My website http://www.hayesgroupllc.com is live!!!

Please come visit.
Please let me know what you think.

I tried to make it simple and navigable, while still having necessary links and detail. I also tried to make it represent me well. I am not quite what most people think of when they think of recruiters.

Ans some people have asked me about all the water. I was trying to communicate how a new emplyee will make an impact, blensd with the new company, and affect it in the future, much like a drop of water hitting a pool and creating ripples. I like it anyway. I believe the people that make up a company are its greatest asset.

I'm recruiting for a small startup software co. The founders are great guys who worked together for 10 years and they are tight w/ one of my recruiter friends. They hired one guy I recruited back in June and now they want another software engineer just like him.

Location: Outside Philly / eastern PA. Beautiful area but close to the action. You can live in the country or in town.

Skills: PHP, database (they use MySQL), Perl and lots of Lamp and Linux stuff.  They want a software engineer with enough experience to know what they're doing but also someone with creative ideas . CSS would be a plus but let's stress the engineer side here.

Pay: As a startup they don't have all their stuff in place. Pay is reasonable  (60-80 range) and there are benefits. Biggest benefit - ground floor of a growing company. They can offer stock that may or may not be worth a lot later.

Work environment: Very strong technical atmosphere. Their 1st software engineer is a smart, talented, and upright guy. Lots of room for growth both in skills and creativity.

If you're a Linux engineer with strong PHP, please get in touch. And if you know someone, please let them know. This is a great  opportunity!

I have a really fun search to work on! My new client needs both a Jr and Sr level PostgreSQL DBA to work out of Salt Lake City Utah.
It will be a challenging job - they get 10 million+ pageviews a day and tons of transaction that send massive data everywhere. They need DBAs who can get their websites as efficient as possible.
They are on Red Hat Linux and using PostgreSQL for the data base. Great open-end technology.

The culture of the company: work hard and play hard. If it's a powder day, they'll be surprised if you are at work, but if you're waiting for orders, forget it. They want you to think creatively and be geared towards action. The company is growing fast so there is lots of room to grow.

Heck - if I was a DBA I'd be packing for Utah now.

Feel free to contact me and I'll share more info and discuss your (or your best buddy's) skills and interests.

Here's something every experienced recruiter knows that every candidate and hiring manager needs to know and keep foremost in your mind.

Life events are scary and stressful. Along with births, deaths, marriages etc some of the big ones are job changes and moving. People may want and even need to make changes in their lives but when faced with a decision, often get cold feet.

I once had a Cobol programmer who had started at a data entry clerk but over 15 years became the lead programmer for a small bank. A client of mine wanted to hire him. It would have meant a slightly longer commute but a very large raise, educational benefits,  career growth opportunities, and in a company that offered great job security and had great managers. A client that wasn't looking for hotshots but wanted solid job history and offered the same. It was pretty much a perfect match.
The guy got scared - he would have to tell his co-workers of many years goodbye, change routines. It was a risk. It took alot of conversations to get him to accept the position. The HR manager worked closely with me, the IT manager and team leader called him. Eventually he accepted and he started the job. As far as I know he is still there. The IT manager got promoted and then retired. The HR manager has moved on also. It was the right job but still needed some hand-holding to make it happen.

I was reminded of this because in training a new recruiter we were discussing commutes. Another recruiter we were working with was demanding that we know exactly where our candidate planned to live so we could be sure which positions would be right  (she was planning to move to the DC area to get married). My trainee said - she applied for the job and said anywhere in the DC area - the candidate defined it. I quickly started explaining why it was important - a candidate can think a commute will be fine during the heady excitement of interviewing. Once the job offer is extended - you have to decide to make a major change in your life.

So a candidate measures current security against all the aspects of the new position - and so does his/her spouse. And there are so many traps: are the benefits comparable, the commute, is it a big enough pay increase for the uncertainty and risk-taking. How do they resign and lose friendships?

The new job may be better in a number of ways but a candidate gives up some big things to make a move. Some do this easily but the employees that most employers want - the ones who will stick around for a while and grow in their new position.

So the take-away for candidates - be very aware of the risk/benefit  before you get an offer. If it makes sense to look at better jobs, if your career growth needs a new position do so. But please try to examine the issues that will make it difficult to change and weigh the benefits. Be very clear what you need to make a change, think about why it is necessary or desirable to take that big risk and let your recruiter know the issues you are dealing with.

The take away for hiring managers: your candidates are making a big step, taking a risk, and making a stressful life-change. You should help them by emphasizing the work and career path you offer, allowing the candidate to meet your team - the people they will be bonding with when they come to work for you. In short, make a fair offer, be forthright about your work environment, be positive about your company and projects, and let the candidate you choose know why they are wanted.

This rant is mostly geared towards candidates for jobs. If someone posts a job ad please read the ad carefully. Companies and recruiters advertise real jobs with real requirements. Sometimes not all the requirements are needed but in dealing with recruiters - please remember that we are paid by our clients to find candidates WHO ARE BETTER THAN THEY CAN FIND THEMSELVES.

So yeah, we will screen you. And if you are applying for jobs you are obviously not qualified for, you have also lost credibility for those positions that may be a good fit or career move. We are already aware that people make job changes because they want room for growth.

Sometimes our clients are too picky. If so it is our job to advise them how to get a quality employee who will meet their needs but might be outside their requirements.
It is not our job to convince them that an assistant store manager who deals with computer problems can jump into a second-tier help desk position. They can find a trainee at the community college.
It would be silly of me to sell them a non-citizen for a position that needs a Secret Clearance.
If you have to commute around DC to Baltimore and halfway around the Baltimore beltway you will not want to keep commuting for 3+ years so a company that wants a longterm employee will not believe you won't take the next decent local job any more than I will.
20 years of database development does not make you an experienced DBA.

If I present an unqualified candidate I look bad to my client. My client pays my bills and I want a solid longterm relationship with trust on both sides. So that when I submit a candidate with less than ideal skills there is a good story I can tell why they may be interested in this person.

So please - READ the ad. If your resume does not match the requirements there are two possibilities. One is that you have a bad resume. I can work with that. Your cover letter had better explain why I should call you. The other is  that you are not right for this position.

Geez. The first post is the hardest. I have no 'friends' yet.
Today is Valentine's Day, as well as a snow day for the kids. It is 9:30 and the streets are quiet because of the wintry mix that has fallen all night. For those of you  not familiar with MD weather - wintry mix is the euphemism for Baltimore s**t storm - a mix of snow, sleet, freezing rain, and anything else the sky throws down when it can't decide how cold to be or the different layers in the air are all different temperatures. Todays version has resulted in an inch of white ice on my street. I am working from home today.

I posted several job ads yesterday for new positions that are hot. Actually I have a few more to post today but I have to delete some active ones to do that. My hope is that here are enough people home from work that I'll have a busy day responding to resumes.

It is good to be this busy. The economy is strange right now. In the late '90's it was easy to recruit: the clients were desperate for decent people and if we could find them we could make a good living. After the millenium (Y2K), the tech boom bust, and 9/11 the market fell apart for several years. My boss closed our office and I started my own company and those recruiters that stayed in the business struggled.
Now it is a candidates market again.....of sorts. The economy is not so hot. Our clients are back but have gotten used to low fees and offering low salaries. Our candidates have had years of low raises and low offers after getting all their demands met in the '90's and are smelling the change. Interesting times.

My business: I recruit primarily in the Baltimore/DC areas (though I want to develop clients i the Portland OR area too). I specialize in IT recruiting - software engineers, and database specialists primarily, with some inroads into biotech and audio engineering. I have a core group of recruiters who I partner with - it helps me make matches in both directions and makes a small shop able to meet our clients needs better. I don't mind splitting my fees because building longterm relationships with my clients and with great business partners is more important than any individual deal.

I intend to use this space to talk about issues that come up in recruiting. I plan to link to great articles when I come across them - and I do. I hope to generate some interest in my business and communicate with clients and candidates on general topics.

My website build is coming along - I'll put up the link when ready for prime time. In the meantime I guess my next post should list some positions I'm currently searching for. Stay tuned.