Click here for Part I, Part II & Part III

From your first job……to your best job

Jeff Martin is the president and CEO of University Recruiters. Based in Maple Lawn, Maryland, University Recruiters is a global recruiting and job placement agency that champions the needs of young professionals and recent graduates. The company assists candidates throughout the job-seeking process, refining resumes, preparing candidates for interviews, and offering tools to help individuals define and pursue their long-term career goals. Prior to University Recruiters, Jeff served as Director of Recruiting for NewDay USA for 12 years.

Q. How did you decide on your millennial marketing approach—and how did you get hooked up with Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker?

JEFF MARTIN: I think it was probably my third day at work, and I said, “I just have to go.” I’m probably ahead of myself, right? I shouldn’t be thinking this, but I’m going to do something. I want to go after these young business professionals. No one has change in the game. There’s no advertising, there’s no social media, it’s just recruiting the way it’s been forever. I said, “I’m going to go out and get just the young individual that would really resonate with all these other young people that I’m trying to get in the door.”

One of the girls who worked with me said, “Oh, Justin Tucker—I’m in love with him. He’s on the cover of GQ magazine,” and I said, “You know what? Let me get him.” And I did what I do: I started pounding the phones, which was fun. I got his agent on the phone, and literally within 30 days we were doing a commercial. It was fun and Justin at that point was new, so he probably would have taken a lot of things, but he was picky. He was making enough money. “I’m not just going to do it to do it.” He loved it and what he loved about it—and the reason went after him, if you don’t know his stories—he didn’t know he was going to play football. He was a kicker—they don’t really get drafted, so he started thinking, “What am I going to do after school? What am I going to do?” He thought he would become a realtor, but he didn’t have anyone to help him, and I said, “That’s the perfect story.”

I don’t know if you know this, but we bring him to the universities, and we brought him to Towson last year. Towson’s Career Fair gets 600–700 people. We got 900 to come see him, so what do you think happened the next year we did it? That was the first year, and 50 employees were begging me to come along to recruit there, so it just worked out perfect. The commercial was aired on Monday Night Football. It gave us credibility. “This company is for real—they’re not messing around.”

It was just the perfect match. He’s a good guy and he believes in it. And, I mean, he really didn’t know what he was going to do. He tells a speech—he couldn’t buy Taco Bell. He didn’t know who was going to help him. And in his speech—and I love it, he means it—he says, “I wish I had a company like University Recruiters that I could’ve went to out of school.” That told me the truth—the good, the bad, the ugly—it’s not always good. Sometimes the truth hurts, but you need to know, so when you get out there in the real world you’re ready for it.

Q. When did your love of sales start? Were you born with it?

A. From day one, I’ve been selling, whether it was selling hot dogs on the corner—when everyone had a lemonade stand, I would make hot dogs, and the garbage man would come by. I was living in New York, and I would make 20 bucks, and it kind of parlayed into college.

Here’s a crazy story. It was the Preakness and it called for rain. I looked at my roommate and said, “get in the car.” “What are you… what are we doing?” We went to every Dollar Store. Every Dollar Store. I bought every poncho they sold. I had at least 10,000 ponchos—which, by the way, were two for a dollar. I sold each one the day of Preakness within 30 minutes for 5 bucks, and this was sophomore year in college. I said, “This is what I am going to do.”

It was just the chase, the excitement. I don’t know if could sell something I don’t believe in. I don’t think I can get the passion behind it. I could probably sell it. It’s what I love to do, and if you do it right, and you help someone, there’s no better feeling. I closed a lot of loans for a lot of people and that felt good: taking people from a situation where maybe they were needy, and finding someone an opportunity and seeing their face light up when they get the offer letter. You could be fresh out of school or 20 years in the business. It’s exciting and it drives me. To your point—Do I think I was born for sales? Yes, and moreso on the recruiting side.

Q. Where do you see the company in 5 years?

A. The future is exciting. I’m reading a book now called The One Thing by Gary Keller, who started Keller Williams, and it’s really gotten me focused as a sales guy. The guy who tries to catch two rabbits catches none, so I’m really trying to focus in 2017 on one initiative, which is the business development side. It’s explosion time—I mean, it really is. We haven’t even made cold calls to clients yet, and we have 45–50 different clients. But to answer the question, we’re going to get into social media. We’re going to be the first recruiting firm that really goes all in—all in—because I honestly believe that you have to go where your people are, and I could tell you where they are, probably 20 hours a day: right here. I’m going to be in their face all day long. The answer to the question is “growth”—that’s what everyone wants to say—but I think if I’m using my new tool it will be focused on one thing: it’s going to be conquering this game through social media.

Q. How would you describe the culture at University Recruiters? What do you look for in your own new hires?

A. It’s a hustle. It’s a non-stop grind. It’s not about getting something back. I do it because I enjoy it. I will take my time out of the day to help anyone. I get calls all the time, and sometimes they aren’t fun calls—a buddy who was making, $200,000–300,000 just lost a job, and I’m the first call so—they can trust me. Everything in recruiting is “what you tell me has to stay with me because you’re still working.” I would think they would say that probably I got to where I got to because I’m not the smartest guy out there, but I’m going to outwork you. That’s for sure. I believe in culture before almost anything, especially at my company, and when I bring on new clients I want to know their culture—and sometimes they think I’m being too nosy—but it’s so important.

The culture at University Recruiters is “I want to treat you like an adult, so work like one.” I don’t need to be down your throat unless I need to be, and then you shouldn’t be here because I have one mission, and that’s to grow my business. And if I need to babysit you, we have a problem. I’m not going to ask you where you’re at. I’m not going to ask you what you’re doing. Get the job done. If you act like an adult, then I’m going to treat you like an adult. It just makes for a fun environment—loud energy. People come in, and everyone is on the phone, cranking, because they all buy in and believe my model. And if they don’t, they are not there.

What you see right here: there are ten other ones in my office just as passionate about what they do. And, you know, do I always get it right? No, no chance. I wish I did, but I could tell you when I recruit somebody, I make sure that recruiting is what they’re excited about. This is not a stop on the resume, and you find out real quick—I mean, within days—that they’re just here for a job.

Right now, the culture is just energized. They see the future—they get it. I have three people who started with me three weeks in. They were making $30,000; now, they’re making six figures, and they can’t believe that they’re along for this ride. The cultures create energy, if you don’t have a gong.

I still remember the first guy who told me ,“I play lacrosse,” and he’s, you know, “just walk the walk. Let your work talk the talk.” I instill that every single meeting. It’s “Guys, let’s just walk the walk, let’s show our clients ‘just get it done,’ and the rest is history.” We’re loud, we’re fun, we’re low key, but we just walk the walk—that’s all we do.

Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn

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