STERLING | MARTIN

How To Work With An Executive Recruiter: Best Practices

admin — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:57:26 +0000

David Martin, the Managing Partner of Sterling Martin Associates, put together a helpful article of “Do’s” and “don’ts” to keep in mind when working with an executive recruiter, and we thought we would share a handful of them here.

Do:

Use a standard resume format listing your accomplishments in reverse-chronological order. You don’t want to make the recruiter work to understand what you do, or they will lose interest.
Take the time to develop a relationship with recruiters with the long-view in mind, and not just when you are initiating a job search. It is often unlikely that a recruiter will have an immediate match for you.
Be upfront with the recruiter about whether you are in any other search processes. You will not make any friends by becoming engaged in a search process only to tell them later that you are about to receive another offer.

Don’t:

Insist on having a “Get to know you meeting” — if there is an opportunity for which you might be a good fit, the recruiter will be in contact with you.
Misrepresent yourself in any way regarding titles, responsibilities, or compensation — it will come back to bite you.

Just click here to read the full article by David Martin, where he lists thirteen “Dos” and “Don’ts” for working with an executive recruiter. If you take them to heart, you will have a much better chance of impressing your audience.

Sterling Martin Associates is a leading executive search firm headquartered in Washington, DC with professional staff and consultants also located in Irvine, California and New York. We work closely with our clients to provide high-quality executive search and customized recruiting solutions by combining the best practices of traditional executive search with industry expertise, the latest technologies, national scope, and the personal approach of a boutique firm. Contact us here to discuss how we can help your organization meet its goals.

Should Candidates Leave Gaps On Their Resume?

admin — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:00:01 +0000

There are several schools of thought on whether you should leave information out of your resume when you are applying for an executive-level position, but from our perspective, the answer is fairly straightforward: you should be thorough and completely transparent on your resume, because everything will come out during the interview process for a top job.

By the time we present our recommended candidates to an organization, we are going to be prepared to answer questions from the Board and the Search Committee that cover all aspects of your career, and your career progression. It is simply not an option for an experienced executive search professional to allow resume gaps to slip by.

What Does This Means for Candidates?

If you are a candidate, this means that you should be prepared to talk about every aspect of your career, and your resume should reflect that. You should be as thorough as possible, without including unnecessary or irrelevant information, of course.

We plan to share other insights on how to build a compelling and useful resume in this space, and if you have any specific questions, feel free to ask in the comments below.

In Case You Missed It…Two More Congratulations

admin — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:47:00 +0000

In case you missed our announcements earlier this week, we wanted to let you know about the two most recent searches that we concluded this week. On Wednesday we announced that Regina Yan would be joining the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) as COO. This is significant both because Regina is joining a great organization, but also because this is the final placement that rounds out PCORI’s new executive leadership team, and we are proud to have assisted with multiple successful searches over the last twelve months for PCORI.

And just yesterday we announced that Ken Ebeling would be joining the Toy Industry Association as Vice President, Strategic Development and Member Services. This is great news for both TIA and Ken, whose impressive career included, among many notable accomplishments, a stint as a pro football player in the NFL.

Once again, congratulations both Ken and Regina!

Situation – Action – Result: The Behavioral Interview

admin — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:06:08 +0000

As our clients and candidates will attest, we are strong believers in behavioral interviewing techniques here at Sterling Martin Associates. Let me take a moment now to share a few thoughts on what exactly behavioral interviewing is, and why we like it so much.

To start off, behavioral interviewing asks questions to discover how a potential candidate has acted in specific career situations in the past. Think situation, action, result. When you are asked a question, describe a similar situation, what was the action you took to address that the situation, and what was the result? This contrasts sharply with asking *hypothetical questions* that allow an interviewee to discuss idealized scenarios that give them more discretion in their answers.

Of course, for any executive position, the interview process is going to be extensive and thorough, so there are opportunities to ask a wide range of questions, but we believe strongly that past performance is the best predictor of future success, and so we make sure that by the end of the process, there is a very detailed picture of what each candidate is capable of, and that means that behavioral interview questions will play a big role.

If you have any questions about what constitutes a behavioral interview, or how you can incorporate behavioral interviewing techniques into your own hiring processes, we would love to hear from you either by contacting us via email, or in the comments below.

The Most Important Question To Ask During An Interview

admin — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:23:29 +0000

We enjoyed reading Lou Adler’s recent article in which he shared what he considers to be the most important question that a hiring manager can ask during an interview: “What single project or task would you consider the most significant accomplishment in your career so far?”

This is certainly a great question, but we think the follow up questions are crucial. Lou offered a list of great follow ups in his article, and we thought we’d add two of our own as well.

Here are two of the follow ups that we might like to use after asking a nonprofit or association executive to name the single project or task that they would consider their most significant career accomplishment:

In what way did you handle this task differently than another executive might have handled it?
Now that you have moved on, or are preparing to move on, to a new career opportunity, what will be the lasting impact of your accomplishment?

You can click here to read the full article, and to read all of Lou’s follow up questions, and if you have questions of your own, we hope you’ll leave them in the comments below.

Another Round of Congratulations, And Our Latest Featured Search

admin — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:58:15 +0000

The Sterling Martin Associates team would like to extend our congratulations to Sandra V. Armenta, the new Director of Human Resources & Talent Management for the Society for Neuroscience. Sandra has 22 years of experience, and will be joining a fantastic organization. You can read all about her background and the new opportunity over in the Sterling Martin news section.

And if you have a moment, you should take a look at our Featured Searches page to see all of the ongoing searches that are underway right now, including one that we announced on Tuesday — we’re excited to be retained by Achieve, Inc. to search for its next Chief Financial Officer. Achieve is a great organization that was created by the nation’s governors and corporate leaders in order to help the states raise academic standards and graduation requirements, improve assessments, and strengthen accountability. We’re thrilled to be helping Achieve, Inc. find the best possible person to join their team.

Several Rounds of Congratulations Are In Order

admin — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:07:16 +0000

We have been very busy at Sterling Martin Associates, and we wanted to take a moment to congratulate five executives who recently began new roles with outstanding nonprofits and associations.

Betsy Thurston – Vice President of Development with LUNGevity
Steve Stoupa - Deputy Director of Finance and Administration with the International Association for the Study of Pain
Anne McConnell - Director of Market Research and Data Strategy with the Toy Industry Association
Sarah Luchs – K-12 Grants Officer with the Next Generation Learning Challenges
Dalia Hochman – Director of K-12 Model Development and Adoption with Next Generation Learning Challenges

You can read about the details of each announcement over on the Sterling Martin Associates News Page.

Each of these executives was placed following a national search, and each one should be congratulated on joining outstanding organizations.

How To Decide If An Executive Will Match Your Nonprofit’s Culture

admin — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:40:26 +0000

At Sterling Martin Associates, we know that the best candidate on paper may not always the best candidate to lead a nonprofit organization or association. For the good of the organization — and for the good of the candidate being recruited – we do everything we can to ensure that any top manager will be a good cultural fit with an organization.

The last thing a nonprofit wants to go through is a high churn rate among its leaders, and recruiting a leader who doesn’t fit the culture is one of the easiest ways to ensure that he or she won’t stay long. Which is why we enjoyed reading this article from Human Resources Executive Analyzing Cultural Fit. It’s always good to have a reminder that recruiting the right leader is about more than just having the right pedigree.

Virginia O’Brien Record is a Client Partner at Sterling Martin. Read her bio here.

What Exactly Do Executive Recruiters Do?

admin — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 19:01:31 +0000

Acid tests? Position descriptions? In this short video, David Martin — the Managing Partner of Sterling Martin Associates — takes a moment during a presentation at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), takes a moment to discuss the most important role of executive recruiters.

In his words, “Our role is to…go out and identify the candidates who wouldn’t necessarily be applying for a position, and actively recruiting them.” As David explains, a great executive search partner will expand the number of highly qualified candidates to be leaders of your organization, and helps get them to join your team.

Watch the video below to hear David Martin’s thoughts on executive search.

Sterling Martin Associates is a leading executive search firm headquartered in Washington, DC with professional staff and consultants also located in Irvine, California and New York. We work closely with our clients to provide high-quality executive search and customized recruiting solutions by combining the best practices of traditional executive search with industry expertise, the latest technologies, national scope, and the personal approach of a boutique firm. Contact us here to discuss how we can help your organization meet its goals.

How To Hire a Chief Development Officer for a Nonprofit

admin — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:13:05 +0000

Have you seen the latest article from Sterling Martin Associates? Client Partner Virginia O’Brien Record walks you through how to hire a Chief Development Officer, which is one of the most crucial roles in any nonprofit.

You can download the article here, and use it to help inform your next hiring decision.

David Martin, a 22-year veteran of the executive search field, is Managing Partner of Sterling Martin Associates, an executive search firm headquartered in Washington, DC which he founded in 2006.