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Finding great new hires, or your next job in the software biz
SoftwareCEO, May 2006
by Gordon Graham, Editor, SoftwareCEO
Spring is a fine time to make a career move.
So this issue is all about finding great new hires for your software company, or a fresh opportunity for yourself in the biz.
We found three websites specifically devoted to matching software sales, marketing, or channel staff with open positions.
Plus, we have the highlights of a new survey on paying bonuses to employees who bring in suitable new hires.
And to round out our HR coverage, a thought-provoking book that compares building a team to building a pipeline of prospects.
Who needs headhunters and newspaper ads?
Are you a software sales VP looking to expand your team?
You likely want a candidate who makes his own opportunities, not someone who relies on a placement agency, or an ad in the newspaper.
And you don't want to pay $20,000 per new hire, or waste time going through a stack of resumes from people who have never sold software before.
Or, are you a software sales person thinking about a new opportunity? You likely want to work for a firm with a bit more savvy than to use a headhunter or an ad in the paper.
So where do you start your search: Monster.com?
Maybe. But last time we checked, there were only 20 software sales jobs listed for the entire U.S.A. And it costs a bundle to post an opening there.
Instead, check out these software-industry "hiring halls" on the web. Our three recommended sites provide quick, cost-effective alternatives to headhunters, newspaper ads, and generic job boards.
HotSalesjobs.com for software sales and marketing jobs.
HotSalesjobs.com was originally created in 1998 just for software and VC firms seeking hires.
That makes it the oldest software-specific job board going. Since then, it's expanded to include sales positions for other industries.
Registered employers can post jobs, create profiles for applicants to complete, and search thousands of pre-screened candidates with resumes, assessments, and interview notes.
For example, if you need outside sales reps in San Francisco with CRM expertise who previously worked for SAP or Oracle, the database can come up with a short list of qualified candidates.
The site's subscription fees are affordable, at $300 for a month, $600 for three months, and $1,200 for a year. A subscription entitles a company to post an unlimited number of job openings, to see an unlimited number of resumes, and to have an unlimited number of users who access the site.
"Our whole objective was to keep it simple. The big job boards typically charge so much for each posting, and then every time you click on a resume, you get a charge," says Miller.
"The last time we looked at Monster.com, we were considerably less costly."
HotSalesjobs also has a good collection of articles aimed at job seekers. All of them are short, and occasionally funny.
For instance, the article "What candidates say and sales recruiters hear" features some classic interviewing ploys, and why they don't work for a seasoned recruiter.
SalesRecuits.com exclusively for software sales.
The leading site devoted exclusively to software sales positions is SalesRecruits.com.
"SalesRecruits.com is the only pure online recruiting service for software sales jobs," says Steve Morgan, president and CEO of the firm, PeopleComm Inc., that runs the site.
"Our service provides access to pre-screened sales candidates in direct sales, channel sales, business development, and pre-sales engineering - at all levels from individual contributor to senior VP."
While there's no cost for a candidate to register, the site won't take just anybody.
"We pre-screen all the candidates who register on the site," says Morgan. "Every candidate is asked 40 questions about their technology experience, their sales performance history, average deal size, quota, commissions... a lot of the same questions a software CEO would typically ask a candidate when they see them."
Anyone who isn't really a qualified software sales person never makes it into the site's database. That means there are no duds and wannabes to waste your time.
SalesRecruits.com also bans search firms from using the site.
"That way, we attract a lot of passive candidates - people who are open-minded, currently employed, and doing very well, but would just like to keep their eyes open. By removing headhunters, we provide a safe harbor for them."
Morgan says the cost for a company to post a job on the site ranges from $495 up to $2,500 or more, depending on the options. He notes that the site has been in business since January 2001, and has more than 700 customers.
"We've got Oracle and IBM, down to the smallest software firms. So the site isn't just for big companies, it's for any software company," he says.
The site also has a free weekly newsletter that can help you keep up with who's hiring now. You can see a sample issue here.
A job board for the channel.
PeopleComm also runs another site, called ChannelJOBS.
The site bills itself as "the #1 job board for VARs, integrators, solution providers, software companies, and hardware vendors."
Where SalesRecuits.com is aimed at software sales people, ChannelJOBS is for any job seekers working in the channel. The site lists positions in management, sales, marketing, operations, professional services, and consulting.
At press time, there were more than 100 jobs posted.
The site is a snap to use, with no registration required for job seekers. For each position, the left column shows a link to the job details, and the right a link to the company's website.
Job seekers can sign up to receive a free daily newsletter with fresh listings. They claim 200,000 subscribers, and companies can post a job for $150 a month.
That sounds like a bargain. But since the site has no resume database, it's a self-service model. That may make it somewhat more hit-and-miss than the others listed above.
Referral bonuses are standard practice
A new survey from Culpepper and Associates deals with paying bonuses to employees who refer suitable new hires to your firm.
The bottom line: Everybody's doing it.
Taken over the web in April, the survey confirmed the widespread use of referral bonuses.
Of 280 companies in technology and life sciences, 90 percent had a referral bonus plan. Even in smaller firms with up to 50 employees, 79 percent had a plan.
Some other findings:
Everyone except executives is usually eligible, but only 19 percent of firms pay their executives referral bonuses.
Bonuses are most often paid for referring technical, operations, and sales people.
The most common payout is $1,000 to $2,500, with about half of all respondents coming in at this level. The bell curve ranges from $250 on the low end to $5,000+ on the high end.
Most companies pay out after the new hire has been on the job for some set probation period. For example, 61 percent pay the bonus three months after a new hire comes aboard.
Companies seem happy with their plans, with next to no one foreseeing any changes in the future.
Paying a referral bonus for new talent is a simple and cost-effective way to engage the best recruiters you could possibly have: your own happy employees.
If you're not already doing it, why not consider it?
Always be recruiting, says this recent book.
What's the biggest sale your organization can ever make?
The answer: Hiring a top performer.
The thesis of the recent book "Building the Talent Edge" is simple: recruiting top talent should be a continuous process.
Just as every software firm needs to build a pipeline of prospective buyers, every software firm should continuously build a pipeline of fresh candidates.
Author Greg Moran is a serial entrepreneur who wrote this book to sum up his 10+ years of experience in hiring technical and sales talent.
This book is a quick read that describes five steps in the process of building top talent:
- Define the market (your ideal candidate)
- Position the product (your company and your position)
- Prospect or build a pipeline of candidates
- Qualify candidates
- Close the new hire.
He explains each step in detail, along with detailed checklists and suggestions on how to complete it.
For instance, he recommends creating a "candidate marketing package" with collateral to give to candidates at the right time. (Sound familiar?)
This package should include at least the following:
- company overview
- success profiles (success stories on your top performers, and why they do well at your firm)
- career opportunity sell sheet (a compelling description of the position you seek to fill)
- recent newspaper articles or internal newsletters
- anything else that can help "sell" your position to a suitable candidate.
Rather than the bland or legalistic documents that typically emerge from HR, he suggests doing a deep re-think, and then preparing these materials carefully.
And make sure to redo the "Careers" page of your website to reflect your new approach.
This book is packed with practical yet somewhat unconventional advice.
For example, he recommends that you research what your open position is worth - on the market, and to your own firm - and then pay it.
Don't draw candidates into a tough negotiating session, based on some misguided belief that they need to prove themselves to you. They don't, at least not in today's tighter job market for skilled technical people.
"Pay candidates what they're worth, and minimize negotiation to what's absolutely essential," he writes.
"One thousand dollars of extra pay equates to approximately $20 per week to an employer. If the stretch number is going to make that much difference in your financials, you should not be hiring in the first place, because you obviously cannot afford it."
Here's another tip: Take care to avoid "the dreaded back-out" that can occur when a new hire leaves after a few days on the job.
How? Here's one telling question: What's the first thing you make people do when they arrive?
"If the answer has anything to do with filling out a stack of paperwork, forget it," he says.
Instead, send them your HR forms one at a time, every few days between when they're hired and the day they start work.
Give them a deadline for returning each form. If they're late, it means they're wavering about joining your firm. In that case, you may need to re-close the deal.
The book "Building the Talent Edge" is $13.95 from Amazon.
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