October 2007

Lots of people ask us how we do what we do. While a full explanation would take much longer than the space this newsletter affords, I'll attempt a Reader's Digest condensed version of the answer.

Whitaker's roots in true search methodology are long and deep. We believe in searching until we find the best candidate for each position and not just the first available candidate. This frequently means talking to and networking with people who are not actively looking for another position. With over 20 years of experience in the same marketplace specialization, we have built a network of contacts and a database of information that would be hard to duplicate. In addition to the tried and true smiling and dialing, we also use the most sophisticated Internet tools available for research. The information we gather using the Internet is just an additional means of networking and researching for a position rather than as a source for readily available candidates. Since it is our hiring companies that pay the fee for our services, technically they are considered the client and our focus is largely finding candidates for searches rather than finding positions for available candidates.

That said, however, we recognize that we're in an extremely talent-shy marketplace and professionals with excellent experience of any kind are hard to come by. Additionally, we have some very long-standing relationships with many professionals that we've talked to for years and years, especially when they were NOT looking for another position. These are typically people who recognize the uniqueness of the service that Whitaker offers so that, when they decide to explore the job market, they have a particular preference to use our services rather than just any recruiting firm out there. We will partner with these folks to design a custom and personalized marketing campaign to market their talents to some of our most choice clients in their desired locations with the highest level of confidentiality.

Whichever side of the desk you sit (candidate or client) rest assured that we don't believe in a cookie cutter approach to search. Each candidate is unique and each search assignment is unique and we still believe that our philosophy of searching for the hand in glove fit is the most effective way of achieving the optimal win/win solution for candidate, client and Whitaker. We value your trust in us and strive to continue to provide you with the highest level of service.