Tag Archives: IT managers

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.

Building a Positive IT Team

The best companies to work for are the ones where “service with a smile” isn’t just a façade for customers or clients, it’s natural.  This is especially true of companies in information technology because it so often ends up being more of a “back of the house” industry where grumpy IT consultants could easily hide behind a computer screen.  IT recruiters and IT managers can focus on particular qualities when finding IT contractors to fill IT jobs and create great culture in a company.

IT recruiters firstly need to look for optimistic and enthusiastic candidates.  The importance of hiring people who are naturally “glass half full” types is imperative.  This is not a “fluff” topic that should come second to resumes.  Secondly, IT staffing companies should identify candidates who carry two personality traits: kindness and service.  Both of these traits are at the core of what makes a good team player.  It’s easy for IT professionals to call themselves “team players,” but it’s harder to fake having these character traits.  Lastly, IT staffing agencies should attempt to find candidates they think will be likely to polish and improve a company’s image with every interaction they have with clients and business contacts.  By choosing candidates with these personality characteristics, IT recruiting firms are not only building a strong IT team, but also a healthy one that will retain its members.

How Will the IT Sector Keep Up With Job Demand

How will America keep up with its information technology sector job growth?  Though the market of IT professionals waxes and wanes, its American portion is still problematically low for the amount of IT jobs technical recruiters are trying to fill. (A large portion of American IT consultants seem to disagree with this reading of the market.)  There seem to be two major methods of dealing with this dearth of IT contractors for IT staffing agencies and IT managers: increasing H-1B visa allowances and increasing education for future IT professionals.

The attempts to increase education certainly have drawbacks for IT staffing firms in particular.  IT staffing companies today dealing with a lack of candidates now will have to continue to wait as programs that are mostly targeted at younger students slowly build the IT professionals of tomorrow.  There are also no guarantees that these efforts to motivate young children, especially girls, will even actually yield a greater pool of candidates for IT recruiting companies.

The second effort at creating more candidates for IT recruiting agencies is obviously problematic from a national standpoint.  Are we hurting our own citizens when we allow more H-1B visas, or are we simply enriching our economy and population?  With two major efforts occurring, there are still plenty of drawbacks to be dealt with.  The search for an effective way to get more candidates for IT recruiters continues.

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.

The Best Qualities in IT References

Great references are a must for IT contractors looking to attract IT recruiters. IT staffing firms certainly appreciate sparkling resumes, but to get further in the process nothing beats the marketability of IT professionals with references that are impressive, relevant, well-spoken, and easy to contact.   IT consultants should consider a few major things when assembling references for IT recruiting agencies to use on their behalf.

Firstly, IT staffing firms would prefer references who are as impressive and relevant as possible.  Using past managers for jobs in the same or similar fields is preferable.  The better the title (while still being somebody who can speak thoroughly about your abilities), the more impressive it will be to IT recruiting companies and the IT managers they work for.

Secondly, IT recruiting firms are looking for references who are up to date and easy to contact.  A great verbal reference is worthless if the IT professional has lost their contact information or worse, lost track of them entirely and has old and useless contact information. One way to avoid this pitfall is a necessary prior step: getting permission.  It’s polite to make sure you have permission to use somebody as a reference.  In getting that permission, the second part of the conversation should be getting the best method of contact for IT staffing companies to use for this reference.

Lastly, IT headhunters most prefer an organized, thorough listing of references laid out for them in one document.  IT recruiters CA to IT recruiters Boston will appreciate a list that is easy to use themselves or to hand to IT managers they work with.

Stepping into an IT Manger’s Shoes — the Key to Success

IT professionals and IT recruiters are both subject to the whims of IT managers.  As in any field, an IT manager is complex and has his/her own even more complex set of priorities.  The best way to work well with a manager is for technical recruiters and IT consultants to try to consider things from their point of view.  Here are 2 major ways a manager’s perspective can become clearer to IT staffing agencies and IT professionals.

1. Consider the Manager’s priorities, not your own- IT staffing firms and IT consultants have a very different list of priorities than an IT manager.  A pressing request for interview feedback might be imperative to IT recruiting firms, but they need to respect that it may be at the bottom of the list for a manager.  A bug in code or a difficult co-worker might be a major issue for  IT contractors, but he or she should consider that these problems may be nearly insignificant to their manager.

2. Make the manager’s job easy- If IT staffing companies or IT professionals can find ways to meet an manager’s needs with little feedback or supervision, or even to anticipate these needs, they will become invaluable.  Being a self-starter, self-motivated, and an independent worker make you easy to manage.  If you’re easy to manage, IT managers—and the IT recruiting agencies who work for them—will want to work with you over and over again.