The Talent Game: Recruiting Right with Keri Billington

Keri Billington is the founder and managing partner of Spartan Placements, a boutique recruiting firm that partners with CPA and Advisory firms. Acting as an outsourced talent acquisition team creating a seamless process for hiring, Spartan’s aim is to be ahead of the market and anticipate their clients’ next hires. Based in Medina, Ohio, Keri’s vision is for Spartan Placements to continue to build relationships with clients and grow until it has become the top CPA staffing firm on the East Coast.

Transcript:

Hey, folks. Welcome back to another episode of CPA Life, the podcast that shines a bright light on what some of today’s people-centric firms and firm leaders are doing in the marketplace today to build amazing CPA firms and advisory firms that allow professionals to build great careers without really having to choose between a great career and a great life outside of the office. We work on highlighting firms that are really passionate about showing people that you don’t have to sacrifice your life or your family at the altar of your job to build a career in public accounting.

Today, we’re going to be starting a series that we’re going to focus on for the next few weeks, where we’re going to spend some time talking to recruiters and talent acquisition professionals in the marketplace who spend their time working in the public accounting sector, providing services to public accounting, CPA firms, and advisory firms. Today we’re going to hang out a little bit with Keri Billington, who is the managing partner with Spartan Placements, a specialty search firm based in Akron, Ohio. Keri focuses her time with her team on partnering with mid-sized firms in the East Coast area. Keri, thanks for joining us today.

Yeah, John, thanks for having me. I’m really excited to talk to you today because I love discussing my journey. I mean, it’s not, you know, the most traditional path into recruiting, but it’s one I definitely wouldn’t change. And with that, I also love talking about public accounting. It’s definitely a specialized space, and I definitely feel like I found my niche.

You know, you mentioned a non-traditional path into recruiting.

Yes.

I don’t know if there’s a traditional path into recruiting. I think there’s probably a little bit more of a traditional path now, but, you know, I said for years, and I still say today when I talk to people about, you know, working in our business, I don’t know of anybody that’s ever gotten into this business with the intent of, “Hey, I’m going to grow up and I’m going to be a recruiter,” in the third-party recruiting space or talent acquisition space.

Yeah, it kind of finds you, doesn’t it?

It really kind of does. So one of the things that we typically do at this point in the show is to give folks a little bit of a glimpse of who you are and how you’ve gotten to this point in your career. So tell us a little bit about your life and how you’ve gotten to be at Spartan Placements.

Sure, absolutely. So, I guess I’ll just start by saying I started my career out as a police dispatcher, actually. Then, once we had our two daughters, Juliana and Emerson, I was a stay-at-home mom for a little while, and let me tell you, that is definitely the hardest and most rewarding job there is out there. You know, I definitely love being present for my family but I also missed working towards my professional goals and have always been motivated. So I knew I wanted something with the flexibility that would allow me to still be there for the girls but also build something of my own.

So when I was trying to figure out what that would be, I looked at numerous different things, but my husband actually has been in recruiting for years. He’s in the healthcare staffing industry, and I watched him build his career really from the ground up, and it sparked my interest in the industry—just the ability to connect with people and match them with the right opportunities, to watch businesses grow and build relationships—that’s always been something that’s really excited me. So that’s when I decided to start Spartan Placements. I wanted to create opportunities for others and build something meaningful for myself at the same time. When we first started out, we were trying to figure out who we were. We were operating in a couple of different industries all over the place. Then once I found public accounting, I was hooked. I was like, “This is it. This is for me.”

That’s kind of different because it’s typically a space in the accounting finance world—speaking from experience—it’s typically a place if you pack a hundred accounting finance recruiters from all over the country into a room and say, “Hey, show of hands, how many of you guys love working in the public accounting space and providing support from a recruiting and talent acquisition perspective to the public accounting space?” If you’re lucky, I think you might have ten percent of the room raise their hand, and that’s it.

Yeah. Well, that’s kind of part of it. I mean, I think there’s a need for people that understand it and they’re passionate about it. It’s such a specialized space with so many different nuances to it that if you really don’t speak the language and if you don’t understand it, you’re going to have a hard time figuring out the right match.

Absolutely. And it’s something I think that a lot of people dabble in. It’s something that a lot of people just dip their toe in every now and then. That may work for some people in their business model. It may work if they’re supporting, in my opinion, larger firms with needs that, yes, they’re dire needs in a very large firm, but the machine’s going to keep going if those holes don’t get filled at a Big Four firm or a top 50 firm—the machine is going to continue to go. But when you’re talking about mid-sized firms like you work with, small to mid-sized firms like I work with, that one hire could be a critical role that’s a linchpin to keeping the business moving forward. It’s a very different dynamic.

Yeah, and they can’t afford to make mistakes oftentimes.

No, not at all. So you’ve been doing recruiting in the public accounting space for a little bit. Tell me a little bit about the focus that you guys have. Is there a specific firm size that you feel like you bring the most value to, and where you guys have had the most success partnering with organizations?

Yeah! So we’ve been specialized in working with CPA firms for four and a half years or so now. Really, my target partner is between, let’s say a 25-person firm would be like the smallest firm that I work with, and then I do work with some firms, you know, 5,000 plus. So it’s broad in terms of what size firm; it’s more about the partnership I can create and the communication through the process. We’re not looking to work with every firm that has a need because let’s be honest, every firm does have a need at some point or another. So, we are really looking for those true partners, and I get a sense of that in conversation—just talking to, at a smaller firm, a lot of times it’s partners that I begin the conversations with—and then the larger firms, it comes down to that talent acquisition team and them looking for a true extension, true partnership of what they do internally.

It depends on the firm and depends on just what they’re looking for and their growth goals as well, but location-wise, it’s definitely the East Coast, like you mentioned. I’m in Ohio, so naturally, a large pool in Ohio, but from there, like Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Florida, the Carolinas, Chicago—those are really our biggest markets, I would say. But just as my team continues to grow, I think our footprint will grow as well.

So one of the questions that I wanted to ask you is, are there things that you’re seeing consistently across the firms that you work with that winning teams and winning leaders are doing as good or better than their competition?

Yeah, absolutely. I think that there’s a lot of little things that can set firms apart and it really starts from that initial engagement: Obviously having a good sense of the market and what’s going on in the market, having a good partnership or a good recruiting foundation I think is important. You know, for me specifically and the partners that I work with, and there’s one that comes to mind that is definitely one of my top partners that has it really figured out. It starts with us having a seamless relationship and them knowing that the candidates we present are well-vetted, and in turn, they move pretty quickly when they see a resume that they like. From there, the internal team does a fantastic job of keeping consistent with what we’re telling candidates as well—conveying the firm’s value and just talking about the opportunity, and just different nuances about the position and the specific teams that they’re going to be working on, so that consistent message is really important.

And then, they have a thoughtful interview process. I feel like so many people miss this step, but it is so, so important to the candidate experience going through the interview process when they’re likely interviewing with multiple other firms. Just being strategic about who meets with the candidate; say they’re interviewing someone coming from Big Four, then they likely have somebody internally that’s been at Big Four and they bring them into the interview process to give their perspective. I think that goes a long way with candidates and really helps create a common ground there. And then, of course, competitive offers. The offer typically with this firm that I mentioned is consistent with what I’ve discussed with them up front, usually no surprises there. Another thing that they do that I have seen nine times out of ten is they end up with the candidate because of a sign-on bonus.

Really!

Sign-on bonuses go a long way. I usually never ask for them. Sometimes I do, but with this specific firm, I never ask, and they always put one on there. I think it makes the candidate feel valued, and it definitely gives them a leg up in the process for sure. And I think with retaining, just having retention strategies that really work. This is the onboarding process, making sure that’s streamlined, social events, flexible schedules, and really providing that career growth opportunity.

When you talk about culture and you talk about bringing people on board, one of the things that comes to mind is the whole remote, hybrid, 100% in-office dynamic that it’s still a topic of discussion with a lot of firms. The firms that you partner with, the firms that you’re working with, what are you seeing that they’re doing and what are you seeing that works? And when I say works, let me qualify that: When it comes to selling an opportunity to candidates from your perspective, what works and what’s an uphill battle for you when it comes to geography?

Yeah. You know, there’s definitely been that noticeable push for bringing employees back into the office. I see it more in specific markets just because you know, it’s naturally happening, and happening more in other markets. But from what I’ve seen, the firms that remain open to remote or flexible/hybrid schedules consistently attract the best talent. The reality is people want autonomy. They want the option to go into the office oftentimes, but they don’t want a mandate to go into the office. So it’s having that office within arms’ reach for collaboration and focus days, but they don’t want a rigid schedule that dictates when they go into the office. Yeah, the firms that recognize and embrace the flexibility have the clear advantage—they just do. I’ve had firms that say, “Hey, we’re going right back into the office,” and it’s kind of pushed back on them. They’ve lost a lot of talent, it’s created a ripple effect that hasn’t been effective. So it’s truly having an approach that isn’t a one-size-fits-all, and kind of trying to make it work.

One of the stats that we’ll talk to clients about, and I don’t know if this is similar to what you guys have seen or completely off, maybe it’s just something that we’re experiencing in the size of firms that we talk to, but we track a bunch of data. We look at a lot of different numbers and over the last two years, if it’s a fully remote role—like “we don’t even have an office” or “we don’t care if people are here. It’s fully remote, work from anywhere. We’re in, you know, we’re in Akron, Ohio, but you can be in Seattle, Washington. We do not care.” Our time to fill roles like that is usually anywhere from about 30 to 45 days.

Oh yeah.

Roles that are hybrid in nature, meaning we have a geographic location and you need to be in the office—maybe there’s not a dictatorial mindset of “It’s got to be on these days,” but you’ve got to be in the office one day a week, two days a week, we want you within a certain geography of the office kind of thing, what we’ve typically seen is time to fill is somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 to 140, 150 days. And if it is 100% in office, like “We’re here and we expect everybody else to be here,” our time to fill those roles, and we haven’t worked many of them, is usually about six to 12 months. I don’t know if you guys are seeing that kind of timeframe with the searches that you’re working on, or what are you seeing?

Yeah, I would say that’s pretty consistent. I have a handful of clients that are five days a week in the office. So for us to take on that search, it has to be a market that we were fully entrenched into, we have deep candidate pools, and have worked that market already, because it’s harder to find. Let’s be honest, it’s a slim number of people that actually want to be in five days a week with no flexibility. So you start out with a batch of candidates who are interested in the potential position, and then it shrinks down to who’s actually qualified for the nuances of the position, and then it shrinks down to the people that would even consider hybrid, and then from there to talk about somebody who wants to come in five days a week, no exceptions, you’ve got maybe one candidate, a needle in the haystack that is going to work and be within the salary range that you’re expecting. So yeah, I mean that’s pretty consistent, I would say, with what we see too.

Yep. It’s just one of those things, I think, that firms that are doing things right and doing things well, back to your point, I think that those firm leaders realize that the 1980s, 1990s, 2000, and 2010 mindset of one size fits all is no longer something you can buy into if you want to be a place that people long to be a part of. It sounds like that’s what you’re experiencing and what you’re seeing.

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, COVID hit and firms had to figure out how to work remotely. But now people have figured it out, and those true professionals that want to work are going to sometimes work even harder in a remote environment. I know for me, times and days get blurred working remote. It’s not like I’m sitting at a desk in an office from nine to five. A lot of times, I’m working at weird hours, which public accountants have to do as well. So I think it opens the door for harder working individuals, actually, not being tied to the desk chair.

One of the other big dynamics going on in the public accounting space right now is private equity coming into the space, investing in firms, impacting firms. Have you seen that impact any of the clients that you’ve been working with? Have you seen that impact candidates that are now in your database or have raised their hand post a PE infusion into their firm to say, “Hey, I may want to talk now.” What have you seen with that entire phenomenon taking place over the last 12 to 24 months in the space?

Yeah, absolutely. Gosh, I mean, I think the CPA space in general, in the four plus years that we’ve been doing this, we’ve seen so many changes. I feel like every month or so, there’s a new challenge that we’re taking on, from the great resignation to aggressive counteroffers and the trend of everybody wanting to move into industry, and then of course PE, and how that’s come to the table and really thrown everything upside down. It’s the wild west for sure, but I feel like we kind of thrive in that ever-changing landscape. The PE money, I mean, I work with a handful of firms that have that, and I’ve seen a select number of firms that, with that PE backing, it’s actually been a real positive thing. I’ve seen some firms that they’ve made strategic changes due to that, and they’re able to grow in an entrepreneurial, smart way. But I’ve also worked with some firms where I’ve seen the reverse: I’ve seen a lot of people leave, I’ve seen people complain about bars constantly changing to get that next promotion, and taking away the family feel. So it’s a mixed bag. I think it goes back to leadership, it goes back to communication and transparency, but yeah, I mean, it’s definitely throwing public accounting upside down, I would say that.

One of the things I’ll—I compare a lot of things that we’re dealing with in our industry to is the marriage mentoring and marriage coaching that my wife and I do outside of this business. One of the things that we always talk to couples about is to never use the words “always’ or ’never.” “You always do this,” or “You never do that” kind of thing. I think it’s important that when it comes to private equity, using the words “always” and “never” are not good either. There’s going to be some good that comes out of that—we can’t argue that, we can’t say that that’s not going to happen—but there’s going to be some bad that comes out of that as well.

From the experience that you’ve seen, you mentioned that you have a couple of firms that you’ve worked with that have taken on PE money. One of the things that is “the sell,” if you will, to any industry—not only public accounting, but any professional services space, any manufacturing space, any space that is taking on private equity money—one of the sells is we’re going to have the money to go out and hire the people and grow the firm the way that we want to grow it, need to grow it, have to grow it kind of thing. Have you seen that infusion of private equity money affect the hiring, or hiring plans, positively of a firm that previously either was slow growth or no growth that you’re engaged with?

You know, it varies firm to firm. I have one firm that honestly kind of goes back to what I’m seeing with firms that are open to opportunistic hiring, because I think that is a big piece of winning in the talent shortage game with public accounting. So I think that I’ve seen firms backed by PE that are still open to opportunistic hiring, and because of that PE money, maybe they’re able to take on that talent without a true need. But I’ve seen other firms that are the absolute reverse: Once they took on that PE money, PE comes in and kind of controls who they’re hiring, who they’re promoting, what they’re paying, and I’ve also seen some layoffs with that as well. So again, it’s a mixed bag, and I think firm to firm, it can vary depending on how that PE comes in and how hands-on they are. Sorry if that’s kind of like an answer that doesn’t give you direct, because I’m definitely seeing both sides of the coin and can authentically say I’ve seen both.

Well, and I think that that’s a part of the dynamic of the space: There’s going to be some—like I know of at least a couple of firms that have taken on private equity money where leadership has maintained a very strong grip on the control of the firm. And I’m talking legacy leadership. Because of that, the firm continues to prosper just like they were before, but they’re now doing it at a little bit of a faster pace and a little bit of a better pace because they have the resources to be able to do that.

I’ve also seen private equity come into a couple of firms where there was a big promise of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and before we even started following the rainbow to the pot of gold, the discussion was had that, “Hey, our wagon is way too heavy—we need to get some people off the wagon so that we can make the trip to the pot of gold a little bit faster.” And there were cuts that were made that they never saw coming. So I don’t think it’s an always or never situation, I just think that people have to be ready to be flexible when they’re sitting in a firm where private equity is coming in, they need to make sure that they understand what their options are. Would you say that that’s probably a good way to put it for the people on the inside that aren’t at the partner level?

Yeah, I think it’s transparency, and I would be concerned if there’s no chatter about how things are going to go once PE comes in. So it’s going to be interesting—I feel like that is such a topic in this space, it’s every other day I open up my LinkedIn and there’s an announcement of an acquisition or there’s an announcement of a new firm with PE money. So that’s a dynamic that everybody has to pay attention to right now.

One of the things I wanted to ask you about is candidate flow in the marketplace today. The candidate pipeline in public accounting has been, as long as I’ve been doing this, a very tight pipeline. Regardless of how many people were in the pipeline 30 years ago versus today, the pipeline has always been a very thin pipeline because people go into public accounting and then there’s that two to five-year window that they’re like, “I got my experience. I’m out.” You’ve still got that dynamic, then you throw into that the entire 150-hour thing, you’ve got all kinds of issues with being able to qualify for the test, sit for the test, pass the test, get your grades done in a certain period of time. I know of a handful of people that are really pressing in that window to get their parts passed. There’s just a lot of things going on in the space right now.

Couple that with all the dynamics that are occurring in the accounting profession as a whole when it comes to tax laws, when it comes to accounting regulations, shortage of people, so companies are hiring more—all of those dynamics. One of the things that we’re hearing from clients—and new clients—is, “Hey, man, I was doing this on my own two years ago, and it was kind of working but today, man, where’d all the people go? Where’d all the people go, number one? And number two, can you find people where I can’t? Because I’m DIYing it, throwing ads all over the place and getting Firestone tire changers answering my ads. Can you help me? How do you help me?” So what do you say to firms that you talk to where that’s the case?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the talent shortage is real and very competitive. I mean, that’s why I exist, that’s why you exist, you know what I mean? It’s truly, you have to be in front of the market every single day. That’s why I think opportunistic hiring is huge, if you’re truly committed to growing your team in a thoughtful way. Partnering of course, with a recruiter that is out in the industry every day and talking to people—I run my business really relationship-based, so candidates that I’m talking to that are open to talking to me now, a lot of times they’re saying, “Hey, right now is not the best time for me to make a move. We’re going into busy season or whatever the case, or hey, I’m getting married, I’m ideally not looking to make a move for six months,” right?

So for firm leaders, I think it’s really important that they’re also doing the same—they’re out in the markets, talking to people in the industry, seniors or staff at other firms, and networking, because when that time comes, that candidate’s going to make a move. Building that relationship and having that communication going ensures that they’re going to be looking at you when they’re looking to make a move. For us and what we bring to the table, I think that there’s a lot of firms too, that have internal talent acquisition; a lot of the firms that I work with, they already have people that work internally. But there’s still value in working with somebody that’s a recruiter on the outside because we give an unbiased opinion about all of the different firms, and we know salary statistics for multiple firms, multiple markets. Giving that candidate that information is always helpful too.

We really know what’s happening behind the scenes, firm-to-firm, because of all the conversations we’re having every single week with multiple different candidates, so giving that context is super helpful. And then we always have more than one opportunity, so we’re really ensuring that candidates are finding their best fit, and the reason why they’re looking to make a move. So partnering with a recruiter, and as a partner at a firm, being out in the market, having conversations with people at different levels, those are things that people can do to combat that talent shortage.

And you bring up a great point being proactive in that process because if you’re doing your job well, and I know that you do because we’ve talked a lot about this: You’re in front of people consistently, not just because they fit the job you have today, but because they fit into the wheelhouse of what you work, and there may be some value that you could bring to them, or they could bring to you, two weeks, two months, two years from now. The value in that I think also, to some of your clients and some of the firms that you work with and that I work with, is we don’t deal with a lot of larger firms. But we do have a couple of firms that are clients of ours that are larger, you know, would probably fit into the mold of what your stereotypical client is. And it’s always interesting with those firms that reach out to us and say, “Hey, we’re looking to fill this type of role, and we know of five people, three people, four people down the road at a couple of other firms that we’d love to talk to but we can’t approach them. Can you do that for us?” Absolutely, we can.

Yeah, I’ve definitely seen that too. I mean, there’s firms that are aligned with other firms. There’s just, in the industry, people don’t like that approach, right? Of course. So yeah, I mean, that’s another reason to work with a recruiter who knows the market and understands the nuances of your client base and who else in the market has that same experience.

Yeah, there’s a lot of value in talking to somebody that is constantly having a pulse on the marketplace and understanding what is going on in the marketplace. It’s the difference of, you know, “Hey, you need to go to the hospital. You need to get taken care of, and you have a choice. You can go to the hospital where they’re going to hook you up to a monitor, and someone’s going to watch that monitor 24/7, they’re going to know exactly what’s going on with you. Or we’re going to take you to a hospital where when they have time, someone’s going to come by your room and ask you how you’re feeling, maybe slap a blood pressure cuff on you to see how things are going, but they’re not going to constantly be in touch with who you are. So until you have a heart attack in your bed, we may not ever know that there’s an issue there.” So like you said, having that relationship with somebody that’s got a pulse on the marketplace constantly, there’s immense value in doing that.

What are some other trends that you’re seeing going on in the industry, positively or negatively, that you’re seeing that are impacting either people or the firms that you’re partnering with?

I mean, AI is a huge one. It’s definitely, as we look into the future, it’s one of the most exciting but yet disruptive forces in recruiting talent acquisition and many other facets of the world, is AI disrupting. It’s changing how recruiters and internal recruiters find candidates, evaluate candidates, and connect with talent. It’s really trying to find that blend of how you use it, but not removing the human element to it. AI is good for repetitive tasks, but personally, I think the human element will always remain at the heart of the hire. It just is, because recruiting isn’t just about matching a set of skills to a job description, it’s about finding the right person to thrive in a company’s culture, contribute to the firm’s long-term success, and align with its values. So I think AI is a big one to pay attention to as well in this world.

It’s interesting you mentioned that. One of the things that we’ve seen on some of the lower-level hires in working with some of the clients that we’ve worked with is two evenly matched candidates—let’s just say they both have one year, two years at a Big Four firm or a top hundred national firm as a tax associate—but this one candidate has taken kind of a stereotypical track from accounting into public accounting, Big Four CPA firm, they’ve got a decent background with IT because they have to in the world that we live in today. But then you’ve got this other person over here that maybe they have a minor in data analytics, maybe they have a master’s in data analytics, whatever the case may be, they are like a rockstar when it comes to data analytics, AI, and technology. And we’ve seen firms lean towards that person and those people 100 percent of the time versus the person that’s just, and I don’t want to say a “standard,” but, a two-year tax person that’s just good at tax.

Yeah, that’s interesting. I haven’t seen that as much at this point. I think it depends on the firm again, because a larger firm is definitely going to lean more to that person that has that background, I think. But some of my small firms, they’re not up to speed there yet, so they don’t hold as much value. But it will be interesting in the future, like with recent college grads to take a look at what their background looks like, as opposed to somebody who’s already a manager somewhere, because I do think more and more people are creating awareness around “that’s where things are headed, so I might as well minor in it or major in it or whatever.”

Yep, and get a little bit of experience there. Are you seeing at all, from a technology standpoint or even from an AI standpoint, are you seeing candidates want to drill down more into the tech stack or the adoption of tech within some of the firms that you’re talking to, especially if it is a non-top 100 firm?

Not so much yet, I don’t think. I have some candidates that maybe they’re at a Big Four and they want to get out of the Big Four. But then, like I had one guy that I worked with, he was Big Four wanting to get out, but then they kind of waived a job that had a huge technology piece to it, to kind of get him away from the compliance side, and he did take that. That was kind of interesting to see. But I’ve seen it really just on a small scale at this point. I think, again, it’s something that’s going to come up more and more, but right now, it hasn’t been a huge thing that I’ve come across.

Got it. One of the last questions I want to ask you, which I always think is an interesting question; it’s been posed to me a couple of times on a couple of podcasts that I was on, and so I thought for this series we’re doing, talking to recruiters like you and I that specialize in this space: If you were speaking to firm owners today, and the question was—in this case, is—“Hey, what can I do to make my firm and my people bulletproof against calls from people like you?”

What a question, John!

What would you say to those firm owners? “Let me tell you the two to three things to do, and I promise you when I call your people, when I message your people, they’re probably not going to talk to me.”

Ooh, that’s a hard one because I’m very convincing, John. So I like to think that everybody will respond! Honestly, the biggest thing that we consistently hear from candidates is that they’re looking for a better work-life balance, they’re looking for work that aligns with their goals and their interests, and they are looking for transparency and autonomy. Those are really the big drivers, and of course, public accounting hours are public accounting hours, but I do find when people are finding their work fulfilling and aligning with what they like to do, they don’t complain as much about the hours. If they have that transparency, “Hey, you hit these metrics, you get to this place, we will promote you,” and then they follow through with that, people are happy. So I think those are the biggest things: transparency, autonomy—which under autonomy is kind of flexibility and that flexible work arrangement we talked about—and then I think, again, always the big thing is the hours, but when you really peel it back, the hours don’t seem to be the main driver as opposed to the other two.

Got it. I would tend to agree with you. If there are possible firm owners, leaders, candidates that are thinking about possibly making a career change out of the firm that they’re with and they’re open to staying in public accounting, or they’re even considering a move out of public accounting, but they just want to bounce some thoughts off somebody wanting more information in the marketplace, what’s the best way for people to get ahold of you? What’s the best way for people to connect with you?

Absolutely. Well, I’m very active on LinkedIn, so you can easily find my page on LinkedIn, Keri Billington. Email’s always a good way to reach me as well: kebillin@spartanplacements.com. We also have our website of course that has a lot of job openings. But yeah, LinkedIn is usually the best way to get a quick response, I look forward to connecting with your network.

Perfect. I’ll make sure that we have your website, your email address, and a link to you directly on LinkedIn in the show notes down below. So I want to again thank you for spending some time and talking a little bit about what you’re seeing from your perspective in the public accounting space. It sounds like you’re seeing a lot of the same things that are congruent with what we’re seeing as well.

Absolutely. Thanks again, John. It was amazing speaking with you today!

Hey, thank you. I appreciate it. And for those of you that chose to spend some of your day with us today, I want to thank you for doing that. If you like what you’ve heard, leave some comments down below and don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on the platform of your choice so that you won’t miss any of the future guests that we have coming up, not only talking about this particular topic over the next three or four episodes, but also some of the firm leaders and industry insiders that we’re going to be talking to about what life in this CPA world looks like. Until next time.

We hope you enjoyed today’s episode. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcasting app, leave a five star rating and visit our website for links and show notes at CPALifePodcast.com. We’ll see you next time on CPA Life.

The Talent Game: Recruiting Right with Keri Billington

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