I was in IT for several years before being laid off a few years ago. I was laid off right before September 11, 2001 and was working on my MBA in eCommerce at the time. I found myself in a very difficult situation as many other people did during that time. Because I was working on my MBA and was almost finished, companies I interviewed with considered me ‘over-qualified’ for most positions I applied and interviewed for.
I stumbled into IT Consulting sales and account management mostly because I wanted to continue to use my IT background for something and what a better way than to find the best people for Dallas IT Client departments and at the same time put people to work. It seemed to me like the best of both worlds. Having been a Dallas IT project leader, programmer, and production support engineer, I knew what Dallas IT clients were looking for and the type of people they needed. Also, having been out of work myself, I loved putting Dallas IT candidates and consultants to work.
My first position was with a company that had provided consultants for the last Dallas IT project team I was on. The company only had one client and it was my past employer! When they set up my phone voice mail, the pass code they used was 911. I was appalled that they would use that pass code considering what had just happen with September 11. The owner would never tell me what nationality he was, but told me to tell everyone they were an Indian company.
I also later found out that they had consultants that programmed the code of one of the systems I had supported at my former company and had stolen it. They were selling the system to other companies in the same industry! I spoke to the IT Development Manager who was over the systems I had supported and she said that although upper IT management knew this company had stolen their code, they were still doing business with them!
Anyway, there is more. When I started working for this company they only had one client; my past employer! The CEO gave me a list of clients to “show off” to potential clients. I mentioned that they only had one client and he said “I know, but this is what I want you to tell the potential clients.” I told him I would not lie for him or anyone else. I found that he lied to clients, consultants, candidates, and his own employees all the time. He lied to his VP of Marketing, and the VP of Marketing would lie to him and ask me to cover his lies. I told him no way!
I was there for two months before the final straw. Having never been in a sales role in my life, and in a horrible economy, I made my first placement as an account manager. I placed a consultant with a Downtown Dallas company. In violation to our contract, they hired our consultant away. The CEO of our company became so enraged that he threatened to kill the CEO of the new client company for violating the contract! The CEO of the client company was totally blind sided because he was not even aware that his manager had hired our consultant away.
I immediately went to the parking lot, called the client CEO and apologized then went back to my office and packed all my stuff. I decided that I could not work at a company that operated without honesty and integrity and especially a company headed by someone that threatened people’s lives!
Although my first experience with IT Consulting/Recruiting firms was a pretty bad one, I felt like I really found something that I loved to do – find the right fit between Dallas IT Clients and Dallas IT candidates and consultants. I decided that I would find a company to work for that operated with honesty and integrity.
I will share more about what I have found on that search later….
Mike Hanes
ProVisionTech
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