Tag Archives: IT jobs

Managers: How to Respond to Requests for a Raise

IT managers have a myriad of dreaded conversations with their IT contractors.  Perhaps the most dreaded conversation, though, is when employees ask for a raise.  While IT recruiting firms certainly try to negotiate the best salary possible for IT consultants upon entry of a new job, over time this amount will almost certainly become less than desirable.  Inflation, life changes, and more can cause IT professionals to realize they suddenly would like to be compensated more than their IT headhunters initially got for them.  So how should managers evaluate these requests?

IT staffing agencies may have negotiated salary based on resumes, but raises are based on current performance.  If an employee consistently meets and/or exceeds expectations in IT jobs for a long period of time, the request if certainly worth considering.  Another criterion is if the employee brings a unique asset to the company.  Perhaps IT recruiting companies didn’t suggest him for it, but if an employee has shown a special talent that has benefited the company, a raise might also be in order.  Lastly, an employee’s raise request has should be considered with this lens: have they brought more value to the company than technical recruiters thought they could– either in money and/or in creating a positive work environment?  IT staffing firms certainly try to find the best fit for a company in terms of skills, but if the employee has demonstrated not only a proficiency at their job, but also at making the workplace pleasant and more efficient, their salary is certainly worth raising.

IT’s new Silicon Valley: Berlin

IT recruiters Boston and IT recruiters CA are used to hearing about start-ups from Israel, Silicon Valley, and most recently, Russia.  However, IT recruiting firms and IT contractors will soon be hearing a lot about start-ups from Berlin.

The information technology field has already seen a slow rise in German start-ups for a few reasons.   IT headhunters will be seeing more successful companies and IT jobs coming out of Berlin because like Russia, the city offers a cheap cost of living.  Office space and amenities for company employees keep overhead very low for IT managers at start-ups in Berlin. Like Russia, Berlin is still recovering from an unsuccessful attempt at Communism and like Russia, Berlin is now a hotbed of potential for IT professionals looking to take entrepreneurial risks.  IT recruiting companies should seriously consider brushing up on their German—it might be a necessary skill on the resumes they look at in the future.

Education Strives to Keep Up with IT

In a struggle to keep up with the constantly changing demands of the information technology field, universities are creating new educational programs to create IT professionals ready to participate in the hottest areas, such as Big Data.  IT recruiters will able to select from pools of IT contractors with new degrees in very current areas, like Big Data or social media-oriented marketing programs.

IT staffing agencies will no longer stretch to reconcile resumes with IT jobs that require very specific and very new skills. Cornell is creating, aided by a grant from NY, a school specifically geared towards the skills needed to develop start-ups.  These graduates may well be the CEOs and IT managers that IT staffing companies help to develop teams for.  IT headhunters may also be contacting graduates of Columbia, the University of San Francisco, or many other universities, where programs are being developed specifically to graduate big data specialists.  Whichever new hot area IT recruiting companies are especially interested, they will soon have a specified pool of IT consultants to choose from.

IT Raises its Presence in a Surprising Arena

IT recruiting firms, IT managers, and IT consultants are all still discussing a surprising topic: national policy.  IT staffing agencies and other IT professionals, even those as influential as Mark Zuckerberg, began a heated conversation about H-1B workers several months ago as the nation considered significantly increasing the number of H-1B visas allowed per year.

The debate over how often IT recruiting companies submit foreign resumes versus American resumes for IT contractors has been a problem for years.  IT staffing firms have suggested, with much contesting from American workers, that there simply are too few US candidates for the IT jobs they fill. The new serious moves towards allowing more H-1B’s has simply fanned the flames of a fire that the information technology industry has quietly been burning. The final result of the actual debate may not even interest the rest of the nation outside the IT sector.  What might be the most lasting impact may simply be the entrance of loud, passionate voices from technical recruiters in the midst of political conversation.

What Happens in IT (Should) Stay in IT

The information technology industry certainly holds a fascination for more than just the IT managers, IT recruiting firms and IT consultants in its borders.  It’s undeniable that IT professionals and their companies, like Google, Yahoo, and Facebook, regularly make the news.  However, the hard lesson that JC Penney had to learn last week is that what works for IT jobs, doesn’t always work in other industries.

It recruiting companies and IT contractors are well aware of the test first, tweak later ethos of the IT world.  This strategy crashed and burned, however, as former Apple executive Ron Johnson attempted it in J.C. Penney’s attempt to restore itself to glory in the retail world.  Though IT staffing companies might have easily recognized Johnson’s intentions to beta test various marketing strategies, the pace of retail simply did not support them.  Technical recruiters might also have found Johnson’s radical changes to Penney’s inventory very familiar.  But, what works in a business that changes at the pace of the internet doesn’t always work in stores full of huge shipments of retail that move at a much, much slower pace.  Radical changes are fine when they can be retracted or will become relevant in a shorter period of time.  They are not fine when applied to an industry like retail that must operate at a much slower pace. While Johnson attempts to re-orient himself as he recovers from a JC Penney ousting, IT staffing agencies are taking note: what happens in the IT world should stay in the IT world.

Job Hopping in IT

IT jobs are certainly not meant to be proverbial lily pads.  However, in a tough economy with an even tougher economy behind us, IT recruiters and IT managers are exercising more leniency towards so-called “Job Hoppers.”  While IT staffing agencies would not consider resumes full of short stints ideal, they are far less likely to simply throw them out than other industries might be. IT recruiting companies know that with a dramatic start-up bubble, and of course its dramatic burst, in our past some IT consultants are likely to have at least one or two short blips of jobs on their resumes. Additionally, with contracting being much more common in information technology, short blips also are far more welcomed by technical recruiters than perhaps in any other industry.  While IT staffing firms are likely to be more accepting of erratic resumes, IT contractors need to be able to properly explain the brevity of these jobs.  Suggesting to IT recruiting firms that one has left a job quickly because of boredom or to seek out more earning potential will raise some red flags.  Suggesting to IT headhunters, on the other hand, that a job was short-lived because the company was, will ameliorate their image of oneself as employable.

IT Recruiting by the Numbers

IT headhunters would certainly pinpoint generations X and Y as controversial generations to hire for IT jobs.  There are plenty of prominent complaints IT recruiters get about generation X and Y IT professionals.  However, the generation IT staffing firms have a hard time getting a consensus on is actually the baby boomer generation.

Plenty of IT recruiting companies hear highly conflicting opinions on baby boomer IT consultants.  Some IT managers praise baby boomer IT contractors for their work ethic, their ability to set and achieve goals, and their easy acceptance of authority and rules.  On the other side of the coin, IT staffing agencies can encounter plenty of negative arguments for baby boomers for IT jobs.  Some IT recruiting firms hear that because of baby boomers illustrious resumes, they are too costly for IT companies.  IT headhunters also hear arguments that completely nullify experience anyways, in a world that is full of break-neck paced change.  In addition to these conflicting points, there are also varying views on how late a company would like to invest in an IT professional’s career.  No matter the source, the opinion on baby boomer IT consultants is bound to be a complicated one.

IT Perks are Growing Despite a Bad Economy

IT staffing companies and IT consultants are seeing a trend that feels incongruous in today’s job market: more perks at tech companies.  In an economy with unemployment rates at an uncomfortably high amount, pay cuts everywhere, and people being forced to double-up on job responsibilities, the information technology industry is booming and working hard to keep the supply of IT contractors as high as the supply of IT jobs.   IT recruiting agencies are likely to be familiar with Google and Yahoo as examples of the elaborate perks offered to entice IT professionals.  A deluge of free services make IT staffing firms working with Google and Yahoo more like sirens than IT recruiters.

Of course, IT staffing companies only submit resumes to companies like Google and Yahoo for candidates that are ready to commit a larger portion than 40 hours of their week.  IT managers at tech companies may be offering amazing benefits and perks, but they are also offering incredibly demanding jobs for IT headhunters to fill.

Team-Building in the IT World

The information technology field has always been open to new business practices.  One of the newest growing trends is group exercise classes as team-building tools.  IT recruiters and IT contractors have become aware of more and more companies that offer classes likeCrossfit in-house and out of the office.

IT staffing firms hear a mélange of good and bad feedback on these classes as team-building exercises.  Since the trend is growing, there are of course plenty of IT consultants who tell IT recruiting agencies how much they love the classes and the effect they have on their teams at work.  IT staffing companies are certainly also hearing some negative responses from IT professionals on exercise classes as team-building tools.  Some people have suggested to IT recruiting companies that intense exercise classes like Crossfit are not appealing to them.  Thus they are left out of the activity, effectively making a team-building activity one that actually divides.  Others object to team-building exercise classes because they have their own workout routines and classes they are already dedicated to.  These people tell IT staffing firms a similar message: these team-building activities divide them from the team.

Because IT recruiting firms are getting mixed reviews, the jury might still be out on the effectiveness of exercise classes in IT jobs. One thing is for sure, though: they certainly get a reaction from employees.

Preparing for an IT job interview- Step by Step

IT staffing firms have a laundry list of qualities they look for in an IT consultant, but one of the most important is ability and willingness to prepare for IT job interviews.  Technical recruiters encounter a myriad of IT contractors who do not seem to follow the major steps in prepare for interviews.  This is shocking because these steps are simple, take very little time, and pretty intuitive.

The first thing recruiting firms would prefer that IT professionals do to prepare for a job interview is to research the company.  This can be done quickly by checking out their website and/or general presence on the web.  Secondly, IT staffing agencies suggest that IT job candidates read, memorize, and seriously think about the job description. IT recruiting agencies want to send in candidates who have deeply considered what IT jobs require and how the candidates can meet those requirements.  Lastly, IT staffing companies want their IT consultants to practice answering and asking standard interview questions.  Encountering these questions for the first time, or the first time in a long time, does not look good for the candidate or the IT recruiting agencies they represent.   Following each of these steps will definitely guarantee at success—if not in getting the job, at least in convincing IT recruiting companies that you are a great person to work with.