smartdept. opened on January 14th, 2002. Michelle and Eric were creatives who kept watching talented people get passed over by recruiters who didn’t have a creative bone in their body. So, they built the thing they wished existed.
Twenty-five years later, they’re still taking a human approach, and are still a little annoyed on behalf of good people who get overlooked.
MICHELLE PAIRITZ
Principal
Michelle started in graphic design and soon landed a role as a recruiter and loved it. With 25+ years of creative staffing experience, some of the smartdept.’s biggest clients started off looking for work through Michelle in the beginning. Michelle is also mom to four girls and painter of potentially famous artwork. She loves to travel, listen to Grateful Dead, and cook. Foods she will wrestle you for include pretzels and cheese.
ERIC PAIRITZ
Principal
Eric is a graduate of the Ringling School of Art and Design and worked as a print designer in healthcare before beginning his now 25+ year career in creative staffing. He is a water-skier, runner, and rabid Cubs fan. His best sports achievement would have to be hitting a home run during Cubs fantasy camp. Dad to four beautiful daughters, he is also very used to being outnumbered. And his baseball card collection is probably better than yours.
After Twenty five years, we know a few things.
We’ve spent all of them in our niche: creative, marketing, and digital. That kind of focus makes us experts on the work, the people who do it, and what it takes to build a team.
Here’s a couple other cool things about us!
Women Owned. People First.
smartdept. is a WBENC certified women owned business. It’s the most recognized certification of its kind in the U.S., which means partnering with us supports your supplier diversity goals and opens the door to a national network of certified alliances.
That is cool, you’re thinking. But even cooler (or is it more cool), we put an emphasis on working through the things that many companies skip, like unconscious bias, pronouns, and protected classes.
Inclusion is paying attention to what people need. Turns out, that’s also how you hire well.