Tag Archives: IT managers

How IT Professionals Can Deal With Difficult People

Technical recruiters, IT contractors, and IT managers alike all encounter difficult people at their IT jobs.  Information technology, like most professional fields, is not exempt from unfortunate work relationships or clients.  In particular, IT professionals are likely to handle difficult clients who are upset that their technology isn’t working.  The good news is that there are plenty of tactics IT recruiters and IT contractors can employ in dealing with difficult clients, co-workers, or managers.

The most comprehensive approach to dealing with difficult people is to remember that co-workers, managers, etc are more than their resumes.  They have their own personal concerns, values, and communication styles.  If IT staffing agencies try to mirror the communication styles of difficult clients, they will suddenly get much further with them.  IT recruiting companies will also find far more success with difficult clients if they try to understand their priorities.  IT headhunters can easily overcome a difference in priorities once it’s identified.  Lastly, IT consultants and IT staffing companies will find a great deal of success keeping interactions with difficult people as short as possible without being rude or incomplete in their work.  Letting any kind of abuse or anger build is not necessary and won’t make the interaction any better or more productive.  This also means the less response IT recruiting firms give to difficult people’s tantrums, the sooner they are over.

Weakness and Mistakes are No Longer Taboo in IT

IT professionals are experiencing a new trend: information technology companies are reporting their mistakes and weaknesses in real time (or something very close).  This means as a startup’s founder admits to his massive error in front of a large collective audience including IT recruiting companies, IT headhunters, and IT consultants, the damage from that mistake has just barely been fixed.  IT recruiters Boston to IT recruiters CA are finding a new kind of candid attitude that might be a direct product of the etiquette and speed of social media.

IT contractors and IT managers are participating in social media that demands blatant honesty and moves at the speed of real time.  Technical recruiters could be tweeting what they’re eating for breakfast as they eat it.  This tweet, of course, will be followed by a slew of more throughout the day.  This kind of pace and honesty is possibly making startups and other companies far more willing to share their weaknesses with IT staffing firms.  If IT recruiting companies become aware of a company’s weakness or mistake, this will not seem so odd in a culture influenced heavily by a digital culture of honesty.  And furthermore, this information will probably be replaced by new information so quickly that IT staffing companies will forget it quickly.

 

Making Matches in IT– Management is Key

In information technology and any other professional field, it’s important for IT recruiters to make sure that IT consultants not only are placed in IT jobs that work well for their resumes, but also a great fit in terms of IT managers.  IT contractors will work best and enjoy their work, which of course leads to better performance, with a boss they can be honest with and generally get along with.  IT headhunters will be more successful in placing IT professionals whose work style and management style are complementary.  IT staffing companies that make such placements will have more satisfied clients and IT job candidates.  This will mean more repeat business for IT recruiting agencies.  Thus making good matches between IT professionals and IT managers will be fortuitous for many people, including IT recruiting companies.

 

Free Office Perks in IT Have Hidden Costs

IT recruiters Boston to IT recruiters CA are fascinated by the lore of fantastic office perks that information technology companies are offering.  IT consultants and IT managers are being wooed by more than just interesting IT jobs.  IT staffing companies are promising IT contractors, on behalf of their clients, things ranging from free food, to free laundry, to free haircuts.  These perks all tend to come with hidden price tags, though.  IT professionals who work at companies with extensive perks are probably expected to work similarly extensive hours.  IT headhunters are noticing that the perks make those long hours easier, as distractions from life outside work are taken care of.  IT staffing agencies have also noticed that the toll of these perks can be even more obvious—in the forms of protruding bellies.  IT recruiting companies can certainly point to the unfortunate side effects of extensive perks: it’s all in the waistline.

 

The High Value of Praise in IT

A recent Pew survey suggests a very bleak view of the information technology and other professional worlds.   Supposedly 70% of most American workers, apparently including IT contractors, IT recruiters, and other IT professionals, are not inspired by their jobs.  While there is much speculation for the reasons for so much disgruntlement, IT staffing companies and IT consultants who dislike their jobs can benefit from some very simple actions.  IT managers can make a huge impact by increasing the praise they offer to their reports and the technical recruiters who work for them.  IT jobs, like any other job, are always made more pleasant when supervisors are encouraging.  Even when resumes and productivity reports suggest somebody is meeting all expectations, hearing praise for it verbally makes a big difference for IT headhunters, IT recruiting agencies, and the clients and candidates they work with.  With a free, easy change to management style, IT recruiting firms and many other kinds of companies can make a big change in their employee job satisfaction.

IT Work Environments: Silence Isn’t Golden

IT managers and IT recruiters have confirmation of what they’ve suspected for a long time: the best work environments for IT contractors are not quiet, but rather have the slight buzz of a public place, like a coffee shop.  Recent studies have shown that IT consultants, and many other professionals who need to think creatively, will benefit from a slightly noisy environment rather than a perfectly quiet one.  Information technology requires IT professionals to think creatively about how to solve problems.  IT jobs not only require resumes full of technical skills, but also more intangible creative ones.  The studies that have been done about noise reveal what IT staffing firms have long known: perfect quiet makes it hard to actually get resolutions to complicated technology-oriented issues.  IT recruiting companies tend to practice this themselves, as well. Technical recruiters often work to the soundtrack of their IT headhunters co-workers’ murmurs and a radio or two.

IT Hiring: Best With Engaged Managers

IT staffing companies and IT consultants often place the burden of making an interview go well on the IT professionals shoulders, not the IT manager’s.  However, the best hires occur when managers take on a significant amount of responsibility in interviewing IT contractors for IT jobs.  The first step a manager can take is utilizing Technical recruiters.  IT staffing firms put a great deal of effort into locating job candidates with great resumes and who perform well in a phone screen.  The next step becomes the responsibility of the manager, though.  IT headhunters can only provide options to a company.  It is up to the company to actively make sure they choose the best of these IT recruiting agencies’ offerings. Information technology is very often a team-driven field, and IT staffing agencies provide candidates who meet this requirement.  It is ultimately up to the company’s interviewer to make sure the candidate is a perfect fit for their team, though.  While IT recruiting companies can suggest good cultural fits, the only person who can find the best cultural fit is somebody from within the company culture.

 

Time for a New IT Job?

Information technology, like any field, has a wide diversity of jobs it can offer.  IT professionals can use this plethora of choices to their credit and they can definitely be vigilant about making sure their IT jobs are right for them.  Technical recruiters, IT managers, and IT contractors should all take time now and then to evaluate if they’re in the right role for them.  Beyond just making sure the skills on their resumes match the ones on job descriptions, IT consultants and IT headhunters should stop and consider if they are performing to their best ability in their role and if they feel motivated to perform to their best ability.    IT staffing companies and the IT job candidates they work with want the same thing:  for the people these IT recruiting companies to like their jobs and excel in them.

Applying Sports to IT Jobs: It’s a Slam Dunk

Technical recruiters, IT contractors, and IT managers can take a page from sports to improve their performances in IT jobs.  Beyond the obvious skills on resumes, IT professionals, including IT staffing agencies and  IT consultants, need to be well-versed on soft skills, including team dynamics, follow-through, ambition, and how to go the extra mile.

IT recruiting companies and the people they work with can easily apply the tactics they practiced in sports to their everyday workload.  For instance, considering not just what one’s current move with the ball, but what to do with it next, is very applicable to being in information technology as part of IT recruiting firms or any other organizations.  Thinking ahead can always help IT staffing companies perform even better at filling jobs.  IT recruiting agencies also could certainly benefit from applying a little emphasis on teamwork or hustle.   Improving at work is as easy as going back to playground games.

 

Success in IT– More than Just Job Performance

IT Staffing companies and IT managers have plenty of criteria for what makes good IT professionals. Though some of these criteria are obvious from resumes, IT recruiting companies definitely have preferences that extend to more personal areas, like behavior in the workplace.  IT staffing firms definitely prefer to work with IT contractors who are social, but don’t tend to socialize with other employees known for being slackers or doing the bare minimum.  IT recruiting agencies also prefer to work with IT consultants who do things like showing up early, leaving late, and looking focused during the day.  Even if one is getting their work done perfectly, certain behaviors can make them a target for management and make their technical recruiters look bad. IT recruiters Boston to IT recruiters CA all agree that they want to work with people who not only do their IT jobs, but contribute to a healthy, effective, happy work environment.