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The perfect match
Swan Group pairs corporate clients with job candidates
By Susan Briggs
Princeton Business Journal
Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2001
SOMERVILLE
— Finding the right people to fill technical positions is getting harder and
harder for many companies in Central New Jersey. And getting the technical
expertise a business needs in a new hire is only part of the battle.
Business owners also should be screening candidates based on attitude and
character.
So says Barbara Swan of the Swan Group, a technical recruiting firm with offices in Somerville and Buckingham, Pa. "To read a job description and match a resumé to it is just the beginning of the process," Ms. Swan said. "The 'soft' skills really make for a happy employer and happy employee. Attitude is everything."
Ms. Swan broke into the career counseling business in a rather haphazard way. In the 1970s, she said, she was raising four sons in Rhode Island, where she started a babysitting and domestic help service called "Sitting Pretty." The business eventually grew to include four agencies in New Jersey.
Tiring of the domestic service aspect of her agency, Ms. Swan said she decided to become a professional recruiter. "During my time at Sitting Pretty," she explained, "I found out I was really good at matching employers with the right employees."
Just letting potential employers and recruits talk is the key to her success, Ms. Swan said. "I try to 'get into the heads,'" she said, "of both employers and employees. I find the best way to do that is to just let them talk."
Like an old-fashioned matchmaker, Ms. Swan is proud of her ability to support both employers and job candidates in their search for the ideal
working situation. "I care about long-term relationships," she said, "I want to help candidates build their careers and help clients build their businesses." The Swan Group specializes in recruiting information technology (IT) and eBusiness professionals.
Bask Iyer, vice president of eBusiness at the Honeywell headquarters in Morristown, has worked with Ms. Swan for about four years and has hired 10 IT/eBusiness specialists with her guidance. "It's difficult to find the right people," he admitted, "especially since IT expertise is only part of the package Honeywell requires." Not only was Mr. Iyer looking for people with IT expertise, he said he also wanted prospective employees to be mature professionals who has worked at a Fortune 500 company. "Barbara is a good judge of character," he said. "She is able to tell if a person can handle a crisis."
One of the most highly stressful positions in today's job market is chief information officer (CIO), said Mr. Iyer. "I am comfortable letting Barbara find potential candidates with very little supervision, especially senior-level employees," he said. "She really is a matchmaker. She won't just dump 50 people on me and let me sort them out."
The kind of loyalty that is fostered by maintaining long-term relationships with both clients and recruits means that the Internet job search sites like monster.com aren't a threat to her business, Ms. Swan said. "Personality isn't transmittable over the Internet," she explained. "It is so simple; all you have to do is care about what you're doing. I no longer make cold calls; candidates and clients call me."
In the past, older job seekers had trouble finding executive-level positions at companies, as any "mature" professional could tell you. But, again, according to Ms. Swan, attitude plays a major role in the hiring process. "Older people with the right attitude are more easily employable now and that's something I haven't seen in the past." But, she warned, old-fashioned managers who basically serve as conduits to pass along information will have a really difficult time finding meaningful employment, no matter if the job market is soft or tight. The new kind of manager is hands-on with considerable high-tech experience, she said. If a resumé is filled with "paper shuffling" management positions, Ms. Swan stated that it would be extremely difficult for her to find an executive-level position for that particular candidate.
"I am with the candidates I place for life," Ms. Swan said. "I tell the client companies that when I come in. I will only work with clients who mean what they say. If they say someone will be promotable within one year, they better do it."
Terri Adelstein, a manager at a major pharmaceutical company in central New Jersey, has been placed four times by Ms. Swan in positions of ever-increasing responsibility. Their relationship started informally and has grown over the years both personally and professionally, Ms. Adelstein said. "I actually knew Barbara before she ever worked with me," she said. "When I knew I would be moving to New Jersey, I asked Barbara for her advice about the area. After I relocated, I asked for her help in finding a job."
Indeed, Ms. Adelstein said, Ms. Swan's attitude toward technical
recruiting tends to be more personal than professional. "Barbara's approach
is very different from my experience with other headhunters," she explained,
"She really cares about both the recruits and the hiring companies."
But even with Ms. Swan's tender loving care, job candidates have to
continue to expand their expertise, she said. "Candidates really do have to
nurture their own careers," Ms. Swan pointed out. "My success is determined
by what I do for a candidate and what my candidates do for a company."
To find out more about Barbara Swan and the Swan Group, call (908) 526-5440 in New Jersey, (215) 230-9612 in Pennsylvania or e-mail her at barbara@swangroup.net.