ENDORSEMENTS | LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

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Todd, VP Engineering | Chief Architect

Client Company - Enterprise | Data Center | Cloud | Networking

January 2024

 

To Whom It May Concern,

(Confidential Company Client Name) is a software company with many diverse, highly technical engineering needs across development, QA, Solutions Engineering, and IT.  We have leading edge, highly sophisticated, Cloud based products and during growth phases needed highly skilled new hires to build out our teams. 

 

I tend to be dissatisfied with recruiters, but I’m happy to say that Donna Rapson is a pleasant exception.  Donna is simply the best recruiter I’ve ever used (among many over many years).  She played a fundamental role in filling both management and individual contributor positions for all our teams. 

 

Donna excels at understanding the technologies and look beyond just the keywords on resumes.  I don’t think she ever brought us a candidate that was not a correct fit for the position.  As a hiring manager this is most highly valued in a recruiter.  This saved us (especially me) not only time but the frustration of interviewing someone who clearly should never have been brought as a candidate.  All her candidates were spot on and she could accurately prep me prior to the candidate interview. 

 

Moreover, she understands the nuances of experience versus talent.  I could tell her something like, “I’m looking for a less experienced engineer but with great promise that I can work with and mold into my needs”, and she could find that person. 

 

Beyond her skills, experience, and instinctiveness, she was a pleasure to work with, recruiting calls were enjoyable.  Of course, she is the consummate professional but just as important, she is collaborative and pleasant, and flexible to work with.

 

I wholeheartedly endorse Donna to any company seeking to expand their teams, be it for an executive-level role, managerial, or an individual hands-on contributor position.

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Todd, EVP

Client Company - Industrial Manufacturing | Chemicals | & More

January 15, 2024

To Whom It May Concern:

I have worked with Donna Rapson from 2020 to present, and I recommend her without hesitation. Donna is a highly skilled recruiter and advisor to our team, and she has consistently demonstrated a dedication to success and professionalism in our dealings with her. Donna has filled several Senior VP, Director, and Manager-level roles at (Confidential Company Client Name), as well as other individual contributor roles. She has a detailed understanding of the complexities involved in the recruitment process from sourcing candidates, navigating the interview process, and managing the offer and close process.

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Donna is highly organized and has an incredible work ethic. She is always reachable and is capable of managing multiple searches concurrently. She consistently goes above and beyond in each search to find and present the best talent. Importantly, Donna also brings a positive attitude and creative ideas to each project.

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I am confident that Donna would be a tremendous asset to your organization as she is an outstanding recruiter. I highly recommend Donna to assist any company that is looking to grow their team.

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Janet L. Murphy, President, iPRO Staffing

January 2024

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To Whom it May Concern:

iPRO Staffing is a boutique full-service Talent Acquisition company that was founded in 1999.  Our expertise focuses on recruitment in manufacturing, IT, high tech, automotive, engineering, pharmaceuticals, and technology.  We focus on C-Suite roles down to individual contributors.

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I am the president and founder of iPRO Staffing.  Donna stands out among all the recruiters that I’ve worked with for a variety of reasons.  iPRO is not a traditional work environment, we are all 100% remote.  Donna is the consummate self-starter and has a work ethic that puts most to shame. She has consistently demonstrated an exceptional ability to thrive in a virtual environment that requires a high degree of self-management.  Donna exhibits a remarkable level of discipline, organization, and initiative, showcasing her ability to effectively navigate the challenges of remote work while staying focused, meeting deadlines, and maintaining a high standard of productivity.  Donna’s understanding of the recruiting process, both with client management, candidate management, and offer negotiation, is exceptional.  She is the hardest working recruiter that I’ve had, and she is willing to go the extra mile that most people don’t.  But where Donna stands out the most to me is that she has the highest level of integrity of any person that I’ve known – both professionally and personally.  And she brings a positive attitude and energy to every project that she works on. 

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I cannot recommend Donna highly enough. Professionally, she is one of the most talented recruiters I’ve ever had working for me, if not THE most – and having had over 200 recruiters through my doors in the past 25 years – she stands out above the rest.  Donna’s positive approach to life and work combined with her exceptional skills and work ethic will make you look like a genius for partnering with her.

Donna will take the challenge of any project given and will devote herself to getting it done, and getting it done the right way.   If you’re in need of a complex or time critical search, you could not find yourself a better resource.

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Sheldon, CEO

Donna is outstanding to work with. She's helped our company grow over the years. Excellent asset for any company looking to grow fast.

 

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Bill, Director Product Management - Real-time Networking | Smart Grid

Donna is by far the best recruiter that I have ever had the opportunity to work with. She helped place me with Silver Spring Networks in the early stages of the company and followed up regularly once I had been placed to make sure that I had made the right decision. Over the years, she remained in touch to make sure that things were going well for me and that type of commitment is rare these days. I would recommend Donna to any organization/company that is looking for a seasoned professional recruiter that has an uncanny ability to place candidates as proper fits while maintaining the "win/win" mentality that helps create happy customers on both sides. Donna is personable, professional, diligent & focused. You really will not find better in the space.

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Steve, VP of Engineering

Client Company - Enterprise | Data Center | Cloud | Networking

You did a great job and I enjoyed working with you. I found the entire life cycle (sourcing, interviewing, offer, close) to be quite smooth. The resumes were what we were looking for and you did a great job of helping us arrange times to interview the candidates. After we made the offers, you would work with the candidate to understand the entire compensation package. Finally, you stayed in communication with us and the candidate to get us to closure. Given the opportunity, I would definitely work with you again.

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Gabriel, CEO | Co-Founder

Client Company - Mobile

Donna is a Senior Technical Recruiter that was referred to me and quickly established herself as our primary recruiter. 

 

She successfully filled our Director of Marketing role with an exceptional candidate whom we promoted to V.P. of Marketing shortly after a month of his hire.  He’s still playing a key role in our growth!!  This was a technical role.

 

In addition, we subsequently had Donna source for our contract CFO.  She presented us with several top-notch candidates and found us a great match.  The contract CFO created a 5-year Financial Forecast from the ground up.

 

Donna was hands-on throughout the entire hiring process and I highly recommend her.  She was able to expedite the process quickly so that we did not lose out on either candidate.  She is sharp, understands technology well and was concise in her ability to target candidates that met our requirements.  In addition, she was extremely helpful when it came to closing the candidates.  I also appreciated her light-hearted personality.

 

Donna is a true benefit to have on board as an outside agency.  I will most definitely work with her again on our next round of hires.

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Tom, Software Development Manager

Donna is an amazing person to work with.  She understands the stress involved in a job hunt and more so when the new job requires you to make a big move. She is very professional and prompt with her responses when it comes to assisting you in your job search and finding the right fit. I highly recommend her if you're looking for a job consultant

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Christina, Systems Administrator/Operations Engineer

Donna is easy to work with, patient, thoughtful and professional. She follows up with her clients in helping them through and after the interview process with suggestions, advice, and feedback You don't feel rushed when working with her. I would not hesitate to partner with her again. Thank you, Donna!

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Ivan, Network Engineer, System Engineer, Network and System Analyst, Solution Architect

I had a great experience partnering with Donna. She is very thoughtful and took the time to teach me new techniques to implement within my job search. In addition, she also provided me with guidance that would assist me with the interviewing process. 

I highly recommend companies & candidates to partner with her as she really cares about the individual and sourcing a great fit between the company & candidate.

 

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Konstantin, Software Engineer

I'd like to thank you for your assistance - it was a great pleasure working with you. Hope we'll work again in the future

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Mo, Project Manager / Network Engineering

"I had the pleasure to work with Donna during my job search. Donna gave me great advice and helped me to line up my profile and avoid a few mistakes for future job search. I appreciate all the advice she provided and I enjoy her enthusiasm and encouragement."

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Andrew, Systems Administrator

Donna... So pleasant and refreshing... Your professionalism comes across so personably. Your style invites honest and important dialog, quickly getting to core issues. You inspire confidence and trust. It is a pleasure working with you.

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Jeremy, Principal Storage Engineer

Honestly, you have a very refreshing way of doing business for someone who called me out of the blue. I very much respect a faster timeline so neither of us is thinking down a path that may or may not be a good fit in the end. I get calls like this all the time but rarely entertain them, you must be very good at your job. If you need anything at all of me please don't hesitate to call. 

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