Recruiters

In the next 24 months, Juris Informatica will be adding over 100 partners: writers, editors, managers, web designers who know WordPress well, WordPress experts/PHP developers, Microsoft .Net developers, SEO, SEM and social media experts and Web entrepreneurs. We are looking to bring on a full-time recruiter (what some would call a “contract recruiter”). This person could be an experienced recruiter or alternatively a highly intelligent, organized, detail-oriented person who wants to learn the recruiting business, whom we would train. Because we have developed several proprietary techniques for identifying talented professionals who are not currently looking, it is not essential that an in-house recruiter have professional experience as a recruiter, but if they do, that’s obviously an advantage.

In addition, in certain circumstances we are willing to work with outside search firms (see Section 6).

1. Contract Recruiter

We have an immediate need for an in-house contract recruiter. Ideally they would work full-time, but we also will consider those who can work a minimum of 20 hours a week. We have a preference for someone in the Boston area but we will consider those who live elsewhere who want a telecommuting relationship.

2. Advantages of Working with Juris Informatica

Juris Informatica is an entrepreneurial firm — our partners receive a percentage of the revenues our Web sites generate. Our recruiters would work on the same basis — they would receive a percentage of the monies received by the partners they introduce to us. We do not have a fixed percentage in mind. We offer recruiters several advantages:

You can do this part-time.
We have developed several proprietary techniques for identifying talented professionals who are not currently looking.
For the right individual, we are willing to train.
We are hiring partners who numerous different categories of Web professionals.
In many of our categories, we are somewhat more flexible in our hiring standards (they can be part-time, they can work elsewhere, etc.).

3. Computer Skills

JI’s management team includes several gurus in computers and we prefer to work with people who are at a minimum competent in them, who have a natural ability in computers, and who are highly interested in learning more about them. Some of our partners are literally among the best in the world in their respective computer specialties.

4. Location

We would prefer to find someone in the Boston area, since for the first few months, we envision extensive hands-on training. We will consider recruiters who are not based in Boston, however. For our in-house recruiter as well as outside search firms, we will only consider individuals and companies located in the United States and Canada. In the past when we have worked with recruiters outside the U.S. and Canada, we have found that the communication, time zone and cultural barriers were simply too high.

5. Students

For the right student, we might consider offering an unpaid internship for a student who is studying human resources, business or another appropriate discipline. In such cases, it would be necessary that they be based in Boston. Students must be able to work 20 hours a week (or more); otherwise, it is simply not worth the time and energy to train them. In all cases, such students must be more mature and responsible than the typical college student. Students should answer the questions in Section 9.

6. Search Firms

Under the right circumstances, we are willing to work with search firms. We are not looking for search firms to provide us with applicants for “vanilla” positions, such as:

WordPress Web designers
WordPress/PHP developers
VB.Net developers (please note we are not interested in developers who only know C# and who do not know VB.Net well. We do not use C# are we are totally commited to VB.Net.)
Writers and editors
SEO professionals
Lawyers to handle cases on a contingent fee basis

The reason is that with our current recruiting system and our bringing on a full-time recruiter, we expect to be able to find more than enough people for such “vanilla” positions.

We are interested in search firms introducing us to people who can fill non-vanilla positions, such as:

Positions listed above where the person is a true superstar, literally among the best in the world
Truly outstanding search engine optimization (”SEO”) professionals are always of interest
A project manager/technical lead who can run a VB.Net development team of 4 to 10 software professionals (developers and testers). Someone who has it all — technical brilliance and leadership, excellent communications skills, leadership skills, the will to manage. Our project managers also serve as the technical lead of a project so such a person needs to be able to do both. (As the major software firms such as Microsoft have learned, it is very difficult to separate project management from technical leadership and when you do, it is almost always a disaster.)
Web entrepreneurs who are interested in legal lead generation — they either have their own current sites or they are interested in this market segment and they bring a lot to the table
Anyone who is running a network of legal Web sites
Extremely high level attorneys who are active in mass torts and/or class actions — trial lawyers at the senior partner level with a national reputation who have handled major cases, the kind of lawyers who attend (and perhaps speak at) the major tort conferences
An individual or law firm interested in screening cases. We have no problem finding excellent lawyers to handle contingent fee cases but we have always found it difficult to find good lawyers or law firms to screen cases and due to our growth, we need another one.

In short, we are interested in professionals who are at the top of food chain, who are really really good at what they do. If you know such a person and want to make an introduction, we are interested.

7. Our Experience with Outside Recruiting Agencies

Our experience with outside recruiting firms has not been favorable. Sometimes it is because they simply do not have the level of professionalism we expect, in other cases it is because our entrepreneurial approach does not mesh well with their business model. Some of things we have experienced:

Some recruiters have called us before carefully reading all of our Web site. In some cases, they had not even read the job description we had posted on our site.
In most cases, the people we partner with need to have excellent technical skills. If they are a VB.Net developer, ideally they should know VB.Net, ASP.Net, Visual Studio, Microsoft Access and SQL Server well. If they are a Web designer, they should know Adobe Photoshop, CSS 2.0 (the box model) and WordPress well. If they are an SEO, they should know SEO well. Although we do not most recruiters to know as much about, say, computer programming as a developer, we have been shocked about the total lack of technical understanding displayed by so many recruiters. Most of them at best can recognize acronyms and then simply check off the boxes — he has VB.Net, he has SQL Server, he has SharePoint, etc. — without a good evaluation of how good the applicant is technically.
Some applicants are comfortable with our entrepreneurial approach, some are not. Many recruiters do not adequately qualify applicants on this issue. It is really important to do so, otherwise we all are wasting our time.
Obviously the recruiter and his firm need to be comfortable with our entrepreneurial approach.

We do not mean to be negative, obviously there are some good recruiters out there, but we are frankly surprised at how few good outside recruiters there are.

8. Please Read

If you are interested in working with us as an in-house recruiter or as an outside agency, please read:

9. If You Are Interested — Contract Recruiters

If you are interested in being an in-house/contract recruiter, please read our entire Web site carefully and then write to James Mitchell at jmitchell@kensingtonllc.com. Please send us the following information and please include the questions in your e-mails. When a question has (0-10) after it, that means rank yourself on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 = no experience and 10 = world class expert.

What is your full name?
What is your e-mail address?
Please list all of your phone numbers.
Which number is best to call you on? As noted below, please state this in your local time and in Boston time.
Do you have Skype?
If so, what is your Skype ID? (If you live outside the United States, please install Skype (www.skype.com) now (ideally before you fill out this form), so that when we want to call you after receiving your e-mail, we can do so.)
Where do you live? Please note that we will only consider recruiters who reside in the U.S. or Canada.
If you live in the greater Boston area, how far are you from Back Bay?
James Mitchell lives in Boston, and Boston is the same time zone as New York City, namely East Coast time zone. When it is 9 a.m. in Boston, what time is it in your time zone? In other words, how many hours ahead or behind Boston are you?
What kind of computer do you have? PC? Mac?
Which operating system are you running?
Tell us about your computer skills.
Which version of Microsoft Office are you currently using?
How well do you know Microsoft Word? (1-10)
How well do you know Microsoft Access? (1-10)
Have you had any experience in computer programming? If so, tell us about it.
How many hours per week are you willing to devote to this opportunity?
Over the next year, how many hours per week are you willing to work on this project?
We want to get a sense of when you would be able to work, with times stated in both your time and in Boston time. Monday through Friday, when would you be able to work and for how many hours each day? Again, please state both your local time and Boston time.
On Saturdays and Sundays, when you be able to work and for how many hours each day? Please state in your local time as well as Boston time.
How reachable by telephone are you in the day time, nighttime and weekends?
How much recruiting experience do you have?
Why does this position interest you?
Are you working any other jobs? If so, tell us about them and when you work.
What else is going on your life that we should know about? Job? Kids? Board memberships? What other time commitments do you have?
How soon would you be able to start?
Anything else we should know about you?
Do you have a blog or Web site? “You” means yourself or a company that you control. If so, what is the URL?
We will most likely want to talk with you on the phone several times a day. How do you feel about that?
We are looking for a recruiter with a high level of personal responsibility, who is not flaky, who is good at returning phone calls, who has low total cost of interaction. How does this apply to you?
If we or one of our associates sent you an e-mail through Linkedin, there was a nine digit number towards the end of the e-mail, immediate after their name. It would be in the format of 100-029-987, or something like that. Please list that number if you can find it in the e-mail we sent to you. If you cannot, do not worry about it.
Can you afford an entrepreneurial situation such as this one? We do not need to pry as to your finances, but we will eventually want to know some details as to whether you can afford this. At a minimum, state that you understand this is an entrepreneurial opportunity and you can afford such an opportunity, even if you provide no details.

Please specifically mention that you understand this is an entrepreneurial situation and you can afford that.

Please send your responses to jmitchell@kensingtonllc.com. Please include the questions in your e-mail.

10. If You Are Interested — Search Firms

If you are a search firm and you believe there is a good fit, please write to jmitchell@kensingtonllc.com. Please state “I’ve read your entire Web site and I am comfortable with your approach.” Include your name and telephone number and we will contact you.