Sidney Masters (NPA #8542) of Kensington Executive Ltd in London, United Kingdom, has made the firm’s first split placement with Laura Schmieder (NPA #1315) of Premier Placement Inc. in Allentown, PA, USA.
Laura placed Sidney's candidate, a Regional Sales Manager in the Biotechnology / Life Sciences industry in Ireland.
Sidney explains how the deal, which ultimately took about 1.5 years, came about: "It was my first assignment with NPA and I was lucky to have worked (and work) with someone like Laura. If my memory does not fail me, it was during a NPA meeting that I heard that Laura was looking to find someone in Europe. I contacted her to see if I could help. The assignment was not easy and that called for a high level of cooperation between Laura and I. The candidate required a very, very specific knowledge and was difficult to find. The only way to approach this was to literally comb the market. We worked together (almost daily) in discussing profiles, what was the right candidate for the role and Laura pointing me on the right direction. We found the candidate and we all were happy with the choice - Laura, I and ultimately the customer. It took a lot of patience as the process took longer than Laura and I had anticipated. Over one and a half year. There was an added advantage for me as I got to know how to work within the NPA structure and I had such a great mentor."
Laura added: "In my (gasp!) 40 years in this business, this is the search that took the longest to complete its successful conclusion. In some ways, it’s embarrassing but the lesson learned is - DON’T GIVE UP!
"I checked my records and I first communicated with Sidney Masters on Tuesday March 5, 2019 (that’s right 2019) to discuss my search for a Regional Sales Manager for German speaking countries in Europe. Sidney was new to NPAworldwide and I believe may have been on the Cross Industry call or Marcia told him to call me as I really do like working with new members and recruiters.
"Sidney is the consummate professional AND fun to work with (someday I hope to get to an NPA meeting in Europe!). He approached my search as if it were retained, even though he knew that I had a contingency arrangement. We discussed competitors or similar companies, he developed call lists and gave me weekly reports. He developed several potential candidates and in mid-May delivered a candidate who had direct experience in developing European customers.
"After several phone interviews, the candidate was flown to the US in August for a F2F interview. Unfortunately due to travel issues, he actually arrived about when the interview should have been over so they postponed to the next day. In a way that was a harbinger of what was to come. Although we were told an offer was being developed, organizational changes with my client company, put a hold on until January when the contact had to be researched as he was a German citizen living in France but would be working for the Ireland subsidiary of my client in the US. That took longer than expected.
"At the New Orleans Global Conference, Sidney and I discussed how we hoped to announce the split placement shortly. THEN Covid-19 hit, the world shut down and, you guessed it, the candidate couldn’t complete all the documentation necessary….among some other issues.
"All’s well that ends well, more than a year since Sidney and I started out collaboration, the candidate actually started on July 1, 2020. As I often said to the candidate, there’s a proverb – Good things happened to those that wait. I sure hope Sidney and I have many more splits….and that they happen MUCH faster."