Tag Archives: IT professionals

When to Stay in Your IT Job…and When to Leave

IT consultants must ask themselves a tough question from time to time: Should I start looking to leave my current job?  IT professionals who are considering polishing their resumes should consider a few major factors before trying to move on to new IT jobs.

The first major fact is the state of the economy and the information technology.  Currently, IT contractors will find that the economy is not in the best shape.  However, the IT field is booming.  Making a move wouldn’t be prohibitively risky at the moment.

The next factor to consider is motivation.  IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies tend to shy away from people who only want to leave their jobs for more money, because they’re bored, or because they’re overworked.  A combination of factors is acceptable, but on their own, each of these factors can be addressed and probably improved at least somewhat.

The last factor to consider is time.  If you’ve only been with your current employer for less than a year (and it’s not a contract), it’s best to try to wait it out.  Technical recruiters do have more tolerance for what might be called ‘job hopping’ in other fields, but if you can avoid having less than a year at any location, you should wait.

 

Going Over an IT Manager’s Head

Sometimes in information technology it’s unclear if you should follow your IT managers or go over their heads.  While this situation isn’t enviable, IT contractors and IT headhunters can use a few major rules of thumb to determine if it will hurt or help their IT jobs to go over a manager’s head.

There are two instances in which IT recruiters and IT professionals are always justified in going over a manager’s head.  The first circumstance is when a manager is actively breaking the law (or laws!).  The second is when a manager is harassing, threatening, or discriminating against you.  Both circumstances are already too fraught with issues for you to solve on your own.

If technical recruiters or IT professionals don’t find themselves in one of the above circumstances, there are a few other criteria to consider.  The first is the frequency of the issue.  If it’s a one-time issue, it might be best to hold off.  Secondly, one should consider the intensity of the issue.  If it threatens the physical, emotional, or general well-being of you, the company, a colleague, or is equally serious, it’s time to go over a manager’s head.

There is also one instance in which it is never ok to go over your manager’s head.  This is if the people you are going to seek out tend to side with the manager or will be unlikely to protect you from any retaliation from your manager.  With unsupportive upper management, it’s definitely not worth the risk.  In fact, it’s best to start looking for a new job in such circumstances.

New Ways to Consider Time Management in IT

The information technology field can be pretty hectic, and IT professionals with time management skills are certainly at a premium.  Some new research might help IT consultants, IT recruiters, and IT managers think differently about how they can work at their IT Jobs most efficiently.

The first thing IT contractors and technical recruiters can do to maximize their time is to think of it in terms of quality not quantity.  The hours when one is at their best (mentally, if not also physically) are the hours that should be saved for the toughest projects.  Even if these are only 2 hours in the morning, they may be far more valuable than the 4 hours after lunch.

The second thing to consider is what to do with off-time.  Nights, weekends, and vacations can all bring a vital boost to productivity during work hours.  IT staffing firms note that after a vacation, IT headhunters and IT professionals are far more productive.  Some studies suggest the impact lasts up to a month after the vacation.  The same boost can be seen after weekends if they’re full of valuable, quality time spent relaxing and getting away from work. 

Interruptions in IT

As open plan offices become more and more common and information technology departments are less and less often relegated to the basement, IT professionals are experiencing exponentially more interruptions during their IT jobs.

After various studies, it seems that most IT contractors are experiencing interruptions so frequently that they spend about 3 minutes at a time uninterrupted.  This number seems to rise more for IT managers.  3 minutes is shockingly small amount of time.  Perhaps what is even more shocking is how often IT consultants might actually be interrupting themselves. 

Technical recruiters and the IT staffing firms they work for must find new candidates that not only have sparkling resumes, but also IT job candidates who can work despite these interruptions.  They are clearly not going anywhere any time soon.

Major Resume Mistakes to Avoid in IT

Creating perfect resumes in the information technology field isn’t hard.  IT professionals often have the benefit of IT recruiters and their praise accompanying their resumes to IT managers.  Even if IT consultants have this added benefit, though, they certainly won’t get anywhere in their job search (with hiring managers or IT staffing firms) if they make big mistakes in their job hunting materials.  These are some of the biggest mistakes IT contractors should avoid in their resumes:

1.   Not listing skills: In IT, skills are everything.  Giving a concise run-down of skills and certifications provides a distinct advantage in the job hunt because it makes it so much easier for technical recruiters to identify if you match a job’s requirements.

2. Listing an unprofessional email address for contact purposes:  This error is particularly egregious because your email address can be considered a reflection of your personality.  Either make it too bland to actually reflect anything about you, or make it reflect something positive.

3. Copying extensively from job postings on resumes: Not being able to reflect upon your own job experience and communicate it in your own words is a terrible sign for IT staffing agencies.  If you really got something out of a job, you’d be able to at least write about what you did in your own way.

4. Including photos: Information technology is different than acting.  Headshots are not required and it may puzzle people if you provide them.  Better to just save them for your grandma. 

 

IT Certifications and Degrees: Coming Soon from Pepsi?

IT recruiters Boston to IT recruiters CA have been seeing some surprises on IT contractors’ resumes: corporate schools.  Brands like Red Bull have been creating programs that provide traditionally more academic type training.  With new technologies coming out all the time, the information technology field is particularly fertile for such “corporate schools.”  The ability to hire splashy speakers on hot topics is practically second nature to a lot of big brands.  Selling seats for the lecture is only a problem when they are just that: seats that are sold.  The educational value is still debatable when these schools have to weigh their desire for consumers with things like testing, student evaluations, and grades.

For now, these collaborations are a little controversial.  IT headhunters are less than thrilled to find IT consultants with credentials they so obviously paid for and have far less reputable names.  However, IT professionals are pointing out that many credentials already fit these bills (no pun intended).  Additionally, charter schools and online education long ago starting paving the way for these corporate schools.  IT certifications seem more likely to start coming from corporate schools more and more frequently in the future.  It’s only a matter of time.

“Failure” in IT Still Tastes Sweet

The information technology field and the IT professionals who work in it have certainly portrayed a different version of ‘economic downturn’ than any other field in the economy.  Even as the economy slowly crawls back, IT jobs multiply exponentially, often outnumbering the amount of IT consultants who can take them.  All this success means that failure is also portrayed pretty differently in the IT field.  IT contractors and IT headhunters have some rather inspiring “failures” to look up to.

Myspace can show IT recruiters and IT contractors just how sweet “failure” can taste.  The New York Times recently reported that Myspace’s founding team has created a menagerie of startups, each member going on to find their own success in a new company they have founded or co-founded.  While Myspace is arguably pretty much irrelevant now, its failure is certainly not an indicator of the success its founders have reached.

Another example of “failure” that doesn’t taste particularly bitter is Andrew Mason, ex-CEO of Groupon.  Mason’s very public firing didn’t even seem to faze him as it occurred.  His tongue-in-cheek letter to employees telling them that he was fired showed a pretty relaxed attitude towards the whole debacle.  Mason is currently consulting at Y-Combinator and has put out a CD of inspirational career songs.  The second part of that statement is odd, but the first is pretty telling.  Mason is not worried about where he will end up, and is likely just fishing for his next opportunity while working at Y-Combinator.

 

“Fall” Into Your IT Job Search

IT recruiters and IT contractors are just beginning to dive into fall job searching after the slower, vacation-addled Summer season.  IT professionals searching for new IT jobs can certainly expect to find IT headhunters and IT managers with arms wide open in a great candidates’ market.  It seems that a few factors will be driving growth in the Information Technology sector this Fall:

  1. Companies have been trying to make do with fewer employees and fewer resources for too long.  This Fall they will begin to finally hire and fill some of the positions they may have been trying to combine or divvy and thrust upon some employees. Understaffed companies will swing open doors to IT consultants as they expand to a more comfortable number of employees.
  2. The economy is obviously recovering slowly, but IT is certainly one sector that is growing faster.  Maintaining an enviable 3% unemployment rate over the last quarter or so, things will only get better as the economy as a whole recovers.

Introverts in IT

Information technology is a field that draws an unprecedented number of introverted IT consultants and IT managers.  The long hours alone by a computer screen certainly appeal to a great number of IT professionals.  This high concentration of introverts makes Susan Cain’s research on how to utilize them in the workplace particularly relevant to the field and IT staffing firms and IT headhunters.

Cain’s research suggests a few tweaks to current corporate practice.  Firstly, instead of overlooking quiet, introverted types for leadership positions and jobs in general, it is best to delve deeper and look for the ideas and creativity they can provide.  Secondly, Cain considers the standard corporate practice of celebrating, and generally forcing, extroversion, to be counterproductive.  It makes working difficult for the 33 to 50% of the population that tends to be more introverted than extroverted.

These changes could certainly start with IT recruiting agencies, which might be more likely to overlook quiet IT job candidates. The IT headhunters who work directly with candidates can advocate for them as alternatives to the typical extroverts they might be drawn to.  Taking more time to consider the introverted candidate could make IT staffing agencies instrumental in Cain’s ‘Quiet Revolution.’ 

 

The Time to Prepare for Your Next IT Layoff is Now

It might seem completely counterintuitive, but because information technology is a generally robust field at the moment, it would behoove IT professionals to take time now to prep themselves for layoffs.  This is not a doomsday prediction for IT staffing firms or IT contractors.  Hopefully the next recession is many years off.  However, it’s best for IT recruiters and IT consultants to prepare for layoffs and hard times on the job market far in advance of when they hit.

The first thing people can do to prepare themselves is to polish their resumes and other job hunting materials.  Making sure to have ideas of great references in mind, if not actually asking IT managers if they are willing to act as a reference should you need it, is just as important as having a spotless resume.  When these materials are perfect, it’s not a bad idea to find IT staffing firms that you want to establish relationships with for when times are hard. Having IT headhunters who already have your materials and needs in mind, even if they’re not actively marketing you, is not a bad thing

Beyond prepping job hunting materials, there is also the very important matter of prepping a financial cushion for emergencies.  Having 3 months of living expenses in savings is great.  Having 6 months of living expenses in savings is better.  No matter what field you’re in, or how well it’s doing, you can never be too careful.