Tag Archives: candidates

Privacy

In the IT Recruitment Industry, there are stipulations when it comes to teaming up with a well known IT staffing company.  Depending on the type of position, and situation, most clients expect IT staffing firms to maintain some level of confidentiality when it comes to filling one of their IT jobs. There are a number of reasons for this, there might be someone currently in the role that is being replaced (due to performance, attitude, etc) or the client might simply not want people to know they are actively hiring.

On the other side of the hiring process are the candidates.  Many IT recruiting companies keep the name of their end client confidential to prospective candidates.  The reason IT staffing firms do this is to eliminate the risk of a candidate just submitting him or herself directly immediately after they get off the phone with the IT recruiter.  Although most people who never do this (ultimately it would likely just hurt their chance of landing the opportunity), IT staffing companies protect themselves just in case.

Not many job seekers go straight to IT staffing agencies and a good portion of them may not even know these companies are even out there.  Therefore, the IT staffing industry as a whole needs to collectively educate job seekers to reinforce the facet that IT recruiting agencies are seen as a viable means to land their next IT job.

Experiences from our IT recruiter Intern

This summer we hired 3 interns to help us out with recruiting information technology candidates.  We went through the interview process and identified the right candidates for our IT recruiting internship program.  They seemed to be a good fit with our company culture and appeared to have the drive/motivation.  Looking back, we were right.  Each has proved to us they have the skills and qualities to be a successful recruiter in the IT staffing industry.

Now that the summer is coming to an end, our interns chose to tell us about their experience working as an IT recruiter for one of the fastest growing IT staffing companies in the country.

He summarized his experience like this:

1. People Skills

Having people skills is a factor that helps talking to prospective candidates about the different IT job opportunities you have available.  An IT recruiter needs to know how to connect with a candidate on a personal level to make them feel comfortable and willing to listen to what you have to say.

2. Cold Calling

An IT recruiter will receive many applications to job postings, but in the end, you will need to go digging through a resume database for some candidates that fit the IT job description

3. Phone manners

IT recruiters need to work on their phone manners, especially when you are constantly working with prospective candidates.  Acting in a professional manner will always help keep the candidate interested and comfortable.

4. Hard Work

In order to succeed you need to put in the time and effort.  Nothing is free in life and you need to work hard to get the results you want.  Finding the right candidate is not as easy as picking a name out of a hat.  An IT recruiter has to search through databases and applications to find candidates who will fit the IT job description, as well as the culture in the company.

Overall, our IT recruiter interns felt that they learned valuable lessons from working in the IT staffing Industry.

What kinds of questions should you ask during an interview?

IT recruiters are always prepping their candidates about what type of questions might be asked during an IT job interview. Although it’s important to be prepared and answer the questions effectively, it’s also key that you ask proper questions as well.

Answering questions is just as important as asking questions.  Clients of IT staffing agencies are looking for find candidates who show interest in their company and try to understand the industry.  Think of questions beforehand.  Ask yourself, what type of questions would I think are thought provoking if I were the one doing the IT job interview?

Here are a few questions our IT recruiters believe you should keep in mind:

  1. How did this position open up (is it a new IT job or are you replacing someone?  If you’re replacing someone, do you mind me asking why he or she is no longer with the company?).
  2. Can you provide a snapshot of this IT department over the past couple of years?  Has it grown or decreased in size?
  3. How does upper management see this position fitting within the company’s goals?
  4. What is the organization’s outlook for the next five years and how will this IT department be involved?
  5. What do you enjoy most about working at this company?
  6. Could you get into more detail about the day-to-day responsibilities this job will entail?
  7. Could you describe the management style in this group/company?
  8. What type of employee fits well with this company?
  9. Will there be performance reviews? If so, how and who will be reviewing my performance? IS there a list of criteria in which an employee will be evaluated on? How frequently will performance reviews be made?
  10. Is decision-making shared between Upper-management and employees?

Which will prevail in the end: Phone Interview vs. Video Chatting

Over the last few years there has been a lot of development in video chatting.  More companies are rolling out programs that will allow you to call friends through your computer and see each other’s faces.  This concept has also been applied to many conferences within businesses as well.

So why has it never filtered into the Human Resources departments or IT recruiting companies? For a hiring manager it could be a good way to gauge the personality and professionalism of a prospective candidate rather than just listen to them over the phone.  Listening to someone’s voice is a lot different from just seeing the person body movements and facial expressions.  Those are very important to understanding the prospective IT job candidate better.

From an IT recruiters’ perspective this can also go horribly wrong.  First, their internet connection could be weak and cause a lot of freezing during the interview.  A hiring manager would find this annoying especially if you will need to reconnect with them every so often.  In addition, the candidate would need to tidy up the location where they are planning on interviewing.  Most importantly, there can be many interruptions.  Unlike being on the phone, the hiring manager will be able to see or notice interruptions from your body language and facial expressions.

The main difference with a phone interview and video chatting is that you need to sign on in order to video chat.  A candidate could just not sign on due to forgetting about the interview.  With a phone interview you can call them and either speak to them or leave a message.  Either way, you can contact them regardless of whether you have a strong signal or not.

There are many things that are left to chance with video chatting that can cause the candidate to lose the IT job or the hiring manager to become fed up with the candidate.  This could cost IT staffing companies placements or candidates themselves could miss out on a golden opportunity.

Where to find your candidates

IT recruiting companies need to be aware of where their IT staffing competitors are looking for candidates, as well as where candidates are posting their resumes themselves.  You may think everyone is just using job boards such as Monster or CareerBuilder.  However, there are many more options depending on what specific IT staffing industry you are looking at.  Some of these options are websites such as LinkedIn and Twitter that are now being used for networking instead of socializing.  Others include niche websites and/or those specific to local geographies.

So how do you choose the right place to look for candidates to fill IT jobs?  To start, you need to test some of these websites out.  During the trial period it would be a good idea to keep track of where the candidates are coming from.  This will help you decide how many candidates you got from each IT job board and the quality of the candidates coming from each.  Once you gather your data, you will be able to analyze each IT job board based on metrics IT recruiting companies keep in mind.

Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes and think about where they are looking for IT jobs

Mobile Recruiting – New Opportunity or A Passing Fad?

In this day in age, everyone has a cellular phone, from your 7 year old brother to your 90-year-old grandmother.  Not everyone is using applications on their phones, but most are.  IT recruiters, like almost everyone else in this world, are glued to their phones and never leave home without them.  So why wouldn’t IT recruiters pursue candidates through cellular phones.

From the perspective of this IT staffing company, most candidates will not always be on a computer especially since everything they need is now available on their phone.  So IT recruiting companies should start looking into new possibilities to market themselves in options such as mobile applications.  More and more companies in various industries are considering this option.  If we’re recruiting in the IT industry, then we should dabble in a few more options in the IT world.