Employee Spotlight – Scott Rosen

Tell us a little about yourself….
I am a native Angeleno and have lived in Los Angeles my whole life. I am married and have two daughters who are ten and fifteen. I have worked in HR and recruiting for close to fifteen years and before that in casting for movies and t.v. for five years. I was part of the team that cast Hilary Duff in the show “Lizzie McGuire” and Gerard Butler in a miniseries called “Attila the Hun”, one of his early roles before “300”. I am also passionate about everything Disney and own close to 150 Hawaiian style shirts. I have two tattoos, Peter Pan, to remind me to always stay young at heart and Gonzo from the Muppets to remind me to always stay weird.

How has your career grown since starting at Marcum Search?
I was part of a smaller agency that was acquired by Marcum. I came in with a great team with whom I work very well. Since joining Marcum in 2018, I have been able to take on more responsibilities and really help get the name out there. I really enjoy mentoring more junior team members and watching them grow their skill sets and confidence.

In my career I am most proud of…
Making connections between clients and candidates. I really see what I do as matchmaking. I am lucky in that for my role I am pretty split between candidates and clients and I like working with them both. I really like getting to know clients and their firms and figuring out what works for them and what doesn’t. I also enjoy working with candidates, getting inside their minds to see what they really want, and learning about their backgrounds and experience. It is exciting to see someone start on their career path and watch them progress and grow over time and at the same time finding people who are very experienced and watching them take their skills and experience from one place to another. The most magical words in our profession for me to hear, other than “the check has cleared” is “I love my job. Thank you”.

My favorite quote is…
“Breathe in, Breathe out, Move on” by one of my heroes, Jimmy Buffett. I have always said the way I am successful in my job is if someone else, i.e., the person I placed does well. I am putting my faith and belief that they will do the job they said they could do. Sometimes, through no one’s fault, a placement doesn’t work out and it is 100% outside of my control and getting upset or disappointed won’t do anything to change it so we just have to stop, take a breath and move on from it.

Three words to describe myself…
Patient, inquisitive, organized.

My perfect day is…
Definitely spending time with my family at Disneyland. No matter how many times I go, the magic, fun and excitement is always there and the stress and concerns of the outside world go away, at least temporarily, as soon as I walk through those gates.

Advice for my 16 year old self…
Believe in yourself and don’t ever doubt what you can be capable of. Inside that mind are some pretty good ideas.

The person who had the biggest impact on my life is…
While I could do the obvious and say my family or children, I actually have two people who I’d pick, Walt Disney and Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets. I think our society uses the word “genius” a little too liberally, but these are two people who I think deserving of the title. They were both able to take art forms that existed previously and through constant innovation took these art forms to places never thought possible, while still making it about the story and not the technology, and they were never ones to rest on their laurels. They both took their success and used it to constantly look forward and come up with new ways to tell stories. They also both recognized the importance of having a good team and surrounded themselves with other artists who were the best in their fields and were always willing to listen to ideas and share credit, no matter where the ideas came from. There is a reason that both of their work lives on and continues to inspire.

Number one on my bucket list
Besides having my kids get a great college education, to travel to every Disney theme park in the world (and meet Jimmy Buffett).

A funny or memorable experience from your career or personal life?
About twenty five years ago I worked at a summer camp in the mountains and one weekend a bunch of staff and I went to a lake that had 55 foot high cliffs that you could jump into the lake from. I am absolutely terrified of heights but got talked into taking the plunge by a friend and we were on the ledge for over an hour and every time he said ready, I found a reason to not do it. The last time he said he was jumping whether I went with him or not and at the count of three, I did it. I remember the feeling of literally being in the air and it felt so exhilarating. I was so glad I did it, although I haven’t done anything like it since.