation and handles his taxes himself. Still, with the tight labor market, even recruiters have difficulty finding the exact kinds of people that client companies want. Often, clients must also offer perks — such as four-day work weeks, casual work atmospheres, and the option to work from home — to lure candidates.
“We’re looking for an 85 to 95 percent match,” said Tim Southwick, a technical recruiter for Eliassen Group Inc., a recruiter of IT contractors with offices in Wakefield, Mass., Boston, Raleigh, N.C., and New York City. “Right now, if you’re a developer, you’re in the driver’s seat. There aren’t enough people that can technically do what these folks want them to.”
Recruiting itself is an emerging craft. Some recruiters are former human resources professionals, others are right out of college, and still others are high tech professionals who have left their industry to join another one. Firms typically pay by commission or a commission with salary. According to Hoffman, high tech professionals can earn just as much as recruiters as they can in their fields.
“It has to be an individual who has a strong intellect. They also need to be high-energy (people) — there’s nobody that’s going to stand over them with a whip and a chair every day,” he said, describing the ideal recruiter. “They absolutely have to have strong interpersonal skills, (be) good communicators, good listeners.”
From the employee’s perspective, the last few qualities are key.
Taking the high road
“Someone who can understand your skills,” said Keller, describing his idea of an effective recruiter. “If they don’t understand my skills, not only is it hard to find a match, (but) it’s hard for them to maximize my income.”
That’s where the real work comes in. Recruiters — sometimes referred to as the “Jerry Maguires” of the high tech industry — must be diligent about understanding their candidates to be successful. They also have to persistent, and above all, professional.
“If I’ve done it right, and not tried to bully them into a position they’re not interested in, then I might not get them now, but in six months they’ll call,” Southwick said. “You have to take the high road.”
Part of that is taking time to talk the positions through with the candidates, noted Susan Reid, owner of OnLine Staff Inc., a Providence technical recruiting firm. Our (policy) is to take a relationship approach to what we do,” Reid said. “It’s important to take time to get to know the client — it’s listen and get the information before you get to your own agenda.”
