Applications & Development IT Staffing Services

4 Steps To Take When an Employee Resigns

It’s usually difficult for any employer when an employee resigns.  However, it’s particularly  difficult when you lose an IT professional.  In today’s market, it can be difficult to find the right person for your open IT jobs.    IT recruiting agencies suggest taking these 4 steps to make this loss for your team a lot easier—even if you have big looming deadlines.

1. Make a plan for knowledge transfer.  IT staffing agencies suggest you start by taking time to figure out what information you will need to transfer to this employee’s replacement. Figure out how you’ll get this information.  Will you have a meeting with the exiting employee?  Will they train their replacement?  Make a plan so you can get the new employee up to speed, no matter where the exiting employee was on a project.

2. Figure out what you need in a replacement.  IT recruiting firms suggest you continue by pulling up the resume you hired this employee with (if you have it).  Think about the strengths and weaknesses they brought to the position.  Create a list of what you think you’ll need.  The last thing to consider is if you need a full time employee to replace this person or if you need a contractor.  IT recruiters can help you find either.  There are certainly advantages to both.

3. Call your trusted technical recruiters.  Meet with your IT recruiters and share the information you’ve gathered in steps 1 and 2.  Be honest about what you need and give timelines for when you’d like to have the replacement employee.  Share your knowledge transfer plan.  The more you share with IT recruiting companies, the more they can help you find the best fit for your open job.

4. Consider taking feedback from the rest of your team as you complete the hiring process.  IT staffing companies suggest you ask for feedback and guidance from you team, as they may have a uniquely useful perspective on what you’ll need in a new hire.  It’s also important for the new hire to fit into your team.  Corporate culture is highly underrated.  Picking somebody who’s technically fit for the role and who gets along well with the team, end users, clients, etc will be far more successful.

 

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Don’t panic when an IT employee quits. Just focus on how to transfer important knowledge to their replacement. Photo credit: stevepb via Pixabay.

 

Hire Tech Talent in a Job Seeker’s Market

If you’re working with (or thinking about working with) IT recruiters to fill your IT job openings, you’ve probably noticed that the tech job market is more of a job seeker’s market.  IT staffing firms have found this to be true for a long time, and it will likely continue for a while, too.  So how do you attract and retain the kind of talented IT professionals your team needs?  Here are a few things IT recruiting agencies see as consistently effective for getting and keeping great tech talent.

Perks or money: Conventional advice for most fields says that perks and money can’t be the only way you attract and keep talent.  IT staffing companies do find that money and perks play a slightly bigger role in the tech field, though.  Because there is such a dearth of IT professionals in the US, IT professionals often wind up getting passive offers for jobs making more money.  IT recruiting firms find that paying your talent market rates becomes more imperative in tech than it may be in other fields.

Management: It’s important to note that research says that perks and money can’t be the only thing you use to attract and keep great talent, though.  Management is as important, if not more.  Research says that people often leave jobs to get away from bad bosses.  Recent studies have shown that people who feel micromanaged are 28% more likely to leave a job.  People who feel overwhelmed by their workload are 31% more likely to leave their job.

Problems with management may also be intertwined with problems with compensation.  If an IT professional doesn’t feel like he or she can communicate with their boss, they won’t feel like they can ask for a raise.  This deprives a company of a chance to keep great talent—maybe they can provide the raise to keep the employee, but just don’t know that they should.

Company culture: Though it seems more frivolous, technical recruiters find that company culture is important when it comes to keeping and attracting great talent. Recent studies show that people who don’t like their company’s culture are 15% more likely to leave their IT jobs.  Peer and boss relationships make a big difference too.  If IT professionals enjoy working with the people around them, (including their team, end users and clients they may have to interact with) they’ll find a way to deal with problems they may have with their current jobs.

When it comes to attracting talent, Glassdoor is now heavily used by job seekers.  So take the time to make sure your company culture is great and that it’s well represented on Glassdoor.  Deal with and respond to negative reviews (especially if they have actionable feedback).  Consider soliciting positive reviews.  You want prospective tech employees to know that working at your company isn’t just profitable– it’s a good way to spend 40 plus hours of their week.

 

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Tech is a job seeker’s market, so paying market rate salaries is even more important. Photo credit: realworkhard via Pixabay.

 

3 Tips for Choosing the Right LinkedIn Profile Picture

LinkedIn is so widely used that it has essentially become necessary to join if you want  to connect with IT recruiting companies and search for new IT jobs.  If you’re not on LinkedIn, it will be much harder for IT staffing companies and potential employers to find you.   (It also might suggest you don’t really embrace technology, which would obviously be a problem for IT professionals.)  While there are plenty of LinkedIn tips for creating your profile,  it’s also important to make sure your LinkedIn picture is done well.  Here are some tips to taking a LinkedIn profile picture that will attract IT recruiters and potential employers.

Make sure the picture is clearly of you. IT staffing firms suggest you avoid using pictures of you and your family, friends, etc.  Just use a picture that shows you.  Your LinkedIn profile is meant to showcase your professional achievements and experience.  Social pictures with your family or friends aren’t really relevant to this goal.  Technical recruiters find that these kinds of pictures may even detract from the professionalism of your profile to certain, more conservative, employers.

Pick a picture where you’re dressed professionally. You don’t have to be in a full suit, but take a picture where you’re at least dressed in business casual clothing.  Even if your goal is to work in a start-up environment where people wear a t-shirt and jeans to work,  use a picture of you wearing at least business casual clothing.  Think of a LinkedIn picture as similar to how you present yourself at a job interview.  Your IT recruiting firms will always tell you to go to a job interview wearing at least business casual clothing, if not a suit.  You should do the same in your LinkedIn profile picture.

Pay attention to what kind of picture it is. Don’t use an artsy shot or a full body shot.  Aim for something that’s closer to a headshot. Again, think of your LinkedIn picture as similar to the impression you give in a job interview.  Taking a picture from far away, at an odd angle, or with a special filter doesn’t help you present yourself in a straight-forward, professional way.

 

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Taking a good LinkedIn photo might just help land you a great IT job. Photo credit: Jarmoluk via Pixabay.

 

Why You (Usually) Can’t Interview Outside of Work Hours

Sometimes IT recruiters will find that candidates are completely prepared for interviews and phone screens but there is one obstacle that makes it hard for them to land IT jobs: they can’t figure out how to schedule them.  IT staffing companies find that sometimes candidates think they think they can’t take time from their workday for a phone screen or take time off for the job interviews.  For most people in the tech field, though, this simply isn’t true.  Here’s why IT recruiting companies suggest that you rethink this if you have a hard time scheduling a phone or in-person interview during business hours.

1.     Sometimes candidates think that since technical recruiters are available to talk before work or after-hours, this means that employers will be, too.  The truth is that IT staffing agencies very often work around the clock to fill IT jobs.  Employers, however, usually don’t.  Most employers will fit a phone or in-person interview into the work day.  (Some will stay late or meet with candidates before the workday, but they are often in the minority.)  If you can’t step away to take a phone interview during business hours, or if you aren’t willing to take a day or part of a day off work for a job interview, you will miss all opportunities to interview.  IT recruiting firms find that other candidates usually are willing to do take time for their job search.   This means employers will interview and hire them instead of you.

2.     On a similar note, it’s important to understand how it looks to employers when you refuse to interview during normal business hours.  There are two very bad messages you might send to potential new employers when you try to insist they meet you outside of business hours.  Firstly, IT recruiting agencies find that when you demand this kind of scheduling, you can wind up looking like you don’t understand professional norms and are unprofessional.  As mentioned above, doing interviews or phone interviews during the work day is pretty normal.  True professionals know how to gracefully and discreetly accommodate interview requests into their normal schedule.  Secondly, if you insist that employers interview you outside of normal business hours, you’re also possibly suggesting you’re a difficult person to work with.  No matter how technically adept you are, this will really hurt your candidacy.  More and more, IT recruiters find that having great communication skills and being pleasant to work with are important in IT jobs.  This is due to many factors, including the fact that tech departments now work with end users, clients, and other departments more than they used to.  So be flexible about scheduling your interview—it just might help land you the job.

3.     Lastly, taking time away from work for your job search is a normal, acceptable activity if done with discretion.  Sometimes candidates think they’re doing something wrong or disloyal if they take time away from their job to do an interview.  This simply isn’t true.  You certainly don’t want to make it obvious to your current employer that you’re looking for a new job.  However, most decent employers know that people do job search.  If you are taking time off from your job it’s either sick/vacation time that you’ve earned.  It’s your time.  You are allowed to do what you want with it—including going to the interviews your IT staffing firms set up for you.  It’s also worth noting that the technical recruiters you work with and the employers you interview with will also be discreet.  They will not bring it to your current employers’ attention that you’re job searching.  Unless you are indiscreet about it, going on interviews doesn’t carry much risk of alerting your employer that you’re considering leaving.

 

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Taking time off for job interviews isn’t wrong or bad. Photo credit: SplitShire via Pixabay.

 

 

Have Questions About Background Checks?

Sometimes when you’re working with IT recruiting companies to find new IT jobs, you’ll be asked to do a background check. Since candidates often have a lot of questions about these items, here are some common questions IT staffing agencies tend to get about background checks.

1. Why do I need to do these?   Your IT recruiters are usually telling you they need to do background checks for a couple reasons. Firstly, because the field requires it or it’s required by law for this particular kind of job. Since tech is so involved in the security field, technical recruiters are working on more and more jobs now that require background checks. Fields like education and healthcare also tend to require certain background checks, whether you’re working directly with patients, students, etc or not. Secondly, some companies have been burned before by lawsuits or other issues. In order to protect themselves from future harm, they may require new hires to pass certain background checks. The last thing to consider here is that a background check is done at the (sometimes expensive) cost of the IT recruiting firms or employer. Thus it isn’t something taken lightly or just thrown into the process for no reason. It’s an absolute necessity that cannot be avoided. So when your IT recruiters tell you that you’ll need to pass a background check (or background checks) you can trust that this isn’t done out of anything other than necessity.

2. What kinds of background checks are done? There are a few kinds of background checks that IT staffing firms have to do. The most common are education or employment verification checks, drug testing, or criminal background checks. Credit checks are done pretty rarely and drug testing is also becoming a rarer necessity. Depending on the employer, you may be asked to do only one check or a combination of them.

3. Will I have to pay for these checks? You should never pay for these checks if you’re working with good, reputable IT staffing companies. If you’re working with IT recruiting firms that tell you to pay the cost, you may want to check to see if they are running a scam.

4. What can I do if I have a reason that I’m unsure I’ll pass a background check? IT recruiting firms sometimes work with candidates who have legitimate reasons why they think they won’t pass a check (but they’re still good fits for the job). Perhaps somebody made a mistake in the past or has a medication that will muddy a drug test. Be open with your IT recruiting agencies. Talk to them about your concerns and see what can be done. Often if you present something reasonable, your technical recruiters can lobby on your behalf. This is one of the advantages of working with IT recruiters to find a job—employers trust them and listen to what they say about a candidate.

 

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Sometimes background tests, including drug tests, are required by law. Photo credit: crsssteve via Pixabay.

 

Is it Time to Speed Up Your Hiring Process?

IT recruiters find that one of the biggest misconceptions employers have about hiring IT professionals is timing.  The amount of time employers take to hire in most industries is simply too slow when it comes to hiring for open IT jobs.  Sometimes by the time a company is ready to have the IT staffing firms they’re working with make an offer to a candidate or ask for an interview, the candidate has moved on to other opportunities.  Here’s why hiring a little faster with your IT recruiting agencies will help you find the best candidates to round out your team!

1.    The tech field is really a job seeker’s market.  The truth is, the unemployment rate for IT professionals is incredibly low.  In fact, IT staffing companies often wind up working with passive candidates who are already in jobs.  This means that candidates are often pursuing more opportunities and getting offers faster.  They come on the market for new jobs (or in some cases don’t because they’re passive candidates) and leave rapidly. With this kind of market, it’s imperative to speed up your hiring process to keep up with the pace of the candidates you want to hire!

2.    Candidates expect quicker feedback in the tech field.  Technical recruiters find that many IT professionals are used to companies quickly deciding whether to interview candidates or move them on in the hiring process.  When companies move at a pace that might be normal for other fields, candidates will read this (perceived) slowness as disinterest.  Even when IT recruiting firms suggest a candidate be patient, this doesn’t always work.  If you like a candidate and want to interview them or move them on to the next step in your hiring process, IT recruiting companies suggest you wear your heart on your sleeve.  Let the candidates know– and do it quickly.  If you don’t, you may lose out!

3. The quicker you hire, the sooner your team can start achieving more! Especially in tech, deadlines for projects and deliverables can be all the more intense.  When you speed up your hiring process, you can get more manpower on a project sooner– and thus get results for your company sooner.

 

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The pace of hiring in IT is faster than in most other industries. Photo credit: fancycrave1 via Pixabay.

 

Is Your Resume in The Wrong Format?

Technical recruiters receive resumes from IT professionals that are built from all kinds of resume templates.  Most resume templates are fine (even the free resume templates), but there is one type of format that IT recruiters usually cannot use: a functional format resume.

What is a functional format resume?  It’s a resume that shows IT recruiting agencies and hiring managers your skills and duties and the top or bottom of the resume and lists your past IT jobs in a separate section.  Sometimes IT staffing firms find that the candidate will list the years they held positions, sometimes not.  Basically, this format seems like an easy way to write a resume if you’ve held similar positions for a while.

The problem is that the IT recruiting companies usually can’t submit you for IT jobs with this kind of resume.  There are a few things hiring managers and recruiters hate about this resume template.  Firstly, hiring managers tell IT staffing agencies that these templates don’t show the progression of your career very well.  To truly understand how you’ve progressed in your career, a manager wants to see the variation in your duties at each job.  That means you’ll need to list what you did at each job, not just give a general notion of what you did at all jobs in one spot at the top or bottom of the document.

Secondly, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage by using a functional format resume.  This kind of resume format doesn’t really let you list your major professional achievements.  IT recruiting firms find that the candidates who really impress employers are the ones who list their big contributions to each employer.  This will require a little more work on your part and a more traditional format for a resume, but it’s worth it.  This kind of resume lets hiring managers and IT staffing companies really see that you’ve been a valuable employee to each one of the places you’ve worked.

Lastly, resumes like this make hiring managers and IT recruiters feel like you’re trying to hide something.  Particularly when you don’t give dates, it can look like you’re trying to quickly gloss over your professional history without giving much detail or information.  This isn’t the first impression you want your resume to give anybody.

 

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Writing a functional format resume may be easier, but it won’t get you further in your job search. Photo credit: Line-tOodLinGfc via Pixabay.

 

Resume Too Long? 3 Easy Cuts to Make

Most IT staffing firms will concur that IT professionals don’t really need to adhere to the 1 or 2 page rule for their resumes.  IT recruiters routinely work with candidates who have very long resumes, sometimes over 5 or 6 pages.  However, IT staffing agencies’ best candidates aren’t always the ones with novel-length resumes.  Technical recruiters find that busy hiring managers tend to respond much better to concise, efficient resumes.  If your resume could use some trimming, here are a few things IT staffing companies suggest you consider cutting.

1.    Objectives.  You don’t need to spell out the kind of IT jobs you’re looking for in an objective, so it’s really just wasted space.  This is true for two reasons.  Firstly, IT recruiting companies are trained to read technical resumes, even complicated ones.  They will be able to figure out what kind of role you’re seeking or what kinds of roles you’d succeed in.  If you have an objective because you’re looking for a particular type of work environment or certain accommodations, this is better said in conversation with IT staffing agencies or interviewers.  Putting a detailed description of what you want in your next role doesn’t really do anything– other than possibly make you look demanding.

2.    The words ‘responsibilities,’ ‘responsible for,’ or headings for internal jobs bullets like ‘duties’, etc.  IT recruiters see a lot of resume examples or resume templates that spell out the obvious.  Again, this is wasted space.  Use the bullets under your jobs to note major professional achievements, as well as some of your duties.  You don’t need to indicate that this is what you’re listing, though.  Recruiters and hiring managers will already know.

3.     Your references or their contact info.  Technical recruiters do find that some candidates will actually put references and their contact info directly on a resume.  Don’t do this!  For one thing, it wastes space because people tend to want to see this info on a separate email or document later.  For another, it makes you look a bit unprofessional.  You are breaking norms by adding this info to your resume.  You’re also making people’s information public if you’re posting this resume on Monster, Indeed, etc.  Cut this section of your resume—it’s more likely harming you than helping you.

 

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Ready to cut down your IT resume a bit? Photo credit: Taken via Pixabay.

 

Tips for Responding to Counter-offers

From time to time, IT recruiters do work with candidates who receive counter-offers from their employers.  While counter-offers seem pretty flattering, the truth is that IT staffing agencies would suggest you proceed with caution.  The promise of more money is always exciting, but there are 2 major cons to consider.

Con 1: Accepting a counter-offer may mean that you burn a lot of bridges. Firstly, obviously the IT recruiting firms you’re working with will terminate your relationship if you take a counter-offer.  All IT staffing companies have is your word.  If you break their trust and negate all their work in searching for your new IT job, they’ll likely never work with you again.

Secondly, you’ll also ruin your reputation with your potential new employer and perhaps other companies in the same industry.  IT staffing firms never find that employers are ok with it when a candidate takes a counter-offer.  In fact, that candidate is usually blacklisted at that employer.  Sometimes, this reputation carries on to companies that are connected to this employer, too.  Social media and LinkedIn make it especially easy for word to spread when you do something like accept a counter-offer.  In the age of a quick LinkedIn check for unofficial references, taking a counter-offer could seriously damage your professional reputation and hold you back from getting top IT jobs later on.

Lastly, with your current employer, you’re likely to have seriously damaged their trust in you as a loyal, reliable employee.  They may try to replace you quickly with somebody cheaper, they may retaliate in small ways, or you might find that you’re held back from future raises, promotions, training opportunities, transfers, etc. All of this makes it hard to be happy in your current IT role long term, which leads to con number 2.

Con 2: You’re likely just be delaying the inevitable and creating more work for yourself.  You reached out to IT recruiting companies for a reason: to find new IT jobs.  Technical recruiters rarely see a candidate who wants to leave their job solely for more money.  There are usually other things at play like work environment, maybe a bad boss, or an unreasonable work load.  You might feel ok with a pay bump now, but it won’t change any of the other factors for you long term.  Nobody loves job searching and all the work that comes with it.  Accepting a counter-offer will really just mean you have to search for jobs in IT all over again later when you realize you’re still unhappy at your current job (even with the pay bump).

 

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A counter offer might seem like a great idea for your wallet, but there are so many drawbacks. Photo credit: Geralt via Pixabay.

 

Unconventional Titles on IT Resumes

IT recruiters come across plenty of candidates who have odd job titles in IT.  IT staffing companies find that especially in the tech field (and particularly startup companies) titles can include words like ‘ninja’ or ‘rockstar’.  If you have one of these creative titles, here’s how to handle it on your resume so you attract IT staffing firms and hiring managers.

Firstly, try to figure out what your title would be at a more conventional company.  If you’re having a hard time coming up with this, IT recruiting agencies would suggest you check out the titles other people use on LinkedIn, reach out to people in your network, or consult with your technical recruiters. Next, list your official title on your resume.  Then in parentheses, list the conventional title next to it.

The last thing IT recruiting firms would suggest you do if you have an unconventional title is to make sure the bullets below that job represent your duties and accomplishments clearly.  Good bullets will work with that conventional title to clear up any lingering confusion about your title and role.  As your write your bullets (under this and all other IT jobs on your resume) keep in mind that sometimes IT staffing agencies might be sharing your resume with less technical hiring managers.  Try to write your bullets so they can be understood by a variety of readers.

 

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Are you a Coding Ninja? You may need to add a bit more info on your IT resume. Photo credit: OpenClipartVectors via Pixabay.