The slow build - Express

TASC recruiter Dana McLee has lots of highly technical,
clearance-required jobs to fill — but not enough candidates
The needle in a haystack
By MARJORIE CENSER
Dana McLee isn’t interested in the candidates advertising on online job boards or attending the usual career fairs.
She doesn’t follow Monster.com or conventional networking groups for jobseekers. Those avenues aren’t going
to result in hires for the senior-level, highly technical, clearance-required intelligence jobs that McLee needs to fill
for TASC, a Chantilly-based contractor. So, McLee comes up with her own techniques. She goes to niche job
fairs for qualified applicants, she pumps employees and leads for referrals, and she uses sophisticated online
searches to comb the Web for the resumes of professionals with security clearances. Welcome to the world of companies that are
hiring. TASC is among a group of local businesses eagerly trying to fill spots but, despite higher-than-normal unemployment
figures, facing a competitive market. These recruiters find themselves competing with similar firms for experienced talent with
coveted clearances that allow them to work on some of the government’s most secretive programs.
McLee is perfectly suited for the
work. Bubbly and friendly, she greets
jobseekers with a broad smile and a
handshake. Unlike other recruiters at
job fairs, McLee, the consummate professional
in a pants suit and fresh lipstick,
makes sure to introduce herself to
and ask questions of each person.
She needs every bit of that charm in
her world, where recruiters are battling
for employees that in most cases already
have jobs. This requires tracking candidates
down — rather than waiting for
them to come to you — and making a
convincing case for your company’s career
opportunities, benefits or other
desired perks such as tuition assistance.
And there’s no guarantee you’ve succeeded
until that person starts work,
said Dorion Baker, who oversees TASC’s
intelligence recruiting.
“A recruiter shouldn’t start celebrating
[until] the person’s butt is in the
seat,” he said.
Virtually all of the company’s intelligence
spots require a security clearance.
The government estimates about 4.2
million people have the clearances,
which come in different levels and can
only be obtained with sponsorship from
a government agency or approved contractor.
Clearances typically take six
months to obtain but the process can
take longer.
ClearanceJobs.com, a Web site that
provides contractors and federal agencies
a centralized way to find candidates,
has about 7,500 open positions
listed on the site at any time, said Evan
Lesser, managing director of the site.
But there are likely many more spots
available, he said. Some clients, unable
to post jobs because of security concerns,
instead search the database,
which includes 438,000 registered
cleared professionals.
These days, TASC’s recruiting office
is humming as the company seeks to add
staff to defense, intelligence and civilian
programs and to compete for proposals.
Take Michael Pollino, a recruiter for a
classified intelligence program that he
can’t identify because of government
restrictions. The program is so big that
it consumes all of his time; at any given
moment, there are 150 to 200 open
spots, all of which require clearances.
POST 200. CAPITAL BUSINESS . 12/19/11 12
Jeffrey MacMillan/Capital Business
ON THE LOOKOUT: Dana McLee from TASC talks with a prospective recruit at an
expo for engineering, technology and defense jobs.
Pollino receives potential candidates
from a range of sources — some candidates
apply, others are located by recruiters
at job fairs or off the Web, and
headhunters bring in still more. He vets
them to make sure they fit the openings,
and then schedules interviews with the
program office.
“Everyone’s targeting the same
pool of talent. So we’re all kind of
chasing the same people.”
Michael Pollino, TASC
Pollino brings in six to eight candidates
a week, and then passes them on
for an interview with Susan Fitzgerald,
who represents the program management
office. If Fitzgerald gives them the
okay, they’re given a contingent offer
and advanced to the government officials
overseeing the program. That step
is not standard, but it’s required for
some programs.
“Everyone’s targeting the same pool
of talent,” said Pollino. “So we’re all
kind of chasing the same people.”
Even as government spending
shrinks and some contractors warn of
tighter times, there’s no evidence that
the specialized workforce TASC seeks
will be shrinking. The company has said
it plans to hire about 1,000 people in
2012.
Its recruiters acknowledge the contractor
sometimes has a larger challenge
than other firms; spun off from
Northrop Grumman in late 2009, TASC
is still working to cement its brand and
make itself well-known.
Fortunately for Pollino, his program
is flexible and gives him the latitude to
pay for some of the more expensive
candidates on the market.
For most recruiters in this competitive
market, it’s about being creative.
McLee prides herself on figuring out
innovative ways to track the best candidates.
In TASC’s Chantilly headquarters,
she puts together complex strings of
search terms that help her zero in on the
resumes and profiles of high-ranking
intelligence executives. McLee strings
together search terms like “bio,” “profile”
and “resume” with “cleared” and
area codes like “703,” “202” and “301”
to track local candidates. She subtracts
words like “jobs” and “ads” to weed out
traditional job sites. When she finds a
search string that works especially well,
McLee e-mails it out to her coworkers so
they can use it.
She’ll look for guest speakers at conferences
or ask TASC employees about
co-workers at previous employers
they’d recommend. Baker stays on top
of local news, watching for companies
that may be laying off employees, making
an acquisition or relocating offices
— all changes that can prompt employees
to consider other options.
McLee, who started at the staffing
agency Career Blazers in 1997 but eventually
transferred from headhunting to
corporate recruiting in 2004, draws a
sense of accomplishment from luring
attractive candidates. At Career Blazers,
recruiters would ring a bell when they
snagged a key hire, and McLee said she
still gets that charge when she hits the
jackpot at TASC.
But she said her job is really about
building relationships and credibility
that help her win recommendations
from other employees and maintain relationships
with potential hires. In one
case, she recruited a candidate who had
been referred by a TASC hire. He came in
to speak with company officials, but
ultimately decided he wasn’t ready to
leave his job. Six months later, he came
back and now works for TASC.
Baker encourages recruiters to take
the long view. He sent out a Samuel
Johnson quote to the staff earlier this
year: “The true measure of a man is how
he treats someone who can do him
absolutely no good.”
At a career fair held at The Washington
Post’s downtown headquarters earlier
this month, McLee adopted that
credo. Of the roughly 100 people she
and Pollino had spoken with that day,
she only saw one that met her clearance
requirements.
But she and Pollino planned to take
the stack of resumes they collected —
many with their notes about the person’s
specialties and possible program
fits — back to the rest of the staff, where
they would be culled by recruiters looking
to fill other spots.
censerm@washpost.com