Tag Archives: IT jobs

France’s Email Decision: Will it Affect IT Workers Worldwide?

By now, most IT professionals around the world probably know about the big move by the information technology field’s labor unions in France.  The move to give IT contractors, IT recruiters, and IT managers the right to disconnect from their IT jobs and email after 6 pm has made epic waves around the internet.  In fact, the story has made a particularly large impact just because it’s been misinterpreted so often.  Some are taking the story as France banning email after 6 pm for all workers in all industries.

While the story has largely been impactful because of its misinterpretation, it may be impactful in the future for actually affecting more than just IT consultants and IT headhunters.  This movement was actually a pretty niche one, only affecting a small part of France’s population.  However, it has already begun a surge of blog posts and op-eds about how the policy should be affected world-wide in a far more concrete way.  This story may be only the beginning of a bigger revolution around the world.

 

3 Ways to Stop Letting Email Hurt Your IT Career

Most IT professionals- from the IT headhunters to the IT consultants – wouldn’t be able to function without email.  But maybe the way you use email is hurting you in your IT jobs.  Maybe your inbox is flooded with useless emails from other IT recruiters or IT contractors.  Or worse, maybe you’re the one sending useless emails to IT managers and slowly making them lose confidence in you.  Here are 3 ways to stop hurting yourself professionally with your email.

  1. Stop and think before reading or sending.  Will I benefit from reading this or will somebody benefit if I send this?  Can I just send this as part of another message or, better yet, in person or on the phone?  Can I stop by and say hello to this person instead of reading their silly forward?  Do your part to stop the email madness and your productivity and coworkers and managers will appreciate it.
  2. Keep it clean.  Literally and figuratively.  Never put anything in an email that you wouldn’t want the entire world to see.  Who knows when something you say might be forwarded to somebody else?  And keep a clean email box.  Never deleting anything means you can never find that important email with the info that will save the day.
  3. Cut the addiction and save yourself and others some time.  Responding to every email immediately will only breed more emails.  Do yourself a favor and answer emails only a few set times a day.  You’ll be able to focus on your work and get more done and your coworkers and managers will notice your productivity.  They’ll probably appreciate the cleaner inboxes, too.

 

3 Ways to Communicate Better With Your IT Managers

Like most managers, IT managers are pressed for time and sometimes (if not often) stressed or overwhelmed with deadlines and projects.  For IT contractors, communicating with a manager at their IT jobs can be intimidating, especially when they don’t know them well.  Below are a few tips for IT consultants to improve their communication with managers.

  1. Say what you have to say with confidence.  This is for a few reasons, especially for time management.  Managers don’t often have time to hear you puzzle out the best response.  Probably the most important reason, though, is because managers want to believe they can trust you to deliver answer and information that they can rely on.  IT recruiters presented you as the best candidate and your manager went through stacks of resumes to find yours.  This alone should be enough reason to feel a bit more confident when you are relaying information to a manager.
  2. Keep your communication organized and to the point.  Relaying info in the form that makes it easiest to digest and use will make you a superstar to your manager.  They don’t want to waste time wading through a long email or presentation.
  3. Use the most concise and professional language possible.  In information technology especially, it’s important to demonstrate that you know what you’re doing and what you’re talking about.  Using the best and most up-to-date terms will give off a great impression when speaking with managers.

 

3 Ways to Start Your IT Work Day Off Right

IT professionals from all over the Information Technology industry can agree that there are universally wonderful and terrible ways to start the day at their IT jobs.   Here are a 3 ways everyone from IT recruiters, to IT consultants, to IT managers can start their days.

  1. Get up right away.  Sleeping beyond one snooze button isn’t doing your body any favors and actually makes it harder to wake up.
  1. Check and update your calendar and to do list.  Making a plan for the day is helpful whether you’re one of the IT headhunters crowd or a programmer.  Being organized and having goals for the day will help you accomplish more by COB.
  2. Glance at email- but don’t deal with it yet.  If there are any glaring emergency emails, by all means, respond to them.  Leave the rest for later and get going on your actual work.  The more you respond to emails, the more you’ll invite.  And the more emails you invite, the more distractions you’re creating for yourself.  Start the day off with fewer emails and see how much more you can get done.

5 Ways to Blow an IT Job Interview

IT recruiters and IT managers are admittedly hard up for IT professionals these days.  The information technology field is absolutely a job seeker’s market right now.  However, that doesn’t mean that IT consultants can’t perform well in interviews.  If IT contractors make any of the major mistakes below, they’re actively taking themselves out of the running for IT jobs. 

  1. Winging it: Not coming to a job interview prepared is a huge red flag.  It wastes everyone’s time and indicates a lot about the kind of employee you might be.  Don’t project that kind of future.
  2. Being too demanding:  Nobody would recommend being a doormat.  However, if you spend most of your interview or conversations with IT recruiters talking about what you want, you need to take a step back.  While it is a job seeker’s market, no employer wants a one-sided deal.   Making sure you’re coming across as worth something before you ask for it is key.
  3. Not putting your phone away:  It’s simple.  If you’re in an interview or meeting with a recruiter, your phone should be out of sight and on silent.  Not doing this signals less than 100% interest in a job.
  4. Talking too much or too little:  This is actually a pretty hard mistake to make either way.  It will be obvious quickly if you’re not giving enough information or too much.  If you get either signal, pay attention to it and correct yourself immediately.  Both are tough to overcome if you spend the whole interview doing them.
  5. Don’t bring anybody else into the decision.  Your parents, your spouse, your significant others, etc may hold weight in your decision.  However, you need to keep this information to yourself.  It’s extra information for recruiters or potential employers and it will absolutely hurt you if you complicate the process with more people than just you, your potential employer, and your recruiter.

 

3 Ways to Stand Out in Your IT Job

A recent Harvard study points to one overarching means to making yourself stand out (in a good way) at your IT jobs:  Dare to be a little different than the average IT consultants.  While IT recruiters, IT managers, and other IT contractors tend to believe that it’s best to try to fit in, Harvard’s recent study proves that IT professionals who are unabashedly a little different are likely to garner more respect.  Here are a few ways to make it obvious to IT staffing firms, managers, and coworkers that you’re a little different—and it adds value to any company you work at.

  1. Make it clear you are willing to think things through from alternative viewpoints.  In meetings or conversations, take a risk and play devil’s advocate once in a while.  Do be sure to state that you are in fact doing this, rather than leaving it up to others to guess.  The point isn’t to be obnoxious, but rather to show creativity.  Play devil’s advocate only to the point where it’s constructive.  The minute it starts hurting a project or meeting’s progress, it’s time to revert back to the conventional viewpoint.
  2. Edit yourself.  Everyone tends to want to fit in at work.  It’s how we’re wired as humans.  Consider holding back a bit on personal conversations or on what you say in meetings or over email.  Studies show that your words carry more weight when you say less overall.  You don’t have hit the mute button all the time, just consider holding back if you’re simply confirming something that’s already been said, or telling a story that’s not necessary background or info.
  3. Know the bigger picture and your role in it.  To be able to stand out a bit, you need to know what you’re choosing to conform to or differentiate yourself from.  Knowing the company’s goals, the status and timelines of any projects you’re working on, and general viewpoints on these projects will all help you to make a great impression—when you choose to act in accordance with the norm and when you don’t.  You only look uninformed and contrarian if you play devil’s advocate without knowing the other side of things.

 

Staying Relevant in IT After 40

Older IT professionals know that as you pass 40, suddenly IT recruiters are no longer chasing you in droves with IT jobs.  Though it’s a terrible practice, some IT managers instruct their IT staffing firms to seek out younger IT contractors.  You don’t have to become a victim of this practice, though, if you’re an IT consultant over 40.  Here are a few ways to deal with and/or avoid this practice.

  1. Update your resume so it looks fresh.  Take out the objective and the sentence ‘References available on request’.  Both are outdated and unnecessary.  Add in links to social media profiles (more on that below)
  2. If you don’t already have them, create good, functional social media profiles for yourself in LinkedIn and Twitter at least.  Maintain these as a way to enhance your professional presence.  They take minimal effort and will go a long way in changing employers’ perceptions.
  3. Stay up to date on news for your industry and technologies for your industry.  If younger job candidates are desirable for their fluent command of new technology and trends, you can be too.  You already built some of your worth in your years of experience on the job.  Now it’s time to enhance that.

 

What You Shouldn’t Bring to IT Jobs

It’s common knowledge that sparkling resumes and references make IT consultants very attractive to IT headhunters and IT managers.  Sometimes it’s what IT contractors don’t bring to the table that makes them so easy for IT recruiters to market, though.  Here are a few things IT Professionals should never bring to their IT jobs.

  1. Limits to your job.  Strike “that’s not my job,” or “I don’t have time for that project” from your vocabulary if you really want to stand out.  Even if either, or both are true, finding a way to do them will eventually pay off.  You’ll gain new skills and some truly glowing references when you leave the job.  If you’re worried about being taken advantage of, start documenting these extra projects.  Use them to ask for a raise at an appropriate time or a reference when you leave.  Make sure you add them to your resume, too!
  2. Personal conflicts.  It’s fine to want to avoid certain people outside the office or to actively disagree with people.  At work, it can be the kiss of death.  Work on your ability and willingness to work with and engage well with all types of people in the office environment.  Being easy to work with is a special attribute, especially in IT.  Stand out as a diamond in the rough with some outstanding interpersonal skills.  You won’t regret it.
  3. Concepts of fairness.  It’s easy to find little injustices all over some offices.  But the truth is, you can’t do anything about them.  The sooner you let the concept of fairness go, the sooner you’ll feel better and be able to focus better on your work.  Complaining about injustices won’t change them. It will only bring negative attention to you.  When you stop noticing or caring about these things, your silence will speak volumes because managers will understand that you have the same priorities they do: getting the work done!

 

Creating Accountability in IT Teams

In a field like Information Technology, the ability to build accountability among reports is crucial for IT managers.  While IT recruiters and IT staffing firms will provide IT contractors who work well independently in their IT jobs, there are a few key strategies that managers should employ.

  1. Start a tradition of sharing major achievements with everyone.  This might include awards or simply recognizing employees for accomplishments via company-wide emails.  Whatever it is, you’ll create incentive for IT consultants to raise their own work-level to match that of their peers.  If positive recognition is obviously up for grabs, people will always work for it.
  2. Have reports document their own progress each day or over the course of a project.  Consider checking it on at least a quarterly basis.  That documentation will be enough to create accountability without you actively micromanaging them.  This will create accountability that’s not born of fear or resentment, which is key. (These things as motivation tend to hurt productivity.)
  3. Consider having meetings to start the day or week in which team and individual priorities are laid out.  The best meetings will be the ones in which team members report their own priorities and plans, rather than a manager meting them out.  Reports will feel empowered and may even get excited about their to-do lists as they tell them to the group. 

 

Why IT Professionals Should Write Short Emails

IT recruiters, IT contractors, and IT managers are all too aware of the frustrations of receiving long-winded emails at their IT jobs.  IT professionals in any part of the Information technology field know that long emails not only take up too much time in a fast-paced industry, but also tend to be less effective in communicating the point.  There is even an official five sentence maximum email movement (called simply the Five Sentences movement).  Here are a few ways for IT consultants and IT headhunters to shorten their emails.

  1. Before writing, figure out your purpose.  What are you trying to say?  Encapsulate that in a few sentences.  Don’t spend the email trying to figure out what needs to be said.  Do it before you start typing.
  2. Cut pleasantries.  You don’t have to be rude in an email, but it’s also unnecessary to say things like ‘Hope you’re doing well.’  You can safely assume people already know you wish them well, especially if you talk to them often.
  3. Be confident.  It can take a little courage to send shorter emails, but short, clear emails are the calling card of some very successful people.  Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos are some great examples in the IT field.