Phil Hurd (NPA #1035) of Oculus Search Partners, LLC in Lexington, MA, USA, has made the firm’s first NPA split placement. Phil provided a Microsoft Exchange Administrator in the Software Industry to Mark Dinowitz (NPA #1261) of The Edgewater Group LLC in Long Branch, NJ, USA. Phil has since made 2 more NPA placements (one with Steve Silvi, and another with Herman Bruno)!
Mark explains how the deal came about: "Phil reached out to me shortly after he became a member of NPA. We had a very good initial phone conversation about some of my most pressing open positions, and it was only a few weeks later that he presented me a very good candidate for my Exchange Admin job, and a couple of weeks after that, his candidate had interviewed with my client and then received and accepted an offer. Phil did a great job in understanding the requirements of the position as well as some of the nuances which my client looked for, and this resulted in him sending a candidate that was right on target."
Phil explained how he's been able to find success (3 splits!) since starting in NPA in December: "I'm a pretty new member of NPA and am exclusively a candidate exporter. My first priority has been to identify a small number of potential job importer partners that seem to specialize in job types where I feel like I could have some traction, who seem to have good/deep client relationships, and where their communication styles tend to align with mine (open, transparent, proactive)."
"I initially reached out to Mark because he worked on the "right" kinds of jobs for my own recruiting experience. He and I had a very good initial phone call, during which he took the time to explain not only the requirements for each of his job orders, but also got into the nuances of the hiring company culture ... both attractive, and not so attractive. Based on this, I've been able to make better decisions about which candidates Mark might like to see, and which ones to not bother him with. When I showed him a decent candidate that I felt met his requirements (both hard and soft), he was very proactive and drove the process steadily to a placement. I continue to work eagerly on other openings for Mark and hope to make more splits together."
This is a great example of how to hit the ground running after joining NPA - Phil is proactive in joining practice group calls, utilizing Marketplace to search for open jobs, and picking up the phone and calling his partners for more details on their job orders. Great work, Phil!