Tag Archives: resumes

Searching For a New IT Job During Holidays

Many people might advise IT consultants looking for new IT jobs to just hold off on their search during the holiday season.  Though it often seems as though the holidays are a slow time for business and hiring, this just isn’t true in information technology.  No matter how close it is to Christmas or New Years, IT recruiters have a full list of jobs they are actively seeking to fill with IT contractors.  Beyond making sure you’re in touch and checking in with IT headhunters, there are a few other things you can be doing to make sure your job search is still productive during the holidays.

  1. Polish your materials, both online and off.  Make sure your LinkedIn profile is fresh and up to date, as are all versions of your resumes.
  2. Send holiday cards.  Send them to your technical recruiters, possible professional contacts who might be able to help you out, and to your references.  Mention that you’re on the hunt to the appropriate recipients.
  3. Go to holiday gatherings, both personal and professional.  Again, mention to the appropriate people that you’re looking for a new IT job.  Get the word out and network.  Holiday gatherings are generally happy and people will be in a good mood and more likely than usual to be helpful.

Why Being Laid Back in IT Makes You More Marketable

A recent study shows that IT professionals who work closely with their coworkers are more likely to dislike them.  IT jobs that require IT contractors to work in a heavily team-oriented environment (versus ones that are more independent in nature) will provide far situations in which IT consultants are more likely to get frustrated with coworkers and their work habits.

Knowing about these risks, IT managers want IT headhunters to seek out particular kinds of people for team-oriented positions.  Technical recruiters are specifically looking for people who not only have stellar resumes, but who are also slow to get irritated or upset.  These are the people who will be less likely to hate their coworkers, no matter what their work habits.  More importantly, these are the people IT recruiters can count on to stay calm and get the job done, no matter how their coworkers behave on the job.

IT’s Newest Playground: Egypt

Information technology is finding some new ground around Cairo, Egypt.  A new area meant to become the next Silicon Valley is being developed now in Egypt.  IT consultants and IT managers are creating startups in a nation ripe for it.  About half of Egypt’s population is under 30 and used twitter and facebook during their recent revolution, which means most of them are the young, technologically-literate people who often are or become IT contractors.  With the startup culture growing in Egypt and its reputation slowly growing as well, it’s only a matter of time before IT recruiting agencies and technical recruiters begin to consider Egypt in their expansion plans.  Business Insider and Huffington Post are already talking about drool-worthy resumes and companies in the surprising new IT-centric territory.

 

How to Give a Great Reference in IT

When IT professionals are looking at new IT jobs, references might not seem quite as relevant as in other fields.  After all, information technology tends to require very specific skill sets and certifications on resumes. However, technical recruiters love to work with IT contractors who are prepared with stellar references.  IT staffing agencies particularly love to work with IT consultants whose references know how to give a stellar reference.  There are a few nuances to this.

Firstly, being informed about the position or types of positions somebody is applying to is key.  If you know what skills and strengths to highlight, you can make a person look like the best fit for a job.

Secondly, it’s best to provide an honest, but carefully edited reference.  Playing up skills that are unique and really make a candidate stand out will do wonders. Leaving out personal qualities that could be controversial will also do just as much.  Providing too much personal detail or too bland a reference, or something that is just a bold-faced lie, won’t do the candidate any good.  In fact, it could harm them.  If not in the job process, perhaps they land in a job that they are a terrible fit for and get fired down the road.

 

How to Handle Being Fired in IT

IT professionals, like most other professionals, are just as likely to experience being fired at least once over the course of their working lives.  Technical recruiters certainly don’t prefer finding a firing (or two) on their IT consultants’ resumes, but they are not the end of the world.  IT headhunters are not thrown if IT contractors handle firings in a professional, graceful manner both in behavior and on their resume.   What are the steps to take to make sure a firing doesn’t dent your career?

Firstly, if your IT managers fire you, maintain a calm demeanor publicly.  This especially extends to your social media and online presence.  Giving anything less than a calm response could burn bridges, hurt your dignity, or result in legal action at the very worst case scenario.

Secondly, take time to be upset privately, but don’t let it hinder you from moving  forward quickly.  Start contacting IT staffing agencies and formulating a contingency plan.  Looking at new IT jobs and working hard to get yourself into a new one, rather than wallowing, will be key in making sure your resume doesn’t really reflect this hiccup in your career.

Lastly, when you finally do land a new job, enter it as though you were not just fired.  Don’t allow that event to dent your confidence in learning your new job, taking on new responsibilities, and interacting with your new coworkers.  This firing may not actually say much about your competence as any employee, anyways.  Even if it does point to a weakness, learn from it and move on.  Focusing on past failures will be one of the surest ways to repeat it again in the future.

Handling IT Recruiters

IT recruiters are a fact of life for IT professionals.  The information technology market is so hot that IT staffing firms and IT headhunters are and probably will be a fixture for a long time.  IT consultants tend to have mixed feelings about how to deal with technical recruiters, but here are a few basic guidelines.

Firstly, establish relationships with IT staffing agencies before you are polishing your resumes.  This means that when you do need them, IT recruiting firms will have already looked at IT jobs for you.

Secondly, consider the IT recruiting companies you’re working with as professional contacts.  While they may not be the company you work for directly, it’s important to consider that they will be representing you.  Giving them the most professional version of yourself will yield the best results.

Lastly, be honest with IT recruiting companies you are working with.  You will get the best job for you if you give them good information.  If you lie about a qualification, interest, or your salary expectations, you’ll wind up with a job offer (or worse, a job) that doesn’t make sense for you.

 

Using or Avoiding Your Phone in IT

Information technology has gone through a customer-service oriented change in the last 10 years.  IT consultants are not attractive to IT recruiters if they only have pristine resumes.  IT staffing agencies are now seeking IT contractors who are socially adept and will be great a communicating with their IT managers or co-workers.  This means that IT professionals have a bit of a quandary on their hands when it comes to answering their office phones. 

While text messages have brought about a general distaste for the phone, it has only compounded the fact that many people at the office tend to want to avoid their office line.  But is this ok when they are expected to be great communicators?  There is, of course, no straight answer to this.  Office policies, official and unofficial, are the best guides here.  The quickest way to get a good idea of how IT professionals should act towards phone calls is to check out how people in other departments do.  If people in departments with heavy emphasis on communication always pick up their phones, it’s better to follow suit.  Even if IT is different, communication skills are key.  Displaying a lack of them, even if it doesn’t affect your work, is a terrible idea.

Email curfew in IT?

Information Technology is on a 24-7 kind of schedule to meet the demands of IT managers and their superiors.  Would the idea of an email curfew, a period of time when work-related email is frowned upon, ever be a possibility for IT consultants?

IT staffing firms may soon be seeing the IT contractors they work with finding ways to adapt to such a practice at their IT jobs.  The practice is already finding traction at a Philadelphia company and all over the internet as various news sources and bloggers debate how effective the method is at facilitating work-life balance or hindering effective business.  It seems like only a matter of time before technical recruiters find themselves searching not only for pristine resumes, but also for IT professionals who can adhere to an email curfew and still get all their work done quickly.

Avoiding Bad Advice in IT Jobs or Job Hunting

IT recruiters come across IT consultants who act upon a lot of bad advice. IT staffing firms find that unfortunately, there is plenty of terrible advice that is nearly indistinguishable from good advice about during, on the hunt for, and when leaving IT jobs.   IT professionals who are polishing their resumes, or simply trying to figure out how to improve in their current job, can take a few steps in trying to avoid poor advice about how to act in the information technology field.

Firstly, consider the source of the advice.  If you would trust the source normally, considering finding at least one more source that would confirm the advice.  If you wouldn’t normally trust the source but are intrigued by the advice, try to find at least 3 places that confirm it.  Good advice is something most people can agree on, especially when it comes to the job hunt or workplace etiquette.

The second way to avoid bad advice about your job hunt or job etiquette is to consider checking with your IT headhunters or IT recruiting agencies before proceeding with it.  If they helped you land your current job or are helping you find a new one, it is in their best interest that you perform well and do the right things.  They also tend to have relationships with your employers/potential employers, or at the very least, companies that are similar to them.  Your technical recruiters will very likely know if you should follow or discard a piece of advice because they know your employers’ or potential employers’ preferences.

 

IT Professionals Shouldn’t Quit on Youtube

Information technology recently saw one of its most egregious infractions of employee behavior when  digital video content company IT professionals made sure an ‘I quit’ video went viral.  Even though IT contractors might find that their resumes are in high demand they’re getting calls from IT headhunters constantly, quitting in a blaze is still a terrible idea.

This is a particularly bad idea when technical recruiters and IT managers can easily find your ‘I quit’ video, or at least references to it, with a quick google search.  Millennials are comfortable with living a life that is, if not constantly in public, at least publicly searchable.  They are probably too comfortable with this idea.  IT recruiting companies would strongly encourage that nobody try what Marina Shifrin did at home…or at work.  Even though it seemed clever and will probably result in a plum job for her, most IT consultants should avoid making their unprofessional behavior so public. IT staffing firms and hiring managers might not always find it funny or entertaining.