Review, “IT Made E-Z”
Starting out, the technical recruiter needs to learn tools to to increase sales & placements. Patrick Bowman’s book, IT Made E-Z, guides the new technical recruiter through the process of maximizing technical recruiting techniques. Bowman reveals tips for technical interviewing efficiency, and making a partnership between clients and the technical recruiting team. He covers specific technologies in-depth, so that the young salesperson can become familiar with technical terms, technical job descriptions, and how to identify varying levels of competence in technical skills when interviewing IT Candidates.
According to Bowman, part of success in the IT Staffing industry depends on the technical recruiter’s ability to add personal knowledge to the information the client company provides. This comes down to understanding fully what the client company is looking for, beyond the standard HR description of a technical role. There’s an art to extracting the full description of what a client is seeking, since technical skills may cover 80% of the total picture the client seeks, but the remaining 20% may involve other factors. Getting inside the head of the vendor is what will make an IT staffing firm more successful than competitors at making placements that last the length of the contract and are a good fit.
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.