As if PricewaterhouseCoopers hasn’t been popular enough around the GC community, I received the following letter from an Advisory practice leader out of their New York City office yesterday:
You know what it takes to succeed here. Smarts. Flexibility. Teamwork. Excellence. Leadership.
Sounds more like a description of the US Soccer team, no? My emphasis and notes below.
That’s why we’re turning to you to help us find our next new hire, that future teammate, a qualified colleague. And, beyond the reward of perhaps having a friend work here and enhancing our level of talent, we’re making it more worthwhile to recommend a friend by temporarily increasing the referral bonus for client service positions. As we pursue our growth goals and win more work, our staffing needs are growing too.
In Advisory, our business continues to grow and we need the right talent to fill the dynamic and challenging positions we have open to support our continued growth for the remainder of the year and beyond. As we communicated to you, we recognize the need for additional resources in many areas of our practice. Referring qualified candidates has always been one of the best sources of candidates for us, and an important way you can help.
Refer someone you know for a client service position, and you can earn up to a $6,000 referral bonus if they accept the position, depending on the level of the position, from June 14 through September 30. Asking you to help is just part of our push to find new ways to bring talent in faster and through different channels.
So, take a minute and think about people you know from your professional and personal networks. Use LinkedIn or Facebook to connect with a former colleague, a friend, or someone you volunteer with who has the skill sets we need. We all know people who could achieve personally and contribute to the success of the firm, whether in our line of service, or in another. (And, we could all use a little spending money.)
Not sure you want to comb through all your contacts? You may want to think again. As additional incentive, for client service referrals, you’ll:
§ Receive a $100 American Express gift card for any client service referral who is submitted between June 14 and September 30 and interviewed for a position other than partner or principal in any line of service other than IFS [Internal Firm Services] by October 31, 2010. These will be awarded on a monthly basis after the interview takes place.
DWB: Tell your buddies at other firms to apply, interview, and take you for $100 worth of drinks.
§ Be entered automatically into announced prize drawings for each new client service referral who accepts a job offer (other than as partner or principal) for the position which you referred them in any line of service other than IFS. And these aren’t just any prizes: the first drawings will be for $15,000 or one of four iPads, per line of service of the referrer. There’s no limit on how many acceptances gain you entry, either — so if you refer three new people who accept the client service job offer for which you submit them, you’re entered into the drawing for your line of service three times (though you can only win one prize per drawing).
DWB: Uhhhh. So you can win either $15,000 or an iPad? Fifteen THOUSAND dollars or a personal computer? What pains me is to see the money they are throwing at this process – surely one would assume PwC has an internal recruiting team to fill these needs. Right?
Wrong. My source was kind enough to check their internal job directory, and there are multiple experienced recruiter positions for the Advisory line up for grabs. This makes sense, as these glorified internal “head hunters” are cut early on when times get tough (no sense having recruiters when there is no need for new personnel). These roles were probably canned in 2008 or ’09 when the Advisory sector was bleeding resources.
So get on the horn, PDubbers – call up your friends at the other public accounting shops and cash in on this opportunity.