Adventures in executive recruiting

A layoff in one industry leads to triumphant tenure in another

With the economy in turmoil, many have opted to continue their education, follow another career path or, in Tasha Burks’ case, follow their passion.

With the economy in turmoil, many job seekers have been forced to re-evaluate their careers in order to remain viable in the marketplace. While some have chosen to further their education and add or enhance skills, others have leaped into less familiar, but hopefully more fertile fields of employment. For Tasha Burks, recognizing her talents and following her passion helped propel her to the next level in her career.

Photo by Tiona Fuller Photography Tasha Burks

As director of recruiting at T. Burks & Associates since 2006, Burks heads up a Charlotte-based executive placement firm that services clients from California to Connecticut, procuring top-level talent for the supply chain, manufacturing and distribution industries. “We’re specialty recruiters that recruit a variety of engineers, human resources, sales, marketing, finance and operations professionals in targeted industries,” she says, adding the firm also recruits for companies committed to meeting diversity initiatives.

Burks began her own career in pharmaceutical sales. When she was downsized in 2005, Burks found herself at a crossroads, trying to figure out the next logical step. “I was applying for jobs, sending out résumés, and recruiters would call me back asking if I’d be interested in working for them,” she recalls. “After several of those calls, I had to figure out what they were seeing on my résumé that I wasn’t seeing.”

Upon reviewing her CV, Burks noted that every job she’d ever been truly successful at involved sales. “Two things I like to do are talk and sell,” she laughs, “so I had to figure out how to combine them.”

Burks realized that a career in recruiting was calling her name, but rather than work for someone else, she opted for a solo venture. “I started with my cell phone and laptop,” she says. Burks was working from home when she got her first Fortune 500 account, and has never looked back.

That doesn’t mean her journey has been unimpeded. Burks admits that race and gender contributed to some initial resistance from potential clients. “There is the stigma out there that being a small minority-owned business, you over-promise and under-deliver,” Burks notes.

Once she gained momentum, however, any skepticism quickly dissipated. Her reputation superseded her “small minority-owned business” status.  Over the next three years, T. Burks & Associates burgeoned to the point that Burks needed to staff up herself.   Burks took on four more employees, and plans to hire additional recruiters in 2013. She’s also hoping to bring in a talent acquisition manager to expand the services T. Burks & Associates offers.

In 2010, Burks opened an office in Harrisburg, but quickly outgrew the space. Last year, she relocated the firm to a new space in an upscale corporate office park near uptown. Sinking deeper roots into the Queen City is important to Burks. “A majority of the business we’ve done has been outside of North Carolina,” she explains. “This year, I want to grow my company right in my own backyard.”

Burks firmly believes that what’s she’s done for the rest of the country, she can also accomplish on her home turf. “T. Burks & Associates has a track record that speaks for itself,” she says. “Even when the economy crashed, we kept growing. For seven years, there have been enough clients that believed in us, that kept coming back to us because of the quality we deliver.”

While hers is a prime example of “Do what you love, and the money will follow,” Burks notes that in today’s economy, you must also “stay strong, stay focused and stay passionate … That way, you can do what you love, and take that money to the bank.”

For more information about T. Burks & Associates, visit www.tburksassociates.com.