Tag Archives: IT recruiting companies

How Employers Can Compete in 2018’s Tech Job Seekers’ Market

March 16, 2018

If your company is looking to hire new tech talent in 2018, you’ll need to get even more competitive. Per the New York Times, the labor market has gotten tighter with our overall unemployment rate at a 17-year low of 4.1%. Tech has an even lower unemployment rate at 2.9%. Add to these numbers the usual dearth of tech talent in the US, and you’ve got a recipe for a very competitive hiring process. Don’t despair, though. If you want to hire great talent for your IT job openings, you can do it with a little elbow grease and these tips from IT staffing companies:

Sell the company more, especially during phone interviews and in-person interviews. IT staffing firms may not have suggested this. Ideally, an interview is more of a 2-way street. It’s about finding the right fit—for both employer and employee. In a labor market so tight, even candidates with prison records are suddenly being considered more frequently, the game has changed a bit. You’ll want to dedicate more time to telling the candidate about your perks, your company culture if it’s fun and collaborative, and any hot technologies you can offer employees a chance to get experience with. It can also be a good idea to consider giving a tour of the company, introducing candidates to the team, and highlighting your Glassdoor reviews if you have a lot of good ones and a high overall score. Taking steps like this helps the candidate to picture themselves working for you—and enjoying it!
Make your hiring process faster. IT recruiters find that one of the best ways to excite a candidate is to make them feel valued. Make a candidate feel like they’re your top choice, and your chances of having them join your team soar exponentially. There are a lot of ways to do this, but one especially effective method is to make your hiring process faster. The quicker you can get back to a candidate, the more confident they’ll feel in your interest and/or offers. No candidate wants to feel like a company spent days upon days, or worse, weeks, debating whether they were a good fit…it leads them to feel insecure! Even companies like Google and Amazon have been rumored to quicken their hiring processes lately to deal with a tighter tech labor market! This process has the added side benefits of helping you get better talent overall. IT recruiting companies have long bemoaned slow hiring processes. Even in the best of markets for employers, they’ll still lose you tech candidates, who are often juggling multiple interview processes and are frequently passive candidates. If you can quicken your hiring process, it will help you not only in this intensely competitive job seeker’s market. It will also help you later on if you can keep it up.
Provide flexible work schedules when possible. There are a few things that attract a candidate: the hottest technologies, high salaries, fun perks, and a good commute. Perks and salary are hard to change, since employers often have limited resources. The same is true of commute, of course (your office is located where it’s located, there’s not much that can be done about that, usually.) The technologies you give your employees access to is dependent on your own company goals. It’s not always feasible to change over to a new hot technology when you’re already busy working with another on important projects. This leaves flexible work schedules as your secret weapon in the war for winning top talent. Everyone loves a flexible work schedule. Recent grads, to working parents, to older workers who are possibly busy taking care of elderly parents all appreciate a little work-life balance. The best part about flexible work schedules is that it doesn’t often cost more than trust to implement. You simply have to trust your employees to do what they need to, when they say they will do it. There’s no need to move buildings, find extra money in the budget, or move all your existing code onto a hot new technology you’re not even sure you’ll use next year. Create the kind of environment that supports flexible work schedules– one where nobody ever feels nervous or uncomfortable asking to take a day to work remotely, move their hours, etc. Then sell it to your potential employees. Talk it up in interviews, on your website, on your social media, and make sure your IT recruiting agencies talk it up to candidates! Candidates will be flocking to you in no time!

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How to Decline a Job Offer

March 9, 2018

When you’re in the tech field, job searching can be easier because you’re more in demand. You’ll often have IT staffing companies reaching out to you, even when you’re perfectly happy in your current job. If you are searching, you may be juggling multiple interview processes at a time and even multiple job offers. This means that at some point you’ll be put in the position of declining a job offer. This can be a delicate task with lasting effects. Here are some tips from IT recruiters on how to gracefully decline a job offer and avoid burning any bridges in the tech sphere.

You must respond. Do not under any circumstances just ignore the offer. Reach out to the employer or technical recruiters and reject the offer if you don’t want it. You’ll definitely torpedo your reputation with employers and IT recruiting companies if you don’t give any response to a job offer. Putting out job offers is a labor-intensive process for employers that takes a lot of time. To not even give a rejection is unthinkably rude and makes you look incredibly unprofessional.
Keep it quick. Don’t drag your feet on rejecting a job offer when you know it’s not right for you. The sooner you can tell the employer no, the better the whole interaction will go. It’s especially important not to do something like accepting a job offer, then waiting for something better. Or dragging your feet to respond to a job offer while waiting for something better. It can be tempting, or even feel completely logical to do this. You’ve got to look out for yourself, right? But pulling a move like this will likely hurt you in the future. If you deceive an employer or reject it in a way that obstructs their hiring process, you’ll definitely frustrate them. You’ll probably blackball yourself as an applicant at that company in the future. You’ll also likely hurt your reputation with the people who work there. Considering how small the tech sphere can be sometimes, that’s a big risk to take!
Keep it respectful, gracious, and pleasant. It’s entirely possible to reject a job offer without offending or frustrating a company. If you adopt the right tone and thank the company warmly for their time and consideration, IT recruiting agencies find that you can still walk away with goodwill. Find specific things you genuinely liked about the job, company and/or team and mention them. Specifics will go a long way in proving that the company made a positive impression on you. If you’d like to be able to apply to this employer in the future, say so. It’s entirely possible that a job offer right now at company X isn’t a good fit, but 5 years from now, it will be! Companies understand this and will appreciate it if you’re clear about it. There are cases where this won’t work, of course, but that’s a red flag in itself. If a company responds to a gracious rejection of a job offer with hostility and animosity, then they may not be pleasant to work for anyways!
Give a reason if you have one that is temporary and palatable to an employer. In some cases, it can help to give employers a straightforward, honest reason why you’re rejecting their job offer. It can be completely acceptable to say you’ve received an alternate job offer with a higher salary, better commute, or more flexible schedule. It’s also fine to tell an employer if your personal circumstances have changed and you’re not ready to make start a new job. Maybe you have a sick relative, you need to move, etc. As mentioned before, your aim should be to keep the whole conversation positive. There are definitely reasons that you should NOT give to an employer for rejecting their job offer. The most obvious is if you’re taking a counter-offer from your current employer. While this is usually a bad move to make for yourself (check out this blog post here), it also looks terrible to employers. It can make them feel like you’ve used their (extensive) time and effort just to get yourself a raise from your boss. At the very least, it looks like you have bad judgement, which makes you seem pretty unhirable.

tech job offers — Rejecting a job offer isn’t as easy as saying ‘no.’ Photo credit: TayebMEZAHDIA via Pixabay.

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What’s Big in Tech Hiring Right Now?

February 9, 2018

The goal of the hiring process is timeless, but there are definitely trends that come and go for interviewing and evaluating applicants. One of the more recent trends was the creative, Google-style question which seemed to cross between whimsy and the hardest brain teaser you’ve ever heard. Another trend (that should certainly die, but hasn’t yet) is the ‘Stress Interview’, in which an interviewer deliberately upsets a candidate to see their true colors. Right now, IT staffing firms see a big trend in the tech field: a huge boom in contract – to permanent job openings. Why is contract-to-perm so popular in tech, especially now? Here are 3 reasons.

Firstly, contract-to perm allows employers to staff quickly for projects so nothing gets slowed down. Permanent hiring is a much more complicated process for employers because of legal requirements as well as the cost and labor for onboarding new employees. It’s much easier for employers to get funding approved to hiring a contractor for the duration of a project than funding for a perm employee that will be with the company for the forseeable future. When employers have an urgent tech project that they need to staff for and get moving, contract-to-perm hiring is a good option.
Another reason technical recruiters are seeing a lot more contract-to-perm roles is that these roles let a company see how well a candidate can perform. Because technical skills are so specialized and rare in the US, this is an especially important concern for employers. Even with coding tests and references, it’s hard for a company to know with 100% certainty if a candidate has the technical skills and experience to handle the work they’re being hired for. A contract-to-perm stint allows an employee to really demonstrate this, and then be taken on permanently once the employer sees they can be successful in the role.
The last reason employers might be hiring on a contract-to-permanent basis more frequently these days is because of the profusion of Scrum, Agile, and their hybrids. Since companies are now using development methodologies, which require much more teamwork than the old Waterfall and similar models, how the candidate fits into the team is paramount. Hiring a candidate contract-to-perm allows employers to see firsthand how well they mesh with the team. If it’s not a fit, it’s easier for candidate and employer to part ways when it’s a contractor relationship. (This is a benefit for the contractor, too. Nobody wants to work on a team they’re ostracized from or have tension with!) If it is a fit, it’s easier for a company to take the candidate on permanently now, since they’re already working there as a contractor.

So it’s easy to see why employers like hiring contract-to-perm, but why would you, as the job seeker, want to be hired this way? Here are a few reasons IT recruiters see that candidates benefit from this kind of hiring.

You get more opportunities when you’re open to this style of hiring. Plenty of companies don’t post all of their jobs online. The jobs they don’t post are the contract-to-perm jobs. This is for a variety of reasons, but mostly it’s because companies don’t have the time or manpower to post jobs that aren’t guaranteed to be long term. Work with IT recruiting companies you trust and let them know you’re open to contract-to-perm jobs. You’ll find that suddenly there are plenty more IT jobs you can be submitted to—jobs you didn’t even know existed before.
You’ll get hired faster. As mentioned earlier, the permanent hiring process is much more complicated. There are many legal concerns, financial concerns, and the time and money needed to onboard a permanent employee. Perhaps you want to jump ship from a bad employer now (or yesterday), perhaps you need a new job that makes money faster, or perhaps you’ve been unemployed for a while and need a job period. Letting your IT staffing agencies submit you for contract-to-perm jobs increases your chances of getting hired somewhere new quickly.
You get in the door places where you couldn’t before. As discussed earlier, companies are taking less risk in hiring somebody contract-to-perm. This emboldens them to try hiring candidates who may not fit every bullet of a job description perfectly. As a permanent candidate, you might be an automatic no for a company. Maybe you don’t have the Ivy League degree they want or are short a few years of experience in a certain programming language. However, as a contract-to-permanent candidate, you might be a yes. Having most of the requirements for the job can be enough for an employer to take a chance on you (because they know that if the arrangement doesn’t work out for one or both of you, it’s easy to end it). If you’ve wanted to work somewhere prestigious like a Google or Facebook, or simply want to try to take the next step up in your career, contract-to-perm hiring is a great way to do that.

Tech hiring — Contract-to-perm is a great way to get your foot in the door of a prestigious company. Photo credit: geralt via pixabay.

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

Why Tech Employers Should Still Consider Candidates with Big Gaps on their Resumes

January 18, 2018

When you’re hiring for tech positions, it can be tempting to toss out any resumes with a gap of 6 months or more. IT recruiters see this all the time, especially because the tech job market is so hot these days. (To put that in perspective, the unemployment rate for IT professionals in the first quarter of 2017 was 2.5% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The overall unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2017 was almost double that! It was 4.5%.) IT staffing companies find that employers often think if somebody is unemployed for long, there’s something wrong with them. The truth is, there are some legitimate reasons candidates might have big gaps on their resumes. Here’s why you may want to consider a candidate, even if they have a long gap on their resume.

1. Their reasons for a gap are solid. It’s becoming more and more common for people to leave the workforce temporarily to care for a relative. This will only continue as the Baby Boomer generation continues to age. Taking time off to care for a new baby or sick relative doesn’t tell a hiring manager anything about a candidate’s skills, performance, or dedication to work. The truth is, many people may face caregiving dilemmas over their lifetimes. Sharp, efficient, talented IT professionals and unskilled ones alike take time off for caregiving. So the next time you see a resume with a large gap taken for caregiving, remember that you could just as easily be in the same boat one day! It’s also important to remember that there’s a very real dearth of IT professionals in the US right now. You don’t want to limit your talent pool any further than it’s already been limited.

2. Their technical skills may not be impacted by a gap. With all the options for independent study, online classes, certifications, and more, it’s possible that a candidate has taken time off from a formal job but they haven’t taken time off from keeping up their technical expertise. If you see a resume with a sizable gap and it concerns you, check out their technical proficiencies section. Some people might even have a better arsenal of technical skills after taking time off from the workforce. They may have used the time off to learn more than they would if they were working.

3. Their base of technical skills might be enough, even if they don’t have the hottest new technologies under their belts. Especially recently, IT staffing firms notice that companies will hire candidates with strong, basic foundations of technical skills. Then they’ll just teach them the technologies they lack. This works because there are many languages a candidate can learn that will prep them to quickly and easily acquire more languages. Even if a candidate was out of work for a period of time and isn’t up to date with Python, for example, they might still have Ruby on Rails. Knowing Ruby on Rails will make it easy for the candidate to pick up Python and perform a role that requires it.

4. Their technical skills might not be up to date due to time taken off work, but they could have more vital skills. As mentioned before, candidates can be (and are!) often caught up with technical knowledge on the job. IT recruiting companies find that for some roles that require soft skills, companies will hire people with those skills. They’ll then catch them up on the technical skills they need. For some roles, like Helpdesk or Sales Engineer, having soft skills is imperative. It’s arguably more important that having the right technical skills or experience. For instance, a Sales Engineer who is charming and engaging with clients but needs to learn SAP on the job is a better hire than a candidate who knows SAP but is rude and off-putting to clients.

Tech resumes — Is a big gap always a problem on a resume? Photo credit: rawpixel via Pixabay.

Will Your Next IT Job Come Via Text?

November 8, 2017

Who do you text? Friends? Family? How about your IT recruiters? IT staffing firms are texting with job seekers more and more frequently. Perhaps more surprising is that research says that many candidates are ok with it– and sometimes initiate it themselves.

Why is texting now a mode of communication that IT recruiting companies use? Likely, one of the biggest reasons you might be getting texts from your technical recruiters these days is the prevalence of cell phones and texting. Studies show that not only do nearly all American adults have a cell phone, but most check their cell phone frequently. Though the numbers vary, Americans can spend between 2 and 5 hours on their cell phones, collectively, over the average day. Most people break that up into many short sessions, but the amount is still staggering. It also makes it easy to see why IT recruiting agencies use text to reach out to job seekers: they’re very likely to check the message.

Recruiters aren’t just texting candidates because it’s a reliable way to reach them. They’re also doing so because candidates are generally ok with it. Again, numbers vary, but job seekers still tend to see IT recruiters who text as trustworthy professionals (depending on what survey you’re looking at) between rates of 40%-70%. Perhaps what’s most interesting about this is the fact that these numbers aren’t all within younger demographics. Job seekers older than millennials also seem to be fine with texts from their recruiters. Everyone seems to be ok with texting during the job search—both candidates and recruiters alike.

The last reason you might be getting texts from your IT recruiting firms is that sometimes a text just works best for a given situation. Candidates who can’t pick up the phone during a workday are more likely to respond to a silent text message. Candidates who are on their way to an interview might need to shoot their recruiters a quick text confirming they made it, asking for directions, or coordinating meeting. Considering the fact that most text messages are opened at a rate near 100% of the time, it’s not shocking that IT recruiters are now texting with their candidates. Sometimes a text is just easier– even during your job search!

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How to Add Volunteering and Community Service to Your Tech Resume

October 20, 2017

There are sections of your technical resume that are obviously necessary: your technical proficiencies, the jobs you’ve held, your education section, etc. But there are some parts that aren’t so clear. Do you include an objective? Should you include your hobbies? One section that candidates often have questions about, and one that could actually add a lot to your candidacy if done correctly, is volunteering and community service. When is it advantageous to add your volunteer and community service experience to your technical resume? When does it hurt you? How do you add it? Here are some tips from IT recruiters for deciding what you should keep—and cut—from your resume.

Keep: If you’re applying to a job with a non-profit or a company that really values community service and volunteering, then keep it all. (You can ask your technical recruiters about a company’s interest in community service if it’s not obvious.) Show off any relevant experience on your resume to build yourself up as the kind of candidate that fits well into their culture of giving back to the community.

If you’re not applying to a non-profit or company like this, you may still want to keep some of your volunteering experience. IT staffing firms sometimes come across candidates who’ve donated their technical expertise to the community or local organizations by creating web sites, blogs, or other technical projects for free. This is very relevant to your candidacy. Include it on your resume, especially if the project you worked on could be similar to the work you’d be doing in your target jobs.

Cut: As mentioned above, when you’re applying to companies that aren’t as concerned with volunteer or community service (often these are more corporate employers), then cut that section. Use the space on your resume to build up your candidacy better. Talk about your technical skills and experience. You only get to submit one resume to hiring managers and IT staffing companies. Make sure every single letter, punctuation mark, and space on that resume builds your candidacy. (If talking about your volunteering and community service interests is really important to you, you may find time to discuss it in job interviews– if it’s relevant to the discussion, of course!)

How to Add it: Create one brief, separate, section at the very bottom of your resume. Put it below your education (which will often be the last section). Format your volunteering stints as jobs. If you have information about technical experience, list it in bullets like you would under a job. Keep the language unemotional here, as you would on any other part of your resume. While you might feel passionate about your volunteer activities, keep subjective phrasing out of this section. Simply state your contributions to the organization and highlight how it might strengthen your candidacy.

If the work is especially relevant to any particular roles, you should take advantage of that. As you tailor your resume to the role (ideally candidates tailor their resume to each role their IT staffing firms submit them to), make sure your description of this volunteer experience explicitly highlights the similarities between that and the projected work for the role. Don’t be afraid to really spell it out for hiring managers. They’re skimming many, many resumes. Make yours stand out!

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

Use This Tip in Your Next Tech Job Search

October 4, 2017

IT staffing companies hear about plenty of secret weapons candidates can pull out when searching for new IT jobs. Sometimes it’s a great interview question. Sometimes it’s a suit that makes you feel confident. Here’s another to add to your arsenal: take the time to show a deep interest in everything about the role that really matters to tech employers. It’s not just about saying you love the job description. Hiring managers in tech want to see an interest in 2 particular areas: The corporate culture and the company’s work. Here’s how to effectively demonstrate interest in both.

Corporate Culture: Other industries may be catching up to tech in this respect, but corporate culture has been nearly imperative to tech employers for a long time. With the popularization of Scrum and Agile, it has been even more important. If you don’t fit into a team on a social level, then collaboration, and thus real success, will be difficult. So how do you make it apparent that you’re interested in a company’s corporate culture? Start with research. Check out their Glassdoor reviews. Talk to your technical recruiters. Check out their website. Be able to discuss their corporate culture and come up with questions of your own about it. Try asking questions like these: It seems like [fill in the blank with relevant soft skills] are necessary for being successful at this company. Is this true? Are there other soft skills they prize more? What do you love about working at this company?

The company and its products: As an IT professional, it’s obvious you’ll be asking about things like the tech stack, the projects the role is assigned to, etc. IT recruiting firms find that the candidates who land jobs go a little further, though. Hiring managers in tech love when candidates are interested in the way the technical workload supports the business. Demonstrate, for instance, that you’re thinking beyond what you’ll be coding. You’re thinking about what you’ll be coding and how it can serve the client better. To show an interest in the business-side of the company, not just its tech side, do some deeper research than just a quick Google search of the company. Look at their website, but also look at recent news articles. Ask your IT recruiters if they have any recommended materials to check out. A good test of the depth of your knowledge is if you can talk about the company in terms of what others say about them, not just what they say about themselves.

IT job search tips — Do your research on the companies you interview. A simple Google search isn’t enough. Photo credit: geralt via Pixabay.

Can Your Parents or Spouse Call Employers for You During Your Tech Job Search?

September 6, 2017

Occasionally IT recruiters and hiring managers get calls or emails about jobs from a strange place: a job seeker’s spouse or parents. IT recruiting agencies and employers will get everything from initial inquiries, follow up calls or emails, actual job applications from an IT professional’s wife, mother, boyfriend, etc. While it may seem like this is a just a supportive gesture from a loved one, it can actually hamper one’s job search, if not a candidate’s reputation. Here’s why you need to make sure you are the point of contact for your own job search—as well as what your family members can do to help with your job search effectively.

Having your parents, spouse, etc reach out to employers and IT staffing firms on your behalf makes you look less professional and/or unmotivated. As with most other elements of the job search, there are basic expectations about who speaks for you. Professional norms dictate that either you or your technical recruiters submit your applications, follow-ups, inquiries, etc. Anything else will be confusing and make it look like you aren’t aware of this (and thus probably other) professional norms. Hiring managers might assume that if you have your parent or spouse call on your behalf, then you aren’t ready to participate in the workforce because you just don’t understand how to interact with employers.

Besides making you look unprofessional, a call or email from your parent or spouse will make you seem unmotivated. IT recruiting companies and hiring managers want you to make these calls and emails because you’re ultimately invested in landing new IT jobs. If somebody else is calling for you, it could look like you’re not interested enough to do it yourself. Especially in tech, where a passion for the work, the company, the team, or some combination of all of these is so imperative, you don’t want to present yourself as possibly disinterested in your own candidacy. Show you care about the jobs you’re applying to (or discussing with your recruiters) by making all calls and emails yourself. Don’t ask your spouse, parents, etc to do it for you.

Having your spouse or parents reach out to employers and IT recruiters on your behalf could ruin your reputation. The tech field can be a small place. Between the popularity of LinkedIn (which can help connect all hiring managers to each other) and the small number of qualified IT professionals who move around to similar jobs and companies, your reputation can be paramount. It’s very easy for a manager to do a back-door reference on you or for IT staffing companies to blackball you. Thus if you continually make a mistake, like having your parents call on your behalf about your job application, many people might hear about it. Even if you find a job now, you’ll likely be looking for one in the future. Don’t hurt your chances of finding IT jobs by becoming known as the unprofessional candidate who outsources their job search to the wife, husband, parents, etc.

What can a spouse, parent, or family member do to successfully help you with your job search? IT staffing agencies suggest that you tell well-meaning loved ones to help by doing a few things behind the scenes. A parent or spouse can find and send you jobs to apply to (while not completing the application themselves!), suggest companies you may want to apply to, or find IT recruiting firms you might want to work with. They can also help write your resumes and cover letters or practice for interviewers. Of course, as the candidate, you will have to be your own advocate. Employers and recruiters should speak with you and only you. But that doesn’t mean that your loved ones can’t help prepare you to interact with employers and recruiters. In fact, it’s often encouraged, especially when it comes to interview preparation!

2 Tips for Hiring Tech Talent

July 21, 2017

It can be tough to fill open tech positions at your company. The US still has a shortage of qualified professionals to fill the new IT jobs which open up or are created daily. IT recruiting firms find that the tech field is still very much a job seeker’s market. How can you make sure your company stays competitive in attracting and hiring the best talent? Here are 2 tips from IT staffing companies on best practices for hiring tech talent.

1. Focus on building a great corporate culture. Tech employers used to compete for great talent with their perks. In the beginning of the Dotcom boom, stocked kitchens, catered lunches, subsidized commuting costs, etc used to be a huge draw. Now it seems that many other industries have jumped on this bandwagon. Exciting perks are much more available at many employers, and thus aren’t really as a big of a draw to IT professionals.

The new commodity that’s harder to come by, and thus a bigger draw, is great culture. Glassdoor and its anonymous, unfiltered reviews has probably played a big hand in making job searchers more aware of this. IT recruiters find that candidates often ask about the management and corporate culture at a potential job right after they hear about the work. Having an open, innovative culture that allows employees some agency in shaping their life at work is a huge draw. If you want to attract technical talent, IT staffing firms suggest building a management team with great communication skills, an interest in helping their employees grow and build their skill base, and who prioritize their employees’ happiness.

Building great corporate culture might be one of the hardest ways to attract employees, but technical recruiters suggest it because it’s effective and it also helps retain employees down the road. Instead of investing in gimmicky perks, take time to make your company a workplace where people are generally happy. It will pay off now, and in the future.

2. Move faster in your hiring process. IT recruiting agencies caution employers against moving at too slowly for hiring all tech positions. As mentioned before, the tech field is a job seeker’s market. The unemployment rate for IT professionals is notoriously low—often as low as half the national average. If a candidate comes on the market, they could be gone in as little as 2 weeks. (Highly sought after IT professionals like DevOps and Big Data Engineers, as well as Full-Stack or CRM Developers might be off the market even faster than that!) IT staffing agencies find that many candidates aren’t even ever unemployed or looking. They’re passive candidates who are lured away from their current job with a pay raise, better commute, etc. So if you want to hire the best tech talent, you’ll have to move fast. Respond to applications and submittals by IT recruiting companies as soon as you can. Make offers in days, not weeks. IT recruiters see employers lose out on the candidates they really want all to frequently because they just took too long.

Hiring tech talent can be tough in such a job seeker’s market. Photo credit: Pexels via Pixabay.

Tips for Your Summer IT Job Hunt

July 20, 2017

Unlike some fields like Education or Retail, hiring trends in the Tech sector usually stay steady in the Summer. Because technology is vital to most business operations, and because innovation is necessary to a competitive business, Tech employees are indispensable. Replacing them or adding new ones often cannot wait until after Labor Day. Your job search in the summer may be a different beast than the rest of the year, though. Here are two tips for tailoring your search for IT jobs when the weather gets hot and everyone is on vacation.

Take advantage of the strong market for passive job seekers. If you’re in the Tech field, you have the option to be more of a passive job seeker than in other fields. Even if you don’t apply to jobs directly, you probably still get contacted by IT recruiters. Between LinkedIn, Monster, and other similar web sites, it’s very easy for IT staffing firms to find you. If you’re looking for a new job in the summer, but want to spend more time outside than on your job search, take advantage of this passive job seeker market. Reach out to IT recruiting agencies with your updated resume. Turn on the ‘interested in other opportunities’ switch on your LinkedIn profile. Post your resume on Indeed and Monster. Add a line to your LinkedIn profile about being open to new opportunities. One caveat: don’t do any of these things if you think your boss or coworkers will see and respond negatively! You don’t want to endanger your current employment.

Ask for timelines when you’re interviewing, waiting for feedback, etc. You’ll need to walk a fine line with this, but having better expectations will make the process easier. Hiring for permanent jobs in the tech sector can be extra slow in the summer. Companies may be forced to wait on managers and their vacation schedules to set up interviews, make hiring decisions, get feedback, etc. If you’re working with IT recruiting companies, this is exactly the kind of advantage they’ll provide. You can ask them when they think managers will make a decision and what the next steps in the process are with impunity. There’s no risk that you’ll look desperate or bother a hiring manager. If you’re not working with IT staffing agencies, you can still ask for timelines on hiring decisions, scheduling interviews, etc. The key is to do so judiciously. Ask once. Don’t ask somebody like the CEO of the company, or a very high up manager. Try asking somebody like HR or the internal recruiter, who won’t mind answering questions like this at all.

IT jobs summer — Your summer IT job search could have some sweet results if you work with an IT recruiting firm. Photo credit: Fruitnmore via Pixabay.