Derek Schlender

Thank you.

Thank you.

Wow. Thank you, Stephanie. Team mascot wasn't something I expected, but you know, sometimes you just get these little delights in life that you just got to roll with it and embrace it. So it's an honor to be here. Thanks for having me.

Wow. Thank you, Stephanie. Team mascot wasn't something I expected, but you know, sometimes you just get these little delights in life that you just got to roll with it and embrace it. So it's an honor to be here. Thanks for having me.

And I think the last six years, they've been probably the highlight just from a professional standpoint for me, not just the work that we do, but the people that I get to do it with. But yeah, I focus on SBA recruiting for our banking team. I run that niche nationally. Personally, my family, we reside in Athens, Georgia. No dogs. Family of five.

And I think the last six years, they've been probably the highlight just from a professional standpoint for me, not just the work that we do, but the people that I get to do it with. But yeah, I focus on SBA recruiting for our banking team. I run that niche nationally. Personally, my family, we reside in Athens, Georgia. No dogs. Family of five.

We have a nine-year-old, seven-year-old, and a two-year-old. So my world is beautiful chaos right now.

We have a nine-year-old, seven-year-old, and a two-year-old. So my world is beautiful chaos right now.

Absolutely. So as I got started in search, a big conversation between my mentor and myself and just our team in general was talking about, hey, what's going on in the market in terms of what drives it? Is it client driven? Is it candidate driven? Do we see that swing from year to year? The thing that really came to light with SBA as a niche is that it was incredibly candidate driven.

Absolutely. So as I got started in search, a big conversation between my mentor and myself and just our team in general was talking about, hey, what's going on in the market in terms of what drives it? Is it client driven? Is it candidate driven? Do we see that swing from year to year? The thing that really came to light with SBA as a niche is that it was incredibly candidate driven.

And I guess the best way to think about that from a macro perspective is just simple supply and demand. My niche in SBA lending tends this way largely because there's been a high number of baby boomer generation bankers who have been retiring. There's just not been as many Gen X, millennial, there's just not enough people getting into banking to outnumber those that have been retiring.

And I guess the best way to think about that from a macro perspective is just simple supply and demand. My niche in SBA lending tends this way largely because there's been a high number of baby boomer generation bankers who have been retiring. There's just not been as many Gen X, millennial, there's just not enough people getting into banking to outnumber those that have been retiring.

And so over the last 10 to 15 years, that's resulted in this growing bubble of demand where there's just a lot more need than there is talent. And so that's resulted in something for me that's just sustainably been candidate driven. I haven't really had a lot of client-driven moments in my time so far.

And so over the last 10 to 15 years, that's resulted in this growing bubble of demand where there's just a lot more need than there is talent. And so that's resulted in something for me that's just sustainably been candidate driven. I haven't really had a lot of client-driven moments in my time so far.

There's definitely been clients who have said, hey, Derek, you're the recruiter we want to work with exclusively. There's just some roles that have to go to search. But the lion's share of what my market needs is the talent, and it's on a constant basis. And so this supply and demand idea

There's definitely been clients who have said, hey, Derek, you're the recruiter we want to work with exclusively. There's just some roles that have to go to search. But the lion's share of what my market needs is the talent, and it's on a constant basis. And so this supply and demand idea

And with demand so high and supply so low, if you can go bring to your clients what they're needing, that's kind of what I would define as candidate driven.

And with demand so high and supply so low, if you can go bring to your clients what they're needing, that's kind of what I would define as candidate driven.

Yeah. So it's candidate driven. I think what appealed to me a lot coming to thinking ahead was that we are not generalist recruiters. And so you've got a lot of banking recruiters in the marketplace, a lot of finance recruiters, but very few of them are truly market masterminds. Masters is what I would say we kind of call it as a niche expert.

Yeah. So it's candidate driven. I think what appealed to me a lot coming to thinking ahead was that we are not generalist recruiters. And so you've got a lot of banking recruiters in the marketplace, a lot of finance recruiters, but very few of them are truly market masterminds. Masters is what I would say we kind of call it as a niche expert.