May 8, 2020
Jesse Meadors, COO, Tutela Talent
Happy May, everyone! As always, we’re honored to showcase a recruiter’s professional journey along with their industry tips & tricks, and this month we’ve got a fascinating interview from an accomplished agency staffing co-founder.
This month, we’re excited to introduce you to Jesse Meadors, Managing Partner & COO at Tutela Talent, whose niche focus in tech & cybersecurity has led him to operate a successful business year after year.
That is a great question and I have an interesting story to tell. My first real job was working as a college recruiter for a company in Orlando that was partnering with colleges and universities to assist them in moving some of their degree programs online. I was responsible for recruiting online adult students into Bachelors & Masters Degree programs in Cybersecurity.
I ended up working for that company for 11+ years, and in 2016 I was approached by one of my good friends from previous business ventures about starting a recruiting company focused on Cybersecurity.
He was a partner in a successful recruiting company and was seeking to open up a new division that was hot and would diversify their business. This gave me an opportunity to start a recruiting company using my knowledge in Cybersecurity, while also learning the recruiting business from their experience and systems. Long story short, Tutela Talent was born in 2017 and we ended up focusing specifically on IT and Cybersecurity related positions for permanent hire.
You have to think of each candidate as a unique person and personalize all of your messaging to appeal to the candidate. Try and put yourself in their shoes and think of what would appeal to you in the messaging and to create interest in a conversation.
I think this is the crimp in the hourglass because in today’s world of technology tools, you can easily find someone who has all skillsets you are seeking for your client, but actually getting them to engage with you is a whole other story.
Try to look outside of just LinkedIn to freshen up your search. For us in tech and security, many of our candidates are on LinkedIn, but we have to get very creative with our searches in order to find the right candidates. Spend time learning about your industry and try to find certifications, trade organizations they may belong to, and figure out what terms many of them use in their profiles – use these keywords in your search to find the right candidates.
And once you are engaging the candidate, be sure to focus on what they want and get to know them as a person, not as your next placement fee. Building strong relationships with each candidate will give them the trust that is needed as you help them through the interview process.
It was a combination of factors that really drove me into agency staffing. For many years I saw my students go from thinking about going back to school to walking across the stage at graduation.
One of the degree programs I offered was in Cybersecurity. I started to learn about how difficult it can be for some companies to find the right skillset and experience to fill a cybersecurity job, and I saw an opportunity for someone with the knowledge of this industry to make a real difference.
So, after having the conversation with my friend and current business partner, we started Tutela Talent to address this problem head on. We now provide a better way to match companies with the right candidates that have the skillset and experience they are seeking.
Well I must give the credit to my business partner, Patrick. He loved using Latin names for new businesses and Tutela means guardian or security in Latin and Portuguese (I speak some Portuguese). We thought that the name Tutela had a nice ring to it and the meaning was significant, so we called the company Tutela Talent.
Great question! The advice I would give is to really choose a niche area you want to focus on and try your best to stay in that niche.
Build your company around the unique value that you bring, and stay focused on that area as you build out your company. Spend time speaking with anyone you can find who may have success in a similar niche and try and pick their brain about some of the things they have done to be successful.
Finally, if you are going to partner up with someone, make sure you know a lot about them and their character before partnering up. A partnership is similar to a marriage, as you really get to know almost everything about that person. If their character has major flaws that could affect your trust, do not partner with them.
I was contacted initially via email by one of Fetcher’s sales reps who was persistent in his follow ups. I think it wasn’t until the 3rd or 4th email before I responded to his message!
My favorite feature in Fetcher is the clean platform and automated email campaigns. I also like the support I get from my account specialist so that if there is an issue, I can get it resolved promptly.
My stress relievers are working out, dancing, running, playing with my kids, reading the Bible, and watching a good movie.
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Jesse, thank you so much for your time and thoughtful responses. We appreciate all of your insights and tips. We’re so grateful to have you in the Fetcher Family!
Know a recruiter who we should spotlight? Tell us about them via email at support@fetcher.ai.
At Fetcher, our mission is to introduce companies to the people who will help them change the world. Our full-service, recruting automation platform automates those repetitive, top-of-funnel tasks, so you can focus more on candidate engagement & team collaboration. Simplify Sourcing. Optimize Outreach. Hire Top Talent. Learn more at fetcher.ai.
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