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Member Snapshot: Andrew d’Eça

"People are my passion," says Andrew d’Eça, general manager of Vancouver-based recruiting firm, Angus One Professional Recruitment. "I love helping people succeed and seeing how their lives have changed."

A Board of Trade member since 1999, d’Eça fell into the recruitment industry, like many recruiters, when he was looking for work in 1997 and a colleague had recommended he check out a recruitment firm. "Long story short, I registered with four of them and three ended up making me an offer to join them. It’s been great ever since and I love this industry."

D’Eça says his biggest challenge, besides driving in over the Port Mann Bridge each day, is trying to find quality candidates that share the same values and passion that he does for his clients, especially in this tight labour market. "People are a dime a dozen," he shares. "However, finding people that really care about their work and performance are much harder to find. Thankfully we have the right people and effective systems in place, which makes this challenge easier to manage."

Originally from Lachine, Quebec, d’Eça moved to B.C. in 1988. When he isn’t working ("Working late is a regular thing," he says), d’Eça spends much of his free time with his wife and children. "I’ve been able to ensure success at work and at home by making sure my family time is truly quality time and by balancing how much time I do spend working late," he says. "I believe everyone needs to take advantage of the few short weeks of sunshine we get here in Vancouver, so when summer is around, I endeavour to leave work on time."

A: My first job was picking mushrooms in an indoor mushroom factory in Toronto back in 1981. I was a student and I lasted about three days on the job – unfortunately the owner didn’t like the fact that I ate one of the mushrooms. I couldn’t resist a shitake!

A: Being the GM of a small and very successful recruitment firm I wear many hats, sales manager, finance manager, operations manager, human resources manager, staffing manager – you name it! A typical day starts at 7 a.m. and goes to 7 p.m. and is full of challenges and successes. Everyday is different and I love the variety my job offers!

A: Research the marketplace, decide on what industry you want to be in and set up informational meetings with employers and recruiters within that industry. You should also make an appointment at Angus One for an interview and ask our recruitment consultant for the list of "tough" interview questions and be prepared to answer all of them.

A: We have had to become more strategic in how we source candidates. The old traditional methods typically used to recruit people are dry and yield minimal turnout. As a result we have developed a new successful method to source and secure candidates for almost any position.

A: Many employers are now recognizing that they are competing for the same top group of candidates and are offering incentives to employees such as signing bonuses, higher salaries, promotions, more vacation time, flexible hours, job sharing, gym memberships, pension plans and even new fancy job titles to attract and retain employees.

A: It provides me access to a large professional network that I can tap into. As well, there are plenty of opportunities to attend various speaker events and learning sessions that directly help my business.

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