Human Capital Consultants is hiring a Full Desk Recruiter in our Waltham, MA office

Human Capital Consultants is a strategic professional services consulting organization serving industry leading, entrepreneurial, and start-up organizations across the United States. Human Capital Consultants offers proven, customizable and metric driven solutions for our clients’ Recruitment, Human Capital Management, and Human Resource Consulting needs. Human Capital Consultants has the experience and bandwidth to provide clients a wide array of resources from a single Recruitment or HR Resource to an entire team dedicated to single or multi-location needs, including Strategic Engagement Planning and Management. For more information visit our web site http://www.humancapitalconsultants.com

Full Desk Recruiter – Recruiting and Human Resources verticals  

Human Capital Consultants is seeking a Recruiter with experience building business, managing clients and placing candidates in the Recruiting and Human Resources verticals.  We have an excellent delivery model in place and many successful completed engagements under our belts. For 2012 we are tightening the market segments we target and expanding our footprint in the markets we serve. We are seeking an experienced Recruiter to help us execute our business plan.

Do you want to work with an entrepreneurial, successful and motivated team as we continue to grow a successful practice in a growing space? Are you looking for strong mentors who will help you achieve success?  Are you looking for the opportunity to grow professionally and eventually manage a recruiting team?   If so Human Capital Consultants might be the right place for you!

Human Capital Consultants is looking for a highly driven Recruiter who thrives on working with a highly motivated and successful team in an entrepreneurial environment. The successful candidate will have a high sense of urgency, that something inside themselves that drives them to succeed, strong communication skills, business acumen and who strives to do what’s right without having to take a course in business ethics. Bottom line: we are looking for a talented Recruiter who is enthusiastic, positive, ethical, tenacious, and entrepreneurial.

As an entrepreneurial company we are looking for a candidate who is agile yet can work in a process driven environment while always looking for ways to create and improve efficiency and build business. Our next Recruiter will understand that recruiting is a relationship driven function and have a talent for building client relationships.

So what’s in it for you? A management team who is dedicated to not only the success of the company but the personal success of our team. An entrepreneurial team environment that motivates our team to succeed. The opportunity to place corporate recruitment and human resources candidates in both full time and contract engagements.  An aggressive compensation structure that is designed to ensure that our Recruiters meet their financial goals. The opportunity to grow with the company as we expand our footprint in the markets we serve.

Qualifications: 

• Two to five years of experience successfully developing business and completing candidate searches in the Corporate Recruiting and Human Resources verticals.
• Experience and willingness to cold call for client and candidate leads. If you have the slightest hesitation to pick up the phone this is not the right opportunity for you.
• The ability to own and manage sales and candidate pipelines.
• A proven track record of meeting and exceeding quotas. We need a Recruiter who can close business!
• The ability to articulate value proposition to all levels of an organization.
• The ability and willingness to successfully work independently and with a team.
• Experience using social media for business development and recruitment activities.
• Experience blogging and the ability/willingness to maintain a Recruitment and Human Resources blog is preferred.

Sound like this might be the right opportunity for you? Contact our Founder Mike Astringer directly by phone 800-378-0847 x805 or e-mail mike.astringer@humancapitalconsultants.com

Congratulations to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

Very rarely if ever will my blog postings be political.  However being a New Jersey native I was proud of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie yesterday who, after the New Jersey State Senate passed a gay marriage bill (Marriage Equality and Religious Exemption Act), quickly said he would veto the measure.  Governor Christie and other New Jersey Republican lawmakers believe the decision to legalize gay marriage in New Jersey should be left up to the voters.  Governor Christie has been quoted as saying that the issue “should not be decided by 121 people in the Statehouse in Trenton”.   Democratic opponents in New Jersey argue that a referendum shouldn’t be used to decide civil rights issues, citing legislative and judicial decisions regarding the rights of woman and African-Americans.

I will not share my views on gay marriage as this is not the point of this post.  I do however agree with Governor Christie that this is an issue that should be decided by the voters.  There are strong opinions on both side of the gay marriage issue and I believe that ultimately the voters of New Jersey should decide.   According to a Quinnipiac University poll 52% of New Jersey voters approve of the bill.  This promises to be a highly debated issue in New Jersey.

Too often our elected representatives make decisions based on political gain and seem to forget that they represent the people who elected them.  Governor Christie has proven himself once again to be a Governor who has the fortitude to stand up for what he believes is best for the people of New Jersey.  If I still lived in New Jersey I would be proud to call Governor Christie my Governor.  Rumors have swirled for years that Governor Christie has aspirations for higher office.  I hope that Christie does run for higher office in the future as I believe that we need a man like him in Washington.  Chris Christie is the kind of leader our forefathers envisioned who will bring our government back to a government for the people by the people.

Congratulations Governor Christie for again standing up for what you believe in and working hard every day for the people of New Jersey.

My Appearance on DriveThruHR

Yesterday afternoon I had the privilege of being the guest on the Blog Talk Radio show DriveThruHR with hosts Bryan Wempen and William Tincup.  Given the positive comments on Twitter I guess the show went pretty well although the challenge with a live radio interview is that you can always go back and think about how you might have answered questions differently.

Bryan and William’s standard question to their guests is “What keeps you up at night”.  For me that is the national staffing firms watering down the term “RPO” by placing Contract Recruiters with clients and calling it an “RPO”.  Placing a Contract Recruiter with a client (something we also do but do not call it RPO) is just that.  Recruitment Process Outsourcing is what the name implies: An outsourced business function.   We have several successful Recruitment and Human Resources outsourcing engagements under our belts yet I almost never use the terms RPO or HRO anymore.  The national staffing firms have bastardized those terms to the point where I don’t want to be associated with the terms.  Also, chances are good that if a potential client of ours has had some interaction with a national staffing firms “RPO Division” that interaction has been negative.

You may think that I am splitting hairs but I am proud of the work that we’ve done and the delivery model we’ve developed.  The last thing I want anyone to do is associate what we do to the “RPO Divisions” of most national staffing firms.  It’s apples and oranges.

The other thing that keeps me up at night is how the national staffing firms have considerably pushed down rates for Contract Recruiters.  Bill rates for Contract Recruiters today approach half of what we were seeing in the mid to late 90’s.  I see Contract Recruiter job postings by national staffing firms with pay rates of $20 to $25 per hour.  That is considerably less than half of what we pay Contract Recruiters throughout the United States.   I have been in this industry for almost 19 years and can say with confidence that you will not find a competent, experienced and professional Contract Recruiter at a $20 or $25 per hour pay rate.  The national staffing firms strive to put “butts in seats” rather than provide a professional and more importantly effective service.  More often than not the Contract Recruiters they are providing come from their traditional clerical and industrial staffing divisions, have no internal corporate recruiting experience and no experience recruiting for professional or technical level positions.

I shared a story on the show about a client that we had previously worked with.  This client was a large national company who’s brand is a household name in most parts of the U.S.  This company is a large user of Contract Recruiters – having hundreds of Contract Recruiters on-site at their various locations.  We worked with this company for 3 years locally in Philadelphia providing contract recruitment services and were starting to make inroads to other geographic locations.  Suddenly we found out that they had signed a contract with a national staffing firm to provide all of their Contract Recruiters across the U.S.  While we understood why they were doing so (they thought they would experience a cost savings and standardization of service) we knew it would be a disaster.  All we could do was sit back and wait in hopes the company would realize their mistake and come back to us.  Several months later they did come back to us but it was to TRAIN this national staffing firms Recruiters.  We respectfully declined.

I’d like to correct a couple of things said on the show.

I said that on one engagement that we were involved in (we were developing an internal recruitment function for a company and working with recruiting firms on the front end) 7 out of 10 candidates that were submitted by staffing and recruiting firms had never been talked to by telephone or met in person.   Based on the feedback on Twitter my comment was mistakenly interpreted that this is something I see all of the time.  I want to be clear that while I do see this often I was using just one example.  This was a Las Vegas based gaming company who had a large staffing vendor list and no controls around the vendors they worked with.  This was the worst example I’ve encountered not the standard.

The other item I’d like to correct is around our national delivery capability.  While using a specific example of a company that uses hundreds of Contract Recruiters across the U.S. I said that we could not deliver nationally.  We certainly can and have delivered projects across the U.S. from Tampa to Atlanta,  Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Des Moines, Chicago, Las Vegas, Costa Mesa, the Silicone Valley and everywhere in between.  In that example what I had intended to express was that we are not large enough to have executed hundreds of Contract Recruiters in various locations across the U.S. all at the same time.  I apologize for the confusing message.

Thank you to Bryan Wempen and William Tincup for having me on the show and thank you to those who follow DriveThruHR on Twitter for your positive feedback.  If you have additional comments please feel free to contact me on Twitter @MikeAstringer or by e-mail mike.astringer@humancapitalconsultants.com.

Here is a link to the audio from yesterday’s show: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/drivethruhr/2012/02/08/mike-astringer-at-lunch-with-drivethruhr

Human Capital Consultants is pleased to announce the appointment of Jim Elgart as Partner / CFO

Contact Mike Astringer for an official copy of this release.

MEDIA RELEASE 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                     

Contact:        

Mike Astringer, Founder and CEO

800-378-0847 x805

mike.astringer@humancapitalconsultants.com

Human Capital Consultants, Inc. Welcomes Jim Elgart  

Elgart joins Human Capital Consultants as Partner and CFO 

Philadelphia, PA November 29, 2011 – Human Capital Consultants, a recruitment and human resources consulting organization that serves vertical-leading, entrepreneurial, and start-up organizations across the United States, is pleased to announce the addition of Jim Elgart as Partner and CFO.

Based in Waltham Massachusetts Jim is a member of Human Capital Consultants senior management team responsible for driving strategic and financial business initiatives to drive and manage Human Capital Consultants’ growth.

“Jim’s hands-on expertise developing strategies to grow business, financial management and entrepreneurial passion make him a perfect fit for our team.” said Mike Astringer, Human Capital Consultants Founder and CEO.

Jim is a senior financial professional and entrepreneur who has dedicated over 20 years to building businesses and creating the infrastructure needed for those businesses to succeed.  Jim holds a BA in economics from Boston University, an MBA and MA in Latin American studies from Tulane University and is a Massachusetts licensed CPA.

“It is always great to work with an organization where your skills and experience meet your passion,” said Jim.  “Working with Human Capital Consultants is a tremendous opportunity and I am excited to help the company continue its path to success.”

Jim can be reached by telephone 800-378-0847 x806 or e-mail jim.elgart@humancapitalconsultants.com.

For more information on Human Capital Consultants visit the firm’s website www.humancapitalconsultants.com.

 

About Human Capital Consultants:

Human Capital Consultants is a strategic professional services consulting organization serving industry leading, entrepreneurial, and start-up organizations across the United States. Human Capital Consultants offers proven, customizable and metric driven solutions for our clients’ Recruitment, Human Capital Management, and Human Resource Consulting needs. Human Capital Consultants has the experience and bandwidth to provide clients a wide array of resources from a single Recruitment or HR Resource to an entire team dedicated to single or multi-location needs, including Strategic Engagement Planning and Management.

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Livengrin Foundations’s 45th Anniversary Gala

I recently had the honor and privilege of being asked to serve on the Board of Directors of Livengrin Foundation. I have served on several economic development and workforce development boards throughout my career but never have I been involved in a non-profit organization that I felt was providing such a critical service to such a broad part of our population. Livengrin is making a difference in people’s lives – both those who struggle with alcoholism and addiction and their families.

Livengrin Foundation is a premier non-profit provider of high-quality treatment and recovery from substance abuse in suburban Philadelphia. The Foundation’s scope encompasses residential rehab, medical detox, dual-diagnosis, DUI outpatient and family programs and specialized tracks for physicians, nurses, police and firefighters with dependency problems.

Livengrin is celebrating 45 years of helping more than 100,000 people from all walks of life begin their path to recovery from alcohol and drugs. Did you know that the disease of addiction affects one in four households in Pennsylvania and costs the country $400 billion a year?

Livengrin will be celebrating its 45th anniversary with a Gala Dinner on Thursday September 22, 2011 at the Crystal Tea Room in the Wanamaker Building at Juniper and Market Streets in Philadelphia. The evening will include a variety of fine dining selections, entertainment and a silent auction. Comedian, Actor and Author Richard Lewis will discuss his own recovery from dependency and will offer a hilarious and poignant keynote talk “Misery Loves Company”. Dr. A. Thomas McLellan of the University of Pennsylvania and former Deputy Director of the National Office for Drug Control Policy under President Obama will receive the distinguished S.F. Hansell Award for Excellence in Addiction Treatment.

Tickets are $135 for an individual or $250 or a couple (less than a night out in the city!). Proceeds from the evening will directly benefit patient programs and charitable care. Help give those that struggle with addition the opportunity to make the choice for a clean and sober life. Call 215-638-5200 X310 or visit www.livengrin.org/celebrate to purchase tickets to this very worthwhile and sure to be great event. See you there!

Knowing When to Let Go

On a recent episode of Hireku Don and I discussed knowing when to let go a problem or underperforming employee at the right time rather than after you’ve wasted a lot of time and aggravation.   

In a startup or small company you tend to be very close to your employees.  You know their significant others, families, and personal situations.  Chances are you are working long hours in tight quarters.  Chances are also good that the employee in question is one of a few key early employees in your startup.  All of this can make it difficult to make the decision to let go a problem or underperforming employee.  You don’t want to put someone out of work – especially in this economy.  You have to remember that the underperforming employee is hampering the growth of your company.  It’s important that entrepreneurs not let personal feelings and relationships get in the way and do what’s best for the organization. 

Another concern of entrepreneurs in early stage startups is the fear of having to revert back to absorbing the workload of the employee they are considering letting go.  Entrepreneurs have to remember that they are doing more damage to their business by not simply severing ties and moving on. 

The first step in dealing with a problem or underperforming employee in your startup is to address the situation directly with the employee.  Make sure that your goals and expectations of the employee are clear and preferably in writing.  Once you’ve set expectations meet with the employee on a weekly or even daily basis to discuss progress towards the goals set.  This is key.  An employee should never learn that you have a problem with their performance on the day you decide to fire them.  Often entrepreneurs are just learning to be leaders.  The biggest mistake they make is not working closely with their employees to set expectations and goals so that firing is a last resort.  If an entrepreneur has done everything they can help their employee be successful then I believe that people promote themselves and fire themselves.  If you’ve set clear goals and expectations and reviewed the employee’s performance on a regular basis the employee will know if they are meeting expectations or not.  If they cannot improve their performance there will be no surprises when the time comes to let them go. 

How you handle a problem employee will shape your startup’s culture.  Remember that the other employees in your company are watching.  They will see if you ignore the problem or take appropriate action.  Your handling of this situation will set the tone for your relationship with your other employees moving forward.  Even though firing an employee is difficult – especially in an early stage startup – it is one of the most important leadership challenges you will face and will allow you to create a culture of respect and accountability in your company.  Ensure that you are thoughtful in the way you handle it.

As I’ve mentioned in a bad economy and a close corporate culture entrepreneurs often have a difficult time separating business needs from personal feelings.  An entrepreneur will put up with the problem employee’s lack of performance until they just can’t take it anymore, lose their temper, and fire the employee in anger.  This is a huge mistake and is not only unfair to the employee but will have a negative effect on your corporate culture.  Additionally when you fire an employee on the spot you’ve not prepared yourself with a succession plan.  Never handle a problem employee in a time of anger or on the spur of the moment.  Take a step back and realize that the employee has a family to support and you have a personal relationship with him/her but they are hampering the growth of your company.  Be thoughtful and take some time to plan how you will handle the situation.  Not only should you plan out the conversation but consider taking notes so that during a potentially emotional conversation you will remember to hit the points that are important.  The conversation will be difficult but do your best to keep the emotion and personal feelings out and keep the conversation factual.    Make sure you clearly convey to the employee why they are being let go.  If you’ve done your job as a leader the employee knows that they should be fired. 

If you’ve handled the situation with some class you’ve expressed to the fired employee that you will do everything you can to help them find their next jobs including providing a reference.  Remember that a startup is a unique culture.  The person may be a great employee but not a great fit for a startup culture.  Often times an entrepreneur will hire an employee from a different type of organization because they bring a set of skills not ordinarily found in a startup.  They are talented at what they do but could not function in a startup culture.  You’ve worked closely with this person for a period of time and you have a personal relationship.  Do the right thing and help them find their next opportunity.  If you get a call to provide a reference for the employee do not put yourself in a potentially actionable position by hampering the employee from getting their next opportunity by giving them a bad reference.  It is fine to say that the employee was great at what they do but not a good fit for your unique culture.  If you cannot say something positive simply say that it is the policy of your organization that you will only verify employment and provide start and end dates.  If you can help them though I suggest you do so. 

The next step is to communicate the firing to your other employees.  This will be a tough time for everyone in a small tightly knit culture.  Not only have you worked closely with the employee and developed a personal relationship but your employees have as well.  Your other employees will already know that the person was not performing and hampering the growth of your organization but it’s important how you communicate the situation to them.  Sit down with your team, be honest, and communicate the facts.  They will understand the situation and you will be taking another step towards creating a performance based culture.  Communicate to your employees that they are a part of something great but in a small company everyone needs to perform and move the organization forward.  Let them know that you provide a great culture and work environment but in return you expect a high level of productivity.  This is the culture of a startup and a message you should convey clearly and often.

Make sure that you are as honest as is appropriate with your employees as to why the firing took place.  You do not want rumors to swirl as to why the employee was let go.  If you create a situation where you tell your employees one story and the employee who was fired tells another your credibility is at stake.   Do not divulge anything that could be considered personal or that will make you look bad but remember that if the story coming from your ex-employee is different than the story coming from you it will create doubt on both side.  You never want to create a situation where your employees doubt you.

Is Video a Part of your Organization’s Employment Branding?

Video is the number one form of Internet communication and can be one of the most effective medium an organization uses to build its employment brand. Recruitment videos posted on an organization’s career site, YouTube, and social networking sites can create excitement for the organization by allowing potential candidates to experience an organization’s corporate culture, values, see multiple employees’ passion for the organization and see what it’s like to live and work in the organization. Google’s recruitment video “An inside look at Google” as been viewed over a half million times on the Internet. Other organizations such as Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Cisco, TiVo, and Home Depot have found great success using recruitment video. I recently read that studies have shown an effective recruitment video can increase passive candidate flow by up to 30%.  Startups should follow the lead of larger organizations and utilize video to quickly get the world out and build an employment brand.

An organization’s recruitment video is not a commercial and should not be scripted. The goal of the video is to give an inside look at the company and employees doing real work. A recruitment video should show real employees telling real stories about the organization. The video should also include a message from the CEO or an executive in the area of the organization the video is targeted. The more real the video is the more effective it will be. An effective recruitment video should be 2 to 4 minutes in length. Remember you want a potential candidate to take action so make the video compelling and fun. When you create your recruitment video give potential candidates an avenue to respond by including a link to the organization’s career site and if possible an e-mail address for candidates to forward their resume.

Recruitment video is a great way to increase employee referrals. Encourage employees to include a link to recruitment videos in their e-mail auto-signatures and individual social networking pages. We’ve discussed using viral marketing techniques to build employment branding. Ensure that those writing about the organization include a link to the organization’s recruitment video.

Remember that your recruitment video is only as good as the employment site it directs potential candidates to. Potential candidates will visit an organization’s employment site to confirm if what they hear about the organization is true, read detailed information about the organization, and submit their resume. The career site should clearly identify the organization’s culture, values, vision, current job openings and benefit programs. The site should reflect an organization’s brand and strengthen a candidate’s desire to consider employment opportunities with the organization. Included on the site should be testimonials from employees that reinforce what potential candidates viewed in the video.

Will Your Top Performing Employees Always Make Top Performing Managers?

On a recent episode of Hireku Don and I discussed promoting top performing employees into management roles.  As I tend to work in the startup world I have seen many occasions where an entrepreneur will promote their best employee into a management role only to have that person crash and burn.  The entrepreneur is left wondering why their top performing employee failed as a manager.  It is the natural desire of an entrepreneur to want to reward early employees in their startup with leadership roles as the employees’ area of the business grows but is that always the right move?

I believe that people promote themselves by their work product,  attitude towards their work and the company, and the way they conduct themselves both inside and outside the office.   Some employees will stand out as a leader.   Tactically the employee is a top performer but can they think strategically a level that will make them a top leader? 

An effective manager is a strong leader who can think strategically.  If you decide that you want to promote your top performer into a leadership role you have evaluate them to ensure that you believe they have the traits to make a successful transition into management.   Your job as an entrepreneur is to teach that new manager not only to think and act strategically but to mentor their team to be as successful as he/she is.    If you identify those traits begin to mentor the employee long before an anticipated need so when the opportunity presents itself they are ready.   Allow them to gradually take on additional responsibilities and leadership of the team.  It will make the transition easier for you, the new manager, and the team. 

One of the biggest challenges for an employee making the transition into management is letting go of the day to day responsibilities of their current role and performing at a more strategic level.   Many new managers will micro-manage their team and have a tough time separating themselves from the work they were previously doing.  This can turn into low moral on the team and eventually employee turnover.  As an entrepreneur you have to mentor your new manager to delegate, be a strong leader, and be a strong mentor themselves.

Keep in mind that not all of your top performers will want to get promoted.  Before you begin to mentor someone into a leadership role you must ensure that they even want it.  Some employees are great at their jobs but see within themselves that they would not make a great leader or like doing the job they are currently in.    If your top performing employee is interested in climbing the corporate ladder ask him or her to take some time to do an internal inventory to ensure they identify within themselves the traits needed to be a successful manager and strong leader.  Ask them to think about how they will make the transition from a tactical task driven employee to a strategic leader who will work on the business not in the business. 

Remember that HR training is very important for your new manager (listen to our previous Hireku episode “Fantastic Ways to Get Sued”).   Too many entrepreneurs do not provide HR and Interview training to their new managers.  I suggest working with an HR Training Consultant to develop a training plan for new managers.  Recruitment training is also important for your new manager.  He/she must understand headcount planning, determining exactly what gaps exist in their team (determining need), and how to pick out hard and soft skills in a potential candidate.  Your new manager must understand that interviewing as a manager is much different than being part of the interview process as a team member.

My appearance on Compassionate HR

Last night I had the pleasure of joining Hire Friday Founder Margo Rose (www.hrmargo.com) on her Blog Talk Radio Show “Compassionate HR” .   Margo and I discussed a variety of topics including bringing compassion to the recruitment and HR profession,  jobseekers being responsible with social networking, the challenges facing more senior jobseekers who never expected to find themselves out of work, volunteerism, and my Hireku and Career Radio Podcasts.   You can listen to the (edited) audio here.

Compassionate HR 11 1 10

Are Startups Having a Difficult Time Recruiting Software Engineers Even in this Job Market?

I recently read an article on the Bloomberg Businessweek web site titled “Entrepreneurs: Struggling to Recruit Software Engineers”.  The article’s subtitle is “Startups vie with bigger rivals as demand for programmers returns”.   According to the article “In many industries, high unemployment means abundant available labor. That’s not the case for fledgling tech companies making their crucial first hires.”  They report that finding software engineers is as hard as it was during the boom.”  The article quotes Dice.com as saying tech job postings on their site are up 38% this year and TheLadders.com saying that tech postings on their site are up 65%.

So what is causing this sudden shortfall of valuable technical talent in startups?  According to the article many software professionals who in the past may have considered employment with a startup are now moving towards the stability of larger companies and now favor higher pay over equity.

I believe that while that while this article addresses the problem it does not offer any solutions.  All of us involved in Software Recruiting realize that the market is heating up again but the professionals actually producing software may not be feeling it.  The past two years have created an environment of insecurity in the tech world and many of the software people I talk to while not happy in their current roles feel their jobs are stable and do not want to risk leaving for a potentially less stable situation.  This causes a difficult situation for the risky world of startups.  As pointed out in the article software professionals that do choose to make a move are choosing the higher salaries and stability of larger companies rather than the great risk/great reward of a startup.

So how does a startup compete for top talent when higher salaries and greater benefits are just not in the cards?  First, entrepreneurs need to ensure they are talking to the right people.  As I mentioned in a previous blog post and Don and I discussed on Hireku there are a lot of software professionals out there who particularly after losing a job have attempting to go out on their own and start their own web based venture.  No matter the reason they were unsuccessful in building their own company they have the entrepreneurial mindset that would make it difficult for them to go to work for a large organization.  Even if they didn’t have the business savvy to make their own startup a success if they have the technical skills to build your product chances are they are going to have the risk/reward mindset that will make them a great asset to your startup.

There are also software professionals out there who have worked for failed startups, went to work for larger companies, and long to return to the startup world (believe me they are out there – I talk to them every week!).  Often times these people will sacrifice their current salary levels and benefits and return to the startup world for less salary and equity.

Again I’ll say you have to make sure that you are talking to the right people.  Most of these people have not posted their resumes on job boards and most Recruiters (unless they specialize in startups like we do) will not know who they are.  So how do you find them you ask?  Networking, Networking, Networking!  I find that talking to other entrepreneurs is a great source of finding tech talent who has the desire to work for a startup.  Tech talent hoping to go to work for a startup will network with entrepreneurs and even if they haven’t found their way to you chances are they’ve found their way to another entrepreneur in your network.  Most entrepreneurs I know are a great source for finding tech talent that they can’t hire themselves but think highly of.  Social networks are another great source of finding talent for your startup.  What about your VC or Angel Investor?  Many entrepreneurs have shared with me that their VC or Angel Investor have been very helpful in helping them secure talent.  I always suggest to entrepreneurs that they build a pipeline of talent well in advance of a hiring need.  Entrepreneurs should be of the mindset that networking with  great talent – regardless if they have a current need – is always a great use of their time.  When you find this valuable talent meet them and keep in close touch with them.  Share with them the things you are doing and allow them to share their ideas with you.  If all else fails give me a call – I’m happy to help!

Like any other time in job market history – hot or not – the talent you are looking for is out there.  You simply have to know where to look and how to attract them.