November 15, 2017
In
blog
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bruce Blackwell
Phone: 914-356-8182
Career Strategies Group, a 25-year-old career management company, has signed an affiliation agreement with Perfect Match Recruiting, a privately held firm specializing in legal, executive and healthcare recruiting, it was jointly announced by Bruce Blackwell, CEO of Career Strategies, and Doris Smith-Fellenz, founder and Executive Director of Perfect Match Recruiting.
“For many years we have worked closely with recruiters in an informal network; we supply candidates for some of their hard to fill positions, and they find employers for certain of our clients,” said Blackwell, who added, “we also do some recruiting on our own, but it was never a focus of our practice. To be really effective at recruiting, you need to be out there every day working with law firm hiring managers and top candidates. That’s not our forte, but that’s where Doris really excels. For years we have looked to affiliate with a solid recruiter, and I was thrilled to finally find Doris and her company.”
According to Smith-Fellenz, “I am excited about the synergies with Career Strategies Group. They have been around the legal profession for a long time, and have an amazing database of lawyers. The hardest part about legal search,” she said, “is not finding candidates … it’s finding good candidates. We feel that task will be made easier because of the resources of Career Strategies.” Smith-Fellenz and Blackwell added that she will ultimately be doing career counseling for attorneys, especially those in the earlier stages of their careers.
One of the other goals of the affiliation will be to expand both firms’ involvement in healthcare placement.
Before officially opening Career Strategies Group, Blackwell was doing healthcare recruiting and candidate screenings, and has healthcare operations and marketing consulting experience going back to the 1980s. Smith-Fellenz has significant experience in recruiting both clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals for hospitals, senior living facilities and medical practices.
As a first step in this affiliation, Career Strategies has added a “Jobs” section to its website. Many of the postings listed will be from PMR. Applicants are advised to email their resumes to PMRRecruiting@CareerStrategiesGroup.com.
Sometimes Career Strategies will do an initial interview with a candidate, but mostly that function will be taken over by Doris Smith-Fellenz and her team. Candidates who are not in specification with a PMR position may be referred back to Career Strategies for other services.
“I chose the name Perfect Match Recruiting” because that’s what I look to provide for my clients, whether law firm, in-house or other positions. We have very detailed specifications, and will do our utmost to find candidates in spec. We have to turn away most of the people who apply because, while they may be excellent in their professions and accomplished in many ways, they are not what my clients are seeking. In those cases, Career Strategies may be able to help the client find a position.”
Blackwell noted that in his years of experience, he typically has to go through 100 or more resumes to find just one candidate that matches the job specification that the client has prepared. “On a typical search, I will go through 500 or 600 resumes, get 5 or 6 client prospects, and then vet them. We usually send just 2 or 3 resumes to the client for interviewing,” he said.
“The ideal candidate for my law firm clients,” said Smith-Fellenz, “is 2 to 6 years out of law school, was on Law Review at a top tier school, had a high rank in class, had a federal clerkship, and had received scholastic or other awards. There are some fine lawyers out there who don’t meet these requirements, but this is what our clients want us to find. It is difficult,” she added, “to tell people that they are not candidates for jobs they know they can do well, but who don’t match the client’s specifications.”
“Another issue is finding Partners,” she said. “Most law firms prefer Partners, seven or more years out with a verifiable book of portable business, or who have a rare specialty.”
“There are also many very good attorneys” Smith-Fellenz states, “with several years of experience who are hard to place because clients are looking for people with very specific skill sets who can hit the ground running and start contributing right away. Clients don’t want to pay recruiting fees to find candidates who need a learning curve before they can be fully productive. They are paying for it, and they want what they want. They might very well consider ‘learning curve’ candidates, but won’t pay a fee to get them. That’s where Career Strategies can help.”
Career Strategies’ career management team often works with candidates who are not “recruitable” and helps them with career direction, resume development, resume distribution and job search coaching.
Perfect Match Recruiting is located in Ocean, NJ. Career Strategies is located in Brewster, NY.
