Consulting Firms that are more worth it than others

These guys seem legit (and appear in no particular order):
 
314e
Vonlay
Sagacious
Parker
Technisource (now Randstad--they're not Epic aficionados, but they can find you a job for the non-compete year)
Nordic (Based on a reader's recommendation)
Henry Elliot  (They staff specifically for Caché/MUMPS-related jobs. This could be useful for the non-compete year. I can't remember if they do Epic.)

If you get an email like this, my recommendation is to ignore:

From: [xxxx]
To:
Subject: Epic Clarity (Healthcare) Certified required for my client in [XX]. Please send me the resume.
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2012 08:07:18 -0700

Epic Clarity (Healthcare) Certified required for my client in [XX]. Please send me the resume.

Location: [XXXXX, XX]

Duration: 1-2 months

Start Date: ASAP

Rate: Expense will be paid

ROLE: Report Writer

Must be Certified.

REQUIRED SKILLS

• We would need a report writer certified in Clarity reporting (for sure) and HB (ideal) and with experience in both applications (specifically reporting workbench in the HB application).
• This position would be 30-60 days in duration.
• The focus would be developing an extract in Clarity for a decision support/cost accounting vendor (Med Assets Avega).

Regards,

[XXXXXXX XXXX]

O: [111-111-1111]
F: [222-222-2222]
E: [email@fakeemail.com]

company name

There's nothing personalized about this email. It's nice that it includes the contact information, but I'm not even certified in Clarity or HB. My certs are readily available on my resume on all the job sites--this smacks of a bot trolling for the word "epic" and then a recruiter is just attempting to find a warm body. A company that sends emails like this doesn't seem like it would care about the best fit for me, just the best fit for their bottom line.


Contrast with this exchange, with a managing partner from Vonlay:

Hi [anonymous]

I am touching base to see what interest you may have in Epic consulting positions. My partner and I have a consulting company, Vonlay LLC (www.vonlay.com), and we focus heavily on EMR with our core being Epic. My partner Aaron Carlock worked for Epic for about 4 years and most of our consultants have as well.

I would be interested to find out what your long term interests are regarding type of projects, project locations etc. I see that your non-compete with Epic will go through this year. We are looking for a resource experienced with Epic Ambulatory for two Epic projects in Wisconsin and we have many other needs as well.

We are based in Madison right next door to Epic, and have great relationships with Epic, many Epic clients, and consultants across the country. We are a small consulting company focused on our people, and many former Epic employees have joined our team and are finding our culture and benefits to be a great fit for them.

I would appreciate any opportunity to find out more about you, your background and your interests. We don’t have any recruiters, and you would be working directly with myself and Aaron as owners of Vonlay.

Let me know if there is a time that we can speak. Thank you for your time.

Mike Kolpein
[mike's email address]

From: 

Sent: 

To: Mike Kolpien
Subject: Accepted: RE: Epic Consulting

---

LinkedIn

INMAIL: ACCEPTED

[anonymous]  has accepted your request.

Email: [anonymous at undisclosedlocation dot com]

Title: Epic Consulting

Hi Mike,
I'd be interested in any Epic positions you have. My strength is in [specific apps] but I'm certified in other apps as well. My non compete expires at the end of this year, so unless you have clients that disregard the non-compete, I can't really do anything until then.

I'm open to relocation, short term/contract projects, pretty much anything.

Thanks,
[anonymous]

 ---

From: Mike
Date:
Subject: FW: Accepted: RE: Epic Consulting
To: [anonymous]

Hi [anonymous],

We are a partner with Epic, so we certainly honor the non-compete and are aware of it.  What I would like to do is schedule a call or get together sometime over coffee to review your background and what the best projects would be for you.  We would certainly be able to line up multiple projects at the end of the year or beginning of next year for Epic work.  But I am also aware of many consulting opportunities in the Madison area that are outside of Epic that could possibly be of interest in the mean time.  Let me know if we can schedule something.

Thank you.

Mike

Mike Kolpien

Vonlay LLC – Managing Partner

mike's email address

mike's phone

----

The difference is obvious. There's personal attention, from an actual person who has an actual photograph (check their website), and it's obvious that he read my resume before contacting me. The impression is that I would not just be a product being sold, but an actual person. All the companies I've listed above do this. I picked Vonlay as the example because I still had the email exchange.