I particularly seek firms which need specialists in general management, turn-around, operations, controllership, logistics, business development mgrs, or have needs in manufacturing, engineering, design, facilities, distribution engineering and systems, automation and robotics, product engineering or applications, systems integration, sales and marketing, or international opportunities which require multi-lingual talent, or experience in international sales and marketing.

The availability of qualified candidates is as low as I have seen it since Mar 2001 and I expect that unemployment now at 3.9 % nationally, will continue to decrease in the technical sector and increasingly a sellers market thru Dec 2007 and longer. This means that qualified candidates are in a sellers market and that employers who are interested in attracting and acquiring technical talent and who take their time, will lose qualified candidates because of uncertainty and any lengthy procrastination.

The average window of opportunity on almost all graduate engineers (even those with almost no experience, but high grade point averages, and reasonable presentations) ..is about 2 weeks at best

If you are an employer and are not prepared to make a decision within that window.... you are probably wasting your time, and applicants that you have interviewed may not be available when you get back to them.

The concept of Just In Time (JIT) came to the recruiting industry in 1999. This means that employers should be prepared to email their comprehensive job specs with salary targets to their recruiter, and tell him when they are available for interviews.

A viable alternative in any market is for a knowledgable (HR) person who truly understands his requirements to communicate those completely and accurately to the recruiter, or to put the recruiter in direct contact with the person most responsible for the final decision on who is or is not qualified.

The key element is communication, timely feedback from the client, and an accurate job description and salary target or range. Without communication or feedback, recruiters will spend their time in behalf of some other firm seeking the same candidates your firm may be seeking.

It is incredible to me how many firms 'want to hire' but have no written job spec, or a clear idea of the duties, the responsibilities, nor what they expect the person to contribute, nor what that person could earn on the open market (salary range).

I spend my time talking to applicants whom for whom I can get personal interviews within 72 hours. I do not bother talking to candidates unless I know the firm is ready to interview promptly, and do not spend much time on positions paying less than $55,000 per year.

Many firms expect the recruiter to instinctively know what they want, and have a clear picture of their products, services, size, management style, needs, priorities, never having ever sent any corporate literature nor a comprehensive job specification to the recruiter.

Yet, employers expect us to work miracles on our own time, at our own risk, with little to go on, and often do not return or accept a phone call in many cases, and often haven't the willingness to allow us personal interviews with the hiring authority. In spite of that.I can and often do work miracles ! My 40 (plus) years of experience is a big factor in that ability.

Employers must depend on the ability of the recruiter, the quality of his judgement, and the depth of his resources, his ingenuity and his integrity. The recruiter will rely on having the tools and the ability to fill an interview slot with the most talented candidate available.

The market can be slow and lethargic, but specialized candidates are not easily found. The very last thing a recruiter expects, after generating a world class candidate and submitting an e-resume, is watching the firm 'sit on' the resume or take three or four weeks before making any contact at all, and not returning phone calls by the recruiter attempting to follow up to get basic information on the employers ability to follow up promptly. Those candidates have generally taken other jobs by then.

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