Tag Archives: IT consultants

Searching For a New IT Job During Holidays

Many people might advise IT consultants looking for new IT jobs to just hold off on their search during the holiday season.  Though it often seems as though the holidays are a slow time for business and hiring, this just isn’t true in information technology.  No matter how close it is to Christmas or New Years, IT recruiters have a full list of jobs they are actively seeking to fill with IT contractors.  Beyond making sure you’re in touch and checking in with IT headhunters, there are a few other things you can be doing to make sure your job search is still productive during the holidays.

  1. Polish your materials, both online and off.  Make sure your LinkedIn profile is fresh and up to date, as are all versions of your resumes.
  2. Send holiday cards.  Send them to your technical recruiters, possible professional contacts who might be able to help you out, and to your references.  Mention that you’re on the hunt to the appropriate recipients.
  3. Go to holiday gatherings, both personal and professional.  Again, mention to the appropriate people that you’re looking for a new IT job.  Get the word out and network.  Holiday gatherings are generally happy and people will be in a good mood and more likely than usual to be helpful.

Career U-Turns in IT

Information technology requires IT professionals to move IT jobs a bit more often than the average professional for a number of reasons.  But even IT contractors haven’t really considered going back to the previous employers a generally acceptable career move until somewhat recently.  Now, it is far more acceptable for IT consultants to consider jobs from IT recruiters that are at a previous employer.

Should you consider going back to a previous employer if IT headhunters approach you with a job there?  Only if you can honestly say yes to a few criteria:

1. You didn’t leave because of things that are likely still true of this employer.  If you left because a contract ended and things were on good terms, this is an opportunity worth considering.  If you left because the workplace culture was a bad fit and you can’t definitively, without a doubt decide if it’s changed, this is not a good place to return to.

2. You aren’t looking to go back because you don’t like your current employer.  Going back to a previous employer, unless you loved them, is not the best way to remedy your unhappiness with a new job.  IT recruiters would rather you find a job you are happy in and want to stay at and work hard at for your entire contract.  If you were only mildly satisfied at this workplace, it’s best to look elsewhere for a better fit.

3. This job will help you continue moving your career forward, or at the very least won’t move it backwards.  Don’t step back just because it’s comfortable.  You’ll regret it later when you are ready to move forwards in your career.  Change and new challenges can be scary, but it’s best to push through them rather than take a step back.

 

Boost Your Career: Offering and Asking for Help in IT

Asking for help can often be perceived as a last resort in information technology, as can offering help.  These actions might either make IT managers and any other IT contractors you work with perceive you as incompetent, or overly confident and having a workload that is unsuitably small.  However, when strategically done,

IT professionals can make a big impression in their IT jobs by offering or asking for some help.

Ask for some help: IT consultants can create a positive impression with their managers and IT recruiters by seeking out feedback and opportunities for growth.  If you ask for help from a manager in making sure you’re meeting expectations or perhaps figuring out how to take on a bigger role in your team, you’ll earn their devotion.  Another way to ask for help and boost your career is to seek out feedback and learning opportunities from very strong coworkers in your field.  Without impinging on their time and expectations, ask a coworker who is great at a skill you’d like to sharpen or acquire to let you watch them or learn from them.  Your ambition to get better at what you do or add to your skill-set will really impress the people you work with.

Offer some help: This one is far easier to implement with a higher impact.  Without impinging upon your own responsibilities, etc, try to identify a few specific things that you can help coworkers or managers with.  Offering to help with specific projects that you’re confident you can contribute effectively to will make a big impression on managers and coworkers.  It’s easy for them to say yes to your offer, and the results will exceed expectations (that you wouldn’t have participated in this project at all).

Giving Gifts in Your IT Job

As the holidays swiftly approach, some IT professionals may be trying to figure out how to give gifts within their office.  IT contractors should exercise some caution before bringing in presents for people at their IT jobs.  There are a few guidelines IT consultants should consider before they purchase gifts for their IT managers or coworkers.

Cost: Don’t spend above $20 on any one person and try to spend the same amount on everybody.

Rank: When it comes to higher ranks, it’s best for gifts to flow downward.  There are instances when it does make sense to buy a boss or manager a gift, but there are a lot of possible issues with this, so it’s better to avoid it or buy one with a your team.

Appropriateness: As with any other instance in the office, jokes are dangerous territory.  Giving gag gifts or things that might be offensive to the recipient (or somebody else) aren’t worth the risk.

Don’t make people feel left out: If you’re only giving gifts to a few people, be discreet.  Some would advise giving gifts to everyone or nobody, and you may choose to heed that advice.  If you don’t, at least try to make it seem as though you did (so don’t give your selected few gifts in front of everyone).

Why Being Laid Back in IT Makes You More Marketable

A recent study shows that IT professionals who work closely with their coworkers are more likely to dislike them.  IT jobs that require IT contractors to work in a heavily team-oriented environment (versus ones that are more independent in nature) will provide far situations in which IT consultants are more likely to get frustrated with coworkers and their work habits.

Knowing about these risks, IT managers want IT headhunters to seek out particular kinds of people for team-oriented positions.  Technical recruiters are specifically looking for people who not only have stellar resumes, but who are also slow to get irritated or upset.  These are the people who will be less likely to hate their coworkers, no matter what their work habits.  More importantly, these are the people IT recruiters can count on to stay calm and get the job done, no matter how their coworkers behave on the job.

Handling Difficult End Users in IT

IT professionals are often faced with difficult end users in their IT jobs.  Even if these end users are less than easy to please and grateful, IT managers count on IT contractors to handle them with grace and top notch customer service.   IT headhunters also deeply value IT consultants who can tout their interpersonal skills, particularly in difficult situations.  How can you sail smoothly through difficult situations with end users?

Set expectations early.  If time is an issue for the user, be upfront about when they will be likely to receive service and a complete solution for their issue.

Maintain a calm, polite demeanor– no matter what.  Keeping your cool will help your end user also maintain a better attitude.  It will also help you to avoid becoming too submissive or domineering.  If you’re too submissive, you might invite abuse.  If you’re too domineering, you may aggravate the user or garner some very bad reviews about your service later.  Keeping your personal interaction unremarkable will make it easy for the end user to focus on the most important thing: the fact that you solve their issue.

Stay focused and only take information that is valuable from the end user.  Sometimes they can, in an attempt to be helpful, give half-baked theories, extra information, or start trying to make small talk.  As mentioned earlier, don’t be rude or dismissive.  Do attempt to keep your eyes on the prize, though and don’t get distracted by extraneous and incorrect information.  Your goal is to fix the end user’s issue, so filter out everything but the useful data to do that.

 

Questions to Ask in an IT Job Interview

In a field like information technology, IT professionals often operate on shorter timelines and do short contracts with various companies.  Because IT consultants leave and enter new companies more often than most other professionals, it’s important they are great at impressing IT managers in interviews.  IT contractors can really wow their IT recruiters, IT managers, and score IT jobs when they consider one key fact in their interviews: Making sure they highlight how they can benefit the interviewing manager and company at large.

The best place to do this is in the questions section of an interview.  If you take the time to ask a few well-phrased questions, you can portray yourself as an invaluable asset to managers and teams.  Ask questions that get to the root of what a manager needs.  For instance, consider asking what you’d do in the role that would make the manager’s job easier.  Another way to impress an interviewer is to ask questions about what their best previous and current employees offer them.  If you show that you’re interested in what a company needs, you will exceed their expectations and show how valuable you can be to the company.

 

IT’s Newest Playground: Egypt

Information technology is finding some new ground around Cairo, Egypt.  A new area meant to become the next Silicon Valley is being developed now in Egypt.  IT consultants and IT managers are creating startups in a nation ripe for it.  About half of Egypt’s population is under 30 and used twitter and facebook during their recent revolution, which means most of them are the young, technologically-literate people who often are or become IT contractors.  With the startup culture growing in Egypt and its reputation slowly growing as well, it’s only a matter of time before IT recruiting agencies and technical recruiters begin to consider Egypt in their expansion plans.  Business Insider and Huffington Post are already talking about drool-worthy resumes and companies in the surprising new IT-centric territory.

 

How to Keep Up Appearances When Telecommuting in IT

IT professionals are more like to get the opportunity to telecommute because of the progressive nature of the information technology industry.  Taking this option, whether it’s full time or only for a few days a month or once a week, brings a specific responsibility, though.  Because IT managers cannot actually see IT contractors working from home, it’s important they find a way to make sure their value and achievements in their IT jobs are highly visible anyways.  There are a few things IT consultants can do to make sure that their time telecommuting still looks highly productive to their IT managers, and in turn, the IT recruiters they work with.

1.    Be very accessible.  Make sure your coworkers and managers know how to reach you (perhaps with several methods) and be very responsive to all these methods.  If you aren’t physically in the office, it’s imperative to still be easy to contact.

2.    Set expectations with your manager, including setting up things like weekly meetings, phone calls, or email updates.  If you prove to your manager that you’re very interested in understanding their expectations and meeting them, you are actually demonstrating something larger.  The more independently you work, the more of an asset you become as an employee.  Getting work done with little management or supervision is golden.

3.    Make sure people know about your accomplishments and contributions.  Whether it’s coworkers or managers, they need a reminder that you still exist as a functioning part of your workplace.  Avoid being obnoxious about it, but do make sure your work speaks for you even if you don’t occupy a cubicle.

 

Deal-breakers in IT

All IT contractors have their deal-breakers for IT jobs.  Whether it’s poor management or abusive behavior from IT managers, options for telecommuting or flexible scheduling, or particular kinds of commutes or distances for commutes, there are just some reasons IT consultants will turn down a job IT staffing agencies recommend.

Deal-breakers are certainly acceptable, especially in a field like information technology, where the jobs are pretty plentiful.  In fact, they can also be very helpful if stated within reason to IT headhunters. IT recruiters want to know what IT professionals’ deal-breakers are so they avoid placing them in jobs that are not good fits for them long term.  If an IT professional keeps a deal-breaker under wraps, and then winds up in a job that has it, they won’t stay long.  This will potentially burn bridges for them, their IT recruiting agencies they work with, the hiring managers, and others.  Having a copious list of deal-breakers that make most jobs impossible is not going to do you any good.  However, being aware of your (reasonable) deal-breakers and making sure your technical recruiters are also aware of them will make your placements much more likely to be successful—for everyone involved.