Tag Archives: linkedin

Asking For More Challenges in the IT Staffing Industry

It is noon and an IT recruiter has finished his tasks for the day.  What should he do next?  If he finds he’s twiddling his thumbs at work, or is not being challenged, it might be time to ask his manager for more responsibilities.  Some technical recruiters avoid new tasks and duties because they do not want to appear bored or lack work.  Here are some reasons IT headhunters should consider varying their workload.

Initiative

Proactive employees are always looking for ways to improve themselves, as well as the company.  Managers seek out these recruiters, as they are valuable assets to the future of technical staffing agencies.  If you know of an existing issue and have a valid solution, bring it to your manager’s attention.  IT recruiters who share a drive for more work and improvement are usually the ones considered for upward mobility.

Improve Skills

Adding more responsibility will increase your value as you are exposed to new departments and skills within technical recruiting agencies.  Learning new traits and multitasking can help improve your existing tasks while also embellishing your resume.  Before your take on new roles, discuss your strengths and weaknesses with your manager for a smooth transition.

Build Network

Working in different areas allows you to expand your network as you mingle with levels of IT recruiting management.  Use these relationships to help identify a potential career path and connect on LinkedIn. If appropriate, ask for a recommendation.

Checks and Balances

Find out how much free time you have to work with.  Test out the new tasks and see if you actually like it.   Before you consider taking on new duties, evaluate your current position.  Are you finishing projects ahead of schedule or just meeting deadlines?  Is there room for improvement in your work?  If so, address these issues before you pile up your plate.

Making the Most of Your IT Recruiting Internship

The best way to subsidize a college career is with real world experience in the IT staffing world.  An internship provides skills and knowledge within the information technology industry that one cannot learn in a classroom without having to commit to a full time IT job.  They also allow students and prospective technical recruiters the opportunity to challenge themselves and discover a potential career path.  Here are some tips for making the most of an internship for IT headhunters.

Being Professional

Just because a technical recruiting internship is not a full time position does not mean it shouldn’t be treated like one.  Interns should anticipate arriving on time daily, maintaining an upbeat attitude, and eagerly accepting any task that is at hand.  Be respectful to others and try to mirror other employees’ dress and work demeanor.  Remember outside of the office interns still represent the IT staffing firms so be mindful of actions.

Work Ethic

Some interns feel because their position is temporary that they only need to complete assigned work.  Technical recruiting firms seek interns who meet and exceed expectations whenever possible.  When an assignment is complete, an intern should maintain focus and ask for additional challenges.  Setting goals and working on multiple projects provides more exposure which will spruce up the intern’s resume and provide discussion for future interviews.

IT recruiting companies would rather see their intern succeed than struggle, so never sacrifice quality for quantity.  Take notes and ask questions if directions are not clear. Hard work and thinking outside of the box sets others apart, but never trump others to make it to the top.

Ending an Internship

The best part of internships is the networking within technical staffing agencies.  Connect with IT recruiters on LinkedIn.  Do not be afraid to ask for recommendations.  If possible, make a portfolio of the accomplished work or a book of achievements.  Stay in touch with a manager and view them as a mentor for the future.

An internship might not guarantee a full time perm position, but it is a step in the right direction!

Social Media is the New IT Job Board

If you are a like most people, you use Facebook on a daily basis.  If you are more tech savvy, you might also have a Twitter or use a blog site.  Perhaps you are a professional and prefer LinkedIn.  Whatever your social media outlet is, be sure to take advantage of the job opportunities these sites provide.

The Benefits—Applicants

Both technical recruiters and job seekers benefit from social media.  Applicants are no longer applying to an ambiguous IT job board with postings from all industries.  They are specifically following companies and positions that fit their interests.  Candidates can see if they have connections with the hiring manager for a gateway to the company.  Also, job postings and statuses are constantly being updated so there is no room for lag.

The Benefits—IT Recruiters

IT staffing firms post their positions at a low cost and bring in job seekers, including people within their network and who meet the hiring board’s criteria.  IT recruiters Boston no longer sift through countless resumes and take a stab at who would be a fit.  Though it might be considered biased, interests and photos help bring a face to a candidate so technical recruiters can determine if the candidate would be a match for the office environment.

Facebook

Though Facebook often has a bad reputation due to users’ lax privacy controls, the site can help IT headhunters and job seekers fill positions.  A company can create its own page for users to visit, hear about news, and learn about open positions.  IT recruiting firms can create groups such as Boston IT Recruiters and IT Job Openings for candidates to join and learn about upcoming opportunities.

Twitter

The beauty of Twitter is that its 140 character messages are short and to the point.  Technical recruiters can post their open positions to followers and prospective candidates by tagging keywords for trending topics.  For applicants, following, tagging, and retweeting an IT staffing company’stweets is a sure way to get noticed.  Though Twitter is not nearly as popular as Facebook, it certainly is a growing trend.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn can be thought of as a professional Facebook with less noise.  There is no wall to post on or anyone to send a tweet (though they can appear in a status).  User profiles consist of previous positions and recommendations, groups, experiences, and interests.  LinkedIn allows IT recruiters and candidates to network for upcoming IT jobs, join groups, update their status, and post or apply to open positions.

Some might say that social media is a fad, but soon job boards will become as obsolete as newspaper listings.  It’s better to act on these job opportunities before others discover this hidden treasure!

LinkedIn – Get Connected, Get Recruited

–          LinkedIn is the best way to get your name in cyberspace (in a good way!).
Your LinkedIn profile is an online resume for you, and it’s a way for you to get your resume in front of people without actually sending it. It’s your BRAND. This means, that the quality of your LinkedIn profile is vital. Ensure that it’s professional and easy to skim to get what’s important about you–a bulleted summary for each role you’ve held is ideal.

–          LinkedIn is a way to reconnect and establish your network.
Connecting to others on some level is what LinkedIn is all about. Joining groups is a great way to do that. Find groups that are focused in your industry/skill set/company/school. This will not only connect you directly and indirectly to global professionals and IT recruiters, it will keep you up to date on industry trends and happenings. Outside of  IT headhunters, it’s your most valuable IT job search tool.

–          LinkedIn is an incredible source for learning about clients.
Companies that span from large enterprise-level to smaller start-ups frequently maintain LinkedIn pages that are more educational than their official corporate pages for IT professionals who are looking for more employment-related information. Most current employees, including hiring managers can be found through an employee link on these pages.

–          Front Row Access to Recruiters.
Good IT recruiters Boston utilize all of the job boards. Great technical recruiters utilize the “passive” candidates on LinkedIn. Having a strong profile puts you front and center for us to find you easily.

The Importance of IT Recruiting Companies Having Affiliations

As an IT recruiting company, it’s critical that we form strong partnerships and affiliations with various industries.  Examples of this include partnering with local colleges and universities to gain access to local talent; subscribing to numerous sites to post our jobs; creating social media sites to increase our exposure; joining and/or attending IT events such as Help Desk Institute seminars, Tech Collective and BBJ breakfasts; teaming up with leading healthcare providers such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Delta Dental to provide benefits and Fidelity Investments so our contractors can invest in a 401k.

  • Colleges & Universities:

In the highly competitive IT recruiting business, it’s essential to form close relationships with local colleges and universities.  As a result, IT recruiting firms can build strong partnerships with many of the premiere local colleges, universities and technical schools, continually posting their positions and forming relationships with key personal in the career centers.  Such relationships can help gain access to some of the best up and coming talent, while further promoting the IT staffing company.

  • Resume Databases & Job Boards:

Although most IT staffing firms can boast that their database houses thousands of local IT resumes, it’s imperative that their IT recruiters have access to additional job boards to ensure they have every means possible to find the very best talent.  These memberships include:  Monster, CareerBuilder, Hot Jobs, Dice, Net Temps and even Craig’s List.  In addition, it’s critical the technical recruiting firm also utilizes social media sites such as Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.

  • Memberships/Subscriptions:

In order to remain current on new industry trends, IT headhunters should have affiliations with many of the leading IT organizations such as the Help Desk Institute, Tech Collective, NEHIMSS and their local Business Journal.  These relationships allow IT recruiters to keep abreast of new technology trends in addition to networking with highly qualified resources.

  • Partnerships:

In an effort to attract and retain the very best contract resources, IT recruiting agencies should have strong insurance and retirement offerings.  Insurance may be limited to healthcare, but could also include disability and/or life insurance as well.  Retirement offers should include a 401(k) plan, possibly even with a company match.

A Forward-thinking & Dynamic IT Recruiting Company

When companies remain stagnant, they eventually fail.  It starts with leadership.  If an executive is set in his or her ways, the competition will likely pass them by.  The IT staffing industry is no different.  At AVID Technical Resources, we pride ourselves in being a dynamic and forward-thinking IT recruiting firm.  As technology evolves, so does our company.  We embrace technologic advances from new software to social media.  AVID understands the importance of changing as the economy changes and evolving as our IT recruiting industry evolves.  Most important, we never stop moving; we never remain stagnant.

A good example of this is social media.  Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have grown in popularity over the years.  AVID saw the emergence a few years ago, before many companies had even heard of the sites.  Therefore, our company Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin pages have been built out, optimized and are designed to market every one of our IT jobs.

Another good example is Search Engine Optimization.  AVID recognized the dominance of Google and the importance of SEO years ago.  Subsequently, this IT recruiting company has invested years and thousands of dollars into optimization.  Because of this, our IT recruiters are able to identify more prospective IT candidates and our salespeople frequently have clients find them.

Slow-moving, stagnant companies eventually become extinct.  Forward-thinking, dynamic companies rise to the top.  This approach has helped AVID Technical Resources become one of the Fastest-Growing Private IT staffing companies in the country: https://www.avidtr.com/about-avid-awards-and-recognition.aspx.

How to network with others without blurring the line between business and personal

As an IT recruiter you are constantly meeting new people and making new connections through email or social media networks.  However, when you begin adding all these people to your networks, these people typically have access to your personal contacts as well.  You want to build business relationships, but where do you draw a line between your work and home life?

Many IT recruiters have chosen to create two profiles:  A work profile and a personal one in order to avoid mixing in with their personal lives with business.  Another option that IT recruiters have chosen is to make their profiles private and only allow a certain group of people to see their whole profile.   This can become annoying and tedious trying to keep both parts of your lives separate.

IT recruiters should keep work connections on certain social networks (such as LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook) separate from personal accounts.  Not only for privacy reasons, but credibility, professional and even safety reasons as well.

Where to find your candidates

IT recruiting companies need to be aware of where their IT staffing competitors are looking for candidates, as well as where candidates are posting their resumes themselves.  You may think everyone is just using job boards such as Monster or CareerBuilder.  However, there are many more options depending on what specific IT staffing industry you are looking at.  Some of these options are websites such as LinkedIn and Twitter that are now being used for networking instead of socializing.  Others include niche websites and/or those specific to local geographies.

So how do you choose the right place to look for candidates to fill IT jobs?  To start, you need to test some of these websites out.  During the trial period it would be a good idea to keep track of where the candidates are coming from.  This will help you decide how many candidates you got from each IT job board and the quality of the candidates coming from each.  Once you gather your data, you will be able to analyze each IT job board based on metrics IT recruiting companies keep in mind.

Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes and think about where they are looking for IT jobs

IT Jobs Starting to Heat Up

Like most every industry, the IT job market has been hit hard over the past year and a half.  However, the economy has been showing signs of life.  IT staffing agencies have been reporting a steady increase in hiring among clients.  IT recruiters can no longer find 3-5 candidates for every position.  Instead they’re finding more and more people employed or those with multiple irons in the fire.  Although this makes the IT recruiting job more difficult, these are certainly great signs for the economy.

According to the 2010 IT Hire Intelligence Survey, which was carried out by Monster.com, around 78 percent of the companies who participated are saying that they will be hiring for many positions within the next six months.

In the survey, “of the companies planning to hire, only 26 percent are new openings and only 9 percent are replacement positions”.  This obviously means that there will be new types of IT jobs available.  In addition, IT recruiting agencies will continue to heat up, as companies will not be able to fill all their positions on their own.  In fact, IT staffing agencies have recently started to hire more IT recruiters – an obvious sign that they are receiving more jobs from their clients.

There is finally light at the end of the tunnel.  Although there are still a number of people unemployed, the IT job market is heading in the right direction.  Our advice is to continue to be active on the job search.  Post and refresh your resume on the job boards, utilize LinkedIn for networking and contact as many IT staffing agencies as possible to cast as many lines in the water.  Something will bite….soon.