News & Insights

Economic Backdrop

We opened our doors right into the mouth of the dot-com fallout, a humbling reminder that recessions could still exist. The shock of 9/11 soon followed, testing confidence and resilience across every industry. By the mid-2000s, a housing boom was fueling cautious optimism and a sense that recovery was finally taking hold. We first heard of millennials in the workforce and had no appreciation for the impact they would have.

Inside the Recruiting Industry

Recruiting in the early 2000s was built on persistence and creativity. We found names wherever we could, including from business cards dropped in fishbowls at restaurants, marriage announcements in the Sunday paper (yes, we did place someone from this), and employee directories whenever we could get them. Research was manual, outreach was by phone, and relationships were built one cold call at a time.

Featured Placement

In 2001, we recruited Alicia Manders to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) as a Project Research Associate. More than two decades later, she remains there and continues to excel. Alicia has earned multiple promotions and now serves as Assistant Director of Technical Activities, where she contributes to key technical projects and serves as the primary administrator for the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council.

Alicia’s success opened the door to a long-term partnership between Vision Search Partners and the FASB’s parent, the Financial Accounting Foundation. She was the first of what has now become more than 40 accounting policy professionals we’ve recruited for the FASB and its sister organization, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.

Up Next:

February 17, 2026: 2008 to 2013 – Crisis, Disruption and Fundamentals
March 3, 2026: 2014 to 2019 – Economic Expansion, Process Management and Exceptional Talent
March 17, 2026: 2020 to 2022 – COVID, Zoom and Long-Term Relationships
March 31, 2026: 2022 to the present – AI, Balance and Perspective