Technical Matchmaker

failure (def): to prove unsuccessful.

Through failure we become successful. I would like to fill every role with one candidate set to interview. The reality is though, that on average it takes me three to five first round candidates to fill a position. The learning curve allows us to improve with each repetition, moving quickly along an iterative process. I rely heavly on my ability to remain agile and progressive at all times.

All of that having been said, the assemblage of press release, social media and direct word of mouth surrounding Bill Nguyen and Color Labs, Inc. (www.color.com) has inspired this post. From ground zero I have spoken to countless individuals, about the social experience and share app, current state of affairs for the $41 M dollar venture-backed start-up and unfortunately have to report "unimpressed" and "lost faith" have come up in conversation more often than not. I cannot blame them entirely -- Peter Pham the President and Co-Founder did resign. DJ Patil, Chief Product Officer, followed in suit this week. Early press and acclaimed names created the perfect platform for the anti-climatic underwhelming product launch and story summed up by many as a $41 Million Dollar Party that no one showed up to.

Among a stream of recent @Color mentions, I found an entrepreneur/angel investor that agreed it is too early to give up on the Color Labs, Inc. team:

MayorRock: Everyone that mocks @Color (myself included) should remember that they haven't spent the $41M. @turntablefm came out of a < $2M pivot…

Premature to determine pivot or veer but I am pondering with great anticipation. The comeback story is the new black -- just ask The Point, Stickybits and an unnamed email recommendation engine. That would be Groupon, Turntable.fm and Yelp in order pre-pivot. Groupon alone made a billion dollar pivot in two years.

Color Labs, Inc. is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Silicon Valley Bank. They are still being lead by someone who handed his last effort, Lala, off to Apple and has a proven track record of success beyond just that.

Let us learn from our mistakes. Let the rebuilding begin.

Be a Better Recruiter: Be Altruistic

2011-06-14T00:24:00.000-07:00

I believe everything happens for a reason. That being said, my flight left that afternoon, my wife Kaella and I were off to New York (my first time). When the airplane lifted from the runway and Justin Beiber’s Never Say Never started playing, I thought, “…everything happens for a reason.” With an open mind I continued watching the movie and am glad I did. Beyond what I’m writing about in this blog, the movie showed how this child entertainer utilized YouTube, social media AND social networking (David Levine via SocialMediaToday.com) to become an overnight phenomenon reaching hundreds of millions with every tweet.

Justin’s manager Scooter Braun explained something they do at every concert called Give Back. Just prior to the concert, Scooter and a small street team walk around the venue to neighboring folks who may or may not be in a position to attend the concert, and hand out front row tickets so to Give Back. He goes on to express interest in their lives, and getting to know them – “a little bit goes a long way.” He called it the best part of his job and I understand completely.

I’ve met with over 4000 software engineers and web developers in my 4 year career as a technical recruiter. I trust that all 4000 of them would never say I pushed an offer on them against their will or made them feel as if it was my personal interests over their career search. Why would I? It is their search. Any time we, as recruiters, are speaking with a candidate about commute, salary, working environment, leadership, technology, etc. I think it is important to remember it is their search and our role in this technical society is simply to gather unique information, present said information, and consistently work hard to add value in any way possible. After all and at the end of the day, the candidate is the one who will make that hour drive into work every day, make 10 K less this year, sit in that cubicle 50-60 hours per week, work for someone without vision, and/or work with outdated technology only to set back their skill set and career advancement trajectory. On the contrary, it is our job to help improve all or as many of those aspects as possible. I’m using the offer stage as a dramatic example but it starts with the first interaction and really it starts with every interaction each day as a technical recruiter in the tight-knit technical community. It could be as simple as getting honest and direct feedback to a candidate sooner rather than later or touching base even to let them know you do not have an update. This would mean putting their search (update) in front of our own ego (I don’t have an update yet). Any update is a good update!

Let’s accept the fact that there is a gap between technology and non-technology professionals combined with a steep supply and demand curve which favors the technical recruiter. Let’s embrace this and work altruistically to help everyone in need and in the end we will all succeed. Along the way we might just eliminate one or two of the black eyes worn by those who truly do work hard in the best interest of their candidates and clients (and in my case team) before their own.

Be a Better Recruiter: Be Honest

2011-04-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

Be honest with the candidate. Be honest with the client. Be honest with yourself.

Be Honest with the Candidate: Upon meeting candidates, speak with them, get to know them and take the time to understand who they are and what they are looking for. Consider your connections and job orders and realistically consider whether you have something for this candidate. If you do not have an opportunity for them, be honest and say so. A good candidate-recruiter relationship is ongoing and built on a learning curve. Each party has to understand how the other prefers to work and what their respective objectives are. Call them and give updates, even when you have none. Any update is a good update! Candidates just want to understand what stage the process is in, even if the process is currently on hold because contacting the hiring manager for feedback has been difficult (see Hiring Juice Brand Management blog). There is a mutual understanding that candidates do not land every job they interview for. Get the feedback and give it to the candidate so everyone can move on with his or her life. If you are hesitant to give feedback because it is not constructive, then hold your clients accountable and ask them for more constructive feedback. If that fails, then apologize to the candidate on your own and the hiring manager’s behalf.

Be Honest with the Client: Set expectations early. Be confident about your strengths and open about your weaknesses. It is better to be honest than to over-promise and under-deliver. In today’s tech hiring market, no one has an easy time finding qualified candidates. If you sit down with a hiring manager and say it will be easy to find the perfect candidate, they will know you are not being honest. If they do believe you, then chances are their own hiring expectations are not realistic (http://www.hiringjuice.com/blog/2011/3/31/mark-zuckerberg-ices-people-too.html). There are times when a candidate is simply not interested in an organization or position. Take the opportunity to be honest with a hiring manager and work together on improving a process, pitch or opportunity. Recruiters are humans too. Humans make mistakes, and should be able to admit to them without fear of losing their client. Being honest about a mistake will yield more repeat business than being dishonest about one and trying to hide it.

Be Honest with Yourself: Take yourself out of the equation when working with candidates and clients. At the end of the day, the candidate’s job search is the candidate’s job search. Ultimately, the decisions made and repercussions will directly affect their life, family, career and future, not yours. Likewise, the hiring client will have to work every day with the candidate hired, not you. The success of the company’s goals and deadlines depends on the skills and teamwork of the new hire, not you. If deadlines are not met the responsibility will fall on the hiring manager, not you. Remember to treat candidates and clients the way you would want to be treated. Honesty really is the best policy.

TAGS: hiring, technology, Silicon Valley, start-up, interview, honesty, value, ROI

Edited by Suzanne

Starting a Start-Up Technical Recruitment Office in Silicon Valley

2011-04-04T10:39:00.000-07:00

On January 3rd, 2011, we opened the doors to start-up Jobspring Partners Silicon Valley. Day One we stood there, business partner Scott and I, taking in an open space of roughly 2500 square feet filled with new desks, chairs and white boards. It also came with a top-floor view from downtown San Jose overlooking all of Silicon Valley to the north and northwest. As the morning sun dawned on our new balcony, we watched a plane take off from the most technically advanced airport in the world, as if signifying it was time for us to get started. We had a culture, a network and a business to build.

The next week was spent figuring out the new VOIP system (we are still figuring it out) and coordinating with the water cooler person, coffee machine person, Staples person, paper person, new office manager/admin, property management, parking, local cuisine, etc. We started Day One with two experienced leaders, two early hires just past initial training and two new hires beginning their careers. Let the fun, challenging mission begin!
Our team quickly grew to ten, with three new hires. Keep in mind, we have a unique business model where the norm is to hire entry-level or recent graduate professionals, train them and promote from within. This is referenced internally as an “organic meritocracy.” This means that the most rewarding part of the challenge for Scott and me is to train our new team, lead by example and give them the opportunity to grow into impressive business professionals.
To keep a long story short, it is now April 2nd (entering Q2) and I am finally posting my first blog since introducing my start-up venture just before it launched. In my third week, I got sick for the first time in three years and could not figure out why. My wife Kaella kindly pointed out it may have been the 18 hours total, I slept the previous week. Some say I work too much but, frankly, when you love what you do it is not work. Even so, it is important to take care of yourself and maintain a healthy lifestyle and a healthy work/life balance.
From a performance standpoint, Jobspring Partners Silicon Valley has improved its efforts each month and plans to continue the trend in Q2. The positive response and proactive contacts generated from the community, social media and repeat business amazes me and makes me very grateful to be in this town and in this business, day in and day out. The opportunity to learn every day while helping people around me, improving myself along the way, is something I truly cherish.

Thanks to a welcoming community, we have become an established business very quickly and developed amazing relationships with clients, candidates and impressive contacts alike. We are looking forward to Q2 and the chance to help even more people than before. Despite the typical perception of a sales-oriented recruitment office, we retain talented, driven individuals who care about more than “slinging software engineers” to make a quick buck. While we cannot guarantee the placement of every candidate or the filling of every position, we can guarantee we will work extremely hard with a personalized approach. Communicating openly and often is one of our core principles and seems to be well-received in the high-tech community. Great work, team!

Next blog: I have met with over 4000 software engineers and web developers in the past three and a half years. In our conversations, past experiences with recruiters come up and give me insight into how to be a better recruiter for candidates. After all, without great candidate relationships a recruiter has nothing. My next few blogs will share insight as it relates to good recruitment techniques and more importantly, how to build better candidate relationships.

Why I Chose Jobspring Partners...

2010-12-30T00:21:00.000-08:00

There I sat, across from a recruiter asking me questions about why I left my previous role, what I was looking for in my next role, what my strengths and weaknesses were; and then, it hit me -- this may be the exact role I'm looking for. One that fosters a competitive, performance based environment with advancement. But also, one that allows me to work with and help other people all the while improving my business, real world, and overall intellect in the process.

Following that thought, I interrupted the woman and asked her what it was she did. Certainly, there was a moment of hesitation before answering but after a moment she continued to unveil her role within this particular staffing firm. I decided it was on the right track and in turn, interviewed with her manager that day. Thankfully I did receive an offer but at that point, besides the idea of the role industry and possible career path, I had little interest in the culture and team I saw already in place, or the fact that there was no specialization or true mission about the organization. I was on the right path though and continued on to staffing firm number two.

Number two was an improvement. They were specialized, and boasted a great culture for someone like myself, just out of college. That being said, the hiring manager literally told me the best recruiters are the first one in the office, and last one out, so they could get first pick from the Monster resumes. "So why do the clients pay you again?" Not to mention, the advancement and commission structure was hardly motivating.

Finally I came to staffing organization number three, my current company. It was simple really. There was a base salary plus the ability to increase income quickly based on performance. There was paid training of core skill sets that would improve my value no matter what the longevity of my employment ended up being. They were looking to get new hires into management within 12-18 months. Support, great culture, an organic meritocracy, and perhaps the most appealing aspect of all -- promote and train from within. Even the CEO of the company started day one, as an entry-level hire, making a cold call.

I'll leave what's happened since for the next blog, but in a nutshell - in 3 years I've gone from know-nothing to impressive business partner to some of the greatest engineering companies in the world, and I'm opening my own start-up office in Silicon Valley on January 3rd (also my birthday!). So far so good, wouldn't you say?

In closing, the opportunity with my current employer has been what I've made of it; and that, is nothing short of everything I was looking for and more.

NEXT UP: I'll lead up to and start to detail the journey of opening a start-up technical recruitment office in the Silicon Valley. Should be interesting.

TAGS: recruiter technology competition organic meritocracy culture business entrepreneur

Why I became a recruiter...

2010-12-12T21:49:00.001-08:00

Attending the University of California, Santa Barbara, was a blast. And while my Alma mater constantly receives notoriety for being a "party school", I was fortunate to see impressive academic accomplishments during my tenure too; especially, green with the Donald Bren Center (www.bren.ucsb.edu), and perhaps most impressive the accomplishments in the Nanotechnology space (www.nanotech.ucsb.edu). While attending, we brought home several Nobel prizes (http://bit.ly/mxNWH)for the above mentioned work. Still, I personally, had no clue what it was, I was meant to do once graduating to the real world.

My first job out of school, was General Manager of Varagraphic Printing. You could say, I stumbled into this opportunity. I say that because I knew nothing about printing. I knew nothing about running a business. And I had no clue what path this opportunity would take me down. For the first 30 days of employment, I shadowed the founder/owner who was going to retire and leave the business in the hands of new management, and an ambitious UCSB alumni (that's me). Day 31, I sat alone behind a desk in my own office, with two middle-aged machine workers running two large printing presses which sat one side of the 5000 sq. foot warehouse. For one year, I managed all aspects of AP/AR, Sales and business development, production, and every other aspect you can include with running a 2 million dollar business.

At the end of that year, however, I found myself dissatisfied. I was doing all of the work, receiving entry level pay, had no interest in printing, and no future unless I was going to buy the company -- which was not realistic. So I moved on.

In searching for a new opportunity, I found a placement agency in the area, and arranged to meet with them. This was my first exposure to the world of recruitment. In meeting with the recruiter, I spent just over an hour explaining in great detail my background, what I had been doing, why I left, what I wanted to do, etc. Good news, they called me the same day and had an interview for me! I put my best suit on, and headed out to the interview with some level of blind faith, optimism if you will. Unfortunately, when I arrived to the interview, what I found and in turn, interviewed for, was a General Manager position at a construction company. The interview seemed to go well and I was on my way. A few hours later, I received a call from the recruiter (who seemed overwhelmed with joy), I had received an offer. The only problem was, this opportunity was the exact same type of role I had just left, and only made me feel as though the recruiter had listened to nothing I said when meeting. Although frustrated with that recruiter, I did appreciate the concept of the service itself, so I tried another recruiter. As I sat with recruiter #2, I started to wonder what it was exactly, they were doing for work on a daily basis. So I asked, and ended up interviewing on the spot for this particular agency.

Long story short, that was one of the driving factors behind my career choice to pursue recruitment as a profession. I want(ed) to do a better job listening, and helping candidates, than that recruiter did for me. And that is why, I go home after a long day's work, feeling great about what I do. I help people.

Next blog: Why I chose Jobspring Partners

TAGS: career interview technology recruiter social search marketing business sales people human resources entrepreneur

RoR Palooza Part Deux - July 28th, 2010

2010-07-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

I manage a team, that works together as a cohesive unit. We proactively network and extend our network in a localized, niche market. That market is the Los Angeles, open source market including LAMP (P = PHP, Perl, Python), Java, and Ruby on Rails.

Have you been looking for a RoR engineer for weeks? Months even? Are you looking for a solid software engineer who genuinely applies logical problem solving skills to the RoR development environment? Ideally, someone who can communicate well with people in the non-technical and technical realms simultaneously? Yeah, we know.

You're not alone, and in fact, you're in a very competitive market. We have spoken to 5 clients in the past 72 hours that have that same need -- in some cases some 72 hours, in others 12, hours later they are coming into our office to see a cross-section of the referral network we've developed after years of proactive efforts in this niche space. They'll see 2 weeks worth of first rounds, let's be honest and say even 2 months (ror), of first rounds -- in about 2 hours.

From a candidate standpoint - you can come interview with 1-5 exciting companies here in Los Angeles, in less than 3 hours, 1 location.

All of these clients are prepared to move forward with the process and make hires by end of the week, early next. This process of course includes on site, second/final - third if necessary, round interviews to spend more time on culture, technology, team, etc.

What could be more efficient? Want to know more?

Email - erin.wilson[at]jobspringpartners.com

Search Engine Technology Meetup -- August 4th

2010-07-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

Consider this a static landing page w/ details to follow. I've already confirmed a small group of known professionals in my inner circle, but wanted to gauge interest from those in my extended network.

If you'd be interested in joining a meetup on August 4th, to discuss the evolving realm of search engine technology, please send me an email directly to:

erin.wilson[at]jobspringpartners.com

If you have any contributing ideas to what topics could be discussed in the first or subsequent meetings with search engine technology in mind, include those too!

I look forward to hearing from interested, and intelligent professionals in the area!

More to come...

Tag: search SEM technology java PHP python Perl Hadoop noSQL MongoDB Cassandra couchDB solr LUCENE memcacheD seo J2EE sem ARCHITECTURE

Turning of the tide...

2010-06-06T00:13:00.000-07:00

More Workers Start to Quit

by Joe Light
Wednesday, May 26, 2010

provided by

As the job market begins to loosen up, human-resource managers might increasingly be surprised by an announcement from employees they haven't heard in a while: "I quit."

[Click here to find an online degree program]

More from WSJ.com:

• Job Market Picks Up, But Slowly

• Back in the Job Hunt, With New Hope

• College Grads' Outlook Grim

In February, the number of employees voluntarily quitting surpassed the number being fired or discharged for the first time since October 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Before February, the BLS had recorded more layoffs than resignations for 15 straight months, the first such streak since the bureau started tracking the data a decade ago. Since the BLS began tracking the data, the average number of people voluntarily leaving their jobs per month has been about 2.7 million. But since October 2008, the average number dropped to as low as 1.72 million. In March, it was about 1.87 million.

And recent sentiment indicates that the number of employees quitting could continue to grow in the coming months. In a poll conducted by human-resources consultant Right Management at the end of 2009, 60% of workers said they intended to leave their jobs when the market got better. "The research is fairly alarming," says Michael Haid, senior vice president of global solutions for Right Management. "The churn for companies could be very costly."

Adecco Group, a world-wide staffing firm based in Zurich, has seen several of its clients ask for candidates for key positions after employees made surprise departures, says Vice President Rich Thompson. Although so far there haven't been widespread departures, Mr. Thompson says his company is readying itself for large-scale changes within the next few months. "We're preparing for a massive reshuffling of talent at all job levels in all industries," he says, noting that the recession earlier this decade was so short and shallow that the turnover this time around is likely to be much greater.

Read the rest of this article here:

http://tinyurl.com/22kc4n9

Successful Startups

2010-04-03T13:44:00.001-07:00

Since relocating to Los Angeles 7 months ago, I've had the opportunity to work with many startups in the area. As you often times hear, 80% of startups fail -- as a team we look for legitimate organizations with promise and a sense of financial security and a belief in their product.

From my experience of working with some of the most successful and still growing startups in the world -- I can say there are few characteristics that put you in a good position to succeed in what might as well be called the most competitive arena there is; business.

A successful startup has an executive staff with a successful, impressive track record in their respective expertise; however, even better would be a group of successful, impressive, executives who have succeeded together as a team before.

After the executive, I look at the product, business model to execute product-to-market, and the relative market trends.

What is your bird's eye view determining startups forecasted success?

Partnering up...

2010-03-07T19:15:00.000-08:00

My team has had great success in the local market recently, and it really has come from an effort on all sides. Hiring takes a level of commitment from the recruitment side of course, but also the hiring manager. A good recruiter does not eliminate the process all together, but instead makes the process as seamless as possible for the hiring manager. This is a high level of results coming from an efficient and minimum time requirement from the manager. The hiring manager does have to acknowledge it is a two way street, and give the other party some type of open line of communication. To represent the best talent, and more importantly deliver it, the relationship must be built on being able to predict and deliver regarding the hiring process.

If the the manager and a good business professional who recruits for a living partner up and hold each other accountable, the results are most likely positive.

Finding loyalty in contingency based hiring is almost non-existent; however, consistently representing the best candidates on the market increases your chances to experience "loyalty" from what become valuable repeat clients. With these business partners, you develop a productive mutually beneficial relationship.

Working hard, seeing results, and helping others is a great business to be in.

Off to a great start...

2010-02-13T06:07:00.000-08:00

Technology based companies, as well as companies who merely use technology, are hiring again. The common trend has been when a company is hiring there are multiple positions to fill. Tech spending is up. Unemployment is down. This is a competitive market. Personalized relationships matter.

Because of all these factors, my team is off to a great start this year. We have filled 13 high-end open source positions in LA already this year.

Candidates: If you are keeping your options open, please do not hesitate to inquire about the roles we are currently working on. If you're a high-end open source development professional in this ballpark:

- 70-135 K

- Java / J2EE, LAMP, PHP, PERL, Ruby on Rails

Let's connect. We are localized and specialized. My team shares your background while working separate accounts. We'd like to get to know you now for when the "right opportunity" for you comes across our team.

Clients: The hiring market is very competitive. If you are hiring, so are all of your competitors. If you are interested in a candidate you've met, so are 2-3 other companies. Since we are localized and specialized, our network becomes the result of organic networking. When we partner up with a new client and understand their business need, it is not a matter of whom can I recruit necessarily; more so, who in my referral network would be a good long-term hire and interested in this role and qualified to contribute to our client from day one...

"People helping people, it's powerful stuff."

Recognize any of these?

2010-02-02T00:50:00.000-08:00

Here are just a few of the people who came to the last Twiistup, if you're not on the list but think you should be leave a comment.

Robert Scoble
Sarah Lacy (TechCrunch, BusinessWeek)
Paul Carr (TechCrunch)
Saeed Amidi, CEO of Plug n Play, Investor, Co-founder of Amidzad Partners
Wil Schroter, CEO of Go BIG Network, serial entrepreneur
Rick Calvert, Founder of Blogworld
Dinesh Ravishanker, CEO of CallFire
Isaac Garcia, CEO of CentralDesktop
Sanjay Sabnani, Chairman and CEO of CrowdGather
Dimitry Ioffe, Co-founder and CEO of The Visionaire Group
Mike Walsh, Founder and CEO Leverage Software
Cyan Banister, CEO of Zivity, investor Facebook, Slide etc.
Merav Knafo, Founder of iJoomla
Adam Zbar, CEO of Zannel
Marc Mertes, CEO of Seso.net
Jeff Haas, Co-founder of Ringorang
Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo
Tom Dare, COO of Tsavo
Brian Solis, Author, Founder of Future Works
J.R. Johnson, CEO of Lunch.com
Adam Bernhard, CEO of Hautelook
Andy Sack, General Partner/Angel Investor Founders Co-op
Scott Sangster, Investor/President of Organic Startup
James Montgomery, CEO of Montgomery & co. CEO of Digital Coast Ventures
Vince Thompson, Managing Partner at MiddleShift
Afsoun Yazdian, CEO of Gogolingo
Brooke Burke, Television Personality, co-CEO of ModernMom
Brian Deagon, Investor’s Business Daily (Media)
Umair Mufti, Founder and CEO of Sparcq
Christian Gammill, co-Founder of The Graph
Brad Feld, Founder of Mobius Venture Capital
Scott Seward, President of Tuesday Creative
Alec Shankman, Head of Reality at Abrams Artists
Chamillionaire, Grammy Award winning Musician
Ian Rogers, CEO of Topspin Media
Ben Huh, CEO of ICanHasCheezburger
Michelle Robbins, Director of Technology, Third Door Media
James Andelman, General Partner, Rincon Venture Capital
Dave McClure, Investor The Founders Fund
Chris Redlitz, Partner Transmedia Capital (VC)
Lee Fox, Founder of KooDooz.com
Steve Beauregard, Managing Partner at Regard Ventures
Eric Sikola, CEO of Expensebay
Charles Proctor, Los Angeles Business Journal (Media)
Robby Berthume, President Epsilon Concepts/ LA Digital Directory
Stuart Halperin, CEO of Ultimate Movie Site
Quincy Jones III (QD3) Music Producer, Entrepreneur
Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix
Jason Nazar, CEO of DocStoc
Adam Weinroth, VP of Strategic Marketing at Demand Media
Firas Bushnaq, CEO of Boxador
Sheila Marmon, CEO of UrbanAdserve
Don Mosites, CEO of Streamy
Justin Kan, Founder of Justin.tv
Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs
Eric Hung, CEO of Educator
Michael Schneider, CEO of MobileRoadie
Paige Craig, Angel Investor, Founder of the Lincoln Group
John Morris, Partner GKM Ventures
Krisztina Holly, Vice Provost for Innovation at USC
Nick Braun, Partner NCT Ventures
Brett Butterfield, CEO of PixelPipe
Mark Suster, Partner GRP Partners (VC)
Jennifer Van Grove, writer for Mashable (media)
Jolie O’Dell, writer for ReadWriteWeb (media)
Dmitry Shapiro, Founder and CEO of VEOH
Lisa Rosenblatt, Co-founder of iMall, co-CEO of ModernMom
Beau Laskey, Managing Director of Steamboat Ventures
Babette Pepaj, Founder and CEO of BakeSpace
Jeff Yasuda, Founder and CEO of Blip.FM
Andy Liu, co-Founder of Buddy.TV
Trey Shelton, CEO of Music Interactive
Mohamed Alkady, CEO of After 10 Studios
Mike Prasad, CEO of GirlGamer
John Trickett, President of Immergent
Taryn Southern, Producer, TV host
Andrew Lee, CEO of JamLegend
Ben Kuo, Founder and Editor of SoCalTECH
Marty Poulin, CEO of ShadyLogic
Rob Angarita, co-Founder of Cramster
David O. Sacks, CEO of Geni and Yammer
Mike Macadaan, VP of Product at MySpace
Will Chow, CEO of Mobophiles
Jodee Rich, CEO of PeopleBrowsr
Richard White, Founder and CEO of Uservoice
Micah Baldwin, VP of Business Development, Lijit Networks
Neil Patel, Angel Investor, co-founder of CrazyEgg and KissMetrics
Brandon DiMassa, VP Digital Media Syndication, TVGuide
Efren Toscano, CEO of TechZulu (media)
Marsha Collier, Host of Computer and Technology Radio KTRB (media)
Erin Broadley, LA Weekly (media)
Dave Waldman, VP or Business Development for Twistbox
David Holifield, President of Interfuel
Ed Ludic, CEO of Diddit
Rich Rotzang, Founder of SocialToddler
Mark Gibbs, writer Network World (media)
Mark Yawitz, co-Founder RealityWanted
Hiten Shah, co-Founder CrazyEgg and KissMetrics
Michael Abraham, CTO Circle Limit Media
Ryan Born, CEO of AudioMicro
Ben Widhelm, CTO of Elephant Drive
Richard Blakely, CEO of Influxis
Peter Lee, Partner Baroda Ventures
Michael Jones, COO of MySpace

What's new...

2010-01-30T00:18:00.001-08:00

Software Engineer (Ruby on rails / Rspec / Cucumber) needed for growing team in well funded health care start up.

Date Posted:		1/30/2010

Salary Range:		$76-100K

Industry:		Hospitals/Healthcare Services

Job Location:		Los Angeles-Santa Monica

Job Type:		Development: LAMP / PHP / Ruby on Rails

A well funded health care start up is seeking a software engineer (ruby on rails / rspec / cucumber) to join their growing team. Help enhance the market leader in its space, with a product that can help everyone in the world.

More the better:

- Ruby on rails (2+ years)
- Rspec
- Cucumber
- Shoulda
- Heroku
- RESTful
- MySQL
- PHP
- LAMP
- Javascript

Cutting edge team members and technical environment, backed by legitimate funding and the stability of the health services industry.

What's in it for you:

- 80-100 K
- Excellent comprehensive benefits
- Stock Options
- Dynamic and talented team
- Rapid environment

Please send resumes directly to the following:

erin.wilson@jobspringpartners.com

We have more than 1 ROR opportunity for those interested.

Best Open Source Opportunity in LA...

2010-01-24T22:18:00.000-08:00

Open Source Architect / True Engineer (PHP / Python / Objective C) position for growing company in West LA.

A Los Angeles based software company is urgently seeking an Open Source Architect / True Engineer with a broad skill set and clear focus on solving problems, finding and overcoming challenges, and a desire to be great.

Long story short:

- PHP / LAMP
- Python OR Objective / Embedded C
- Never die mentality regarding problem solving
- Thrive on challenges
- Love what you do, and solving complex problems by leveraging technology is what you do

Environment:

- You won't find executive offices and cubicles here
- Casual
- Senior
- "We hire senior people and let them flourish"

What's in it for you:

- 100-120 K base salary
- Full comprehensive benefits
- Stock Options

Please contact me directly and immediately if you are interested in learning more, time is of the essence.

Erin Wilson
(310) 996-0200
erin.wilson@jobspringpartners.com

One reason to be excited about 2010...

2010-01-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

DJI‎ - Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow Jones Indices)‎

Google Finance‎ Yahoo Finance‎ MSN Money‎ AOL Finance‎ Reuters‎

10619.02 +0.83‎ (0.01%‎) Jan 11 9:51am ET

Open:	10620.31
High:	10655.68
Low:	10618.12

Volume:	25,889,052
Avg Vol:	200,425,000
Mkt Cap:	0

It can only improve further with the continued belief
of all of us, we're in this together.

2010 is your year. 2010 is my year. 2010 is our year.

Hard work and positive human emotion will yield
positive results.

2009 Was a good year...

2009-12-31T10:06:00.000-08:00

What? That may be what most think when they see the title of this post. Let's just call it out now, 2009 was less than ideal, including several unfortunate turns in the market. Looking back, however, there is also the possibility to view 2009 with a positive spin.

For most, Q1 was a struggle, and March was the dagger in the coffin as we saw arguably the worst month in history from a stock market's perspective. As the corner turned on April though, the DOW and the NASDAQ began reviving themselves almost one share at a time. Slowly but surely, the two continued to improve; although, it was still quite the series of "1 step back, 2 steps forward" spurts. Seeing was believing, and it showed with many companies that were doing relatively well who made key hires after batting down the hatches the past 6 months.

Do you remember when you were a kid, and at the river there was a big rock or cliff all the kids jumped off? The feat was intimidating, and required the mustering of what we call courage to take a leap of blind faith from the big rock to the water below. While many stand and talk about the feat, a bold character made the jump and it almost felt like slow motion as they fell towards the water...splash! Everyone stands on the edge of the rock or cliff and watches intensely for them to surface. And then they do, and in a wave of excitement throws their hands in the air and says "C'mon!"

I liken this familiar memory to the Q2-Q3 window of 2009. As the CEO Consumer Confidence Index climbed, so did the number of companies who decided to hire during this time. There were all types of companies joining the act of cherry picking from what was thought to be a saturation in talent. In truth, the "A" players that successful technology companies look for, were not on the market at that time. Rather, they were secured tightly by their current organization which was appreciating every minute of their return on investment. The balance of these two scenarios left 2 types of clients: 1) Those that did want to hire, and hire the best talent, and used recruiters regardless of the economy, and 2) those who invested time of their high-paid resources to interview less than qualified, or irrelevant candidates only to decide they as a company were not that urgent to hire.

Q4 has been very healthy. The fact of the matter is, the DOW and NASDAQ continued to improve along side one another and today the DOW is over 10,500. Our team is filling roles for start-ups with and without vc funding, Fortune 500 companies, small to medium business, and non-profits. Not only was there and is there a wide array, and large number of companies hiring this time of year, but they are almost all hiring minimally 3-5 employees if not more.

This year unemployment has been the worst it has ever been. That being said, if you have at least a bachelor's degree the rate drops by half. If you have a bachelor's degree and an IT related field, it drops yet another half. I would like to reiterate 2009 was less than ideal, and acknowledge there were several unfortunate shifts. That may be the case, but undoubtedly we all learned much about ourselves that was unknown before this year. Relationships and core values were tested, and exposed, and personally, I saw the development of many in the same.

Let's all celebrate the coming of the New Year with close friends, family, and enjoy some rest as well. This year will be what we all make of it, it is up to each and everyone of us.

2010 will not be a good year, it will be a great year. That is what myself, and my team will make of it.

Agnostic Is The New Black

2009-12-03T18:50:00.000-08:00

In my current position as a recruitment manager, I am fortunate enough to speak and meet with very high-end technology professionals every day, all day. The team I currently manage focuses purely on open source development roles in Los Angeles. Throughout each day I am asking questions just to learn; such as, "Why would you choose Zend Framework versus CakePHP?" or "Which do you think will be more popular in 2010, the Python/Django combination or Ruby on Rails?" Or the number of times I've said, "You're running that on a LAMP stack, Linux, Apache, MySQL, is that Object Oriented PHP 5?" The answers are never the same, but they are usually close enough for me to add information to what I've learned piece by piece with each additional conversation.

For the past 2 years I lead a team that focused purely on the .NET market in Orange County. Looking back, it now seems as though world of Microsoft is so mannered and linear. Exploring the open source realm on a daily basis is so exciting, and really gives me something new to learn everyday. I recently partnered up with a client who is using Enterprise Edition Magento for all ecommerce projects. These days, the open source community is enhancing and developing so many new and useful technologies, so quickly that every 6 months I see the same cycle...where a new hot technology comes out and is simply a plus to have for most clients. 6 Months later that plus to have becomes a must have with most my clients.

Recently, however, I have continued to work with candidates and clients who feel the best web / software development practice is to "use the best tool for the job." I truly believe more and more companies are buying into this model and seeing immediate results because of it. Recently, my team has worked with start-ups utilizing Actionscript / Flex 3.0, Python / Django, Ruby on Rails, Java, and Perl in the same environment. In many cases, our clients that are so-called "LAMP" shops are now utilizing PHP and PERL concurrently. Although this is quickly becoming a market trend, the primary skill set in demand here in Los Angeles is PHP. As a team that focuses purely on open source development roles in Los Angeles, approximately 80% of the positions we come across are PHP based, with the remaining 20% falling under the umbrella of PERL, Python, and Ruby on Rails.

If you were to start a company today, what tools would you bring to work?

What are your thoughts?

The Candidate Experience -- Help Us Help You

2009-11-24T19:30:00.000-08:00

This is a long story but a very good story… Please read ahead.

About 2 months ago I spoke to a candidate in need of help in his job search. This candidate in particular was a hands-on manager with a diverse software development background. From the beginning I was very transparent in that his targeted career opportunity of management was not our specialization (specialization: 60-120 K hands-on developer); however, we agreed that it is good to know people in the market and he had responded very positively to the relevant market knowledge we'd exchanged.

My team meets with every candidate we represent to better understand their job search, and culture to ensure a more long-term permanent fit with one or our clients (Note: With the main medium of hiring being the Internet these days, the hiring process has become rather unpersonalized). He came in the next day and ended up sitting down with my business partner, and then meeting the rest of the team besides myself as I had headed out to an impromptu client meeting. When I returned back to the office I followed up with him via phone and heard that the meeting went very well and that he in turn was impressed and felt confident in our ability to help him. Before we hung up the phone, I made sure to remind him why he was so excited to work with us:

At the end of the day, my team can’t guarantee we will place you. What we can guarantee is that we work hard and will be a value added to your search. The reality is we network on a daily basis to create organic relationships built on common interest and a mutually beneficial platform. We've been doing this for 20 years as a nationwide organization, and 10 here in Los Angeles specifically. What does that mean? It means if you have an interview set up you should tell us about it. Because we are localized and specialized we have worked with, work with, or know about every company that hires for people in this high-end niche market and have insider information we’re excited to share with you to improve your job search. Also, use us when you're finding positions on the web that appear relevant. Rather than sending your resume into a saturated inbox to hurry up and wait, shoot me a quick email or give me a quick call and ask what we know about the company, opportunity, etc. We can typically get hiring managers on the phone and pitch your background directly in the first 24-48 hours. If we are unable to set you up we can always let you know what was learned from our efforts and continue to help you that way. Remember we're free for you, but it’s a two way street and the candidates that call us and talk to us the most like us and get the most out of our service. As long as you understand we may not have an interview for you every time you call, but that we will have market information about relevant companies and roles, then we’re on the same page!

The candidate did just that…

He called me at least once a week if not twice for 2 months straight. He also sent over a total of 4 leads that he felt were relevant for his background. Not once in 2 months did I set him up for an interview. He never grew impatient or frustrated, but instead took the information we discussed and implemented it right back into his search and own personal efforts.

So how did we help?

One of the positions this candidate felt was appealing and appropriate was in Orange County. Since my team focuses purely on Los Angeles, I referred the candidate and position to a colleague of mine based out of Orange County.

My colleague reached out to the hiring manager to speak specifically about the candidate which had pointed the role out to us, and just a week later he got the chance to interview for a role he had hand selected. Not only that, but in the process of picking up this account my colleague learned about 2 more positions the manager needed filled as soon as possible. When the candidate called in for our weekly discussion, he was very pleased to inform me he had just received and accepted an offer for the position.

In the end, we helped him find a career opportunity that in his own words was "exactly what I was looking for." Furthermore, my colleague filled the second position the same day and in turn gave another candidate the career opportunity he was looking for.

We are here to help.

By the way, the 3rd position should be filled within the first week of December. To be continued...

Talk soon,

erin.wilson@jobspringpartners.com

www.jobspringpartners.com

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/erin-wilson/5/793/975

Twitter: @techmatchmaker

Companies are hiring in Q4...

2009-11-06T07:47:00.000-08:00

There is a common misconception that companies do not typically hire towards the end of the year. The idea of holidays consuming business days, and weeks feeling more like days can make that seem like a very plausible belief.

From where I sit, however, that could not be further from the truth. From my experience over the past 2 holiday seasons, and more specifically Q4, this has been our busiest time of the year. With the recent economic trends, I would venture to say that this quarter is no exception and you can count on my team having their best quarter of the year from a placement standpoint.

Reason being, companies have been a bit shy on pulling the hiring trigger throughout the year up to this point. This lack of activity is mostly due to caution, and the idea of not wanting to over extend budgets in such a unstable economy. While I will admit the Southern California technology market has been more of an "ebb and flow" space, companies still need to hire. The result of pushing out new hires has been the attrition of what may be a very strong core team feeling the effects of running too lean. Other side effects, may have your top developers looking around, and seeing a lack of growth which then translates in their mind to no potential growth for their own career.

The market was really at its worst point in March of this year, and has slowly but steadily climbed back to plateau of normality. I'm sure we are all happy to see the DOW flirt with 10,000, but what does this really mean?

The economy is coming back. While it may not be flawless by early 2010, everything I have read in research suggests it will only continue to climb from an overall perspective slowly and surely. That being said, clients are returning, new business is being born, and cutting-edge technology initiatives are being released once again. As this continues, companies will be forced to add staff and specifically to the technology department, as technology has become such an engrained part of our everyday life and business model regardless of what industry, product, or service you find yourself in. This coupled with the idea of losing budget or head count when the calendar flips just 5-6 weeks from now, has hiring managers urgent to fill positions which have been less than top priority for the past month(s). On a completely separate note, those who are able to hire and have the top talent start by end of year or first week of January inevitably beat the rest of the pack who decide to open and fill requisites come January/February.

Urgent to hire does not have to equal a lesser level of talent, but more simply a better plan of action. No one would deny the best talent is currently working and in turn more of a passive job seeker utilizing an internal network to discover unique career opportunities.

My team spends every day networking in a niche technical market geographically targeted here in Los Angeles. We've been doing this for the past 10 years, and over that time have built a network of the aforementioned passive seeker that is incomparable to that of a single individual, an internal recruiter, or any of these newer agencies that promise the world and take a reactionary approach only to not deliver for their clients. I would always say utilize all of your resources, and let the best candidate win. It is not cheap to work with my team, but we work hard and deliver to earn our fee. We are built to deliver a quantity of qualified candidates quickly for clients urgently seeking high-end web development needs in Los Angeles.

Technologies: PHP, LAMP, Perl, Python, Ruby on Rails, Merb, Sinatra, MVC, AJAX, Java script, Html, CSS, Zend Framework, Drupal, Joomla, Action script, Django, REST, Postgresql, Oracle, MySQL

13 positions in 30 days...

2009-10-31T13:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome back!

As previously mentioned, my team and I currently have more open positions than qualified candidates. Regardless of the number of openings we are currently working on, we are always looking to proactively partner up with passive job seekers. If the roles below are not ideal for your self, please do not hesitate to forward them on to friends and former colleagues. Also, do not hesitate to reach out and see what we're currently working on in terms of your own background.

Quick reminder, these roles are active and urgent so please don't wait to respond! We are literally setting up face to face interviews with hiring managers for each role as soon as Monday (November 2nd) afternoon...If you think you're pretty close to what we're looking for then call us anyways so we can discuss the facts and make an educated decision from there!

What do you think?

(3 Positions)
Perl
We are working with one of the most exciting start-ups in the country and they continue to grow! The current business need is Perl developers. The ideal candidate will be very strong with CS concepts and have 3-7 total years of professional development experience. Additionally, we are talking about integrating with several Web 2.0/3.0 API's such as REST, MOOSE, and more...

85-100K plus comprehensive benefits, catered meals everyday, equity, and the opportunity to work with one of the most talented and dynamic engineering teams in the country.

(3 Positions)
PHP w/ CMS Experience
We are working with several different clients who are currently looking for mid-senior level PHP developers with open source CMS experience such as: Zend, Drupal, Joomla to name a few. In this case, 3 of them our urgent to be filled within the next week and a half.

70-120K plus benefits, equity, flexible schedule, creative control, technical strategy direction

(1 Position)
Ruby on Rails
How would you like to utilize Ruby on Rails within a "start-up like" team, backed by one of the biggest and most successful organizations in the world? We are looking for a Lead Ruby on Rails developer to work full-time for a new effort started within a Fortune 500 company. You will be in control of technical strategy and the future innovation of all development consistent to the business plan. Test drive development tools such as Shoulda, Cucumber, and in general RSPEC experience is what we're looking for. If you have ever wanted the freedom and dynamics of using ROR in a start-up environment, getting in at the ground level, and having an influence on the forward movement directly of something more impacting than an e-commerce shopping cart, and all with the support and resources of a big backer... here's your chance!

70-130K plus health care industry type benefits, equity, and bonuses in a casual environment

(2 Positions)
Python
We are working with a little known software house, which in less than one year will be responsible for a significant portion of mobile and streaming media development for one of the most well known companies in the world. The ideal candidate will be very strong with the following: Python, JSON, and SQL Server. I know that is an interesting combination but there is much more information about how they're going to be leveraged. Reach out and we'll talk about it!

70-110K plus benefits, and more...

(1 Position)
Python/Django
We are looking for a strong Python/Django developer with equally strong UI skills, a passion for new product strategy and the belief in ROI. The ideal candidate will be strong with the aforementioned skill set, but also be open to learning the remainder of a agnostic environment which includes Ruby on Rails, and Action script / Flex 3.0.

85-110K plus the best benefits we've ever seen, bonuses, equity, and a location that hard to beat.

(3 Positions)
Blue Ray Java (BD-J)
If you have at least 4 years of programming experience, and at least 1 year of BD-J (Blue Ray Java) experience, and like to play either ping pong, volleyball, basketball, or putt putt. Then this is a great opportunity for you.

50-135K plus comprehensive benefits, bonuses, stability, and did I mention ping-pong, volleyball, basketball, and putting.

Again, we look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible so we can help you!

erin.wilson@jobspringpartners.com
(310) 996-0200

Talk soon,
EW

- "People helping people, it's powerful stuff." ~ Vince Vaughn, Wedding Crashers

Technical Introduction

2009-10-31T12:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome everyone, to the first real time blog of Jobspring Partners-Los Angeles; team OSD (open source development).

In short, I manage a team that focuses solely on the Greater Los Angeles area, and even more specifically on the high-end open source development market. We collaborate our daily efforts in effort to maximize the search of our highly talented and in most cases passive candidates here in LA. These "under-the-radar rock stars" come to us by many different means, but the majority are referrals via existing relationships developed through networking in a niche technical market locally for the past 10 years. While we share candidates, we are a full service recruitment team that is also responsible and accountable for developing long-term client relationships. All be it sales, my team strives for career growth and the opportunity to create long-lasting mutually beneficial relationships.

As a team, we speak to 100+ professionals in the open source development arena per week. From that network of contacts we generate 10-15 high-end open source professionals to partner up with in their job search. As opposed to reactionary recruitment efforts, we take a proactive initiative related to a specific niche and consistently have passive candidates in our network that are the best suited for many of today's business needs. We meet with every candidate we represent to truly understand them and their career search, so to ensure placing them in a long-term position.

In terms of our clients, we truly pride ourselves on being more than just a "recruiter", or "head-hunter", but more so a business partner you can turn to for market knowledge including but not limited to: market trends, salary expectations, technical direction, infrastructure insight, and insider information on your own competitive space.

Although the unemployment rate in California is closer to 13%, if you add a CS Degree and IT related field the number is closer to 5%. In most cases, the top talent our clients seek are not part of that 5%, combined with the fact that 80% of the offers today go to the top 20% of candidates, it is not surprising Career Builder's last poll showed 80%+ of IT positions are filled through a 3rd party source.

We can't guarantee placing every candidate, or filling every position. What we can guarantee, however, is we'll work hard and try our best to always be a value added to your search.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to for any reason, any time.

erin.wilson@jobspringpartners.com
(310) 996-0200

Technologies: PHP, LAMP, Zend, Drupal, Joomla, CMS, AJAX, JQUERY, JSON, Ruby on Rails, Ruby, Rails, Cucumber, Shoulda, RSPEC, Perl, Python, Django, CSS, HTML, Java script, REST, MOOSE, API, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, cloud computing, Linux, Apache, copyleft, emacs, freeware, multics.

Stay tuned for open and urgent roles in the LA area; we are currently working on...

Talk soon,
EW