Author’s Bio

Michael Spiro has been a 3rd-Party Recruiter and Account Executive for over 20 years. He is currently Senior Recruiter / Midwest Region for Jefferson Wells, a division of ManpowerGroup — a $22 Billion publicly-traded company operating out of over 3,600 offices in more than 80 countries. Jefferson Wells is a professional services firm delivering solutions in Finance & Accounting, Internal Audit, Risk & Compliance and Tax, and provides talent for Temporary Staffing, Temp-to-Perm and Permanent Direct-Hire positions.

Michael’s other recent positions include Senior Recruiter at Midas Recruiting, a boutique head-hunting firm specializing in the recruitment and placement of top-performing executives and professionals throughout the United States, and Director of Talent at Patina Solutions, a professional services firm specializing in deploying professionals with 25 or more years of work experience on contract/consulting engagements. Prior to that, Michael also worked for two of the largest publicly-traded executive search firms in North America – Management Recruiters International (MRI) and Kforce Professional Staffing – where his specialty area was permanent placement. Michael has sourced candidates for clients in multiple industries, including Software Development, Manufacturing, Banking, Insurance, Legal, Retail and Medical. He has recruited candidates for positions in Sales, Healthcare, Information Technology (IT) and Finance & Accounting.

Before his career in the staffing industry, Michael was a director-level manager and department head for a $10 million non-profit social-services organization. And in a former life, Michael was active in the entertainment industry, with extensive road-warrior experience as a touring performer (singer-songwriter / guitarist / comedian) and as a recording artist, music producer and booking agent.

A long-time resident of the Cleveland, Ohio area, Michael received a B.A. degree in Psychology from Case Western Reserve University.

Links:
► Michael Spiro’s LinkedIn Profile
► Michael Spiro’s Résumé (PDF)
► Job Opportunities through Jefferson Wells
► Michael Spiro’s Music Website
► Send Michael a Message

“Music, Sex & Cookies” … The Story of My Former Life

Once upon a time, long ago in a former life, I made my living as a full-time musician. I played guitar, wrote and sang songs, did comedy, recorded a couple of albums, and performed at hundreds of coffeehouses, nightclubs, colleges and concert halls. I toured extensively, opened up for several national acts, and did a lot of radio and TV shows. I often tell people that I lived the life of a traveling bohemian artist-musician during that rare window of time between when The Pill came out, and AIDS came in! All in all, I followed my dreams, sewed a lot of wild oats and had a great time! If you’re curious, check out my Music Website … or if you really want a good laugh, watch this ancient video of me performing the song “Music, Sex & Cookies.”

Moving from the Entertainment Business to the Non-Profit World to the Staffing Industry might not seem, at least on the surface, to be a very logical career path. The truth is that they are all more related than you might think. So many of the skills I acquired and lessons I learned in those musician days were later to become invaluable tools that I continued to use throughout my successive jobs in the business world and the staffing industry. Communications skills, organizational skills, effective time management, prioritization, creative problem solving, networking, sales and marketing acumen – as well as the ability to stay positive, passionate and enthusiastic about my work, and to maintain a sense of humor … these are all things that I learned back then, and still use today. Basic life skills like those are always “transferable.” My hope in writing this blog is to be able to share some of my accumulated knowledge and experience – especially as it relates to staffing, employment and job-seeking – and to help others in the process.

– Michael Spiro