After more than a decade of corporate downsizing, a talent squeeze is on in Corporate America. The competition for top-level employees is intensifying as the sustained tight labor market makes it tougher to recruit, select and keep talented executives.
Jobs are so plentiful, and people can move around.
Companies are so anxious that some are hiring search firms to find qualified candidates before they even have an opening. Electronic Arts, the world's largest provider of interactive entertainment software, is considering a move into online advertising sales. It asked Best to provide names and telephone numbers of people it could cultivate now. Job hoppers have left many posts empty. New technology and Internet start-ups some with pending IPOs and backed with a fortune in venture capital but desperate for financial management skills lure with lower base salaries but market potential.