Location, compensation and a good place to work were key motivators for Vincent Francis. After seven years with General Motors, he wanted an opportunity to advance without moving across the state. Cindy Adrig, a Century Group recruiter, helped him secure a position with Pepsi as a Senior Financial Analyst—or “cost guru for the Western region,” as his new boss calls him.

“My function is to understand the total cost of production and distribution. I make models the organization can wrap its hands around in order to look for opportunities to reduce cost. The problem I see in many other companies is that a lot of effort goes into improving the revenue side without a corresponding effort on the cost side,” Francis says.

Francis received many calls from recruiters. “I tried to get a sense of who they were and what they wanted—was it just a warm body or were they looking for the right fit? Talking with Cindy, I felt like Century Group had a lot of jobs that I would be interested in and qualified for, and she could match me up with the right fit. They sent me out on three interviews, and Cindy kept me well-informed on the status of each potential job.”

Francis says that a recruiter who specializes in the financial industry has a great deal to offer. Take the resume piece, for example. “Companies use many different names for similar positions. Somebody who is knowledgeable in your industry helps you communicate well with potential employers through your resume.”

“A feel-good place to work”

Chris Prentiss is a KPMG alumnus himself. For eight years, he performed external audits, primarily in financial services, particularly for banks. During his last year there, Prentiss had a series of casual phone conversations with a recruiter at The Century Group, Sam Mikhail.

“Sam got to know me and understood the type of position I wanted. MannKind was the only place he put me in touch with, and it was a perfect fit. It’s a feel-good place; MannKind looks for cures for diabetes and cancer. I feel I am helping them make a difference in the world,” Prentiss says.

MannKind is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of therapeutic products. The company went public on August 2, 2004, thereby becoming subject to Sarbanes-Oxley 404 reporting requirements. In August, Prentiss was hired as Senior Manager of Internal Audit to get the company through its first Sarbanes-Oxley compliance initiative and establish a department for operational audits. “The job didn’t exist before I arrived, so it gives me an opportunity for judgment and creativity,” Prentiss says.

He values his recruiter’s ability to guide him straight to his goal. “Sam was comfortable to work with and flexible as to when he could be contacted. We sometimes had conversations at 9:00 p.m. He gave me good advice on prepping for interviews—of which there were nine at MannKind—and I got a great compensation package.”

“Epitome of a professional”

In 2004, Domenico Tallerico worked for a company in San Francisco and flew down to Los Angeles on weekends to see his girlfriend. A move was imminent. He wanted to stay in internal audit but his company had no internal audit department in LA.

Around that time, Tallerico received an email from Teresa Wright, a recruiter and VP at The Century Group in Los Angeles. They started talking, and the rest is history. Since then, she has placed him in not one, but two, positions.

First, Wright helped Tallerico find a position he liked with the mortgage banking arm of Countrywide Financial Corporation, a highly diversified global financial services provider. Then Countrywide retained KPMG as its external auditor.

As it turned out, his girlfriend, now fiancée, for whom Tallerico had moved to LA was a KPMG partner, albeit not one assigned to Countrywide. The Countrywide audit committee decided to avoid even the slightest appearance of a conflict of interest.

Wright resumed the search on his behalf. Tallerico says, “Teresa was very supportive and helpful, and she has excellent sources and resources. It was a tremendous advantage that she is a CPA who used to do auditing. She knew exactly what I would want.” That includes Tallerico’s current position as General Auditor at Triad Financial Corporation, a leader in the automobile financing industry, located just five minutes away from his home.

“A prominent public accounting firm made me an offer as the result of an independent search effort just after I got the Triad offer. Both were very good. I found out later that Teresa fully expected me to take the one from the other public accounting firm, but she never stopped working for me. That is the epitome of a professional,” Tallerico says.

All three former candidates praised the Century Group recruiters they worked with for being friendly and actively interested in them, and would recommend them to their friends. And, all three said that when they have occasion to hire staff, they will turn to the Century Group to conduct the search.

Anne Hedin is a writer, consultant and analyst based in Indiana. She can be reached at Anne@BeTuitive.com.