Testimonials

Needle in a haystack

Kathy Breslin is Director of Human Resources at Maven Networks, Internet TV ASP recently acquired by Yahoo!. CareerEncore has been working as a partner with Maven since late 2006 assisting with their staffing needs. One search put CareerEncore to the test.

At Maven we have very specific staffing needs—engineering, services, operations. Courtney helps us find candidates across the board in the information technology sector. She’s definitely, truly someone you can build a one-on-one partnership with. She understands culture—the way a company does business—as well as tech needs. We decided to partner with Courtney because she stands out from all other recruiters we’ve used. She does a thorough job, really understanding what the client’s environment is like. It’s easier to work with her. She understands our needs, pre-screening candidates on cultural fit as well as technical fit.

One time, we worked with CareerEncore exclusively to fill a very demanding operations need. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. She worked very hard and filled this niche.

Working with Courtney is very smooth, easy, friendly, positive. She’s always looking for a way to make things work. She’s open to feedback and criticism as a way to hone in on ways to improve and make the process smoother.

Everyone we’ve hired as a result of CareerEncore’s services has been a good fit technically as well as culturally. We’ve never had any problems or issues. Would we recommend CareerEncore to others? Absolutely. Courtney’s follow through and attention to detail make her exceptional at her job.

Courtney understood my perspective

Roman Rubinstein was searching for the second job in his career. He wanted to make a professional leap, but only had general ideas as to which specific role would offer the most potential for growth. It was his first time using recruiters, and he wasn’t particularly trusting of the recruiting industry.

I was quite demanding as far as the type of position I was looking for. I already had a good job at the time, but I had ambitious goals and wanted to find a role that would allow me to grow faster professionally. I was not looking to simply switch jobs.

What I liked most about Courtney was that she listened very well. She tried to understand my perspective before she began offering potential matches. I was working with two recruiters at the time, one of them from a large, well-respected company. That recruiter was just sending me technical matches, and many of them clearly didn’t fit my interests, while Courtney took care to only select what was best for me. She also impressed me with her attention to detail. I told both recruiters that I prefer to communicate via e-mail. Courtney got it right away and continued the majority of communication over e-mail. The other recruiter simply disregarded my request and kept calling at inconvenient times. I think this little detail was what changed my view of Courtney and of the whole the industry.

Courtney was fairly selective and didn’t get me too many interviews, which was my preference. She didn’t waste our time on matches that wouldn’t work. In fact, I eventually accepted the position offered after the very first in-person interview she arranged. I was happy with the result as I got a new role with broader scope, more responsibility, a senior title, and a salary increase. I made the jump both laterally and vertically.

When the time comes for a new job, I will work with Courtney again without hesitation. She is extremely personable and lovely to communicate with – by phone, by email, or in person. She can give advice to candidates from her experience with other applicants in similar situations, which helps in weighing options. Yet, she never pressures candidates to make decisions that they are not comfortable with. If you choose to listen to her advice, you will be better off, but you can opt out. It doesn’t feel like Courtney is trying to sell you the company or the job to the point where it is intrusive. I still refer to Courtney for good advice and will continue to do so in the future.

I am delighted to endorse Courtney in all these ways. She is all-around great.

Sensing what the company needs

Nir Melamoud, Director of Engineering for Onaro, a datacenter automation for storage software company that was recently acquired by NetApp. The start-up had problems with other recruiting firms. Then they contacted CareerEncore.

We had a few trials with other firms. It just didn’t work. We got tons of CV’s (resumes) and no way to filter them. We had to meet all those guys, which takes a lot of time. Courtney was the only one who was able to take 50 CV’s and out of those send us five. Of those five we actually hired one.

We have two types of candidates—senior developers and juniors. We were looking to find some junior Quality Assurance people, and we were very strict in the skill set of those people. The CV’s for juniors don’t say anything. It’s important for us to find the people that can learn and have good potential, not just do the work. We have high expectations and we know it’s very hard to understand if someone is like that. Currently, Courtney is the only one who managed to find us (that kind of) junior.

The recruiter needs to be smart to extrapolate to culture fit. You don’t want to have a corporate IBM developer who is an 8-to-5 person and expects to be in meetings 50% of the time. A start-up is a dynamic company. We need dynamic people. Not many recruiters are sensitive enough to that problem. Just because the skill set is adequate, that doesn’t mean the person can survive in the start-up environment. That was one of the things Courtney knew how to do very well. There was a learning curve and she adapted to what we like and don’t like. It’s a matter of sensing what the company needs.

She’s very responsive in terms of trying to move as fast as we can. Being fast is part of the business. Courtney moves fast. She gave us people to work with when she was out. She made sure we were covered. She’s interested in what’s going on. Whenever we have a new position we update everyone. She’s always calling to get more of a feeling—not just what we wrote on the site. She talks to us, which is great—interested in what our needs are. It’s fun working with her. She’s a very fun person.

Nir Melamoud recommended CareerEncore to others managing start-ups in the Boston area.

Let us find what you need. Contact CareerEncore today!