Tag Archives: IT professionals

Mentoring in the IT World

Mentoring is an effective practice across a myriad of professional fields, including information technology.  IT professionals can certainly make themselves more attractive to technical recruiters nationwide, from IT recruiters CA to IT recruiters Boston by working with a mentor to hone their technical skills, professional demeanors, and resumes.  IT staffing firms will be especially excited to find female IT consultants who have had strong mentoring.  In a male-dominated field, women are certainly sought after by many IT headhunters for the unique perspectives they can bring to IT jobs.

What are some ways IT contractors can find mentors for themselves?  IT recruiting firms can suggest companies with strong mentoring programs.  One can also network online or in person at local meetups.  It is important to consider the search for a mentor to be fluid—one can multiple mentors and the time it takes to grow these relationships is not fixed.

IT is Re-Shaping Etiquette Rules Quickly

Emily Post’s opinion hasn’t carried much weight in society for a while, but recently there has been a rash of blogs that are concerned with etiquette—as it’s been changed by information technology.  IT recruiters, IT contractors, and all IT professionals in general are certainly pressured to keep up with the subtle changes in etiquette that are byproducts of constant changes in online and digital communication.  By being aware of the nuances of communication that are so quickly changing, technical recruiters can demonstrate how in touch they are with a technology company’s needs and the requirements of their IT jobs.

IT staffing firms, for instance, tend to operate by the LMGTFY rule.  LMGTFY, or Let Me Google that For You, is a very current courtesy.  If IT recruiters or IT consultants could easily google information for themselves, asking for it is considered rude.  It is in especially poor taste for IT staffing agencies or IT professionals to break the LMGTFY rule with potential candidates or employers they are submitting resumes to.  In addition to breaking etiquette, IT recruiting companies that violate the LMGTFY rule are also demonstrating a lack of resourcefulness and initiative.

Coming to an IT Company Near You: More Women

IT recruiting agencies, IT consultants, and the information technology industry as a whole has long decried its lack of women, especially in powerful positions.  Recently, however, it seems as though strides have been made towards actually doing something about this problem.  IT recruiters and IT contractors will certainly recognize the name Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s hyper-visible CEO who recently ended Yahoo’s telecommuting policy.  IT staffing companies are also likely to know her friend and fellow female tech executive Sheryl Sandberg.  Sandberg’s feminist manifesto brings a new perspective that is particularly relevant to technical recruiters and the IT professionals with whom they work.

The charge to bring more women into IT jobs  isn’t just coming from the top, though.  Various programs are being promoted and implemented in schools to make Math, Science, coding, and programming more popular amongst young girls.  IT recruiting companies may not yet see an increase in resumes from women, but a solid investment in future generations of female IT professionals is certainly equally important.   Hopefully the combined current efforts of these various feminists will inspire even more women to make themselves available to IT recruiters Boston, IT recruiters CA, and IT recruiters NY.

Bridging the Gap: IT Recruiters For All Ages

The information technology field, being relatively new as a professional field, is particularly inundated with generations X and Y.  It is also inundated with the problems that generations X and Y can cause in the workplace.  IT recruiters Boston to IT recruiters CA agree that generations X and Y certainly approach work and the workplace in different ways than their boomer generation counterparts.

There are many examples of disparate views IT recruiting companies see between generations as they attempt to fill IT jobs.  For instance, IT staffing agencies know from experience that while baby boomer managers tend to have experienced the workforce in only one or two companies, generations X and Y don’t operate on the same sense of a strong loyalty between company and employee. IT staffing companies also know that generations X and Y will/have already begun making more moves in their career field than baby boomers.  This means that IT job interviews can be especially fraught with tension as interviewers see vastly varied resumes that they do not expect.  It is the role of the IT recruiting agencies to help mold the resumes and the IT managers’ expectations to something closer to the middle.  IT managers can be persuaded to have more realistic expectations of a generation X or Y candidate, while IT staffing firms can coach IT consultants to understand and work harder to meet the expectations of a baby boomer IT manager.  The best asset technical recruiters can have in a market with two largely clashing sets of generations is to know how to bridge them and their expectations.  Happy generations X and Y and baby boomer IT professionals make for happy clients and candidates.  And happy clients and candidates make for very happy IT headhunters.

Change in the IT World: Necessary and Risky

Facebook’s changes this week certainly haven’t gone unnoticed by IT recruiters or the rest of the world.  While analyses on the details of these changes vary, the consensus seems to be one that the information technology world, and thus technical recruiters and IT consultants, have long understood: Change is key to staying relevant, but it needs to be done with caution.  IT recruiting firms and the IT professionals they work with often seek the balance between change and prudence in their work.  Frivolous change, change done solely for the sake of meeting technology’s break-neck pace, can meet loud criticism.  And loud criticism can mean the demise of a person or company’s reputation—at a break-neck pace, of course.

Marissa Mayer at Yahoo has also been struggling with similar issues.  As IT staffing firms and IT contractors watched her call all Yahoo employees back to work, they also saw the criticism pour in.  The results of Mayer’s change are yet to really be seen, but the consequences of shaking things up have certainly already manifested themselves and Mayer’s reputation has taken a hit.  Of course, not everyone is as visible in their actions as Mayer and Facebook, but the lesson for IT recruiting agencies and anyone else in the information technology field is just to make change cautiously.  Even when the industry standard requires IT recruiters CA to IT recruiters Boston to make change quickly to remain relevant, these changes are still subject to equally quick criticism.

IT Recruiters: The Best Way to Avoid Multiple Job Interviews

The information technology field has yielded yet another new reason for IT contractors to work with IT staffing firms: avoiding an endless parade of job interviews.  IT recruiting firms build relationships with their clients that yield a more streamlined job interview and hiring process.  With the new trend of IT consultants going on 6, 7, or even 10 interviews before hearing feedback, IT staffing agencies and their streamlined processes have become an even more attractive option.

Why are so many companies requiring a myriad of interviews?  Despite growth from the recession, the economy is still not back to full health.  This makes hiring managers nervous about investing in new employees who may not even be a good fit.  IT recruiting companies provide extra knowledge and experience in the hiring process that speeds up the interview process. Clients, especially repeat clients of IT staffing companies can trust that IT professionals they recommend for jobs have already been vetted extensively.  Using good technical recruiters saves a company some energy in the process of filling IT jobs, making only one or two interviews necessary instead of 6 or 7.  Of course, this process also benefits IT job candidates.  One or two interviews is just as preferable for a hiring manger as they are for an IT consultant, which means both should very seriously consider working with IT headhunters.

Not Optional: Bring Your Own Questions to IT interviews

IT staffing firms often prepare IT consultants to answer tough, detailed questions that you’d only encounter in the information technology field. Technical recruiters Boston should be equally focused on making sure that IT contractors interviewing for IT jobs are able to ask their own questions.  IT recruiting companies need their job candidates to answer questions for a few different reasons.  The first is to give the impression that IT professionals have their own, independent thought process. Critical thinking is an imperative skill that can be put on resumes, but IT staffing companies are much better served when a job candidate verbally demonstrates critical thinking abilities.  Secondly, IT recruiting agencies need job candidates to ask questions so they can indicate that a true engagement and interest in the job.  Not asking questions could easily translate to a disinterest in a job or company, leaving job candidates and their IT recruiting firms left out of the running to fill a position.

What are the best kinds of questions for IT staffing agencies to prepare their job candidates to ask?  Questions could be about the culture of a company, what a typical day looks like for the person who will fill the position in question, or why the position has become available.  IT headhunters can also encourage their candidates to inquire about management styles, how much or little team-work is required, and what kind of person they have worked best with previously. One major area to stay away from, however, is compensation.  IT recruiters add an extra layer of complication to the mix and IT job candidates generally makes an interviewer uncomfortable when they bring up compensation before an offer is made.

Education is Working Now to Change the IT Market of the Future

IT recruiting firms are well-aware of the disparity between the IT jobs available in the US and the number of people who actually study and graduate with the right training to be IT professionals. Everyone knows Math and Science need some heavy promotion among students, but few know it on the kind of practical level that IT staffing firms do.  Every time technical recruiters attempt to fill IT jobs and see how few US citizens’ resumes meet the requirements, they see firsthand the way US schools have not promoted Math and Science.  Enter Code.org.

Code.org may very well change the pool of IT contractors that IT recruiting companies choose from.  With its exciting, celebrity-laden video and solid, well-researched missing, code.org may bring computer coding to more of today’s students, propelling them into the hands of IT staffing firms of the future.  Of course, Code.org is not the only proponent of increasing US proficiency in skills viable for the information technology field.  Obama is an outspoken champion of Math and Science in schools and brings many other voices with him in his rallying cry.  Though it might take some time for all this advocacy to actually bear any fruit, IT staffing agencies will almost certainly see more US IT consultants and they can work with in the future.

Is Cutting Telecommuting in the IT Field A Blow to Women and Families?

Yahoo’s recent anti-telecommuting decision has thrown the practice into the spotlight, but IT recruiters have been debating its merits for years.  IT staffing firms are often given IT jobs to fill that provide options for IT consultants to telecommute.  The benefits are numerous for IT staffing companies, IT contractors, and companies.  Costs are saved for companies when they don’t have to supply water, heat/electricity, food, and other expenses to their employees.  Additionally, if many studies are to be believed, the productivity of workers is higher when they are allowed to telecommute.  IT recruiting firms also encounter arguments counter to telecommuting including that productivity does not go up, collaboration and creativity or work product suffer, and IT managers feel a general lack of control.

While most of the perceived benefits and detractors of telecommuting are obvious (particularly in the information technology field), a more subtle element in the debate is how feminist or family friendly the practice is. Especially with Mayer’s recent policy change at Yahoo, how telecommuting affects men and women with child-rearing needs becomes a prominent part of the debate.  IT recruiting agencies have often marketed IT jobs with flexible hours and telecommuting policies to women and men with family obligations.  IT professionals with families often appreciate the chance to telecommute so they are able to spend more time at home.  When telecommuting is cut, it can be seen as a blow to families and women (who tend to elect to work in flexible arrangements for child-rearing purposes more often than men).  When Mayer, a prominent woman in a male-dominated field who just recently had a child of her own cuts telecommuting, the move becomes a very complex discussion of how technical recruiters and their clients are or are not doing enough for women and families.

Resumes: To Write, or to Have Written. That is the Question.

In an increasingly saturated information technology market, IT recruiters respond best to resumes that are crafted with extra care and attention to detail.  Technical recruiters are not only looking for resumes that list previous job experience.  Clean, efficiently-worded descriptions and well-utilized key words are really what make IT staffing firms pay attention to IT consultants resumes.  At the same time, mid to late career IT professionals can extend their resumes beyond a single page.    IT staffing firms would certainly prefer to find an IT contractor with extensive knowledge and experience—which sometimes takes a slightly longer amount of page space to articulate.

For those seeking IT jobs who have the resources to put more into their search, resume writing services can be a good investment.  One can certainly catch IT staffing companies eyes with a resume that a professional has carefully constructed around key words, perfect grammar and spelling, and thoughtfully edited and arranged job duty descriptions.  IT recruiting agencies have certainly been impressed by Careers Plus Resume, Inc.  Backed with a guarantee and years of establishing themselves as insiders in the HR business, this company offers a personalized approach that will result in the kind of resume IT recruiting companies chase.  So is it imperative for gaining an IT headhunters interest to use a professional resume writing service?  No, but it can definitely help.