Tag Archives: IT jobs

Imperative Rules for Networking Over Email in IT

If any field uses email to network a lot, it’s information technology.  While IT professionals can count on more casual interactions overall, there’s still some hard and fast rules of etiquette that IT contractors, IT recruiters, and IT managers alike need to listen to.  Here are a few email rules that will help IT consultants and technical recruiters keep their jobs—and maybe get some new IT jobs, too!

 

  1. Don’t get too personal too quickly.  Making introductions without warning, sharing something you’d like feedback on or giving unsolicited feedback, or suggesting a partnership/collaboration without much discussion.  These behaviors are all incredibly off-putting and alienating, so take your time before doing them.  Make sure you have an established relationship and probably a conversation or two that leads up to these actions.
  2. Don’t be too pushy.  Asking for a confirmation of receipt, adding return receipts, sending follow-up emails, and calling or following up in person are all too aggressive.  Give adequate time for a response.  If you receive none, let it go if you can.  It’s probably just going to lead to an awkward conversation later if you push it.
  3. Do hold off on caps lock, emoticons, and strongly worded messages.  Be as professional as possible and don’t leave room for your recipients to interpret your messages as overly emotional.  It’s just too easy to do without the tone of your voice to accompany it.
  4. Do remember that emails are forever.  Somebody can save an email forever and show it to whoever they want.  Word it carefully so this information doesn’t bother you!

Why it’s a Big Deal if Your IT Manager Doesn’t Like You

All IT recruiters and IT contractors know the vital importance of having your IT managers like you. Though pristine resumes chock full of skills are important, IT professionals that rub their IT managers the wrong way will develop terrible reputations with their IT recruiters and in the information technology field in general.

It’s also important to make sure your manager likes you for one more reason: they are probably allowed to fire you if they don’t. Most states in the US are at-will, meaning employers can fire you for whatever reason they want. While reasonable managers won’t fire you just because they don’t like you, their dislike will make you vulnerable. If you make a major mistake or your company is doing lay-offs, the people who hold onto their IT jobs will be the ones whom managers want to continue working with. Try to make sure that’s you!

 

Why IT Managers Shouldn’t Lean on Bribes to Motivate Employees

Across most industries, including information technology, bribing is a popular method to motivate employees.  Unfortunately, this method does the IT managers who use it no good.  IT contractors need management tactics that go beyond offering rewards to really impact their performance at their IT jobs.

IT consultants may show slight improvements over time, but in the long run, IT professionals need to feel a strong tie to their company and their team.  Once this kind of connection has been established, performance will skyrocket—consistently.  Rewards, unfortunately, only capture interest for as long as they are unavailable.  Once achieved or received, employees are no longer motivated.  The performance level is also only as high as the reward is impressive, too.  Since most companies are unlikely to provided incredibly expensive awards, they are unlikely to garner much of a result from the ones they do offer.  In a way, companies should appreciate this: the best motivator for employees is free!

 

Should you Mention Your Family Obligations in an IT Interview?

While all IT recruiters and IT managers tend to know that it’s illegal to ask IT professionals if they have children or are married during interviews for IT jobs, sometimes it still happens.  Even if the question doesn’t come up explicitly, IT contractors should know how to handle their various familial obligations in interviews.

The first thing IT consultants want to take into consideration is that they would do best to avoid being defensive or difficult when it comes to familial obligations—or any other topic—in a job interview.  Even if they’re asked an illegal question, it won’t help to respond by pointing it out combatively.  Give an answer that focuses on how committed you are to your job, whether you have familial commitments or not.  The key is to provide the interviewer with what they’re looking for: a promise to be a fully present, committed employee.

For those IT professionals looking to test out the waters on how well a job will fit with their family commitments, the protocol is a bit different.  While you don’t want to overemphasize your commitments outside of work, you can ask a question or two at the end of the interview about the hours/commitment expected.  Being vague is the key here.  Later, doing research via connections, Glassdoor, and recruiters, will be the time to be a bit more honest about your obligations.

 

Top Ways to Ethically Use Office Politics in IT

As most IT professionals know, the information technology industry isn’t immune to the influence of office politics.  Everyone, from IT recruiters, to IT managers, to IT contractors, are aware of the powerful impact of office politics on IT jobs.  So how should IT consultants and technical recruiters engage with office politics effectively?

  1. Know who is important. Often you’ll find that you have some peers who are more influential than you’d think.  Or perhaps one manager is more in charge than another.  Try to notice these things.  Show the right deference to the right people and know who can help give your projects or ideas the best boost.
  2. Know alliances.  You don’t have to know them in-depth, but be aware of who is friends with whom in the office.  You don’t have to strategically make friends, but you do have to make sure you don’t badmouth somebody to their friend.
  3. …And when it comes to badmouthing: Don’t. Knowing the general structures of office politics doesn’t require playing into it.  Keep yourself above any nasty disagreements and hold off on venting or saying anything less than positive about coworkers, projects, etc to anybody in your office.

 

Why IT Professionals Should Never Use Resume Gimmicks

IT recruiters and IT consultants all over the world have heard the advice that resumes sent with fun gimmicks, like odd packaging or edible goodies will really grab an IT managers attention.  Wise IT professionals know that this simply isn’t true, though.   Gimmicks don’t win IT jobs; skills and experience win IT jobs.

While many IT contractors may have an urban legend or two about somebody who got a job because of their wacky resume gimmick, the average person shouldn’t listen to this.  There are a few reasons why.  For one thing, information technology is a field that demands precision, experience, and the right answers.  This means it’s imperative for job holders to be able do their jobs competently.  Resume gimmicks are irrelevant to hiring managers, who are focused on competence.  Additionally, some managers may see resume gimmicks as a way to disguise incompetence.  Avoiding them is crucial.  Lastly, resume gimmicks can backfire.  Maybe they trigger food or other allergies, or perhaps they are simply too silly or offensive.  In any case, these are to be avoided at all costs.  The best resume is the one that fits the job.

Chocolate Bar Resume

3 Easy Ways to Organize Your IT Job Hunt

With the right IT recruiters, IT contractors can have a relatively short hunt for IT jobs.  However, IT consultants will still save themselves a lot of confusion and frustration in their job hunt, no matter how short it is or how good their IT headhunters are, if they organize themselves a bit.  Here are 3 easy ways IT professionals can get themselves organized and get their dream job faster.

  1. Use a paper planner:  Keeping everything in email is fine, but at some point it will be tough to visualize it all.  Keeping one planner on paper that you frequently update will make a big difference.
  2. Keep an excel spreadsheet of jobs you’re applying to: You’ll never need to ask about a job description for a second time or be confused again if you start logging your jobs and relevant details into an excel spreadsheet.  Updating often will make it an easy task, too.
  3. Clean and separate your interview clothes: You never want to have to scramble for the right interview day outfit.  Set a few aside and make sure they’re always clean and ready to go.

 

How to Avoid Being a Doormat in IT

The information technology field’s demanding pace can make it seem easy and imperative to be a certified doormat for coworkers in your IT jobs.  Taking on extra work really makes you stand out to IT recruiters and IT managers as model IT contractors, right?  Actually, that’s not really true.

The best IT consultants are able to do their workload well, contribute to the success of their teams, and do so with a smile and good energy.  Over time, becoming the office doormat starts to wear on anyone, no matter how originally cheerful they may be.  While nobody should balk at the notion of meeting or exceeding expectations at their jobs, taking on too much work will only make you the office sourpuss in the end.  And nobody promotes the office sourpuss, no matter how competent of IT professionals they are.

So if you’ve identified yourself as the office doormat, how do you break the cycle of too much work?  It’s as easy as taking the time to think about things.  Try making a list of your big picture priorities and your daily tasks.  Whenever somebody asks you to add new projects, evaluate how these fit into your lists.  When things really don’t fit into these lists, then try to push back.  Note why these things are not relevant for your goals and job description and use the right tone depending on whom you’re speaking to (boss, coworker, etc).  Soon enough, you’ll start seeing your plate become a little less full and your attitude and demeanor at work become a whole lot better!

 

 

Why are IT Workers Gaining Weight?

Recent studies show that IT professionals are tend to outpace other professionals in an alarming new area: weigh gain.  The information technology field may show IT contractors, IT recruiters, and IT managers gaining higher poundage for a few reasons.

The first, though not special to the industry, may be the fact that IT consultants do tend to sit quite a bit at work.  There are plenty of studies about the dangers of sitting and it’s hard to ignore how often people in IT sit at their IT jobs.  The second reason may be that IT workers are likely to have to work odd or long hours to keep up with the 24/7 need for technology that delivers.  Sleep deprivation or odd sleep patterns are shown to throw off people’s metabolism significantly.  Some studies even show that tired workers are more likely to reach for food full of carbohydrates or sugar.  Lastly, IT professionals, like most professionals, are subjected to the onslaught of office food and office food as a management incentive.  Providing food for workers is a well-known tactic for managers to gain loyalty. While well-intentioned, managers who use this tactic too often may be hurting their supports.

 

 

3 Mistakes IT Managers Commonly Make—and How to Deal With Them

Information technology, like all industries isn’t immune to poor management techniques.  All IT recruiters and IT consultants have had direct or indirect experience with terrible IT managers at IT jobs.  Below are the some of the most common mistakes that technical recruiters and IT contractors have to deal with—and how to deal with them.

  1. Speaking negatively: Managers who speak negatively about people who are currently on their staff, people who have quit or been fired, or the company itself, are certainly hurting their team’s morale.  Feeling like your manager has no hope for your department’s success, or the success of you and all your teammates, quickly kills your own motivation.  While you can’t change their outlook, you can do your best not to share in it or to be influenced by it.  Try to respond in a neutral way to any negative talk like this and quickly change the subject.  Avoid repeating it and avoid thinking about it.
  2. Doing their staff’s work for them: Sometimes managers will want to save time and complete a task that their staff either can’t do correctly or at all.  This is a serious mistake.  It doesn’t give the staff the chance to learn how to do the task and ensures the same exact scenario, except probably with increased frustration, in the future.  If your manager is doing something for you, do your best to stop them and ask for feedback on how you can do it yourself.  Take the opportunity to learn whatever the task is and take notes so you can do it in the future.
  3. Letting staff break the little rules: It may simply feel like too much energy for a manager to have to exert to make sure all rules are followed.  But here’s the problem:  Breaking the little rules, especially when it comes to coding, programming, and other IT tasks, can lead to bigger issues down the line.  While you can’t control what your manager does and doesn’t enforce, you can hold rigorous standards for yourself and encourage them (gently!) in your teammates.  Everyone will thank you later down the line.