Kari Adams

Working at formerly Microsoft through Averr
Studied at Georgetown University
Living in United States

About

Technical recruiter with many years' experience of global recruitment and recruiting top talent with niche skills.

Experience
Many years' experience technical and other recruiting globally. Sourcing, interviewing, and the full lifecycle both in corporate and agency settings.
Projects
Executive Summary:
Concept Telecom Ltd. (UK) was my client. Concept was a new start-up software development and mobile test company. With customers including Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Symbian and more the company became a
respected leader in GSM handset software development and product testing. The management team needed to urgently hire 20 engineers to produce a highly effective workforce and generated a turnover of over £1m within the first year.

Problem Statement:
Concept needed to hire 20 engineers as quickly as possible in order to be able to fulfill work they gained from the above GSM handset companies. These engineers needed to have very specialized skills, for example in TTCN testing. There was a lot of competition for these engineers at the time so it was important to be able to convince the engineers to join Concept over other competing offers.
One senior engineer that we hired to manage the software development work had a competing offer from one of the best technical consultancies in the UK. I spend hours with him on the phone and our initial meeting at an open evening going through the pro’s and con’s on his two offers. He was an extremely capable engineer so we really wanted to hire him to drive the business. We were lucky in that Concept was within commuting distance of his current house and I knew that his wife did not want to move so I leveraged this in helping to convince him to take Concept’s offer. Also, the role at Concept was a much more senior role than the one at the consultancy hence he would have more responsibility and be able to move his career forward much more quickly. He took our offer.
Strategic Alternatives:
The most cost effective way to find these engineers was through personal recommendations from current and former candidates I had and also mining the hiring manager’s contacts.
I headhunted various people from mobile communication companies and consultancies, other test houses, etc.
Because of the urgency to hire, I organized a series of open evenings at hotels near other mobile communication companies. I advertised on local radio stations and in print in specialist trade publications such as Electronic Times and Electronics Weekly. I also did various internet advertising.
Results:
Through these various channels we managed to hire 20 engineers in the space of 2 weeks – 15 permanent staff and 5 contractors. I am still in touch with the hiring manager and several of the engineers we hired. Concept was able to fulfill their commitments and grow the business with top notch engineers.