~ Geno Auriemma -- lead his team to eight consecutive Final Four appearances
~ Michael Phelps -- won eight gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing
~ Michael Kahn -- nominated eight times for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing
Eight is the current standard for performance. You need eight to make The List. You need eight LinkedIn recommendations to make The List of Boston's most-recommended recruiters -- Boston's Rockstar Recruiters.
Boston's Top 100 Technology Recruiters
In the fall of 2012 Beantown Web asked the question, "Who are Boston's Rockstar Recruiters?" Welcome to the 11th installment of The List.To begin the quest, Beantown Web identified more than 400 technology recruiters via LinkedIn. Most are located in the Boston area. Some are located in New Hampshire and Rhode Island and conduct a significant amount of business in the Boston area.
Beantown Web then turned to LinkedIn to identify customer satisfaction scores. In particular, how many people were willing to provide a public recommendation for each recruiter?
Coaches have championship trophies; Olympic competitors have gold medals; film editors have Academy Awards. The rest of us mere mortals
have to make due with
LinkedIn recommendations to recognize accomplishments on our field of
play.Only one out of four technology recruiters in the Boston metro area has earned Boston Rockstar Recruiter status with at least eight LinkedIn recommendations received.
Boston's Top 10 Technology Recruiters
Boston's Top 10 Rockstar Recruiters perform to a higher standard. The best in the recruiting business have received at least 39 LinkedIn recommendations each.
Here are the Top 10 Boston Rockstar Recruiters for the second quarter of 2015 [number of LinkedIn recommendations received + given]:
- Chris Fountas [100 + 9] -- AVID Technical Resources
- Scott Dunlop [95 + 6] -- The Bivium Group
- Doug Schade [76 + 11] -- Winter Wyman
- Jamie LeBlanc [71 + 2] -- The Bivium Group
- John VanderSande [64 +2] -- WinterWyman
- Brendan Andersen [58 + 20] -- CyberCoders
- Roy Evans [47 + 19] -- CyberCoders
- Danielle Lief [41 + 8] -- InnoTECH Staffing
- Chris Mitchell [40 + 4] -- Winter Wyman
- David Honig [39 + 0] -- MarketSearch
Top 10 in Assists
Some players are valuable because they score a lot of points. Others pass the ball effectively. This second list ranks "assists." It answers the following question:
"Of the recruiters listed in the Top 100, who are the most generous in offering recommendations to others?"The Top 10 most generous Boston Rockstar Recruiters for the second quarter [number of LinkedIn recommendations given + received] are as follows:
- David Perlman [60 + 19] -- Grenadier Search Group
- Scott Ragusa [37 + 25] -- Winter Wyman
- Marsh Sutherland [31 + 11] -- Walden Recruiting
- Carol Taylor [29 + 17] -- Private Clients
- Andrea Williams [25 + 28] -- Career Minded Recruiting LLC
- Brendan Anderson [20 + 54] -- CyberCoders
- Roy Evans [19 + 47] -- CyberCoders
- Phil Hurd [19 + 34] -- Oculus Search Partners, LLC
- Sean Dowling [17 + 23] -- Winter Wyman
- Nagesh Kumar Gona [16 + 26] -- XpertTech, Inc.
Team Scores
Finally, the team scores. The following teams placed the most recruiters (at least two) in the Top 100 [number of recruiters in the Top 100]:
Gold Category:
- CyberCoders [6]
- WinterWyman [6]
- PeopleSERVE Inc. [3]
- Softworld [3]
- Digital People [2]
- Global Technical Talent, Inc. [2]
- HireMinds [2]
- Jobspring Partners [2]
- Lightwave Partners [2]
- New Dimensions in Technology, Inc. (NDT) [2]
- Onward Search [2]
- Oxford Global Resources [2]
- The Bivium Group [2]
Suggested Strategy
There are no championships for technical recruiting performance. There are no gold medals to wear or awards to display. There is no single measure we can all agree on to decide which recruiter or recruiting firm might work best for you as a candidate or as a hiring manager.
However, there is one place to start your search. It is the same place many of us start when buying a car, or looking for a plumber or finding a dentist. That place is personal recommendations. LinkedIn provides personal recommendations.
If you have technical skills and believe you offer above average value in the marketplace, then consider working with recruiters who have consistently demonstrated above average customer service in the form of personal recommendations.
The List of Boston's Rockstar Recruiters is made available exclusively to the 400+ Web Design and Web Development alumni of CDIA, some of the most talented designers and developers I have had the pleasure to teach, mentor and collaborate with. You will hear more about the CDIA Alumni in the very near future. Until then, rock on!
[ NOTE: You can follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and become a Fan of Beantown Web on Facebook. ]
The list of 
or 
from early January ] listed by number of job postings at Indeed.com:
Select five technical skills in the Top 25 and focus on becoming proficient -- if not expert -- in each technology. What are your top five technology skills? What projects can you link to that demonstrate expertise in these technologies? View a