Recruiting!

Employment with Qualitec^® Technical Services, L.P.

What to Expect...
Core Values...
Getting a Great Start...

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT AS YOU START YOUR NEW CAREER

The executive search industry is incredibly exciting and rewarding-but it is challenging!  If it were easy, everyone would be doing it!  Most people find it to be the hardest career change they ever attempted.  As you embark on your new career, here are some observations that we have made based on the start-ups of other people in our office.  Your experience may differ from this; your earnings may be far slower or faster depending on your effort, attitude, and ability to develop skills quickly.

KNOWLEDGE/ATTITUDE SKILL

• It is quite natural to feel a bit overwhelmed during the first 90 days.  Here is what you have to learn: 1) all the functions of the data base; 2) Qualitec^® recruiting processes/procedures; 3) the peculiarities of various vertical markets; 4) how to interview; 5) how to recruit; 6) how to stay organized; 7) how to work with various Qualitec^® recruiters; 8) how to work with employers.  If you stay focused on your manager’s plan, you should have some successes during this time.  The frustration factor is great during your start-up because you will feel as a professional that you should “automatically know” more than you do.  Recruiting is not natural-it is a learned skill set.  But don’t worry, the fog begins to lift in 90 days.

• Some inner frustration tends to manifest itself during the 3-9 month period.  Sometimes it is an internal frustration because of wanting to contribute more and learn faster.  Sometimes it is an external frustration expressed at those who are trying to help you succeed.  There can be feelings of “being criticized all the time.”  You need to be sure you are strong enough to persevere despite these emotions.  Many in our industry have quit at this point just when they were about to turn the corner.

• At 8-9 months, the mental breakout starts to occur.  A couple of important deals have typically closed, perhaps you’ve solved a difficult problem on your own-you finally begin to feel like you “get it.”

• Second year is a real breakout year-your cash pipeline is established; you have probably had the biggest one-month paycheck of your career; your knowledge base is in place; you have your own stories to tell.  You will feel a lot better as you enter your second year.  Your “internship” will be over as you complete this second year facing more and more issues on your own without the help of a manager/trainer.

• Your third year is one of supreme confidence.  You have survived, you’ve made a little money and you now truly see the pot of gold ahead.  This is a great time in the life of a recruiter.

 ADVICE

• Don’t focus on any monetary goals or objectives in the first year.  Focus on activity and behavior.  Right behaviors yield right results.  If you practice this profession in the right manner every day, the monetary results will eventually flow.

• Be realistic with yourself.  Don’t beat yourself up if you’re not in the top 20% of the office your first year.  On the other hand, don’t be so complacent as to allow yourself to perpetually be at the bottom of the sales board.

• Communicate with your manager.  Ask for direction and help when you are faced with new situations.  Trust and believe that he can teach you how to make $100,000 per year and more.

• Ask questions.  If you don’t understand something that you hear, it is your responsibility to find out.  Management can’t always know what you don’t know. 

• Start with a clean slate.  Forget everything you think you know about sales and recruiting.  Learn our basics first; then you can add your previous knowledge.

• Use a notebook.  When your manager gives you and assignment, make sure you understand it and jot it down.  Take notes when your manager is “giving you a set of words” that will work in a given situation.

• Above all, work hard.  Make a lot of phone calls.  Our 30 contacts per day is designed to help you understand when you have experienced a successful day, and it can be achieved consistently after the first 30 days.  Accept no less in yourself.  The contact call goals are harder when you are new than they are later in your career when calls flow into you.

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The management team seeks to attract people who share these common values with us.  We hope that this will result in a highly productive, successful and efficient organization that meets the needs of our clients and creates exceptional growth opportunities for our staff in a professional, respectful, team-oriented environment.

 Here are the values that guide our management philosophy:

• We embrace the concept of excellence.  To accept less than that of ourselves is to surrender to failure.  This is not to day that we will be excellent at every task we attempt or every behavior we learn.  We will, however, embrace excellence as a state of mind, a guide to our thought processes and a standard for our actions with one another and with our clients.

• Education and training are lifelong exercises.  To embrace excellence is to embrace the concept of continuous self-improvement.  We will make an ongoing commitment to learn from those who are better than we are, from those who are skilled in the art of inspiration and from one another.

• Humility is the salve that heals human wounds and increases business.  Covey instructs that we should first seek to understand where others are coming from.  There is a time in business to admit error and make sincere apology.  An inappropriate celebration of success can wound the spirit of others.  An unrelenting focus on self will ultimately turn others away.  When we practice humility, when we account for the needs and feelings of others, we surrender ourselves to success’s dominance.

• To get more, you must give more.  Many people operate on the philosophy that they will accumulate wealth, status or power by taking what is theirs.  We seek to associate with people that recognize that when you give of yourself, wealth, status and power are returned willingly by others to you.

• We strive to be all that we can be.  Our high achievers seek to rub shoulders with other high achievers—people that are striving to reach their highest potential.  That is not to say that every person’s goals will be the same.  Some may desire a given level of income as a successful recruiter without the complications of management.  Others may seek the challenges of management.  It is important for us to hire those people that are striving for the best in themselves.

• Success is a byproduct of sacrifice.  True success in any industry does not come from an eight-to-five existence.  The job market offers many eight-to-five jobs—we offer a career.  We want people with a WIN (Whatever is Necessary) mentality.  We want people who meet goals-not just put in time.  We believe that the effective use of time is the one element in life that we can control.

•  The ego must be sacrificed at the altar of growth.  One cannot truly grow in significant human ways if the ego blocks an accurate vision of self.  We believe that growing, as a productive member of society is essential to growing as a successful businessperson.  We seek people who will find mentors, copy successful business practices and ultimately adapt what is working to their own unique personality and style.

• True management comes from within.  Our management team can train, teach, inspire and set an example, but they cannot force right behaviors.  We seek people who are self-managing: who by nature ask, “What am I truly effective at?  Where am I off base?  What do I need to learn to improve?”

By hiring people who embrace these concepts, we hope to build a strong vibrant, company that provides a culture that can truly nurture individual success.

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GETTING A FABULOUS START ON YOUR NEW JOB - HERE'S HOW!

 By: Eric P. Krueger
Qualitec Technical Services, L.P.
qtsi@qualitec.com

Oh, how awful is the feeling of a bad start!

You know the feeling I’m talking about.  That sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that you get when things go wrong early in the game.  When the opposing team scores a touchdown on the first play after kickoff.  When you double-bogey the first hole.  When the skater falls to the ice on the first jump.

A bad start equals “in the hole already…it’s going to be tougher to win…I have got to make up the lost ground…”

The start of a new job bears many similarities to the start of a sporting event.  The time leading up to the start date is one of great anticipation and nervous excitement.   Before the opening bell the slate is clean, the expectations are high and all thoughts are of success.  But if the new employee stumbles out of the gate, both employee and employer experience that sinking feeling that comes with being behind early in the game.

As both an executive recruiter and a hiring manager, I have been on both sides of the hiring equation in the past 15 years.  I have both place and hired what I thought were “racehorses” who stumbled early and never recovered.  Over the years, I have observed a number of behaviors that got new starts off on the wrong foot.  As a manager, I have experienced the emotional deflation that comes with wondering if I have made a bad hiring decision.  As you start your new job, I would like to offer some suggestions that will help you get “ahead of the game” and on the right path for success in your new position.

The Qualitec Technical Services L.P. Fast Start Program:

1. Be punctual and 100% dependable.  For a manager, a new employee arriving late feels like a fumble on the kickoff.  And traffic is no excuse.  You should drive the route to work before your first day and build enough time in to allow for delays.  In fact, for the first 30 days, arrive a few minutes early and watch the smile broaden on your new boss’s face.  Regarding personal matters, get all of your doctor and dentist appointments out of the way before you start.  Don’t schedule any such appointments out of the way before you start.  Don’t schedule any such appointments during your first 90 days unless it is an emergency.  It is extremely important to establish and early track record of punctuality and dependability. 
2. Be proactive with down time.  In any new training mode, there are bound to be times when a new employee is unable to move forward without direction from a superior or when no one is available to answer questions.  A good manager will appreciate it if you are proactive and go to your superior to establish in advance what to do during the inevitable “down times.”  Inquire about books, tapes, simple projects, etc.  Many supervisors mean well, but find that, with all of their other duties, training can be difficult to work into their schedules.  Offer to help your boss with a project that will free his time so he will have more training time with you.  And while, you are at it, it wouldn’t hurt to ask about home study projects as well—books, tapes, etc.
3. Show your personality, participate, but don’t over step your bounds.  It is ill advised for a new hire to be timid, quiet and unwilling to participate in training or staff projects.  On the other hand, many new employees make the mistake of offering too many opinions too strongly and too frequently which very quickly alienates some of their new coworkers.  In fact, it’s wise to…
4. Listen a lot more than you talk.  As the saying goes, God gave us two ears and one mouth so we could listen twice as much as we talk.  When it comes to the three p’s of policy, process and procedure—be a sponge.  Learn from senior employees.  Observe the successful people and copy their behaviors.  Pull them aside and ask their advice on succeeding in the new endeavor.  In trying to display their knowledge, a new hire may come across as a “know-it-all.”  It is wise for a new person to avoid trying to give definitive answers in staff training sessions.  Senior staffers will quickly be turned off by the new person taking center stage before any worth has been proven through action.
5. Leave the past behind.  Don’t talk about “how we did it at my last company” unless you are asked for that analysis.  The new staff will not bond with a new employee who seems intent on showing then how to do it better.  Also, avoid the temptation of reorganizing.  Many a new employee tries to reorganize their desk, the sales process, the work flow, etc. without first learning how the new company does it.  It is far better to learn the existing system before offering any ideas for improvement.
6. Dive in and do the grunt work.  Nothing warms a boss’s heart faster than the sight of a new employee immersing himself in the menial tasks of the new job.  Nothing is a faster turn-off than sensing an attitude of “I’m too good for that.”  In sales, start making cold calls.  Kick up some dust.  Make something happen.  Give your boss some situations to deal with; some problems to solve.  I have yet to meet a sales supervisor who was turned off by a new employee displaying a sense of urgency to succeed.
7. Socialize with your new co-workers.  If they “do lunch,” do it with them, at least at first.  Arrive early for bagels and coffee.  Get to know the new team.  They are anxious to learn if you are ready to help the team meet its goals.  If you become an outsider early, you just might remain on the outside.  And if they gossip, don’t participate.  When you hear negative things choose not to believe what you hear.  Make your own observations and don’t allow yourself to get embroiled in political situations.

The first 90 days on your new job do have a lot in common with the opening stages of a sporting event.  A quick start is no guarantee of a victory.  But it does set the stage and create a lot of optimism for future success.

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