A ‘Jack of All Trades’ Engineer Finds the Right Fit with Averity

Chris Allaire
Chris Allaire

Engineer Eleanor Schlechter knew what she wanted in a new job. But more importantly, she knew what she didn’t want. She considers herself a “jack of all trades,” and being stuck in a job with a narrow set of responsibilities wasn’t appealing.

With the help of Averity, Schlechter found the perfect fit at a private equity firm called Insight Partners. We talked with her about her job search, why she went with a recruiter, and the benefits of a “collaborative” process.

Congrats on the new job! You’ve been at Insight Partners just a couple of weeks, right?

Yeah, I think I’m on week four. It’s been absolutely amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better fit.

What has been the best part so far?

It’s been awesome because there are no limits on what I can do. There are no guardrails, really. I can work on data science stuff, but I can also do data engineering backend work as well.

How is that different from your last job?

I had been working there for about five or six years. I could see that they were making changes across all their business units that had people bucketed to specific tasks. I had jumped around trying to avoid being touched by it, but finally it spread across the entire firm. So it was time for me to look elsewhere.

What was your top concern when you were looking for a job?

I knew I was looking for this unicorn role. There aren’t many jobs out there that give you the flexibility I wanted. I was very pleased and impressed that Averity was able to find one.

Were you already looking on your own?

I had started looking around to see what was out there, but I hadn’t made any moves to start interviewing anywhere. Stephanie Grosso at Averity is the one who reached out to me and got the ball rolling.

Most recruiters will start with something vague like, “We have a perfect opportunity for you.” At Averity, they were more direct, telling me exactly what the opportunity was and what I could expect. Any questions that I had, they were very quick to answer. That’s why I chose to move forward with Averity.

What was the process like with Averity?

They were a great sounding board. I hadn’t gone through the interview process in a very long time. I didn’t really know what to expect, especially because I was in a later stage of my career. They were definitely helpful in prepping me for interviews, but also calling me immediately afterward and asking how it went and offering me feedback. I wasn’t sitting alone in my room wondering what I should do next.

When I told Stephanie that I was looking for this very specific type of job, she talked about it with a few different people on the Averity team. Jennifer Magley brought up the position with Insight Partners. After that, it was always the three of us on the call. It was a very collaborative process.

Averity says that “people hire people.” Is that how this process felt to you?

They definitely were there for me. I felt like I was talking to my best friend about a job. It was definitely very personal and very easy.

Chris Allaire
Chris Allaire

Chris is an entrepreneur, pilot, avid golfer, pretty awesome cook, crab cake connoisseur, guitar player, and a proud husband and father. When Chris isn’t playing with his 2 daughters or traveling with his incredible wife, he is recruiting for Open Source Engineers in New York City. His love for recruiting stands just shy of his love for the Boston Red Sox. Chris has almost 20 years of recruiting and staffing experience on a National level with over 10 years in New York City, both contract and full time.