Tag Archives: IT Recruiters Boston

Watching Out For New Computer Viruses

With so many technology advances, there are many ways to secure your devices.  At the same time though, many hackers are getting better at finding ways to access your private files.  Being a technical recruiter in the IT staffing industry, we know many of the Malware out there.

Here are a few things that even the best IT recruiters may not know about.  A new way that hackers are getting to you is through smishing.  This is when you are contacted through a text message with a link. The link allows the hacker to access any files on your phone (especially for people who are signed up for many phone alerts).  You may not realize it is a virus until it is too late.

Another mobile hacking technique is called bluebugging in which the hacker accesses your cellphone using Bluetooth.  They can then do various things such as editing information on the phone, keeping tabs on phone calls and access any personal information that you have stored on your phone such as your address book.  The biggest problem with this scam is that you will never know it is happening.

Hackers also created a new hacking technique called ransomware.  The virus basically slows down your computer and fills it with pop ups basically disabling your computer and making it useless.  This happens to our IT recruiters Boston on a monthly basis.  Hackers disguise their virus in a resume attachment.  Technical Recruiters are obviously always going to open a resume attachment, so it’s a sure way for hackers to disable their computer.

Therefore, the next time your computer acts strange or a piece of information goes missing, you may have been hacked.  Computer hackers cost businesses millions of dollars each year, never mind the additional expenses incurred with purchasing hardware and software security their networks.  This not only hurts our nation’s economy, it ultimately stunts job growth.  Therefore, I’m sure I’m not alone in pushing the government to create stricter penalties for computer hackers (personally, I’d follow the rules of China and remove fingers as a penalty.  This would certainly cut down on the number of hackers ripping through our security systems).

How to De-stress Your Life in Your IT Recruiting Position

As a professional in the IT recruiting industry, there is a lot of stress you may have to deal with from home and the IT staffing office. This can then affect your behavior, and more important, your health. So how can you improve your life and de-stress from your daily activities?

First you should make sure that you take necessary vacations from your technical recruiting job. Every year you should be allotted a certain amount of vacation time and should take advantage of that. This will allow you to have time for yourself and relax. Go somewhere peaceful and/or do something that you enjoy. Everyone needs a break. Everyone needs to recharge their battery.

The second step you should take is making sure you don’t bring your work home. Figure out a schedule that will keep your tasks at work and not at home. When you blur this line, it could impact your family. There’s only so much work a person can do in one week. If you are constantly doing this, take a second look at what is going on to evaluate why this is happening.

Do you have a long commute to your technical recruiting office? Most people either drive or take public transportation to get to work. There are very few people who are lucky enough to be able to just walk to their IT staffing office. You might not realize, but long commutes can take a toll on you. If you are driving, not only do you have the stress of getting to work on time, but you have to deal with traffic and any accidents or adverse weather conditions while on the road. If you add a long commute on top of that, you’re already starting your day stressed or frustrated. If the commute is too long try discussing with your boss about the possibility of telecommuting a few times a week.

On the flip side, commutes can also provide a chance for IT recruiters to unwind. For some people, in the ideal world, they would like 15-20 minutes max to decompress. Listen to your favorite music, talk show or book on tape. Do something that helps you mentally unwind so you’re not taking any frustrations from your work day home with you.

Getting That Raise

The Information Technology industry can be very profitable as long as you know your worth.  You as an IT professional put in a lot of work to do your job and learn new things about your industry. Even after all the effort you put in, some of you may feel undervalued.

The first step you should take is evaluate your work and others who do the same as you.  Make sure that you as an IT professional are going above and beyond your job title.  You cannot expect your employer to approve a raise when the tasks you are fulfilling are only what are stated in the job description.  As an employee in the IT industry, you need to go above and beyond if you want to get ahead.

Next, figure out exactly how much additional compensation you’re looking.  This may be as simple as more vacation time or as complex as additional salary and/or bonus.   If you ask for an increase in pay, try to find out what other people in similar IT jobs are being paid.  Utilize IT recruiters Boston to help provide you with a compensation analysis.  Leverage their knowledge of the rates and salaries in the IT staffing industry.

Once you gather this information, make a list so you know what arguments you will use when negotiating your raise.

Before you go into your boss’ office, do some research on your own company.  Specifically, try to find out their budget and/or when their new budget numbers need to be reported.  Timing is everything – getting in front of your boss at just the right moment may make the difference in hundreds or thousands of dollars to you.

For more suggestions or advice, contact one of the IT recruiters at AVID Technical Resources today:  www.avidtr.com.

How to stay on top of your emails

As a job seeker and an IT professional, you are very busy and don’t have time to be sitting in front of your mail client constantly waiting for the arrival of an email. Especially if you are waiting for job alerts, or emails from IT recruiters Boston, you need to be on top of your game.

If you are a Google fan and are already using Gmail, then why not take a look at their new desktop notification option.  For those of you who have switched over to a Chrome browser, you will be able to take advantage of this right away.  Other browsers will hopefully have this feature soon.

Applying for IT jobs and working with IT staffing agencies will require you to be alert of job openings.  Most IT staffing companies will contact you as soon as they find that you are a fit for the technical position.  But what happens if you’re working on something when that email arrives and don’t see it until it’s too late? This new feature will have a pop up message from your browser alerting you of the new email.

With this new feature, you will not be wasting your time refreshing your browser or sitting there waiting for a new email to arrive.  In addition, the notification will allow you to see who the email is from.  By being able to know who the email is from, and seeing the subject line, you can just ignore the message if it’s not important.

So if you need some help staying on top of your job search, why not add this to your list.  Who knows, maybe you’ll get a notification from an IT recruiter with that perfect new technical job today!

Dress the Part, Play the Part, Be the Part

As the owner of an IT recruiting company, I firmly believe that a work environment plays an instrumental part in shaping your employees and further helps create your office culture. There are a number of elements within creating a work environment. First, there’s the actual office location. This can provide energy or even take away from it if your company is located in a barren office park in the middle of nowhere. This is why AVID Technical Resources, one of the nation’s fastest growing IT staffing companies, is located in the heart of Boston – smack in the middle of the city’s financial district. We took this a step further and purchased an office condo on the first floor, just above eye-level of those on the outside, yet still close enough to the ground level to see people pass bye and further create the feel of energy.

Another variable to creating a proper work environment is dress code. We have all seen the images of dot com start-up companies. Many of these snapshots show people in jeans and tee shirts playing ping pong or foosball in their office break rooms. The pictures give us a sense of reckless spending and casual work environments. It promotes free spirit without rules or boundaries. As much as you want to create a fun/healthy work environment, there needs to be a professional tone. By trading the jeans in for business pants, you’re naturally prompting your IT recruiters Boston to step up their game. Exchanging tee shirts for shirts and ties and will immediately prompt a change in professional atmosphere and mindset of your technical recruiters and IT staffing salespeople. Simply put, dress the part, play the part, be the part.

How to get people to arrive on time in the IT recruiting industry

When working in such a fast paced industry such as the IT recruiting industry, there are many meetings and appointments that you will need to attend and others will have to join as well.  Between client appointments, interviews and meetings with other IT recruiters Boston, time is limited in a work day.

So how can you make sure that your technical recruiters and IT staffing salespeople to arrive on time? The first thing you should do is make sure that you always arrive on time.  In the IT staffing industry, it is extremely important to have a good reputation.  Always being on time and ready to start will make others trust you and know that you as a manager will work in the allotted time given.

Once you have established your reputation for being on time, work closely with those who are notoriously known for being late.  Provide them with a warning, not only explain the consequences of their tardiness, but the ramifications of their actions.  You must treat all of the employees in your IT recruiting company the same.  Sometimes setting an example with an insubordinate employee is best.

As an IT staffing manager, you should always lead by example.  If you tell your team there is no working from home, yet you’re on a conference call from your home, you’re not going to gain the trust of your employees.  If you confront an IT recruiter for being late, then come in late the next day, you’re going to lose credibility.  Therefore, always be sure to practice what you preach.

Why you should wait to purchase that 3-D TV

There have been a lot of commercials and talk about the new line of 3-D TV’s that companies have come out with.  IT professionals have put a ton of research and work into creating these high tech televisions for consumers, but are they worth splurging for yet? Sony 3-D TV will cost you around $2,000, and that’s one of the smaller TV’s.

Just thinking about these TV’s is going to put a hole in your wallet.  But then they there are more surprises.  In order to view the images in 3-D you will need to purchase the glasses, a 3-D receptor that connects with the glasses, and a blu-ray player that will play the movies.  The HDTV’s will not be able to work with the glasses and player so you will have to upgrade.  How many people will actually put on glasses to watch TV?  I asked a number of the IT recruiters Boston in our IT staffing company and not one person said they would wear them consistently.

With these new TV’s you will be able to watch your shows and movies in 2-D as well or convert them to 3-D with the television.  The quality of course will not as good, but you can do it.  This also means that your shows may start coming out in 3-D as well if these TV’s last long enough.

The biggest problem with these televisions is the fact that the glasses are not interchangeable between brands.  It’s similar to the battle we had a few years ago between blu-ray and HD movies.  You had to either buy an overpriced blu-ray or HD player and were then not able to play either movie within the system.

In the end, these ridiculous prices will go down.  So those of you who love watching 3-D movies, don’t fret, you can still use those 3-D glasses for now and wait until there is a standardized 3-D system.  There’s no use in spending so much when the concept is so new.

Candidate Commutes – Being Proactive is Better than Reactive

Being a technical recruiting company, our IT recruiters Boston are always digging into commutes with each prospective candidate and IT job opportunity.  It always surprises us when a candidate agrees to an interview, then ultimately turns down the position because of the commute.  Did the person not think through how they’d get to the job site before they agreed to take time of their day, the hiring managers and even the IT recruiters?  Did the roadways change since you agreed to interview?!

Because of this, technical recruiters proactively press each candidate on their commutes.  They will want to know how the person plans on getting to their place of employment.  IT recruiters will also want to know whether the candidate has a reliable form of transportation, whether the vehicle is theirs to use or if they share it with someone and if they’ve had any recent mechanical problems that could prohibit them from getting to work in the near future.

If the prospective candidate lives within a public transportation route, IT recruiters will ask how far they live from the bus or train (or even boat) station, how they plan on getting to the departure location, what times do the modes of transportation run (to ensure it falls within the schedule of the client), then how far is the arrival location from their actual work site.  Technical recruiters Boston may even go so far as to ask the candidate to test-drive the commute before committing to the job interview.

Because there are so many variables in the IT recruitment process, our IT staffing experts do everything they can to remove any obstacles that stand in the way from making a successful placement.  A person’s commute is one such obstacle, and such an easy one to eliminate if the recruiters are proactive and pose the proper questions and/or scenarios:  “If you’re looking at an hour commute by car each way, what happens when there’s an accident?  Rain or snowstorm?  Friday traffic?”  These are the hypothetical that a prospective candidate might not take into consideration until after the fact (when they’re faced with a nightmare commute and a tough decision as to whether to resign from the technical job).

Even after 15 years in the IT recruiting Boston industry, even after placing thousands of information technology professionals in various technical jobs, it still amazes me how little some candidates think about their commutes before committing to an opportunity.  Unfortunately, facing a grim reality after the fact doesn’t typically end well.  Therefore, if you’re a prospective candidate and you find yourself answering a number of questions about your commute when talking to technical recruiters, I hope you can understand why the need for us to dig.

PocketCloud for Your Android Smart Phones for IT Recruiters

As information technology professionals or IT recruiters, we’re always trying to gain access to various networks to get your work done.  Sometimes you may not have a computer available but always have your smart phone.  So how can IT recruiters Boston get their work done without reaching for that laptop or desktop?  PocketCloud is a virtual network connection that you can use on your android.

This VNC application will simplify your auto pairing to access computers with your phone.  The setup is relatively simple since this application has an auto discovery method.  You can use your Gmail account to set up the connection between your phone and computer.  This will allow you to bypass reconfiguring the router in order to connect your two devices.

With the application for your smart phone, technical recruiters will be able to scroll through pages and access different applications on your desktop. Other professionals in the IT staffing industry will have access to any VPN’s that they use at work and be able to trouble shoot any problems on work stations without having to take their laptop out.

This can be relatively convenient for IT professionals or IT recruiters  who are constantly on the move.  You will not always be able to carry your laptop around with you and it can also become burdensome.  So why not get an application that will allow you to do your job easily without as many gadgets.

Staying on Tasks in the IT Recruiting Industry

As we near the holidays, many of us IT recruiters Boston are straying away from tasks that are essential to our IT jobs and inadvertently having to work more hours without being as productive as you should.  Why do you think this may happen? It’s not that we are intentionally ignoring work tasks, it’s just that it’s sometimes difficult to differentiate which ones are essential to our IT recruiting jobs.

To combat this, we need to figure out what exactly is wasting our precious time.  Analyze the different tasks each of us go through during our workday and how much time we spend on them.  Next, we need to see which ones are contributing to a final project that will help the IT staffing company as a whole as well as ourselves.  If the tasks are not a priority for work, then we need to decrease the amount of time spent doing them and apply it to those tasks that are better.

Also try figuring out what tasks need to be done that aren’t being done to the fullest at the moment.  If you cannot seem to find any more projects, talk to your IT recruiting boss and see if there are any other things that need to be worked on. This will allow you to give yourself a better name and also increase the productivity at your IT staffing agency.

Finally, we need to start making to do lists of the most important tasks pertinent to our technical recruiting position at various IT recruiting agencies.  We shouldn’t have to wait for our boss to tell us that we’re not on track.  If we see that we’re not doing the appropriate tasks, focus on projects that use our skills.  Remember, creating tasks are critical to staying on top of to do’s.  However, the initiative has to come from each of us first.