Recruiter first had to find job for self

His job is jobs, the work of finding work.

A recruiter for the job-placement firm Charles Foster Co., Tyson Rupp helps people find jobs and he helps companies find people to fill positions. He knows the mindset of employer and job seeker and can tell each what the other is thinking.

Rupp, 34, comes across with abundant polish, conveying an unbendable focus on his work and, indeed, on professionalism itself. His Minnesota-tinged speech is blunt and jargon-filled: "opportunistic hiring," "candidate-driven market."

When his wife, Rebecca, an Air Force lieutenant, was relocated to Charleston in January, Rupp undertook a job search that he admits was painful and nerve-wracking. Here was an employment expert, armed with trade secrets, a master of the interview, who became just another "candidate" in a crowded pool. It was two months before he was hired by Charles Foster.

These are lean times for recruiters, too. Sure, everyone needs help finding a job, but a recruiter only gets paid when people are hired, and people just aren't being hired. Recruiting firms are closing or downsizing. Rupp, the father of two, is just treading water, waiting for the clouds to lift.

The period from January to March, which coincided with his job hunt, was rock bottom for the economy, he said. But the picture is no prettier now. Companies are top-grading — replacing their least productive employees with highly-qualified applicants, of whom there is a bulging glut.

Sometimes, employers are laying people off unnecessarily, using the current climate as an excuse, he says. Job applicants who are employed will be hired over unemployed applicants almost every time.

Rupp can't help everyone. Like a miner, he passes applicants through his sieve, taking those most likely to be hired and setting the rest aside. And that's hard, sure. But Rupp is practical. He has work to do.