Tag Archives: IT recruiting agencies

Tips for Employers on Hiring New Grads

Many employers in the tech space (or companies outside of the tech space that employ IT professionals) eagerly anticipate June and May every year because it’s the best time hire new grads.  New grads can bring a lot to a team.  They have fresh energy, new ideas, and may have exposure to some of the newest technologies.  Another perk of working with new grads is that they’re often a bit easier to ‘mold’.  Because they don’t have much working experience yet, new grads don’t have their own habits and are more open to following their employer’s procedures and corporate culture.  (It’s also worth noting that if you’re worried about hiring a millennial, a lot of the negative stereotypes about them simply aren’t true.  They’re just that: stereotypes!)   If you’re looking to fill some of your open IT jobs with new grads, check out some of these tips below from IT recruiting firms.   This information will help you make the most of graduation season and hopefully help you add some fresh new talent to your team!

1. Get moving ASAP. IT staffing firms suggest you start trying to fill positions meant for new grads as soon as possible.  The tech market is really a job seeker’s market.  (This goes double for particular areas of the country like Boston and San Francisco!)  Some of the top talent might already be working with IT recruiters before they even finish finals, never mind have a diploma in hand!  If you want to land the best talent for your open roles, IT recruiting agencies suggest that you not wait until June, July, etc.   While some students will delay their job search, many of the most accomplished and ambitions ones will want a job before they graduate.  Why not make sure they consider you as their employer?

2. Make an offer they won’t want to refuse. Appealing to new grads isn’t always about money.  There are some things that IT recruiting companies find don’t cost much, but really attract new or recent grads.

  • Firstly, offer telecommuting options and flexible schedules.  It’s understandable that most hiring managers don’t want to offer telecommuting or flexible schedules right off the bat.  However, presenting your hires with the ability to earn these perks over time can be very attractive to new grads.  Even just partial telecommuting options, like occasional work from home days, are big draws.
  • Another way IT staffing agencies suggest you can attract new grads is by offering mentoring and growth opportunities.  New grads want to land jobs now, but they’re also concerned about their futures beyond their first jobs.  New or recent grads want to land jobs in which they’ll have the chance to learn and grow as a professional.  Consider offering an official or unofficial mentoring program, training opportunities, subsidies for continued learning, and/or the chance to grow in the company.  None of these things need to cost much money, but they’ll go a very long way in attracting and keeping fresh new talent.
  • The last tactic that IT staffing companies suggest is to allow for some creativity.  2017’s grads will want to have the opportunity to think creatively at their jobs.  Consider giving your employees chances to do things like hackathons, or just give them the autonomy and room to solve problems creatively themselves.  This kind of perk can be great not only for attracting new grads, but also for the company itself!

Want to see our open IT jobs?  Follow us on LinkedIn.  We post new jobs daily!

Hiring new grads
New grads want to work at places that offer chances to learn and grow as a professional. Photo credit: maura24 via Pixabay.

 

 

Have Gaps on Your Technical Resume? How to Handle Them

People in most fields are uncomfortable with gaps in their resumes.  IT recruiting firms find that if you can handle them correctly, though, these won’t hurt your chances of landing IT jobs.  Here are some of the basics that IT recruiters think you should know about gaps on technical resumes.

1. Small gaps are not a problem. Especially in the tech field, where contracting and project-based work are pretty common, gaps of 3 months or less aren’t a huge deal.  Layoffs happen, contracts end, and interview processes can certainly drag out the time between unemployment to being hired.  IT staffing firms won’t bat an eye at a gap or two between contracts on your resume.

2. A gap beyond 6 months will require more explanation. IT recruiting agencies find that employers will be more concerned with an unemployment gap of 6 months or more.  This is at least in part because there’s such a dearth of qualified IT professionals to fill the open jobs in pretty much all of the US.  The unemployment rate for tech professionals is notoriously low- lower than the national average.  In January, the tech unemployment rate was only 2.9 percent, while the national average was closer to 4.7 percent.  If you’re not getting hired for a job after 6 months, employers wonder if the problem may be you, not the market! If you have a gap like this, make sure to address it your resume.  Give a brief, professional reason why you were unemployed.  Did you take time off to take care of a member of your family, raise a young child?  Have a health issue yourself?  Take time off to go to school?  These are all the kinds of reasons that technical recruiters find will not scare off potential employers. Make sure to note this on your resume!

3. Make the most of your gaps. If you’re unemployed for a longer period of time and are not encumbered by responsibilities to your family, health issues, etc, you should take this time to keep your skills sharp.  Do a side project on your own. Volunteer to do work for a local charity or non-profit.  Get a certification.  Learn a new technical skill.  IT staffing companies find that if you can do things like this with your gap, you’ll be much more appealing to employers.  After all, technologies change at lightning speed.  You want to stay in the game and stay sharp so you’re ready to hit the ground running when you do land a new role!

Want to see our open IT jobs?  Follow us on LinkedIn.  We post new jobs daily!

Gaps on technical resumes
Got gaps shorter than 3 months? Don’t worry about it! Photo credit: Aitoff via Pixabay.

 

Tips for Employers on Glassdoor, Indeed, Vault, etc.

By now, most employers are at least aware that they have a presence on Glassdoor, Indeed, Vault, and other employer review sites.  Many actually take the time to cultivate their spots on these sites, too.  These companies find that it’s absolutely worth it to take time to add pictures, text about the company and its corporate culture, or even encouraging employees to leave reviews.  When your presence on these sites is good, your company can draw more and better applicants.  Especially when you’re searching for tech professionals to fill your open IT jobs, this becomes all the more imperative.  Since it’s such a job seeker’s market for tech professionals, IT recruiters find it’s all the more important for employers to make sure their presence on career websites is stellar.  Here are some tips from IT staffing companies to help employers make sure their online brand will attract great talent.

1. Post pictures on sites that let you.  Having pictures of fun company outings will make a difference when candidates look up your profile.  People will find your company profile more interesting and memorable.  They may also connect better with smiling faces than just a boilerplate text about your company’s mission, culture, etc.  Since IT recruiting firms find that candidates are often getting hit with multiple potential opportunities at once, you’ll want your company to stand out.

2. Get some reviews on your page.  You can’t bribe or pressure employees to leave great reviews on your page.  You can encourage your employees to leave reviews though if you think they’re happy.  Happy employees usually won’t mind spreading the word if they do enjoy their workplace.  (They’d want peers to do the same thing!)  IT staffing firms find that getting lots of great reviews is the best way to counteract bad ones.  You can ‘bury’ negative reviews so that when IT professionals are checking out your company, they see more good than bad.  Remember, the tech talent you’re seeking have plenty of options.  If a company looks like they don’t treat employees well, IT professionals will just tell recruiters to submit them elsewhere.

3. Don’t forget to respond to negative reviews.  When IT professionals are on your site, it’s ok if they do see negative reviews.  What really matters is if you show you care.  Even the best employers have unhappy employees.  What makes them the best is that they take negative feedback and grow from it.  (Terrible employers are the ones who know their employees are unhappy and don’t seem to care!)  So write responses that show you’re listening.  Thank the reviewer for their feedback.  Mention any actions you might be able to take to fix the issue in the future.  Keep the tone calm, cordial, and concerned.

4. Don’t forget to keep your IT recruiting agencies in the loop.  They should know the good and the bad.  Give them links to your Glassdoor, Indeed and Vault pages.  If you’re working to fix things that have inspired bad reviews, talk to them about it.  Your IT staffing agencies can help sell you as an employer in addition to your presence on these sites.

 

IT employers glassdoor
How many 5-star reviews are on your Glassdoor page? Photo credit: zahmetr via Pixabay.

 

Want to see our open IT jobs?  Follow us on LinkedIn.  We post new jobs daily!

 

Why Tech Professionals Shouldn’t Leave Scathing Employer Reviews

There are very few people who have never have a bad boss, a job that’s a terrible fit, or a job that generally makes them unhappy.  Having tough moments in your career is actually helpful—it shows you what you want and don’t want in future jobs, bosses, employers, etc.  With the advent of Glassdoor and other employer review sites, though, IT staffing firms are noticing people who handle these moments in ways that aren’t healthy or positive for their careers: by leaving scathing employer reviews.

Glassdoor, Indeed, Careerbliss, and other career sites were meant for honest reviews of employers.  However, leaving a negative, slanderous review isn’t really in this spirit.  IT recruiters find that it can actually hurt your career a bit, too.  The first problem is that these sites aren’t as anonymous as they seem.  It’s easier for people to figure out who left a review than you think, especially at a small company.  That means you might easily be identified to former coworkers as the person who left a nasty or unprofessional review online.

The next problem is that the tech world isn’t small, but it can be very interconnected.  Because there’s such a dearth of qualified IT professionals, technical recruiters see the same people moving around the industry.  In other words, that boss you worked for on a contract 5 years ago might be hiring for a role your IT recruiting firms submit you to now. If you leave a terrible review that people can link you to, you might be interviewing with them for a role later.  This could very quickly disqualify you from the IT jobs you want.

Another thing to consider is the popularity of ‘back door references.’  Because of LinkedIn and other social networking sites like Github, IT staffing companies find that many people in the tech field are more connected than ever.  That means if you burned a bridge with one employer, you might be getting a reference from them that you didn’t ask for—one that ruins your chances of landing a job with a future employer.

The last reason to hold back on leaving scathing reviews on sites like Glassdoor, Indeed, etc is that you never know if you might be sued.  Though the chances of this are pretty low, some companies have gone after people who left reviews that seriously hurt their business.  Even if these companies don’t win, the process of being sued can be costly and stressful.

For all of these reasons, IT recruiting agencies suggest taking time to cool down before leaving a negative review of an employer.  It’s ok to leave honest reviews.  You just want to focus on leaving constructive criticism and providing perspectives that are helpful to other job seekers.  Leave out names, extreme comments, or outright lies.  Post a review that is constructive, honest, and won’t hurt your future career!

IT job search advice
Think twice before potentially burning any bridges with a terrible review. Photo credit: picjumbo_com via Pixabay.

 

Want to see our open IT jobs?  Follow us on LinkedIn.  We post new jobs daily!

 

 

Tips for May and June Tech Grads

If you’re part of the class of 2017, you may be planning to push that job search off until later in the summer.  The tech field is a job seeker’s market, right?  Why not kick back and take a little break before entering the workforce? Don’t be tempted to do this.  Unfortunately, the tech field is a bit less of a job seeker’s market for entry-level grads.  IT staffing companies find that there are absolutely less open IT jobs out there for recent grads.  You also don’t want to limit your options.  If you wait until later in the summer or fall, IT recruiters will have filled plenty of the jobs with coveted employers.  Starting your job search doesn’t have to be so arduous, though.  Here are 4 simple things you can do to start searching for IT jobs now.

1. Make your resume visible to employers and technical recruiters.  Post your resume on Monster, Dice, LinkedIn, etc.  Make a public, professional LinkedIn profile.  Don’t just rely on your school’s internal job portals.  If you’re a programming student, get on Github or similar sites.  IT staffing agencies will be looking for great candidates there, too.

2. While you’re at it, reach out to IT staffing firms.  Find some trusted IT recruiting companies in your area and reach out to and pass along your resume.  Even if you’re working on your final exams, they can begin your job search for you now!

3. Do your research on the kinds of roles you prefer your salary expectations.  Make sure to take your location into consideration here.  IT recruiting firms find that sometimes new grads will price themselves out of great jobs because they don’t have realistic salary expectations.  Your IT recruiters can help you out a bit, but it’s also important for you to do your own research prior to conversations with them.

4. Get a real email address and clean up your social media.  You don’t want to keep your school email address anymore—you’re going to be a professional soon!  Get an email address that you won’t be embarrassed to share with potential employers and IT recruiting firms.   Make sure you clean out all pictures, quotes, comments etc on your social media that you wouldn’t want a future boss to see.  IT recruiting agencies definitely see candidates with terrible social media profiles miss out on roles.

 

Graduate IT jobs
Graduating in May or June? Time to get a new email address! Photo credit: vloveland via Pixabay.

 

Want to see our open IT jobs?  Follow us on LinkedIn.  We post new jobs daily!

 

 

3 Reasons to Work for Employers Who Aren’t “Cool” or “Hip”

If you’re looking for new IT jobs, brand name, “cool” employers can seem like the only way to go.  There are certainly benefits to working for a company everybody recognizes, or one that’s cited as a hip place to work.  However, you’ll do yourself a disservice if you don’t also seriously consider employers that might be less well-known. Here are 3 reasons why it can be just as rewarding, fulfilling, and even fun for IT professionals to work for an employer that’s not necessarily “cool,” or “hip.”

The technologies.  IT recruiters find that when candidates can list what technologies they’d like to gain experience with, it doesn’t mean they need to limit their search to the most publicized companies in the tech sector.  Many smaller, lesser-known companies use equally (or sometimes more advanced) technologies.  Be open with your IT staffing firms about your career goals.  If you want to work with certain technology stacks, your technical recruiters will know which employers in your area use them.  You want to land in a job that challenges you, moves your career forward, and is interesting.  It’s entirely possible to find that at a company that’s not very ‘cool’ at all!

The perks.  The awesome perks you read about well-known, ‘hip’ employers are just as likely to be at companies you’ve never heard of.  Especially in the tech space, IT recruiting agencies find that employers are working hard to attract and keep talent in a job seeker’s market.  Plenty of them have adopted the same kind of awesome perks to do this.  Stocked kitchens full of free snacks and coffee?  Game rooms?  Relaxed dress codes?  Company outings?  You don’t need to go to a name brand company to find that.  You might find those perks in company that seem to do “boring” work.

Work-life balance.  IT staffing companies caution candidates that many name brand employers everyone wants to work for require a rigorous work schedule.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  But, for some people, work-life balance is paramount.  Perhaps they have young families to take care of, older parents to help out, or some out of work interests (like adventure racing) that require a lot of time or travel.  Whatever the case, if you’re interested in a job that offers great work-life balance, your IT recruiting firms may suggest an employer you’ve never heard of!

 

Cool IT jobs
The cool employer might not always be the right employer for you. Photo credit: ColiN00B via Pixabay.

 

Want to see our open IT jobs?  Follow us on LinkedIn.  We post new jobs daily!

 

IT Professionals Should be Documenting This

Every IT professional has triumphant moments at work.  Maybe you solved a difficult ticket for the VP.  Maybe you suggested some powerful changes to your company’s technical environment.  It’s great to take a minute to bask in your achievement, but there’s something else you should be doing: documenting it for later.  Taking 5 minutes to document your achievement, in a word doc, by hand, or by simply saving relevant emails to a folder, will do a lot for you in the future.  Here’s why IT recruiters suggest you document your triumphs at work.

1. You can use this document to easily update your resume. The resumes IT staffing firms find most marketable don’t list responsibilities below IT jobs.  They list achievements and contributions.  Electronically documenting your big wins at a job can especially streamline the process of updating your resume.  All you’ll have to do is copy and paste. There are many reasons why tech professionals suddenly find themselves needing a current, polished resume.  Maybe they’ve been laid off or fired.  Or perhaps, especially in the tech field, they’ve been contacted by IT recruiting firms about a passive opportunity that’s too good to ignore.  Documenting your achievements at work makes the scramble to unexpectedly update your resume less stressful.

2. You can use this list of achievements at your next review or in your next request for a raise. Even if it seemed like a huge deal when you found that bug in the program and took the initiative to debug it by yourself, you may not remember it 6 months later.  And it’s not only hard for you to remember these moments— sometimes it’s downright impossible for your bosses to remember them.  When they’re managing a team, a department, or a whole company, your achievement might not be something they think of when you need to ask for a raise or are doing a review.  IT recruiting agencies suggest you take matters into your own hands and advocate for yourself.  Document the contributions you’ve made at work so you can share them all with your bosses when it counts!

3. Lastly, this document might serve as a great pick-me-up. Just as all tech professionals have great days, they also all have a bad day now and then.  Save a document with all your big wins at work and take a look at the next time you’re having a tough day, a crisis of confidence, or are just feeling unmotivated.  Just as you benefit from advocating for yourself, you also benefit from cheering yourself on.  True tech professionals know that you can’t always count on coworkers and bosses to do this—sometimes it’s great to be able to rely on yourself.

 

Documenting
Documenting your achievements will help you in the future. Photo credit: JaneMarySnyder via Pixabay.

Want to see our open IT jobs?  Follow us on LinkedIn.  We post new jobs daily!

2 Mistakes Not to Make with Your References

Good references are imperative to landing new IT jobs.  Here are two mistakes that IT recruiters see candidates make far too often.

Don’t give references that you haven’t spoken to recently.  When technical recruiters and potential employers call your references, you want them to be prepared to take the call.  Reach out to your references when you start you job hunt.  Ask them if they would vouch for you (or vouch for you again if they have before).  You’ll want to share all of the kinds of roles you’re interested in pursuing.  While this is a courtesy to your references, it will also make you look like you’re organized, prepared for the job search, and you understand professional norms.  Employers will know you didn’t follow the usual procedure most other candidates do if your references answer the phone and are confused—or worse yet, don’t remember you.  (It’s also worth noting that you want to look at least somewhat memorable to potential employers!  Who wants to hire the candidate who didn’t even make a dent on their reference’s radars?!)

Not reaching out to your references is also a mistake because it’s a missed opportunity to help them  give you a really powerful recommendation.  Your references will do a better job if you share the kinds of experience or qualities you’d like them to highlight when they speak to your  IT staffing firms and potential employers.  Are you applying for jobs requiring customer service skills?  Ask your references to mention it if they have a positive impression of your customer service skills.  Need them to highlight your debugging abilities?  Let them know before any IT recruiting agencies call.  You can’t control what a reference says, but you can provide them the info to be as helpful to you as possible.

Don’t give a misleading or fake reference.  Sometimes IT recruiting firms find that candidates will give references who they haven’t actually ever work directly with.  Some candidates will go so far as to give the names and numbers of people who know them and pose as former coworkers or managers.  Giving deceitful or blatantly fake references is the worst mistake you could make as a candidate.  IT staffing companies usually decide never to work with a candidate again if they do this.  Employers will usually blacklist you.  Being anything less than truthful in your job search will definitely hurt you chances of landing your next role.

 

Job search references
Haven’t talked to your references recently? Fix that before your job search! Photo credit: bssmadeit via Pixabay.

 

When Applicants Are Overqualified for Your Jobs

IT staffing companies often hear that managers are anxious about interviewing candidates that look overqualified.  Their usual instinct is to tell IT recruiting firms that they pass on these candidates.  This isn’t always the best course of action, though.  Here’s what to do if you get an overqualified applicant to your open IT jobs.

Consider interviewing them anyways.  Especially if you talk to them only for a phone screen, you don’t have much to lose (and potentially a great employee to gain).  IT recruiters find that some candidates apply to positions they’re overqualified for because of perfectly legitimate reasons.  Sometimes it’s because they’re seeking a position with better work-life balance.  Perhaps they’re now responsible for caring for an elderly parent, small child, etc.  Sometimes a candidate is more interested in a different technology that they have less experience in.  The bottom line is that sometimes a candidate who looks overqualified is actually a perfect fit.

It’s also worth noting that some employers are anxious about hiring candidates with too much experience.  They’re concerned they’ll be too set in their ways to adapt to new procedures and technologies.  When you’re using IT recruiting companies to help with the hiring process, you don’t need to worry about this.  IT recruiters are only sending over candidates who are interested in the work and the environment you can offer as an employer.  Good IT recruiters will make sure the candidate is interested in your tech stack and your company’s procedures.  They won’t send you somebody who can’t ‘play by your rules’ for many reasons.  IT recruiting agencies want to send you candidates who will succeed in your roles and be happy there.  The truth is that particularly in contract or project-based roles, extensive experience can be an asset.  Candidates like this may need less training and will be able to hit the ground running.  This can save time and money when your team is under tight deadlines.

Interview a candidate who looks overqualified by asking some extra questions.  If a candidate looks overqualified, you want to do a little more than just the usual whiteboarding session or have the usual technical discussion.  Asking what draws the candidate to the role, the company, or the project you’re hiring for, is a good start.  If the candidate’s answer doesn’t directly help you understand why they want a role they seem overqualified for, it’s time to ask more directly.  Ask the candidate if they’re comfortable with the pay scale for the role, the fact that it will be entry level, or anything else that directly addresses the fact that they’re overqualified.  The candidate should be ready to answer questions like this because their technical recruiters have likely gone over it with them.

 

overqualified job candidates
Don’t automatically pass on overqualified candidates. Photo credit: Ashlinbpg via Pixabay.

 

2 Questions to Ask Candidates in Technical Interviews

Interviewing technical candidates can be challenging. You want to find a way to assess their skills without making your interview a non-stop whiteboarding session or test.  Here are two questions to ask candidates that IT recruiting companies suggest for technical interviews.  These questions help managers explore a candidate’s technical skills, personality, and experience.

What environment did you come from previously? Technical recruiters find this question can help managers get a candidate talking about a few important things.

  • Perhaps most importantly, a candidate can take this as an opportunity to talk about the technologies they’ve gotten to work with most recently.  They can use this question to help you understand the range of their technical skills (and if they’re what you need in your next hire).
  • Next, this question can lead to a discussion about the team they worked on.  Was it large? Small? Who did they report to?  Did they have anyone reporting to them? IT staffing firms find that this kind of information will help you understand how much of projects the candidate actually handled themselves, if they had to own these tasks or others checked their work and helped, if they can manage people effectively, etc.
  • Lastly, the question can give you a good gauge of the kind of corporate culture the candidate is coming from.  While technical acumen is important, the ability to fit into corporate culture is nearly as imperative. When candidates don’t mesh well with a corporate culture, IT recruiting agencies usually see that the candidate is unhappy and winds up leaving the role early or is let go.

What environment are you looking for in your next role? IT recruiting firms find that when you can get the candidate to articulate their next ideal environment, it will help you understand if they’re a good fit for your role in a more in-depth way.

  • This question will build upon the first one to help you understand not only a candidate’s strengths, but what will make the candidate happier.  And good IT staffing companies know that happier employees are always more successful in a role (and stay longer, or until the completion of a project).
  • A candidate’s answer to this question will also let you know if their needs match what you and your company can provide.  For instance, perhaps the candidate is not interested in IT jobs that report to a higher level like CIO– but your open job requires it.  You’ll be able to tell the role won’t be a good match.  Or perhaps the candidate tells you they want a more advanced tech stack in their next employer, and you can offer that.  Now you can confidently sell the job harder to the candidate.  Getting on the same page will help you make the right decision to hire, or not hire, a candidate.

 

Interview questions for technical candidates
Having a candidate articulate what they want in their next environment is immensely helpful. Photo credit: qimono via Pixabay.