Denton, from my experience…when a firm is looking for an entry level employee, they are looking to fill the position immediately. How i see it is firms will hire upper-level employees (principles/associates) in hopes of growing a company (this is usually a big step, and is not usually a hurried one). Mid-levelers (project managers) seem to come into the picture when companies start piling up a back log of projects that have not yet been started (eventhough this is more of a reactionary hiring, employers will still take a good amount of time to make sure that the project manager is going to be a good fit for the company). The hiring of entry levelers (staff/support), however, is almost purely a reaction of having too many projects ‘open’ which means that there are active deadlines that need to be met. In this situation they are trying to get someone in as soon as possible to help out with the level of work. Because of this, timing is very tricky and unpredictable, if you are sending out a resume in response to an ad there is a good chance they will contact you very quickly and if they are interested they will probably want you to start soon, whereas if you are just sending out resumes and portfolios to firms you are interested in…there is a good chance it will just sit around in the office until they hit the point that they need more help.
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