Tag Archives: CareerBuilder

IT Recruiting Tips: When You are Caught in a Lie

Technical recruiters search the web for candidates from sites such as Monster, CareerBuilder, and LinkedIn.  When the resume of a prospective candidate catches their eye, they add it to their database and try to contact him for IT jobs.  If an IT recruiter found out a contractor’s resume was falsified and skills were exaggerated, would he give the IT professional a second chance?  The answer is typically no, but some IT recruiters may be more understanding.  If you are lucky enough to find these rare recruiters, here is how to make penance…

Admit Your Fault

Covering a lie with another lie is a slippery slope that should be avoided at all costs.  Come clean to your technical recruiter by admitting your faults and taking responsibilities for your actions and its outcome.  Explain why you lied and the truth.  It might be difficult to admit you were wrong, but IT recruiting companies will respect you for owning up to your mistake.

Take the Next Step

Apologize to the IT staffing agency and all parties involved.  If your recruiter is still willing to work with you, send over a corrected resume with the accurate dates of employment and your skills.  When you apply for other positions in the future, explain your gaps of employment or your level of skill so technical recruiting companies and hiring managers are not mislead.

Don’ts of Lying

Never justify deceit with dishonesty because you will lose track of your deception and truths.  Also, never blame others for your lies.  Only you can control your actions and by blaming another party you are showing IT staffing companies that you have no responsibility.

Remember that you can always prevent the effects of a lie by starting with the truth!

IT Staffing Relationship vs. Human Resources

Take One:  It’s 4:30 pm on a Friday and there is not a soul in the office.  You have a question regarding your pay from a week ago.  You call human resources and the call is answered by four rings followed by a generic mailbox.  You leave a message, and a week later a representative you have never seen or spoken to follows up.

Take Two: You send an email to your technical recruiter about your pay from the prior week.  Almost immediately, you receive a friendly response, along with genuine conversation asking how your daughter’s recital went and what your plans are for the weekend.

While they share similarities with human resources, technical staffing firms pride themselves on their client relationships.  IT recruiters do more than just filling positions.  They maintain contact throughout the lifetime of their candidates’ roles, including the hiring process, during the contracts, as well as after positions end.

More Specialized Experience

Most recruiting agencies have experience filling IT jobs, so they know what the hiring company seeks.  The agency understands which skills are crucial and how much experience will be required for a certain role.  They can weed out unqualified candidates and choose the best.  This allows human resources to focus on their internal roles.

Job Openings

Most human resource departments post positions on the company’s job board and wait for the resumes to pile up.  Technical recruiters are proactive because they not only post their positions.  They also reach out to candidates within their database and on sites such as Monster.com and CareerBuilder.  By expanding their applicant pool, they have a better chance to find a solid fit for the role.

Network

IT recruiting companies maintain a database of current, prospective, and past clients for upcoming positions.  When a recruiter works with a contractor and has a positive experience, he is more likely to recommend him for another job.  When a role with human resources ends, it is pretty much over.  Technical staffing agencies also network with hiring managers, so they understand who would be most compatible for the required skill set.

IT staffing firms are a component of human resources, which allows others within HR to focus on their goals.  Without human resources, there is no recruiting, because the relationships are all about the client.

Top 5 IT Job Boards on the Market

In today’s age, there are a number of resumes databases that IT recruiters can choose from.  Some are specifically geared towards information technology, while others are more general sites for candidates of all backgrounds to post their resume.  We decided to take this time and rank the top 5 that have worked best for our IT staffing firm:

1:  Monster:  Although a general recruiting site, Monster continues to lead the job boards.  It is the premier place for candidates of all levels, and background, to post their resume.  It’s become such a leader in the industry that it has almost created its own brand marketing.  When you think of online recruiting sites you think of Monster.  Our IT recruiters go to Monster first when conducting searches for IT professionals or want to post an IT job.

2:  CareerBuilder:  While CareerBuilder boasts of owning a larger resume database, it’s a distant second in the eyes of our IT recruiters.  Although still a popular site with candidates, most resumes that our technical recruiters Boston find on CareerBuilder have also posted their resume on Monster.

3:  Dice:  This is the premier technical online recruiting site.  Being an IT recruiting agency, you’d think our technical recruiters would have ranked Dice among the top resume database and IT job posting sites.  The reason our IT recruiters MA listed it third is because of the sheer size of the database (far less overall technical resumes than Monster and CareerBuilder) and the abundance of H1-Visa candidates who blanket this site.

4:  Net-Temps:  Net-Temps is a solid online IT recruiting site if you’re looking for contract resources.  The reason it’s number four on our list is lack of resume volume and the fact that it’s a site for contract resources only.  Being a contract and permanent IT staffing company, our IT recruiter’s source for both consultants and full-time IT job seekers.

5:  HotJobs:  Monster purchased HotJobs recently so we cannot fairly rank this site separately.  Our IT recruiters listed HotJobs so the reader didn’t think we forgot about this once popular site.

In addition, these two sites are becoming increasingly popular.  Although they’re not your classic IT job boards with resume access, for different reasons, these sites are favorites for IT recruiters:

Linkedin:  Our technical recruiters use Linkedin more than any other candidate search site outside of Monster.  It’s not a resume portal, but it does contain the names and sometimes contact information of millions of professionals.  Although they may not be active on the IT job market, it’s a great site to network with information technology professionals.

Indeed:  Indeed didn’t make our IT recruiter’s Top5 list because it does not house resumes. However this site is becoming the premier spot for candidates to search for IT jobs.  Indeed is as efficient and easy as it gets for professionals to search for their next opportunity.  The candidate simply types in their job title or skills and the desired location, then let Indeed do the work.  The site will pull up the related positions from all sites all over the internet.  Yes, indeed, it doesn’t get much easier than that.

Facebook:  How can we speak about networking sites without at least mentioning Facebook.  Although not geared towards sourcing candidates (yet), Facebook still provides IT recruiters with the opportunity to network and even post their positions.

Advanced Search Results

IT recruiters are constantly searching for candidates on various IT job boards like Monster, CareerBuilder, Dice and Hot Jobs.  The resume search starts with key words, then ends with a phone call to the prospective candidate.  Therefore, as the job seeker, especially in the information technology industry, it’s critical that you put as many key words and technologies on your resume as possible.  This could make the difference with getting that first call, then subsequently that next job.

Google recently came out with a new feature that predicts what you’re typing as well as give you a preview of the search results.  This will allow technical recruiters to conduct searches even faster as it gives them the ability to quickly glance the search results as they continue to type additional key words. So what does that mean for candidates? Well for one thing, they will find more information on you and within a shorter time period.

The aforementioned IT job boards (Monster, CareerBuilder, Dice and Hot Jobs) will soon catch on to this fast and efficient advanced search technology.  Linkedin and other networking sites will likely blend their services and ultimately embrace this technology as well.

Use Facebook as a Tool for Job Searching!

As a college student and IT recruiting intern, I have noticed that there are many small businesses that start utilize social media sites as their main source to find internal resources.  Now many of you may be thinking why would I look for a job on Facebook when I can go on Monster and CareerBuilder.  The answer to that is, sometimes it is easier to hire from the network you have already established on Facebook.  You know them on a personal level and usually you can get a recommendation from another person on your network.  On the IT job boards you usually have people applying from many different states with likely no connection to you or your technical position.

IT recruiters are reporting that a number of prospective candidates are joining groups and becoming fans of pages for companies they like or want to possibly work for one day.  These companies in turn are using their fans and customers to get a better view into their consumer base.  Many of these businesses also hold contests for internships or even just have their video/print ad featured nationally on an advertising campaign.

By participating in groups and fan pages, you are allowing these companies to see the potential you have as an employee before they hire you.

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

A day in the Life of an IT recruiter

The IT staffing is a very fast-paced, sometimes hectic industry.  IT recruiters are speaking to hundreds of prospective candidates each week.  Even the very best IT recruiters can find it challenging to ensure they keep all of their candidates organized and within reach.  Additionally, in the IT recruiting world, clients typically needed IT contractors “yesterday.”  Therefore, when an IT job order gets called in, IT recruiters need to tap into their candidate network immediately and/or begin their IT recruiting process as quickly as possible.  Days are hectic and nights can be long depending upon the client’s sense of urgency.  Therefore, the IT staffing industry is not for everyone.  Those who do not do well under pressure or thrive in a hectic environment, best not enter the IT recruiting world.  On the flip side, people who like to be busy and thrive on an ever-changing job, tend to fare very well in the IT staffing industry.

A typical day for an IT recruiter….is anything but typical.  They will usually be assigned to one IT job order.  As they search the IT staffing agency’s database, and other IT job boards such as Monster, Dice, CareerBuilder, Hot Jobs, they will make dozens (if not hundreds) of calls.  Or they will send out countless emails every day.  As people respond, the IT recruiter works to communicate with each person via email or phone.  As the IT recruiter is taking the time to respond to every person, additional prospective candidates continue to flood in via postings or responses.  On many occasions, as these tasks are keeping an IT recruiter busy, he or she may have a handful of internal candidate interviews as well.  This adds more work to an already busy day.

As you can see, a day in the life of an IT recruiter is typically hectic.  However, for the right person who thrives on the fast-paced, exciting work environment, the IT staffing industry can be extremely rewarding (both in terms of monetarily and intrinsic satisfaction as the IT recruiter is ultimately helping people find work).