Colleen Aylward is the founder of Devon James Associates, Inc., an executive recruiting firm based in Bellevue, Wash. With a business degree from University of Washington, followed by 24 years of high-tech sales and management experience in large and small companies, including NCSS, Dun & Bradstreet Computing, Comshare, Carlyle Systems, and GEAC, Colleen came to the recruiting industry in 1990. Having been a hiring manager for years, and being unimpressed with headhunters in general, she made a point to meet with every client company she dealt with. What she found in that down market of the early 90s was a typical Catch 22--clients who needed to ramp up couldn't afford to. They needed to spend their seed or Series A funding on salaries, not headhunter fees. So she dug back to the "solution selling" training of her background and created the Onsite Recruiting War Room model that took off immediately, and has earned Devon James Associates a steady stream of referrals since she founded the firm in 1992.

Colleen and her forward-thinking ideas have been featured in such magazines as Fast Company, Wall Street Journal, Smart Money, Washington CEO, Puget Sound Business Journal, Human Resources, Inc. magazine, and Office.com. She has spoken across the country at large and small groups about Recruiting Tactics, How to Work with Recruiters as a Client, How to Find a Job in a Down Market, How to Interview Legally, and How to Bottom Line your Recruiting Investment.

Author of How to Write a Resume to Save Time and Deodorant During Interviews, Colleen is a writer, speaker, artist, scuba diver, single mom, techno-visionary, and promoter of forward thinking.

Columns

Building a Network of Future Employees (Part 1)

Social networking services can help you build a database of potential employees and your business's brand at the same time.

Measuring Up

A new generation of assessment tools goes beyond measuring personality traits. They take a more holistic approach to evaluating a candidate's ability to perform a job successfully.

Compensation Strategies That Work

The hiring market is heating up, and creating compensation strategies that please top players will help you recruit the best and ensure the ones already on your team stick around for the long haul.