Monday, February 6, 2006

Telemet America plans to hire about 10 people in the next one to two months. Fred Parsons, chairman and chief executive, talked with The Post's Andrea Caumont.

Q What does your company do?

AWe're a competitor of Bloomberg, Reuters and Thomson. We deliver real-time and historic stock market data, news and charts to professional investors. Our customers are people who are in bank trust departments, mutual funds and a group of people called investment advisers who hold themselves out as being experts in the financial markets. The software is designed for their needs and not for stock broker needs. They can monitor the markets and their clients' portfolios and keep track of their investment decisions.

What do you think your employees would say are the best reasons for working at your company?

Different people had different reasons. Everybody likes the stock market. I think our salespeople enjoy dealing with our clients and prospects because these are very professional, smart people and they recognize and enjoy the kind of service we provide. The client service people are a little different. They like the fact we've been around for 26 years. They feel comfortable with their co-workers, and they think its a family-like group of people who work here. People stay a long time with us.

Who owns your company?

It's privately held. I own a majority, but we have some employees that have been here a long time who have some stock, and we also have some outside investors.

What sense of stability can your company offer job candidates?

We've never had layoffs, and we've been around for 26 years now. Knock on wood, but I think we're doing something right. We can beat these guys from Reuters and Bloomberg. The business is changing. The Internet is an exciting prospect, and we're seeing opportunities open up that would not have opened up if the Internet wasn't around.

What are the demographics of your company?

On our four-person senior-management team, there is one woman and no minorities. Company-wide, we're 20 percent both female and minority.

What positions do you have available, and what level of expertise do you want?

We're trying to build territories around New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston. Our target is to triple our client base over the next five years. We think we can do that because we've been ignoring these major markets. We're looking for six sales representatives who have about two to five years of relevant experience. We don't necessarily want people with a financial sales background but that would be preferred because then we don't have to teach them about the markets. We're also looking for four technical client service representatives. This position involves installing our software on-site as well as training the clients on how to use the software. Applicants should have two to five years of relevant experience.