Filling Key Positions

By Gary Pudles
March, 2002

Last month Aaron Boatin called me to talk about sales issues and, as we do sometimes, our conversation drifted to hiring sales people.  In that conversation Aaron mentioned that he had successfully hired a sales person using Monster.com.  After hearing his glowing report we decided to give it a try.  Here is what we did:

We posted five jobs.  One administrative position to work with me in Princeton, three sales openings at various sites in the northeast, and one General Manager for a Midwest office.  The results were great, if not predictable.

For the Administrative Assistant job we got over one hundred resumes.  Some of them were perfect and others completely wrong.  We interviewed six of the top applicants and hired one that appears to be the best Administrative Assistant I have had since starting the company.  Of course, the long term outcome could turn out differently, but so far the results are great.

As Aaron suggested, the response for Sales Reps was even bigger than for the Administrative Assistant.  I received close to two hundred resumes and they ranged from start up sales people to Fortune 100 salespeople looking for $200k bases.  We have hired three promising sales people -- only time will tell how they do.

The final job opening was for a General Manager.  This job posting also created about one hundred resumes ranging from major call center directors to former supervisors for the big call center houses to people who answered phones or waited tables.  While there were many call center managers with great skills, the salary requirements of many of them made my head spin.  In the end, we wound up promoting from within because I did not find anyone I thought had the right combination of experience and salary expectations.

Gary A. Pudles is President and CEO of AnswerNet, Inc. based in Princeton, NJ.  He can be reached via email at Gary@AnswerNetNetwork.com or 609-921-7450; the Website is www.answernet.com.

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