The New Kids in Town

The recruiting world in Seattle is a bit shaken up. One of the mainstays of our profession, Microsoft, is closing down a lot of contract recruiter hiring as of October 15th. Some people were muttering “layoffs”, but these *aren’t* layoffs. These are *temporary contract employees*, not full time staff. But there are a lot of them and soon the Seattle market is going to be glutted with unemployed recruiters.

 

The upshot is that there are a lot more contract openings across the board at MS in just about every division and discipline. Like many companies, MS is an industry leader faced with compliance mandates from OFCCP. What it has done is changed the face of recruiting for the company, and the company has made several drastic changes in the last two years in their recruiting model which has created a lot of jobs for local recruiters (as contractors), but which has been very costly for the company.

 

Recently, they have outsourced their entire contractor management business to a third party.  Soon, I believe there will be a lot of agency positions available and Microsoft experience, as ever, will be a gold standard for new agencies that are joining the fray. But new processes and tools in place combined with a slowdown in filling FT headcount, there are going to be a lot of growing pains. And, many of these companies are not local and have not dealt with an entity with such a complex recruiting culture.

 

The company has a long history of centralizing its business groups in Redmond, despite advances in technology which makes virtual work teams a viable employment model. Seattle is just starting to feel the brutal impact of the economy with the collapse of WaMu (Washington Mutual). Just as in the late 90’s, we are about 6-8 months behind the rest of the country in terms of housing and employment downturns. But even with all the strong technical talent in the Seattle area, there are only so many contractors available locally at any given time and most local companies have a time limit in place for extended assignments to guard against co-employment lawsuits (a legacy from Microsoft in the mid-90’s).

 

So, from a business perspective, I find myself in a unique situation. I have worked as a contractor on and off for Microsoft (with various companies in different roles) since 1996, which means I understand the life of a contractor. I have worked as an agency contractor for one of their premiere staffing partners so I understand guidelines that have been established for the agency model. Finally, I have worked as a corporate recruiter on full time roles at Microsoft. I have an inside track for aspiring employees (full time OR contractor) in that I know what resume(s) will garner attention and have a better chance of finding their way in front of a recruiter or a hiring manager. I am growing my resume consulting business and I have several clients both inside and outside of Microsoft referring business my way. I have been courted by several of the “new” agencies looking for MS experience. I have offered my expertise to them as a Liaison to help with training and understanding the cultural transitions and hiring manager expectations (as opposed to becoming one more agency recruiter). Unfortunately, one of those new agencies left a bad taste in my mouth with their sub-par follow-up to several phone conversations with them. So, I’m waiting to see what will become of the remaining new kids and how they fare against their incumbent competition.

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