While the stock market has seen a couple of bad months and it appears that economic growth has taken a (short) break, one thing has not changed . . . . . there is a very tight labor market. Actually, it seems to have gotten tighter.  Demographics ...

The vast majority of candidates that we contact for the retained/executive searches are happily, busily and gainfully employed.  When we reach out to them, we do not know if they are open to a move.  We don’t even know if they are open to our call.  We,...

I was recently at a networking event and ran into one of my well-respected local competitors.  We were talking about the economy and our industry.  We were both pleasantly busy.  He commented, however, that his focus was to get out of the daily candidate...

Clients often ask search firms how they are different from others.  There are many angles from which to view a given firm’s differentiation - geographic focus, industry sector specialization, and functional focus, to name a few.  However, one of the...

We interview people for a living.  We don’t interview many, however.  We talk to hundreds – many of those conversations are short.  We explain why we are calling.  We explore the basics of an opportunity to see if it is appropriate for the person...

Many of you know that I am a data junkie.  Each morning I have a routine that includes looking at 3 newspapers (on-line, of course), oil and gas futures, Conference Board reports and stock futures.  I tweet (follow me: @David_Magy)...

Search number 600+ started last week.  The client is a wonderful organization that we have worked with before.  We have had the privilege of placing and/or working with most of their senior team.  We have worked with them for over eight...

I spent 7 years working in the outplacement/career transition industry.  Four of the six of us at Abeln, Magy, Underberg & Associates came from the same outplacement company.  Each person we worked with had their own story – about why they were there (in...

I was reading the September, 2017 HR Magazine (a SHRM publication) while waiting for a colleague to join me at a breakfast meeting.  There was a small article in the HR News section on parents of employees who want to be involved in their adult children’s...

On August 1st (2017), we start year 22 as a Retained Executive Search firm. Ken and Mary Abeln, co-founders with me (David Magy), actually set up our firm a month earlier – working on all of the business and legal requirements to start operating on...