‘A Tale of Two Placements’ with Preferred Member Recruiter Alan Carty

If there’s one thing that Preferred Members of Top Echelon Network should do, it’s take job orders from clients that fall outside of their niche.

That may seem counter-intuitive, especially since recruiters often feel uncomfortable working orders outside of their niche, but the fact of the matter is that when you’re a Member of the Network, there are vast resources available to fill that order.

Or in the case of Alan Carty of Automationtechies.com, there are resources available to fill that job order AND another order.  That’s right . . . accepting one job order outside of his niche resulted in making two Network placements, both with sizeable fees.

According to Carty, one of his clients in Washington, D.C., gave him a job order for a Lead Systems Engineer.

“I took the job order and talked to the client, and during the conversation, I told them that I was going to tap into my network, the Top Echelon Network,” said Carty.  “I knew that the Maryland [Regional] Core Group is one of the tightest Core Groups in the Network and one of the most successful.”

Carty decided that he would contact Dan Simmons, CPC of Continental Search & Outplacement, Inc., and ask him for the names of some recruiters who might be able to help him with the job order.  Simmons provided him with five names.

Carty contacted the first two recruiters on the list—Marc Tappis of Opportunity Search, Inc., and Joe Boland of The Boland Group.  He explained to both of them that he had received a job order outside of his niche from his client and that Simmons had referred him to them for the purpose of trying to fill it.

Both Tappis and Boland sent candidates to Carty.  In fact, among the candidates they sent was one super-strong candidate apiece.  How strong were these candidates?  Not only did Carty’s client hire one of them for their initial job opening, but they also created another position so they could hire the second candidate!

In addition, the fees associated with these placements were rather substantial.  How substantial?  Well, the placement with Tappis brought a split fee of $35,360, while the placement with Boland commanded a fee of $33,280.

One city—Washington, D.C.  Two placements.

One job order outside of Carty’s niche—a Lead Systems Engineer.  Two placements.

The only things that Carty had to do were step outside of his comfort zone and accept a job order that didn’t fall within his niche and then rely upon other recruiters in the Network in order to fill them.  If he hadn’t accepted that job order, he wouldn’t have made a total of $32,260 in split placement fees.  It seems like such a small decision, but in actuality, it was a major decision that paid huge dividends for Carty and his firm.

According to Carty, recruiters in the Network should absolutely consider taking job orders outside of their niche.  And when they’re taking the order, they should also talk with the hiring authority about the fact that they’ll be relying upon the resources afforded to them as part of Top Echelon Network.

“I don’t think it’s something that recruiters think about, but it’s something that they should,” said Carty, “especially if they’re struggling to make placements.”

And there are other benefits associated with the situation, as well.  As a firm owner, Carty always has one eye on the future.  As such, he needs to be thinking about new ways in which to make placements and generate revenue.  Making more placements outside of his niche is a great way in which to diversify his firm and set it up for more success.

“On top of everything else, it’s not the same old stuff,” said Carty.  “I’m learning new things.  Who knows?  This might turn into a new niche.  I remember Dan Simmons telling me how he re-invented himself from being an IT recruiter into being ‘Dairy Dan.’  You never know what could happen.  If you think you’re never going to do anything differently than what you’re doing now, you might be surprised.”