Kathleen Smith 00:48
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Security Cleared Jobs: Who's Hiring & How. I'm Kathleen with ClearJobs.Net, and it's always a great opportunity for me to see and hear my lovely friend, Rachel. Rachel, how are you today?
Rachel Bozeman 01:03
I'm so good, and I always love to hear and see you as well. Speaking of seeing and hearing, I heard we have a fantastic guest here today, so don't keep us waiting, Kathleen. Tell our podcast fam who we are talking to today.
Kathleen Smith 01:19
We are speaking with Jake Frazer, president and co-founder of Precision Talent Solutions. Welcome to the show, Jake.
Jake Frazer 01:26
Hey, thank you, ladies. Thanks for having me.
Rachel Bozeman 01:29
We are so excited you're here, Jake, and we always like to give a little backstory for all of our guests, so people know who they're listening to. So give us the scoop. Share a little bit about your career path and how you came about founding Precision Talent Solutions.
Jake Frazer 01:43
It’s not linear. It's been a long journey. I started out as an Army officer back in the '90s, which makes me old. I was deployed in Bosnia in 1996, and I was out there and ran into the government contractors that were taking care of us. I just thought to myself, that's what I want to do. The takeaway is I have the very end customer perspective because, at one point in my career, I was the guy at the very end, out on the checkpoint, receiving services from the industry. So, I got out of the Army after four years, paid back my ROTC, and then joined Brown & Root, which at the time was the big deal in the industry. I went back to the Balkans, where I had served, and worked in contracting. As a young 25-year-old guy with a security clearance, I did a lot of work with the customer, helping the task forces understand how to use the contract. As things took off in the Middle East, I was involved in helping build up the infrastructure with KBR for a program called LOGCAP. I say that's the belly of the beast, and that's when I first got exposed to recruiting. They brought me back to the corporate offices to do an efficiency consulting gig, and I started in recruiting back then. We were sending 2,000 people a month into theater, a massive recruiting effort with probably 80 recruiters. I was ghosting the recruiters, watching how they were doing their work, and coming up with ideas to make it better. That's when recruiting got in my brain. I went down to the Middle East, lived in Dubai, working more on the supply chain side, and then joined up with my best friend. He and I ran a mid-size prime contractor, and we did supply chains for the government. We also worked with dozens of large primes, running supply chains for them. It was there that I learned about people, systems, personality assessment, and psychometrics—that's how we ran that company. That's when I decided I wanted to do something around people. So we sold that company about 10 years ago, and we set up Precision Talent Solutions with a mission to help solve the people challenge for government contracting. We started building a technology platform that would help connect candidates and companies to get the right fit. We turned to actually doing headhunting and executive search using this technology stack. Over the past 10 years, we have been building up Precision Talent Solutions, helping our customers make the best hiring decisions. All of our customers are focused on the government contracting space.
Kathleen Smith 04:01
Awesome. Really great backstory. I appreciate your service in the Balkans. This is a first for our show. Your company isn't actually the hiring employer, but you're an executive and technical search firm. Can you break that down for our listeners? What does that mean, and how does your team support the cleared community?
Jake Frazer 04:21
We like to work in conjunction with talent acquisition leaders to carve out the biggest problems they have, the most difficult positions, where we can focus on those, and they can do most of their core recruiting. With Precision Talent Solutions, this is our core competency. Recruiting is all we do. We don't do engineering, construction, services, or IT; we just do recruiting. The way we built the company is that everything we do is about being great at recruiting. I'd say 60% of the placements we do have security clearances, from MRPTs to TS/SCI full scope poly, and we work across the whole gamut. We do everything from cyber and quantum roles to engineers on embassies in crazy places.
Rachel Bozeman 05:07
Awesome. It sounds like you're always out there hunting for great talent, working with a spectrum of different employers and contractors. I can imagine those roles shift, and the demands are different. In general, if you had to boil it down, what are the cleared positions you're filling most frequently?
Jake Frazer 05:29
Our model is to work with companies on their entire org chart because I think you can do a better job helping a company find a CXO if you understand what their engineers are doing out in the field and vice versa. We do C-suite searches, many of which are cleared because they're working on classified programs—CEOs, COOs, chief technology officers, chief solutions officers, and even niche high-level board positions. We do a lot in business development—vice presidents and directors, from capture account executives to proposal and price-to-win folks and program managers. Then we do what I call technical and classified roles. This could be everything from software engineers and cyber—we've done Python developers that work in the Pentagon—to C5ISR and a lot around cloud. We have former technologists on our team doing the recruiting for technology roles, which I think is part of our secret sauce. Last but not least, we do trades or other worker roles, from engineers to power plant roles for classified programs, BAS techs, and crane operators. Secret-cleared crane operators are hard to find and hard to lure away from their day jobs in the States. Plumbers, too—we do the trades as well.
Rachel Bozeman 06:53
Love it. It sounds like you've got an opportunity for everyone. But where are these positions located? Are they all overseas? Are you working both CONUS and OCONUS?
Jake Frazer 07:07
We started out as the overseas, OCONUS guys because I've worked and lived overseas for 37 years of my life, and 75% of my team is based outside the US. Right now, our mix is about 50/50—50% is overseas, and 50% is CONUS because we do so many G&A or headquarters-type roles. Those tend to be US-based roles. On the OCONUS side, we recruit for programs, contracts, and positions all over the world.
Kathleen Smith 07:37
I understand you have an interesting process at Precision Talent Solutions, L.E.A.D., which is your process for finding and evaluating talent. Explain what L.E.A.D. is and how it helps you find the right talent to fill cleared positions.
Jake Frazer 07:53
There's a book called Traction by Gino Wickman, and they have this management process called EOS, Entrepreneurial Operating System, which is kind of the Bible for how we run our company. It says every company needs a proven process that everybody understands, both internally and externally. We went through a large thought process of putting this together, and, being around the military, we came up with an acronym, LEAD. The "L" is Learn. When approaching a project, we want to learn everything we can about not just the position but the ecosystem around it—the hiring managers, a day in the life, what it's going to be like. We want to learn about the programs, the contract, and where we are in the contract's life cycle. We learn about the company, their ownership structure, and, if they're in private equity, where they are in that life cycle. We do a kickoff call, which is all about discovery. We typically bring in example candidates based on what we know to share with our customers. Instead of looking at a job description, we're looking at different types of profiles that evoke some sort of reaction. We get a better feel for what they're after and recalibrate, normally within a week. Learning is really important because there's no reason to start a search without knowing exactly what the customer wants. Sometimes they don't know what they want, so we help guide them. The "E" is Engaging—engaging the market, engaging candidates. The "A" is Assessing. The genesis of the business was building a virtual Assessment Center, which we still have. All our candidates go through a thorough assessment process, including personality assessments, psychometrics, a nine-block predictor, a leadership success predictor, and work motives. All candidats do a video interview to introduce themselves to the customer. We have reference checks, and all this is put into the virtual Assessment Center and shared with our customers. Finally, the "D" is Deciding—helping our customer make the right decision, taking them through the different options, revisiting what we learned at the beginning, maybe learning more during the process, and helping close the deal and onboard the right person. That's the LEAD process, and everybody in our company lives it every day.
Rachel Bozeman 10:17
Wonderful. Live and LEAD all the way around. That's fantastic. It sounds like a two-way relationship. The candidates completely understand the roles they're going into, and the customer also understands this.
Jake Frazer 10:29
It has to work both ways. You can't trick them; they'll find out.
Rachel Bozeman 10:33
There are no secrets in recruiting. They will find you out. You touched on this earlier, but I want to dig deeper because our listeners run the full spectrum of talents. You mentioned that hard-to-fill crane operator, and I'm picturing trying to find that security-cleared crane operator. When you have roles like that, or building automation systems, or elevator mechanics, where are those positions located? If someone is in the US and the opportunity is outside, what does that process look like for them?
Jake Frazer 11:08
It's interesting—it's almost counterintuitive. Technical and trade roles can be as challenging and important as a C-suite hire. We take the same approach with all candidates, whether a C-suite or a BAS tech; they go through the same vetting process. We don't water it down for one or the other. We think it's important to be thorough. Take that BAS tech—the first program we supported was the US Embassy in Baghdad, a fascinating small city run by a company that handles all the infrastructure. That BAS tech, the building automation systems tech, is running the nerve center. He has a TS/SCI clearance because he's touching everything within that embassy, synchronizing critical systems from security to entry control to air conditioning in Baghdad, which is pretty important. Recruiting for that kind of role is complicated by the clearances, finding people with TS/SCI and the right certifications willing to go to that location. Many of these are unionized roles, like elevator mechanics, which makes it tricky. Those are tough to fill. To hire and mobilize someone, they go through a medical screening, a background check, and often a processing center to learn how to use PPE and other things. It's a long hiring process, so you don't want to go through it, get that person to Baghdad, and find out they're not the right fit.
Kathleen Smith 12:41
Fascinating. I don't think, in my transition classes at military bases or agencies, people understand the in-depth process to outfit many of our installations worldwide. When talking to college students, they think they have to be tech to have a security clearance. I tell them, no, the cleared community is a small city. It may be global, but it's a small city. We need everything from landscapers and chefs to crane operators to the technical C-suite. There is a place for everyone within the cleared community. You mentioned that you talk to many candidates globally, so you do a lot of video interviewing. We haven't spent much time on this lately, so what are your three big tips for being successful at a video interview and standing out from the competition?
Jake Frazer 13:52
We use different types of video technology, and it's super important, from C-suite to technical roles, because it's a chance for candidates to make a first impression, pitch themselves, and illustrate their differentiators. We mostly use on-demand video, so candidates can do as many takes as they want to make it as good as possible. I always tell candidates: First, don't be nervous. Show some personality—that's a lot of what people are hiring for. So smile, bring some energy, and think about what you're going to say, but don't read a script. The worst thing a candidate can do is read a script they wrote ahead of time. Hiring managers hate that, and it guarantees you won't get the job. Finally, do your research. Show that you've gotten to know the company in your responses, show you know the industry, and show you've thought about the role. Come prepared, organized, and bring that personality. That's super important.
Rachel Bozeman 14:58
I was really excited to talk to you when I saw this come up in our pre-call. You talked about the humanity of candidates, and I definitely feel you on that—high five, ditto. I want to dig in more and get your perspective. You've phrased it as candidates are human, and they have emotions. What does this mean to you as the leader of the organization? Why is that top of mind, and what does that really mean?
Jake Frazer 15:27
If you go back to the Traction book, the first thing you do is core values. Our first one is Trust, and the second is Human for my company. I think it's really important that when we're dealing with candidates, they're just as important as a customer. We start meetings with vignettes about treating candidates like customers. If you do that right, eventually your candidates will become customers, and it's all about the reputation you build because candidates talk to each other. A lot of search firms and recruitment agencies, even corporate recruiters, get a bad rap for only taking what they need from candidates and then ghosting them or not giving feedback—that's the worst thing you can do. To build Precision Talent Solutions, I hired a team that isn't generally recruiters. They're operations people who have been out on the missions, so they understand the programs and contracts. I say if you want to be great at recruiting, you need empathy. You need to understand what the candidate is going through and what the customer is up against. Most of my team have been both customers and candidates. When someone goes for a job, that's a big deal. Imagine the emotional energy when they click that apply button, especially through our process—the hope, planning life changes, telling their families they might get this perfect job. If we're doing one role, we're probably touching 10 people like that, stirring up hope in 9 to 19 people, and only one gets the job. That's how it works. So it's important to go back and give feedback to those who didn't get the role so they can improve. We give them a copy of their personality assessment to learn about themselves, so they don't leave with nothing. It's all about being human. We're in it for the long run. I want candidates to see us as the place to come. We do career coaching for candidates, too, helping them understand the power of personal branding, resumes, and all that stuff. I'm big on taking care of candidates, and the customers will come.
Kathleen Smith 17:33
Awesome. We have that same methodology here.
Jake Frazer 17:37
Great.
Rachel Bozeman 17:38
That's awesome. I have a two-fold question for you—a BOGO, if you don't mind. You mentioned that if you get the right talent, the customers will come. Where are you finding this talent? Are you hunting them, or are they hunting you? Tell me a little about how you're attracting the talent you present to your customers.
Jake Frazer 17:57
We've turned it on its head a little. We're focused on aggregating as many candidates as we can and bringing them into what I call our community. If you're following us on LinkedIn, for example, we're putting out content every day about what's going on in the industry—contract awards, mergers, acquisitions. We do a quarterly industry update that goes out to thousands of people. I run into people at conferences who say, "Thanks for that. Can you send it to my CEO?" We're doing career support tips to help people get better, focusing on the candidate community. It's less about selling to customers and more about selling to candidates to be part of our community, the Precision Talent Solutions family, and the customers know that.
Rachel Bozeman 18:43
Love it. If people want to be part of the Precision Talent Solutions family, how can they get in touch with you?
Jake Frazer 18:49
The easiest thing is to follow us on LinkedIn, connect with me, connect with my team. Then we'll be in your algorithm, and you'll benefit from quality content and thought leadership. I tell customers, using an Army analogy, you're in your foxhole every day, digging and doing your best—that's what you're supposed to do. We see the whole battlefield, what your foxhole looks like from the outside. That's how we approach it—a mezzanine view of the market. For people in government contracting, follow us on LinkedIn. If you want to do a call, I'm very gracious with my time, as is my team. We're happy to have calls with people. We have a career concierge service we set up last year for a nominal fee to help people going through a career transition with resumes, personal branding, and deliberate network-building. We can help with introductions to our network. Just keep focused on us on LinkedIn; we're very focused on our content and adding value to our community there.
Kathleen Smith 19:55
Jake, thank you so much. This has been a great conversation, and thanks for joining us from Switzerland.
Jake Frazer 20:00
You bet. Absolutely.
Kathleen Smith 20:04
Well, that was a really enlightening conversation with Jake over at Precision Talent Solutions. I really loved his tips on video interviewing because we think we no longer have COVID, and the huge surge of video interviewing is gone, but it's here to stay. Bringing energy to that video interview is so important, and I'm glad Jake pointed that out. Rachel?
Rachel Bozeman 20:30
You probably don't even have to guess what I'm going to say, but I love the focus they have on the candidates and understanding what makes them tick, whether it's an assessment or detailed conversations to understand their wants and needs. It really helps make them a good advocate for them. It's about spending time letting them know what you're looking for and what you need so they can find the best customer for you. Great conversation all the way around. Friends, if you liked what you heard, don't forget to give us a follow, leave us a little review, and share an episode with a friend—maybe that person sitting right next to you right now. Until next time, bye-bye.