Recently, ETS (Educational Testing Service) launched a new exam called the Personal Potential Index to better assess graduate student’s propensity to complete graduate programs. This was motivated by the caveat that nearly half of those who begin do not complete doctoral programs. As a result, ETS developed and will launch this supplement test next month to better predict a student’s likelihood of completing rigorous advanced studies.

This will be a companion test to the widely used four-hour GRE exam that more than 600,000 students annually pay $150 each to take. As part of the GRE, this new supplement will allow applicants to submit names and e-mails of professors to better evaluate their internal “drive”. Then ETS will ask the faculty to fill out the online evaluations and add written comments. This will not replace recommendation letters or other evaluation letters that universities require. Instead, it will provide 24 standardized questions rated on a 1-5 scale including communication skills, teamwork, resilience, organization and integrity. These are intended to measure whether the candidate: 1) produces novel ideas 2) meets deadlines 3) works well under stress and 4) is worthy of trust from others. All of which ETS believes will better predict whether this candidate will eventually complete the rigorous graduate program for which they are applying.

This new ETS test is intriguing to me because measuring internal drive has always been a major interest of mine. During my MBA work at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, I designed an experiment in Dr. Petersen’s Quantitative Analysis class to better predict whether an NBA (National Basketball Association) draftee would be a success or not. Though I received the highest grade in this very, very difficult data analysis and experiment design class, this was not my only foray into predictive testing. In fact, I continued to explore test development after graduation. Then eleven years after graduation in 1993, I teamed up with a venture capitalist and one of my other professors to attempt to develop an expert system to better predict a candidate’s “heart” and “drive” in employment and staffing situations. This was based upon the age-old finding that many candidates succeed despite a lack of desired skills and many very talented candidates fail despite an abundance of them! The key was uncovering their illusive, internal motivation in order to increase the probability of recruiting success. Unfortunately, my professor died, but my interest in this subject still continues today!

Internal drive has very profound meanings for technical recruiting since many hiring companies complain that despite a very thorough job of screening potential engineers, scientists and other technical talent in the recruitment process, the hired candidate does not produce a plethora of patents, new product developments or breakthroughs. As a result, one needs to do more to determine this during the recruitment process. I am curious what you and others are doing to test this trait. I welcome your thoughts.

Yesterday, I launched the first of 12 monthly technical recruiting tips. They are called the 12 Commandments of Recruiting. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/technical-recruiting-tips/ to learn more. These will provide you some incite into my recruiting philosophy. They will also demonstrate ways to more quickly fill your jobs.

Most employment managers take a reactive approach to filling jobs in general and technical placement in specific. This flawed approach holds back their efforts to fill technical jobs until an actual job has occurred. Instead, I recommend constantly recruiting whether a job opening exists or not.

I practice what I preach and am always on the look out for good talent even when I do not have a job requirement. This approach builds my resume database with good technical talent. Then when a client calls for a technical placement, I can more quickly surface the right engineer or scientist for that job!

People call me a technical headhunter, recruiter, recruiting agency, recruiter firm and executive recruiter. All I know is that I am an expert in technical placement. Since this is a field with few recruiters and recruiting firms that really know how to recruit technical talent, I am privileged to serve my candidates and clients.

I got into the field by accident 23 years ago when the recruiter who recruited my father (who was an R&D scientist), Bill Organ, recruited me into the field. At the time I wanted to quickly learn recruiting to build a repair network for another business I owned, European car imports. However, after learning the recruiting business and establishing myself as the top technical recruiter at Bill’s firm, I ventured out by starting my own on July 14, 1989 (Bastille Day). I have never looked back and next month I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary in business. The key is technical recruiting is the most rewarding field that I have worked in for several reasons: 1) I change people’s lives for the better 2) I am working with some of the most talented people in the world who have the most impact on their companies and 3) I get to learn new technologies on a regular basis.

I am an expert on jobs, careers and labor issues including 1) I have appeared live numerous times on both WGN TV and WGN Radio 2) I have been on the frontlines as a top technical recruiter for the last 20 years placing hundreds and hundreds of scientists, engineers and IT professionals worldwide for such clients as ITW, Intermatic and Wrigley Company and 3) I have written extensively on workplace issues for such publications as the Chicago Tribune.

I am very excited about starting this blog devoted to technical recruiting tips and advice because I am very passionate about working with and recruiting top technical talent. This is the case because I firmly believe that these individuals can be the most productive for any organization. Though I lack specific technical expertise, I have a good macro-level understanding of many fields. This allows me to better appreciate the accomplishments and breakthroughs of the diverse group of technical candidates that I represent.

Research confirms that technical talent has a greater impact on your organization than any other functional area! Some reports show that certain engineers may have a 100 to 1 payback on their salary. In other words, for every dollar that you pay them, they can yield up to $100 in benefits from patents, automation and new product development for your organization. That is why I am so excited to work in this unique field!

Thanks for checking in,

-Scott