December 2012 Volume 15, Issue 4: Affiliate Follow-up
Jeffrey Calannio—Software Placement Group
Jeff Calannio (Software Placement Group) joined First Interview 2 ½ years ago and since that time Jeff has split $600,000 in fees with members of the IT group. We caught up with Jeff to get an update on what he sees happening in IT and also for some insight on his success on the network. We caught up with Jeff to get an update on what he sees happening in IT and also for some insight on his success on the network.
FI: You have had two very good years on the network as one of the newer First Interview members. How have you done it?
JC: To begin with the network has allowed me to work more sales openings than in the past. As I have developed relationships with more members it has become easier to make the split. I have had good success with First Interview members in Houston, Chicago and LA …. to name just a few places. Once you have a good result, it is easier the second time around. In my first year, I did about 1/3 of my business as splits, but that has increased to almost half right now.
Also, I try to follow up with members who share candidates with me and keep them posted on what is happening. That is important in developing a long term business relationship.
FI: Where are you finding the most activity in IT these days?
JC: Right now it is Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Security Software and SaaS Collaboration.
FI: What are some of the current issues you are experiencing in working with clients? We continue to hear that jobs are there but the decision process is still very slow.
JC: Yes, it still takes a while for decisions to be made on candidates but that is not a big problem. We do find that we are emailing candidates more updates on the client to continue to hold their interest in the position while the process moves along. Good candidates may be on an interview with another company at the same time and we don’t want to lose them.
We are finding more and more internal recruiters that become competitive factors. Also, HR wants to control more of the process these days which may have more to do with legal reasons than anything else.
Another thing I am finding is that vertical market experience is becoming more important. Maybe it’s the insurance field or healthcare experience or something else, but that additional requirement makes finding IT candidates a tougher job.
FI: You are all over the social media, especially Linked In.
JC: It is a big part of what we do. My wife Kara has taken the job of managing our social media presence. It is an on-going job to maintain visibility, post our openings across many platforms and coordinate contact with potential candidates which includes keeping them abreast of current openings. We will do regular emails which encourages candidates to respond directly to us for positions and, because some contacts are hiring managers, we also pick up assignments that way.
FI: How many connections do you have on Linked In?
JC: I have 11,000 first level connections and, of those, around 600 are managers at the VP level.
FI: Any tips on finding and managing that many contacts?
JC: We use Simply Hired and Indeed as good ways to post 20-25 jobs at a time. We also use HootSuite to manage profiles and send messages and tweets. There is a new site called TalentBin that surfaces candidates based on their web presence and what they say about themselves. All of these have been useful.
I also created two LinkedIn groups (Software Professionals Group and MyCredentials) which gives us another 7K people. Recruiters should consider starting and managing groups to enhance visibility.
FI: Thank you Jeff for taking time to share some of your success with us and other FI members.
