Last fall, closerlook, a digital marketing agency for the pharma industry, joined more than 20 other digital companies in a commitment to create more than 2,000 jobs by 2015. Spearheaded by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, this initiative was a long-sighted approach to using the city’s flourishing tech companies to support job growth. But if other companies hire the way closerlook is these days, they might reach Emanuel’s goal well ahead of schedule.
[ibimage==25765==Large==none==self==ibimage_align-center]
(Inside closerlook's office. Image via Ormesher.)
According to closerlook CEO Dave Ormesher, his company’s commitment was to hire 25 people a year. Since the start of 2012, he’s added 50 people to his team to bring the total to 100, managing to meet 2013’s quota before the year is half over. Not only that, he says he’s continuing to add full-time employees at a rate of approximately 1.5 per week.
“The hiring is really following our revenue growth,” Ormesher says. “We continue to pick up significant new sources of revenue...so we’re not hiring so much ahead of the market as we are really responding to the market.”
Part of this, he says, is due to signs of an economic turnaround. Not only that, the changes facing the healthcare industry today make, from Ormesher’s perspective, marketing all the more important. And since closerlook works in digital, they can provide more value for less spend.
To serve these needs, closerlook employs a team of individuals with skills ranging from account management to copywriting to development. The current job openings on the company’s website reflect Ormesher’s need for people with experience in everything from project management to art direction to data strategy.
“We’re hiring across the board,” Ormesher says. “The ideal candidate is someone who brings a deep skill set but also brings a real openness to engage and to work in a team environment.”
Though closerlook may seem to be hiring fast, the fact is that sometimes positions stay open there for months until the right candidate appears. Ormesher says that, even though sometimes he needs another person in the office, he won’t hire someone just for the sake of hiring.
“It’s really easy, when you’re in growth mode, to just hire someone because they’re breathing. Because you just need a body,” Ormesher says. “That’s one way to destroy your model.”
[ibimage==25754==Original==none==self==ibimage_align-center]
.png)
