Tag Archives: IT staffing

Review: “A Beginner’s Guide to Technical Recruiting” by Prabakaran Murugaiah

What does a technical recruiter starting out for the first time in an IT Staffing Firm need to know? According to  Prabakaran Murugaiah, author of “A Beginner’s Guide to Technical Recruiting”, a lot. Murugaiah warns technical recruiters in-training that the big picture in the IT Staffing industry and in technical headhunting is changing at a rapid pace in 2011 (when he wrote A Beginner’s Guide), and beyond. The takeaway for technical recruiters starting a career in IT Staffing is that more experienced technical recruiters mentoring rookies may not have all the answers. It’s up to the protege technical recruiter to educate him or herself on the industry changes that are happening in short order.

Technical qualifications are no longer everything. Technical skills are still, as ever, center stage, but technical employers place a high value on other skills as well. Those skills include communication ability, company environment fit, and personality type. A fast-paced technical environment will look for different personality types in their IT candidates than a smaller, less rushed company atmosphere will. A Beginner’s Guide keeps technical recruiters abreast of culture changes like these in the staffing industry, and offers advice for technical recruiters looking to best take maximize the power of this industry knowledge.  IT candidates qualified on all skill facets important to technical employers are easier for technical recruiters to spot after reading this book. Read it today for practical technical recruiting tips!

Review: “Technical Screening – Java Developers” by Obi Ogbanufe

Technical Recruiters know that placing an IT candidate in a Java role is no easy task – technical candidates with the right background, technical skills, and level of proficiency with Java aren’t always a quick find. One interview approach technical recruiters use when screening IT candidates for a potential interview for a Java Developer role is to ask the IT candidate to rate him or herself on a scale of 1 to 5. The downside of this interview style is that the technical recruiter depends on the IT candidates’ accurate self-assessment and truthfullness. An IT candidate who rates him or herself as a 5 out of 5, or a Java Developer expert, may not be able to perform on the level expected by the hiring manager. Then again, the hiring manager and IT candidate may simply have different ideas about what a ‘5’ means. If an IT candidate has mastered an intermediate level of Java Development in past work experience, and accordingly, self-rates as a 5, the hiring manager, who may want an IT candidate proficient in a top-tier level of Java Development may consider that same candidate closer to a 2 or 3, since mastering intermediate levels only brings an IT candidate to starting levels for expert level performance.

Obi Ogbanufe tackles this and other issues surrounding technical recruiting for Java Developers. He includes real examples of successful Java Developer screening questions, and discusses which IT candidates’ answers match what IT employers are looking for, and which answer types should serve as red flags to IT recruiters. IT Staffing Firms like AVID Technical Resources take the phone-screening process seriously, using it to filter out weaker IT candidates from the ones that technical recruiters see potential in. One key element in a successful Java Developer placement is a technical recruiter’s understanding of the technology itself. By familiarizing him or herself with the Java technology, a technical recruiter will be better equipped to identify incomplete or inaccurate answers to interview questions instantly. A technical recruiter with this ability will operate more efficiently and make better use of each work day than a recruiter who needs to seek advice on the accuracy level of each candidates’ replies. Efficiency and speed leads to more successful IT job placements, and thats a win-win for IT candidates and technical recruiters alike.

Review: Technology Made Simple for the Technical Recruiter

Technical Recruiters will find “Technology Made Simple for the Technical Recruiter: A Technical Skills Primer” by Obi Ogbanufe helpful for developing recruiting strategies and tech skills. AVID Staffing Firm employs IT Recruiting techniques covered by Ogbanufe in her book. Details she delves into include basic programming terms, networking tips, & operating system/network vocab. She even instructs on the art of knowing when a prospective candidate seems to be claiming levels of experience above what’s  present in their work background.

IT Staffing Agencies like AVID Technical Resources will do well to take note of Ogbanufe’s insight and advice. Her experience and familiarity with the topic can be of value to any technical recruiter looking to brush up on a rookie skillset, or polish a seasoned technical career. In an industry that changes at lightning speed, keeping on top of acronyms is key for technical recruiters, and they’ll find the latest and most thorough information in this book. Pick up a copy of ” Technology Made Simple for the Technical Recruiter: A Technical Skills Primer” today, and get smarter!

How Not to Find a Job

So you think working for a living is lame? So yesterday? Or if your phone provider is AT&T, just too 5 seconds ago? AT&T TV Commercial — Tailgate LTE (HTC Vivid) . Great. I’m here to help. Here’s a solid instructional on how not to get a job.

  • Come 10 minutes late. Or an hour early. These days, arriving any earlier than 15 minutes in advance of a scheduled interview is a faux-pas. Not as bad as getting there late, but not good. If, hypothetically, you were to want a job that you arrive half an hour early (reasonable if you need to allow for travel delays) burn 15 minutes in the nearest coffee shop. Don’t forget the mints!
  • Come dressed as Barney, or choose any other inappropriate attire. Unless a job specifies a casual atmosphere, or you’re applying for a mall Santa position, you can’t go wrong with more formal dress over casual options. If you’re offered the job, you can always take it down a notch for your day-to-day.
  • Keep your cell phone ringer on during an interview. Arrange so that a friend calls/texts, or both. This will a) make you look popular b) guarantee that you don’t get the job. Perfect! Employers have indicated that one of the most common rising problems they encounter when conducting interviews is behavior that fits this description. Holding up a finger to your interviewer as your phone rings so that you can take a personal call while your interviewer waits will not win you points. You can let your incoming calls go to voicemail for 1 hour out of your day. Really.
  • At AVID, our job placements are exclusively technical, so interviews will contain questions about performing an IT role. If you’re applying for a Java Developer role, and you don’t have a clue as to how to guide your interviewer through your thought process and steps taken to respond to various technical scenarious — congratulations! You won’t be on anyone’s call-back list — your technical recruiter will know enough about the requirements of the role not to recommend you to the hiring manager in the first place, so you won’t have a chance to make multiple analogies to the fashion industry in a formal interview setting (or whatever it is that really interests you instead of technology).

So that’s it, folks! The above rules are your foolproof guide to guaranteed unemployment and a phone that never rings (unless it’s your friend, again). If you should be so foolish as to want a job, try to avoid engaging in any of these behaviors. They won’t do you any favors in your job hunt.

Women in Tech

The tech industry tends to be one that is fairly male-dominated. Ask a technical recruiter how many men versus women he or she speaks to in a day when seeking to fill a Java or QA role, and you will tend not to hear the odds stacked in favor of the ladies. While this issue would have been a pet project for Third-Wave Feminists in the 1990’s[1], in the 21st century, enough equal opportunity exists in the work force these days that job types or industries dominated by one gender tends to be by employee choice (arguably). Employers with an eye for diversity may be either actively looking for employees that break with the status quo, or have an ongoing wish list to diversify if the right candidate appears.

An AOL jobs article, for example, cites the IT  job title ‘IT Network Engineer’ as one in which women consistently make 5% more than men when filling the role[2]. Their statistics, below, show that this technical position is on average a male-dominated role by 95%, with only 5% of women choosing to pursue the title, despite the fact that employers offer a compensation incentive for females.

According to Neelie Kroes, VP for the digital agenda at the European Commission, that should change. “It’s a digital world now and the digital world is for everyone. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise,” she advised[3]. Certainly, in the present professional environment, it would be hard to make the case that there is a strong contingent of women trying to break into technical roles and balance out the gender inequality. It’s more socially acceptable at the moment for women to express interest in industries where they tend to hired either more or less equally, or more than men.

If real change is going to take place in the percentage of females willing to enter the tech field, it needs to start at the interest level. Girls in high school are generally not being groomed to be tech-proficient, or encouraged to familiarize themselves with the opportunities and salary levels they could enjoy if they pursued a course of education that would qualify them for roles like the IT Network Engineer. Education initiatives like this could either increase the pool of female talent entering the tech workforce and energize the economy, or it could just prove that the effort to equalize everything may be a little unrealist. It’s possible that in general, women may tend to find more career satisfaction in non-tech roles, and maybe that’s just one of the many differences that will always exist between genders.

Sources:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_movement

[2] http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2012/03/01/jobs-where-women-earn-more-than-men

[3] http://www.womenintechnology.co.uk/news/make-technology-more-inclusive-for-women-mep-says-news-801313746

Company Culture

One of the challenges in a job search is finding a company that has not only the right benefits, but also the right atmosphere as well. How can interviewers assess the culture of a company they haven’t yet participated in? A few cues can better help interviewers understand the company they’re interested in.

Managers have long paid close attention to the impression an interviewer conveys through their use of language, dress, and credentials. Interviewers pursuing a job that will be the right fit for them for the long term should use that information to advance their best career interests as well. The interviewer who conducts a mental interview of their own will have higher chances of selecting a position that’s a great match, equating to higher job satisfaction rates and better longevity per company.

Interviewers who prefer highly structured, corporate atmospheres will tend to have the best working relationships with managers who suit up for interviews. Interviewers who want more casual environments should look for managers who sport a business casual look to interviews. When posing interview questions, do managers use more formal language, or do they feel comfortable with a more casual verbal approach? Language can be another cue to candidates as to whether or not they want to continue the relationship past the interview.

At AVID, many of our IT jobs are filled on a project-by-project basis via contract work. A prospective candidate for these types of IT roles might never meet his or her technical recruiter face to face – or even the project manager, for that matter. For IT jobs that are fulfilled via telecommuting, the above-mentioned cues may not apply – the contracter potentially has only an impression of the recruiter and manager formed via phone interviews. In these cases, the verbal & communication style cues become more key, but at the same time, the culture fit may be less important or irrelevant if the job is primarily telecommuting-based. In scenarios where interaction with management doesn’t play into the job, the job description and duties become the central focus, and as long as the skillset is a good fit for the candidates’ background and interests, the candidate is free to count culture out of the equation.

Lastly, it’s common knowledge that interviewers should look their interviewers up on Linkedin or other professional networks to get a little background on them before the interview. Rather than assessing the interviews purely from an informational perspective, however, candidates should pay close attention to their interviewers level of education and past experience from a personal angle, to determine how high the likelihood of common ground would be if the interview goes well. The takeaway? Interviewers – start thinking a little more like you’re on the other side of the hiring table.

IT Recruiting Companies Working with White Noise

Do you work in an IT staffing environment that is cluttered with noise such as music, loud talking, or random distractions?  Perhaps you work in a dead silent area where you can hear a pin drop.  If you enjoy these conditions, by all means continue working!  If you find that you are having trouble focusing, the IT recruiters of AVID Technical Resources suggest white noise to help keep you on track.

Do You Hear That?

The funny thing about white noise is you typically do not realize it’s there until it’s turned off.  White noise helps to block out static noises that could otherwise disrupt your work.  Almost every college student has hit the library to study for finals or perfect their resume, only to be irritated by the dead silent air and frequent disruption of page turning, sneezes, or pencils dropping.  With background noise in smaller areas of IT recruiting firms, these distractions are instantly reduced.  This allows individuals to focus and gather their thoughts.

Less Distracting

There are plenty of ways for technical recruiters and hiring managers to distract themselves from different background noises, but often these distractions can cause noise clutter.  If one IT recruiter is listening to his music and another chooses to drone out the other’s music with a song of his own, soon there will be chaos.  Be mindful of others when choosing your selection and keep the volume low if you choose to do this.

Some can ignore the music and continue working, but when they hear a song they are sick of, they will keep changing the song until they find one they like.  Other IT headhunters may become hung up on lyrics and cannot think clearly.  The best thing about white noise is, there are no words and the music plays itself!

Where to Get It

Your white noise might be right in your IT recruiting office.  That fan, air conditioner, or vent can provide you with the right amount of white noise to cancel out the sounds of shuffling paper or opening and closing of doors.  If the volumes of distractions are too loud, consider buying your own white noise machine or playing music.

Everyone works differently, so be mindful of your habits!

IT Recruiting Companies Debate: K Cups or Ground Coffee

Quantity

Are you brewing for the entire IT staffing office or just yourself?  If you are brewing coffee at smaller quantities, you will want to go with the Keurig.  The K cup machine provides the option to brew one cup without holding up the coffee machine for other technical recruiters.  Coffee drip machines are made to brew larger cups of coffee which can lead to waste if it is not consumed.  If IT professionals and hiring managers are looking to make a big brew at once, look to the coffee drip machine to satisfy your needs.

Quality

This is up for debate and varies by coffee drinker.  Some say that ground coffee is superior to K cup coffee because of its storage capacity where as K cups can become stale relatively fast.  Then there are the countless options when using K cups and its variety of flavors.  An IT recruiter can purchase a variety pack which allows them to experriment with different flavors and choose which they like best.  Typically with ground coffee, a technical recruiter must by a bag and test their options.

Convenience

Brewing a cup of coffee by drip machine seems to be outdated and time consuming as our society expects less and less in terms of time commitment.  IT staffing companies want everything fast and immediately available with as little work as possible.  The Keurig machine offers a single cup of coffee in about one minute and little to no clean up.  Drip machines can take several minutes to brew and requires routine maintenance and clean up.

Environmental and Cost Concerns

The average price per standard K cup is about fifty cents, which can be costly where as standard coffee ground is about half the price per cup.  K cup packaging is non-recyclable, but you can purchase a reusable filter to cut down on waste.  The benefit of using the reusable filter is you can cut down on spending by buying coffee grounds, too!

Neither is necessarily better, but it seems the IT recruiters of AVID Technical Resources could not function without their K cup machine!

Technical Recruiters, Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

Life is too short to sleep away nights and mornings, but if you do not get enough sleep you could be ending your life too soon.  IT headhunters often pride themselves on lack of sleep and view those who indulge in the recommended eight hours as lazy or incompetent.  Before you shave off that extra hour of sleep a night, think of the consequences listed below.  You may be doing more harm than good!

Physical Effects

IT recruiters who sleep less than the recommended seven to eight hours per night make take a hit in the waist line as they eat more during the hours they are awake.  They also are more prone to diseases and conditions such as diabetes, obesity, stroke, and heart attacks.  One hour less per night for a year adds up to three hundred and sixty five hours, which is more than two weeks worth of missed sleep!  Your immune system is bound to take a hit if you are neglecting adequate rest, which will affect your performance at IT staffing companies.

Mental

Ever have a poor night of sleep and can hardly think the next morning?  This is because your brain relies on sleep to retain memory and perform cognitive skills such as creating ideas, judgments, and rational decision making.  Your ability to respond and focus will be significantly affected, which is not only a concern at IT recruiting firms, but also a safety hazard.  Put the brain on hold and give it a rest!

Emotional

Anyone who has ever experienced lack of sleep can relate to the feeling of over sensitivity and moodiness.  You may become more irritable and pessimistic which not only affects your mood, but also affects hiring managers and IT professionals around you.  Stress from poor sleep habits unintentionally hurts relationships and can cause arguments that should have been avoided.  Rather than becoming cross with others, take priority of your needs and give yourself a well rested night.  You may return to the IT staffing office feeling like a new technical recruiter!

It takes about a week to adjust to a new sleep schedule, so make the commitment and the rest should take care of itself!

IT Recruiting: Do You Take Horoscopes Seriously?

Maybe it’s during the morning commute, or sitting down to coffee and a bagel for breakfast, perhaps it’s an after work guilty pleasure.  A number of IT professionals admit they read their daily horoscope.  Take it with a grain of salt or words of wisdom, horoscopes may actually be advising technical recruiters, hiring managers, and prospective candidates to make better decisions and improve performance.  Before passing the next opportunity to read your fortune, here are some reasons horoscopes may actually benefit you.

May Inspire

After reading that there will be changes in your life, actively seek and pursue new IT staffing opportunities.  The horoscope could motivate you to add spice to your routine or drop cumbersome tasks that stress you out.  If it were not for the astrology section, you may have not closed on that last placement!

Avoid Conflict

The astrology section could also help irritable IT headhunters to avoid conflict at technical recruiting companies.  When there is a horoscope saying to turn the other cheek, a technical recruiter may think twice about sending a sassy response or having the last word.  It seems when there is an impending disagreement brought to our attention, we will try to steer away.  The horoscope will keep IT staffing firms sound and on their toes in case of a clash.

Cannot Predict the Future

Are you in a worse situation after reading these predictions?  Most likely not!  So have some fun with these forecasts.  No one knows for sure how accurate these readings are, so share them with your fellow IT recruiters in an email when exchanging resumes or post some encouraging thoughts around technical recruiting offices.  While some may not believe the authenticity of horoscopes, they can change our behavior for the better!