We’re spotlighting Deb Fonseca, President of Starboard Search and a successful user of the BountyJobs platform.
Originally from Kansas, Fonseca now lives in Detroit area with her husband Alex. She’s both a boater and a snowbird, boating for a few months in the summer and working remotely – all with the support of BountyJobs.
She didn’t intend on being a direct hire recruiter.
Deb has been a recruiting for about 13 to 14 years, but that wasn’t the plan from the beginning. She started in staffing – an in-house role, and at the end of her tenure she starting thinking about spreading her wings and doing what she loved on her own.
She was hired into sales by a staffing firm. It was at that staffing firm where she stepped in for someone on sick leave, and within the first 48 hours was told by the president that she was a natural – the rest was history. After getting her experience throughout several years with her staffing firm, Fonseca broke away to start her own business.
“BountyJobs helped me get stabled, and started early relationships for my business – Starboard Search,” Fonseca said.
The main industries that she fills roles for – marketing, strategy, and creative positions – excited her. She likes moving to the digital marketing side, as she gets to see a change in the workplace.
Deb enjoys listening to candidates and hearing their stories. She has a passion for building connections, and thrives on the excitement of her clients when she finds someone perfect for her role. It’s part of the reason she’s so successful.
What’s her secret to success?
LinkedIn has always been her go-to social resource, although she does use Facebook quite often and gets a lot of responses from candidates on that social platform. She’s doesn’t have a paid LinkedIn account because she doesn’t believe LinkedIn should be a recruiter’s main source of search.
“On LinkedIn, all recruiters have access to the same people,” Fonseca said. “I’d rather go straight to the respective business, and keep track of who’s looking to make moves.”
What she does believe in is employer branding – Fonseca believes it’s critical to attracting the right talent. If the company has a phenomenal reputation, her job is easier.
Through BountyJobs, Fonseca takes advantage of the intake call – a conference call for all headhunters working on an open requisition. Here she learns what the team will look like, the management style, the career trajectory, and many other important pieces of information that will need to be passed along to the candidate for each role.
“You have to have a culture that’s attractive to the right people,” Fonseca said. “A lot candidates are interested in flexibility, and not really interested in the trendy things.
The questions I usually get asked are; what skills will I gain, and what projects will I find interesting? It really comes down to the challenges they’re going to face.”
How does she leverage BountyJobs for this success?
Fonseca is very successful on the BountyJobs platform, and uses the statistics portion of the platform religiously – and strategically. If she sees that someone has posted four or five roles, but never opened a resume, she’s not going to engage that employer.
The sheer amount of employers she has access to, and the amount that want to engage, are what draws her to the technology.
“I have access to clients I would have never had access to before,” Fonseca said. “It’s so cool to get matched up with employers and speak with candidates.”
The only problem Deb ever has when using BountyJobs is a lack of communication from clients, which she expresses she also experiences with clients that aren’t on the platform.
During these times, Fonseca leans heavily on the support from BountyJobs – something she’s found helpful when employers aren’t responsive. She gained experience with BountyJobs support after working on an open requisition with a top bank.
“I went through support after trying to communicate through the candidate wall,” Fonseca said. “BountyJobs was able to discover that the employer was out of the country. BountyJobs is extremely helpful in these cases.”
Fonseca is just one of the many successful recruiters using the BountyJobs platform to find and fill open requisitions. Both agencies and employers can simplify their processes with a common platform through which to communicate and organize materials during a search. The direct hire recruiting agency process is getting simpler as shown by the growing number of agencies finding success with the platform – Fonseca included.
Here at BountyJobs, we’re passionate about matching the right direct hire recruiting agencies with the right employers. If you’re interested in learning more about our marketplace, sign up.
