Tag Archives: AVID Technical Resources

Review: “The Google Resume: How to Prepare for a Career and Land a Job at Apple, Microsoft, Google, or any Top Tech Company”

Technical recruiters know that a technical candidates’ resume speaks volumes.  Thus the ability to separate power resumes from weaker ones is key. IT recruiters who are familiar with The Google Resume will be doing themselves  favor when is comes to identifying strong technical resumes (and the candidates behind the resume). Gayle McDowell instructs technical candidates on the type of job experience, educational background and extra-curriculars that makes a candidate top tech material. Recruiters at IT staffing agencies can use the same information to identify the type of winning technical resumes that grab the attention of the best technical corporate employers, like Apple or Google.

IT recruiting companies looking to hone their technical staffing skills will find this book useful. McDowell’s advice is more than opinion.  As a former member of Google’s hiring committee, he’s not bluffing when he claims to know what top tech firms demand in a technical candidate.  The book’s behind-the-scenes look at tech companies gives technical recruiters a better idea of how to make a good fit between a technical candidate and employer based on knowledge of various tech firm’s corporate environment. Reading this book will make the technical recruiters at any IT staffing firm more competitive, and more successful at what they do: finding the right IT consultants.

Review: “Breakthrough Technical Recruiting”

Ford’s Breakthrough Technical Recruiting offers IT Recruiters & Technical Hiring Managers advice for navigating the IT headhunting process. Ford speaks with authority from his own years of supervisors’ experience as a former recruiter, armed with technical recruiting strategies that led to high placement rates. Finding and identifying highly qualified technical candidates is a challenge Ford is familiar with and can provide perspective on across a variety of industries. His IT staffing secrets are priceless for the IT headhunter looking to step things up a notch, or for IT recruiting companies in the Boston area and beyond. His lucrative tips will serve IT staffing firms well.

Ford delves into interviewing strategies for technical recruiters that will help cut through the fluff and determine which IT candidate interview answers reveal stellar potential or a second or third-place contender. As every technical recruiter knows, generating viable leads is a cornerstone aspect of the IT staffing industry. IT recruiting companies need well-developed telemarketing tactics, and this book provides insight into this side of the business. Recruiting firms will find this book a valuable source of IT staffing information that will serve IT headhunters well over time.

Review, “IT Made E-Z”

Starting out, the technical recruiter needs to learn tools to to increase sales & placements. Patrick Bowman’s book, IT Made E-Z, guides the new technical recruiter through the process of maximizing technical recruiting techniques. Bowman reveals tips for technical interviewing efficiency, and making a partnership between clients and the technical recruiting team. He covers specific technologies in-depth, so that the young salesperson can become familiar with technical terms, technical job descriptions, and how to identify varying levels of competence in technical skills when interviewing IT Candidates.

According to Bowman, part of success in the IT Staffing industry depends on the technical recruiter’s ability to add personal knowledge to the information the client company provides. This comes down to understanding fully what the client company is looking for, beyond the standard HR description of a technical role. There’s an art to extracting the full description of what a client is seeking, since technical skills may cover 80% of the total picture the client seeks, but the remaining 20% may involve other factors. Getting inside the head of the vendor is what will make an IT staffing firm more successful than competitors at making placements that last the length of the contract and are a good fit.

Review: “A Beginner’s Guide to Technical Recruiting” by Prabakaran Murugaiah

What does a technical recruiter starting out for the first time in an IT Staffing Firm need to know? According to  Prabakaran Murugaiah, author of “A Beginner’s Guide to Technical Recruiting”, a lot. Murugaiah warns technical recruiters in-training that the big picture in the IT Staffing industry and in technical headhunting is changing at a rapid pace in 2011 (when he wrote A Beginner’s Guide), and beyond. The takeaway for technical recruiters starting a career in IT Staffing is that more experienced technical recruiters mentoring rookies may not have all the answers. It’s up to the protege technical recruiter to educate him or herself on the industry changes that are happening in short order.

Technical qualifications are no longer everything. Technical skills are still, as ever, center stage, but technical employers place a high value on other skills as well. Those skills include communication ability, company environment fit, and personality type. A fast-paced technical environment will look for different personality types in their IT candidates than a smaller, less rushed company atmosphere will. A Beginner’s Guide keeps technical recruiters abreast of culture changes like these in the staffing industry, and offers advice for technical recruiters looking to best take maximize the power of this industry knowledge.  IT candidates qualified on all skill facets important to technical employers are easier for technical recruiters to spot after reading this book. Read it today for practical technical recruiting tips!

Review: “Technical Screening – Java Developers” by Obi Ogbanufe

Technical Recruiters know that placing an IT candidate in a Java role is no easy task – technical candidates with the right background, technical skills, and level of proficiency with Java aren’t always a quick find. One interview approach technical recruiters use when screening IT candidates for a potential interview for a Java Developer role is to ask the IT candidate to rate him or herself on a scale of 1 to 5. The downside of this interview style is that the technical recruiter depends on the IT candidates’ accurate self-assessment and truthfullness. An IT candidate who rates him or herself as a 5 out of 5, or a Java Developer expert, may not be able to perform on the level expected by the hiring manager. Then again, the hiring manager and IT candidate may simply have different ideas about what a ‘5’ means. If an IT candidate has mastered an intermediate level of Java Development in past work experience, and accordingly, self-rates as a 5, the hiring manager, who may want an IT candidate proficient in a top-tier level of Java Development may consider that same candidate closer to a 2 or 3, since mastering intermediate levels only brings an IT candidate to starting levels for expert level performance.

Obi Ogbanufe tackles this and other issues surrounding technical recruiting for Java Developers. He includes real examples of successful Java Developer screening questions, and discusses which IT candidates’ answers match what IT employers are looking for, and which answer types should serve as red flags to IT recruiters. IT Staffing Firms like AVID Technical Resources take the phone-screening process seriously, using it to filter out weaker IT candidates from the ones that technical recruiters see potential in. One key element in a successful Java Developer placement is a technical recruiter’s understanding of the technology itself. By familiarizing him or herself with the Java technology, a technical recruiter will be better equipped to identify incomplete or inaccurate answers to interview questions instantly. A technical recruiter with this ability will operate more efficiently and make better use of each work day than a recruiter who needs to seek advice on the accuracy level of each candidates’ replies. Efficiency and speed leads to more successful IT job placements, and thats a win-win for IT candidates and technical recruiters alike.

Considering a Career in Technical Recruiting?

What are the benefits of a career in technical recruiting & how do you know if it’s a career path you want to pursue? Technical recruiting requires the ability to listen to prospective IT candidates & engage in headhunting. Technical recruiters also need to be able to size up an IT professional’s technical strengths and weaknesses and make determinations involving the type of role that might be a good fit and environment that might suit available IT job-seekers as well.

At AVID  Technical Resources, technical recruiters keep in close contact with IT candidates and introduce them to technical jobs fitting their unique IT skill sets. Unlike staffing firms that deal in a broad range of industries and job descriptions, AVID focuses on an area of expertise, specializing in advanced tech roles. IT Staffing Agencies like AVID Technical Resources allow technical recruiters to develop a level of familiarity with tech positions that makes them better equipped to find IT candidates a good fit in a high-tech position.

Personality Testing for Technical Recruiters & Employers

Technical recruiters at AVID Technical Resources know that personality determines more than just what movies you like or what type of music you prefer. Personality tests, possibly the most famous of which is the MBTI test; the Myers Briggs Personality Test, allow employers to predict a candidate’s potential fit for a specific job using their psychological profile. It might seem counter-intuitive at first — how can something as subjective as a personality shed light on something as fairly objective, like how much a candidate’s level of experience qualifies him or her to perform specific duties? While a personality test won’t tell technical recruiters or employers how well a candidate with Java on his or her resume can actually perform when the timer or the pressure’s on, it can reveal the changes of a good candidate/employer fit.

Fit matters to employers because they’re invested in a specific company, with a unique culture and coworkers who belong to a team. A resume tells technical recruiters and technical employers part of the story, but careful employers want the other piece of the puzzle to be in place also – fit. Anything that’s important to an employer is also important to a staffing firm partnering with that employer. A technical candidate may see a technical job opportunity as a chance to reach career goals, or stay within an industry he or she likes. It may even be a chance to switch industries into an area that interests the candidate. In this way, the candidate may be the victim of a little tunnel vision, failing to take into consideration the big picture for the long term. The right job is more than an opportunity, or the label of the ‘right’ industry for the technical job-seeker. It’s the chance to take a first step up a long ladder of rewarding challenges, and if personality conflicts are going to do in the candidate from the start, no one wins. Employers need to reinstate their search for technical candidate with the right technical skills to fulfill the demands of the role their company needs, and and technical candidates are on the job search again. A better approach is to acknowledge that personality plays a big role in a company – how good of a team player a technical candidate has the potential to be depends to a large degree on the amount of common ground coworkers share.

Technical candidates may be asked to take a personality test for an interview, but they may find taking one on their own just as useful for their job search as it is to employers. A personality test can give a candidate data regarding his or her levels of extroversion versus introversion, and open up job possibilities not previously considered. It could give a candidate clues on which industries are likely to be the best match, or what personality types he or she should look for in potential coworkers when interviewing. You know what? Those Myers and Briggs…they may have been on to something.

Review: Technology Made Simple for the Technical Recruiter

Technical Recruiters will find “Technology Made Simple for the Technical Recruiter: A Technical Skills Primer” by Obi Ogbanufe helpful for developing recruiting strategies and tech skills. AVID Staffing Firm employs IT Recruiting techniques covered by Ogbanufe in her book. Details she delves into include basic programming terms, networking tips, & operating system/network vocab. She even instructs on the art of knowing when a prospective candidate seems to be claiming levels of experience above what’s  present in their work background.

IT Staffing Agencies like AVID Technical Resources will do well to take note of Ogbanufe’s insight and advice. Her experience and familiarity with the topic can be of value to any technical recruiter looking to brush up on a rookie skillset, or polish a seasoned technical career. In an industry that changes at lightning speed, keeping on top of acronyms is key for technical recruiters, and they’ll find the latest and most thorough information in this book. Pick up a copy of ” Technology Made Simple for the Technical Recruiter: A Technical Skills Primer” today, and get smarter!

Skilled Tech Positions In Demand

Company demand for highly skilled tech workers has been increasing since the start of 2012. IT job candidates seeking higher salaries than they were able to land during the worst of the recession are likely to have more options now. Although the recession may not officially be over, demand for high-tech skills have significantly increased. Tech-savvy candidates considering a IT job change should take note of the professional climate, and feel confident about testing the technical job-search waters.

Technical professionals already on a job search should expect shorter search periods, faster placement, and potentially, multiple offers. AVID’s technical recruiters have connections to Boston’s top tech firms, the IT recruiters are plugged in to the most current tech opportunities available. Any skilled tech professional can connect with an AVID IT recruiter by picking up the phone to start a relationship with a recruiter that could be the entry into a new job, or tech career path.  Contact one of the fastest growing IT recruiting companies today!

Skill Testing Online

Any job-seeker who has interviewed with a staffing firm before has probably taken online skill-testing. Staffing firms can purchase online skill tests from test providers like Proveit, Eskill, or Brainbench, which offers testing for candidates in a range of skill sets. Technical test topics include Java, Dreamweaver, and ColdFusion MX. These resources can be useful for technical recruiters seeking to place candidates in roles that require proficiency in these areas. Offered in multiple languages, and in options including in-office testing or remote, skill assessments can be useful purchases for staffing firms.

For candidates, online skill testing can be just as helpful. Rather than purchasing access to skill assessments as a company would, job-seekers can log into free assessment providers like Smarterer to test their abilities in skills commonly sought by employers, such as Excel aptitude, Powerpoint skills, and more.  Candidates who have invested time building relevant industry skills have an opportunity to showcase their skills through an assigned score, comparing them to other test-takers. High-scoring testers may want to display their scores on their Linkedin profiles, or send them to recruiters as a resume supplement. Got Skills? Show them off!