February Recap

Wow, kind of status quo for the month. Q1 isn't up yet but thus far it has proven to be a bit slower than usual. Shocking news I know. I'm getting emails and calls from candidates more than ever and recruiting people who are considered passive has become more difficult.

From the sales perspective my clients have the luxury of reviewing more candidates than ever and prices have declined while the overall depth of the talent pool under consideration has deepened. On occasion I'll find that some candidates want to retain their prevailing rate from last year and it isn't always reasonable. However, I have found that when clients really like a candidate they are still willing to pay the market rates of 2008 as this is what they have budgeted. I hope that we as Recruiters and Candidates take heed in that fact because someday when our economy turns around we should not exploit our clients like we've seen the IT industry do in the past.

A friend of mine read some of my more political blog entries and thought I should delete them. I figured no one read them and that I expect that we all look at the world's issues with different lenses so we can still co-exist if we disagree politically. But in the end, I removed some of them hoping that their removal would increase my chances of not offending anyone while networking in the future towards our business goals.

On the Health-care front, it has started more slowly than I had hoped. One cause of this is that I am interviewing candidates for the Health-care Sales/Recruiter position yet again. My first hire didn't work out like we needed so we looked further and advertised the position. There are some terrific candidates out there and I'm excited about our next hire. Whomever that ends up being they'll have allot of work in front of them but a boundless opportunity. For me, there is nothing more exciting than creating new business and growing a sales desk into something significant. Balancing the marketing, sales, and recruiting is daunting but with careful execution and hard work it will pay off largely. Stay tuned for more details and positions.

Our snow is finally melting and the other day I returned home from the office to find dozens of Robins eating seeds from our tree in the front yard. No more snow is part of my Lenten prayer. I know, insignificant and trite. But I'll bet I'm not alone.