🏀 Winning Jump-ball positions

You did it! You got on the big program and are going to fill several positions that will to take your firm to the next level! Except there’s one problem, you can’t fill any of these roles. Either another company beat you to it, the skillsets are impossible to find, there a countless clearance issues/requirements, among a laundry list of other reason.

Here are a few key measures that I have implemented with clients that help us dominate the open competition roles in their portfolio:

1. FOCUS!! Pick a specific skillset or group of skillsets and stick to them. This has multiple benefits. The first being compounding returns. When you continue to source the same skillset you begin to establish yourself in that niche – which means candidates refer each other to you, and your name becomes known as a company constantly hiring within that niche. Narrowing down your skillset also allows to submit candidates to multiple programs you support that require similar skills. If you did a good job of aligning your BD efforts and program wins to your core competencies then this will result in increased jump-ball wins.

2. Don’t go there! Know which roles are going to waste your time. This includes the extremely difficult roles, aka anything with the words Developer AND Poly in the job description. But this can also include the easy to fill positions. If there is a remote Systems Administrator position available as a jump ball, you better believe every company on that program is going to submit candidates for that positions. Best to stay away from those roles. Find your sweet spot with the medium hard to fill and niche roles that offer less competition.

3. Jump the line! Every large program has their own candidate submission process you have to follow, whether it be submitting via a SharePoint portal or an officially formatted email to the main POC. See if there is anyway you can jump the line while still following official processes. This can include submitting a candidate to the portal, then sending a side email to a POC on the Prime to get them to review your candidate ASAP. Or if submitting via email, try CCing the hiring manager for that specific position. They will see how great your candidate is and put pressure on the operations team to get your candidate set up for an interview.