Tag Archives: IT professionals

Failing in IT? It’s Ok!

IT recruiters CA to IT recruiters Boston tend to subscribe to the conventional wisdom about failure: avoid it.  But technical recruiters and IT professionals should seriously re-think their concept of failure.

As the founder of Linked In, Reid Hoffman, is now advocating in his new book, failure is merely an opportunity to learn in your career.  Hoffman suggests IT recruiters and IT consultants consider taking more risks in their careers and become more comfortable with the result when things don’t always work out.  The lessons IT staffing agencies or IT contractors can learn from risks and failures far outweigh the other consequences—even if it’s a firing.  The information technology industry is an especially hospitable field to fail in.  With resumes full of contracting stints and innovative projects that sometimes do and don’t work, taking risks looks downright de riguer.  Perhaps one of the most interesting reasons why Hoffman advocates a healthy acceptance of risk and failure is the way he views career paths overall: They are full of uncertainty, which is a good thing.  IT headhunters or IT mangers never know what great surprise is around the bend.

 

Small and Effective Ways To Distinguish Yourself in IT

IT professionals, IT recruiters, and IT managers can all do a lot to positively impact their office and people’s impressions of them in the information technology world.  Sometimes these things are big, like projects you list on resumes.  Sometimes, however, small, simple acts can leave the biggest impression on IT contractors or IT headhunters.

The first kind of act is verbal.  If IT recruiting agencies or IT consultants find a moment to pay an unexpected compliment, praise somebody’s potential, or recognize when somebody takes a risk, they will create a lasting impression in IT jobs, IT job interviews, or anywhere else.  Verbalizing recognition for the things people deserve, but don’t always get recognition for really makes you stand out to IT staffing agencies. The second kind of act that makes a large impact on IT recruiting companies is more kinetic.  Doing something extra, just because you can, is always a shocking and powerful gesture to IT headhunters.  Consider going the extra mile without being asked.  Your efforts won’t be wasted—somebody will always meet you there later and praise you for it.

Varying Workplace Culture in IT

IT recruiters CA to IT recruiters Boston have seen some vastly different workplace cultures.  Even in one industry like information technology, there are few standardized features of workplace culture that IT contractors can expect.  Such vast differences in workplace culture certainly stem from IT managers and their companies.

Some technical recruiters find that companies believe the IT professionals who fill their IT jobs should feel like family.  IT headhunters hear that their IT consultants would regret to ever leave such nurturing environments.  Other IT staffing agencies hear about companies that take the opposite view.  IT staffing companies only submit employees who are performance-oriented and emotionally tough to these candidates and their mantras are more along the lines of “get over it.”

Whichever one’s taste, there is a workplace culture for them and IT recruiting agencies to help them find it.

 

Cyclical Happiness in IT

Information technology is certainly stands apart from most fields in most ways.  However, there is one commonality that it tends to share with other professional fields: its happiest employees are generally its most valuable.  Happy IT consultants are not just pleasant to work with, they also get a lot more work done for IT managers and reflect well on their IT staffing companies.  While studies are somewhat inconclusive, they tend to suggest what we already know: happy IT contractors want to not only meet the expectations of their IT jobs, but exceed them.

IT recruiting companies know they can make a decent match when they find among stacks of resumes the IT professionals who can do the requirements of a job.  When IT recruiting agencies place a candidate in a job they truly love, though, they have made a truly spectacular match.  Technical recruiters can generally count of a candidate who loves their job to want to really prove their worth to a company.  People who love their jobs tend to be easier to manage and attempt to expand and grow in their roles.  And of course, the more somebody does to please their manger and IT staffing firms, the more a company will do to keep that employee happy.  This is the best kind of cycle IT headhunters can hope to implement in an office: a cycle of happiness and productivity.

 

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.

Helping After the Boston Marathon Tragedy

In response to last Monday’s horrific events, AVID Technical Resources will be donating to the fund for Roseann Sdoia(http://www.gofundme.com/roseann).  AVID urges IT professionals and others to consider also donating to this worthy cause.

In the wake of the horrible Boston marathon bombings, showing support for Roseann is one way to begin rebuilding our city’s heart.  Roseann bravely begins her recovery from some devastating injuries.  Please join us in honoring her and her loved ones as they begin the process of healing.

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.