NWARSP Roving Reporter caught up with Jeremy Wilson (Linkedin Profile) for an in-person interview. Jeremy is an IT Account Executive with GDH Consulting's office in Lowell, AR.  Adjectives that come to mind when thinking of Jeremy Wilson are: impressive, knowledgeable, personable, and professional. Jeremy knows the recruiting / agency business and he is very passionate about giving his best to his business clients and candidates. Jeremy is a young leader who has the ability to develop relationships quickly with his strong communication and interpersonal skills.

NWARSP:  Where did you attend college?

Jeremy: I graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in Marketing.

NWARSP:  What brought you to NWA?

Jeremy:  One of my very good friends from college was working for GDH and had just moved to NW Arkansas.  We had been talking about me working for GDH, and one day he called me up and offered me a job, an opportunity to get in the door at GDH - I cordially accepted and was here in NWA 2 weeks later.

NWARSP: Though you grew up in Tulsa, were you familiar with NWA?

Jeremy:  Not at all!  I had a sister living in Fayetteville that we would come visit, but that consisted of a direct shot over on 412 to 540 and then back to Tulsa.  Had no idea what was going over here.

NWARSP:  How did you get into recruiting?

Jeremy:  My early experience of recruiting was as Rush Chairman of my fraternity in college. My job was to phone every name on a long list of names of those guys who had showed some interest in joining a fraternity. In spite of the constant dialing and dialing I was drawn to the whole process of getting them on the line, getting them to visit, meeting their parents, and selling them on why our fraternity is the best. When I graduated college, I had the opportunity to recruit for the University of Phoenix as an enrollment counselor. I loved every minute of that job. Then the opportunity at GDH came about. I really didn’t know much about the staffing business at all. All I knew was that my good friend who worked at GDH was successful and he loved it – it’s all he talked about and I wanted to be a part of it. So I moved to NWA and went to work at GDH.

NWARSP:  Did you have an early inclination or desire to be in recruiting?

Jeremy: I knew I wanted to be in some kind of sales. I didn’t know what I wanted to sell. Frankly, I was very naive about the number of options available.

NWARSP:  Tell us a little about GDH Consulting; its size, scope, services, etc.

Jeremy: GDH is a staff augmentation firm. We are headquartered in Tulsa and have offices in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Chicago and Washington DC. Our major divisions are: IT, Finance and Accounting, Telecommunications and Government Services. Each local office is dedicated to its own local market, but do have the ability to support customers outside those markets.  GDH has been very successful and has been listed on the Fortune 500’s Fastest Growing Companies for a number of years in a row.

NWARSP:  Generally, what do you in your role as Account Executive for GDH?

Jeremy:  Generally I have two responsibilities. One is business development, where I identify and engage organizations and their decision makers to discuss their needs and see if through a partnership, GDH can meet their needs. Once the business development has started my role turns into Account Management where I maintain the relationship with the client and ensure they are getting the deliverables. My number one objective is to provide the best service to our business partners. It is very relationship driven.

NWARSP:  What does your typical day look like?

Jeremy:  First thing in the morning I catch up on any emails, phone calls that came in overnight.  My mornings are dedicated to the business development side; getting out there, finding new points of contacts, understanding what’s going on in the community. The afternoon is more the account manager side; checking in on our consultants that are on-site, visiting with the decision makers whom we have relationships with. I also drop off a lot of cookies and donuts to our partners and business prospects! Layered between both morning and afternoon is immediate business; managing the process – working with candidates - setting up interview times, negotiating salary requirements, etc.

NWARSP: What is your involvement with prospects and candidates in your role as account manager?

Jeremy: I am involved in the community and professional groups and since my specialty is IT, I am involved in a lot of IT user groups. I meet a lot of professionals in the business who could be either a prospective client partner or candidate. I am very involved in screening, choosing and selling prospects and candidates for my clients. Some prospects need more information about my client’s position or information on the organization and since I know both position and organization well – I am in the right position to do that job. 

NWARSP:  In your current role – what gives you your most job satisfaction?

Jeremy: I get great satisfaction from a successful engagement; when the client is happy and when the consultant is happy and we’ve given someone a next great opportunity in their career. There is nothing better than that. I know that sounds cheesy, but when you have a newly hired candidate saying “thank you so much for the opportunity that you’ve given me” – that hits home and is very satisfying.

NWARSP:  What is your biggest challenge in your current job?

Jeremy:   The biggest challenge is communicating to our client partners that we are here to help. Yes we are a fee for service organization – absolutely. But we are really here to help our clients and if we can partner with a hiring manager, get the opportunity of understanding their business objectives we can better help them be successful by knowing what candidates would best meet their needs. 

NWARSP:  Speaking of value, since the cost of wrong hires is so expensive and finding the right person with the right fit is so important to organizations, can’t you provide tremendous value to that hiring manager who has 1000 other operational things to do each day plus is probably not the most experienced person when it comes to the current talent markets, candidate screening and selection?

Jeremy: Exactly, how much does it cost an organization in opportunity costs when they hire the wrong person?

NWARSP:  How do you motivate yourself in this current subdued hiring economy?

Jeremy:    It’s the knowledge that someone, somewhere, is in a jam because they just lost their best developer or have a business critical project that requires someone good, fast.  Even in this down economy, there are companies who are hiring, though there might be fewer of them hiring, but there is still hiring going on. I don’t take the attitude that nobody is hiring or nobody wants to talk to me. I know it’s not going to be easy and it’s going to be tougher. You just have to dig a little harder.

NWARSP:  You deal with many hiring managers; what is one thing you wish hiring managers did and one thing hiring managers ought to stop doing?

Jeremy:  One thing I wish hiring managers would do so we can provide better customer service to both the hiring manager and candidates, is to get timely feedback. National statistics indicate the average full time hire takes over 4 months from application to hire. In the selection / hiring process there are really only about 6 steps; applicant submittal, resume screen, phone screen, onsite interview / visit, offer, and  hiring decision. Unfortunately, the process often is stalled and not moving and it’s not because of any of these steps – just in an in-basket, stalled. GDH really focuses on delivering a quality experience for both candidate and client – but we need client feedback. Unfortunately without client feedback it is often the candidate who is left hanging. We understand hiring managers have a lot going on but so does the candidate. Candidates are making life changing career changes and have families to feed and when someone is excited about an opportunity, had a successful interview and has multiple job searches going and when they go 3 or 4 weeks without hearing anything from a hiring organization – that’s very stressful. My wish, which is really a desire to make the candidate experience better, is for hiring managers to provide feedback or quicker feedback which we can give to the candidate.

NWARSP:  Are you finding hiring managers specifically asking to provide only passive candidates for their consideration?

Jeremy:  I do hear that from some hiring managers but what I am hearing right now is that they want qualified candidates. That might sound like a ‘no brainer’ but right now hiring managers are being bombarded with candidates that are not even remotely qualified. Everyone wants the passive candidate but more importantly – they want qualified candidates that can do the job right.

NWARSP:  What is the last good book that you have read?

Jeremy: I am a golf nut so The Grand Slam, Bobby Jones, America and the Story of Golf by Mark Frost. The book was about the life of golf legend Bobby Jones. Jones worked really, really hard at being one of the best in golf but didn’t take himself too seriously

NWARSP:  What advice would you give a young recruiter entering the recruiting profession?

Jeremy: Work hard early.

NWARSP:  What person dead or alive would you like to meet?

Jeremy: There are many people I would like to meet but one I would really like to meet would be one of my great-great grandfathers, a direct descendant. I would like the opportunity to fill in the gaps of my knowledge of my family history and to see what was going on in the late 1800’s.  I think that late 1800’s was a fascinating time of great opportunity.