Tag Archives: IT recruiting company

Never Burn a Bridge- Leaving in a Tasteful Manner

Looking for new opportunities, tired of the same routine, or seeking better benefits… you know when your time is up at an IT job, on to the next one right?  Sure, but never leave a position empty handed.  Always have recommendations in hand and leave on good terms. Give Notice—and Feedback Never drop a bombshell on an employer or IT recruiters, give at least two weeks notice prior to your departure.  This will allow companies and/or IT staffing firms to find a replacement and transition him into your role.  This is your chance to stand out and prove how well you have mastered tasks by teaching your acquired skills. Having a meeting to explain why you wish to leave your role allows the company or IT recruiting company to see where it needs to improve its strategies and goals.  This meeting also provides you with the opportunity to gain quality feedback on your performance.  When meeting with technical recruiters, explain what you disliked about the position so they can place you in a role that is more geared toward your interests. Finish Strong “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift”- Steve Prefontaine You might feel lazy and wish to do the bare minimum during your remaining time, but fight the urge.  Finish strong and tie any loose ends.  Leave with a lasting impression, as these last few days will be the foundation of your recommendation and determine if your IT staffing agency will use you for upcoming placements.  If there is an unresolved issue, fix it before your replacement takes on your role, it eases the frustrations on both ends.  Be sure to introduce your replacement to your partners so they understand each other’s roles and how to communicate with one another. Stay on Good Terms—Connected and Recommended Treat all coworkers from the past as if they are still in the next cubicle over.  If you have not already, network with your IT recruiters Boston, co-workers, and managers on Linkedin.  You never know when you are applying to a new position who could be the hiring manager and if you share connections.  Your daily water cooler talk could be the lead way in transitioning your career. Speaking ill of previous experiences puts you on a pedestal of negativity.  Do not be tempted to bad mouth an old employer or technical recruiting agency no matter how harshly you were treated or if your expectations were not met.  When you cannot think of anything you enjoyed during your time at the position, speak of the skills you attained and how you wish to use them to advance your career. Be Grateful Your previous employer took you on their team—and payroll.  Be thankful that they allowed you to share this experience by sending a brief thank you note.  Thank your IT staffing representative for their hard work and effort to secure you a position and wish that they keep you in mind for upcoming roles.  If you seemed to have burned a bridge in the process, it might be salvageable.  Admit your faults and, as mentioned before, finish strong.

Organize the Night Before an IT Job Interview

Take 1: It is 8:45 am on a Monday morning.  Your interview is at 9:15 am.  One slight problem… your printer is jammed and you cannot print the latest copy of your resume.  You were going to research the IT recruiting company before you left.  You rip the pages from the printer and trip out the door to your car.  On your commute you realize you do not know the name of the IT recruiter. You quickly jot down two questions on the back of your crinkled resume.  Flustered, you enter the lobby of the IT staffing agency with one minute to spare.  At 9:15 am, you hang your head and enter the IT job interview.

Don’t let this be you!  In the world of IT staffing, we live by Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong!

Quite the pessimistic view, but if you are in this position you’ll wish you had been better prepared.    Our AVID technical recruiters make it a point to ensure that you do not find yourself in this situation.  AVID IT recruiters  take the time to reach out to you and provide tips from tweaking your resume to interview prepping.

Here are just some key tips for your interview:

–          Always wear a suit and iron the night before: You never get a second chance to make a first impression!  Even if you are overdressed for the IT recruiting firm’s environment, you’ll still look good and you will feel it, too.  Having a back up outfit doesn’t hurt either.

–          Research the night before and write down your questions:  You will look prepared and have you questions answered.  Make note of recent press releases, the hiring staff will see your interest in the IT recruiting company.

–          Know your resume:  Always make sure your resume is up to date and includes all relevant experience.  Be prepared to answer questions about employment gaps or responsibilities.

–          Take the commute:  Research your commute to your interview at least a day in advance. Take the drive, take the train, or walk it the day before and be sure to time it.  Leave yourself enough time to arrive 15 minutes early for the interview.

Take 2: It is 8:00 pm on Sunday night.  You are prepping for the interview with the technical recruiting firm.  You are ironing your suit and a back up outfit just in case.  You research the IT recruiting agency, their technical recruiters, and latest press releases, writing down questions and thoughts.  You are flipping through your notes, reviewing your resume and remembering all of your interview tips.  You pack your bag the night before.  You’ve done the commute and spare yourself an extra fifteen minutes to arrive early.  Next morning, you arrive fifteen minutes prior to your interview as expected with a clear mind, no worries.  You walk in, looking sharp and present your values and experiences.  Your technical recruiter calls you the next day with good news!

For more tips, visit our interview tips page!

It’s All About The Presentation

As an IT job seeker in the information technology industry, you are constantly looking to meet new people and network with other IT professionals.  Whether you’re speaking with them in person or via email, you need to be aware of how you present yourself.

Depending on the area of technology that you specialize in, some IT jobs will require you to be able to communicate or present well to clients rather than intimidate them.

Even when you are still in the IT job search process, you need to be able to come across as an intelligent and respectable technical professional.  So when you are looking over that resume, also take a look at your email.  Sometimes people use email addresses that they created when they were in high school or college.  Of course like many of us out there, when we created our email addresses we wanted to choose something that would stand out and did not think about how we would be perceived by IT recruiters or employers when applying for a job.  So if you’re on the fence about your email, just create a new one specifically for jobs.

Another factor that will play into how you present yourself is your business card.  You may say to yourself, what does a business card have to do with how I present myself to an IT recruiter? Like many IT professionals out there, you most likely will not be carrying around your resume everywhere you go.  You will meet interesting people in the most random places, so it is great to have a few cards with you at all times.  This tiny piece of paper will provide contact information and probably a little bit about you.  So try to make your cards unique but professional at the same time.

You can network anywhere in the world, it does not matter where you are.  So remember that you should present yourself professionally at all times.  You never know when a cousin’s friend’s friend may work for an IT recruiting company and looking to fill an IT job that you may be perfect for.  Therefore, remain professional at all times.

The Importance of Providing Incentives for IT recruiters

I’m a firm believer that everyone should be tied to an incentive in the work place.  At AVID Technical Resources, an IT recruiting company headquartered in Boston, MA, our technical recruiters and IT staffing salespeople all have an aggressive commission plan.  The plan is tiered to fuel their incentive and ensure there’s not a chance for complacency.  If there’s one thing that I’ve learned owning an IT recruitment company is that complacency kills your potential for growth.

Outside of our commission plan, we also provide other incentives.  While some are monetary (quarterly contests and additional annual bonuses), others are simply meant to help mentally recharge our team’s batteries.  Throughout the summer, we have weekly incentives that result in closing the office early on Fridays to enjoy the weather.  We have an office goal, and then celebrate the victory upon achieving it.  The rewards range from tickets to sporting events to booze cruises on the Boston Harbor.  We have office plaques, trophies and a board that ranks employee production that recognizes top IT staffing performers among their peers.

In addition to our IT recruiters Boston and salespeople, our technical recruiting manager has an incentive based on the company’s growth and revenue.  Same holds true for our IT staffing sales manager.  Our customer support representative is also bonuses based on a component of her job.

Therefore, regardless of the role, AVID Technical Resources provides incentives to push each of our employees to continue to strive for excellence.  This is what has helped fuel our growth over the years(earning us a spot on the Inc. 500/5000 list of fastest growing private companies) and what will help catapult us in the future.  Our incentive programs will be the vehicle that helps our company leapfrog other IT recruiting firms – many of which that are stunted by complacency.

Are Business Condos the Way to go for IT Staffing Companies?

If you have the savings, it’s the age-old question, is it time to rent or buy?  Although this is often a personal decision with regard to a residential property, the same should hold true on the commercial side.

There are many advantages and disadvantages to leasing vs. buying a business condo.  Renting obviously provides you with flexibility.  If you’re a small IT recruiting firm, unaware of what your future holds, you may be biting off too little, or possibly even too much, than you can chew.  Purchasing a business condo may lock you into a space that you’ll either out-grow or may never fully use.  Additionally it can be a financial handcuff that you never recover from.  Your business will have its ebbs and flows, but your mortgage will always be constant.  For some companies, the heavy financial burden can be crippling.

Here’s some advice from someone who has been there.  Just four years into the birth of my IT recruiting company, we purchased a 4,000 square foot office condo in downtown Boston, MA.  Home to the HQ of AVID Technical Resources; this space solidifies our flagship office.  While there were many unknowns when we bought the condo (our future revenue, future IT recruiting force, the commercial value in a market where business condos were scarce and in a city already pricing out many other IT staffing companies), we took the calculated risk based on a couple of certainties.  First, we saved every dollar earned and were able to put enough money down to make our mortgage manageable.  Second, based on the number of colleges in Boston, the city will always be a hotbed for start-ups and companies looking to tap into these educational resources.  These vary reasons have historically driven the commercial leasing market, making Boston one of the most expensive rentals in the country.  Subsequently, our mortgage would be no greater, and in fact possibly even less, than a typical 5-year rental.  Third, whether you purchase a house for your family or a business condo for your company, it gives you the chance to build equity instead of handing your money to a landlord.  Finally, and probably the biggest factor that drove our decision, we had confidence in our ability and in the future of our IT recruiting agency.

Even after a virtual real estate market collapse, I can sit here almost four years later and honestly say purchasing our office condo was one of the best decisions we made (for ourselves and for the future of our IT recruiting company).  In fact, as we continue to expand across the country and open up additional IT staffing locations, you can be sure we’ll be looking to purchase office space in future cities as well.

Brand Recognition in the IT Staffing Industry

Marketing your company name is critical in every industry.  Think of the power brand recognition holds.  For example, when’s the last time you asked for a “Coke” with your sandwich?  Used a Q-Tip?  Kleenex?  All three items are actually the names of the products, not the action item.  This is the power of brand marketing.

The IT recruiting industry is no different.  When you think of temp workers, you might reference “Manpower.”  When you think Finance, you might say “AccountTemps.”   The goal of every company is to brand your name associated with your industry.  The goal of AVID Technical Resources is to make you say “AVID” when looking for IT staffing needs.

AVID is an IT recruiting company headquartered in Boston, MA.  Given the company’s explosive growth over the last eight years, the firm has been recognized as one of the fastest growing IT recruiting agencies in the country.

While most information technology professionals in the Boston and Providence markets know AVID by name, the company has been focusing on an aggressive expansion plan to market the company across the nation.  While you’re not going to ask for an “AVID” with your next sandwich, we hope that you use our company name the next time you reference IT staffing needs.

The New MicroSoft Office Suite

As a college student and former IT recruiting intern for an IT staffing agency, I am constantly using the programs within the Microsoft Office Suite.  There are always presentations I need to create for a team project on PowerPoint or an essay or blog such as this on Word.

Most of the versions are compatible as long as you download the updates for the programs or save in an older format.  For those who are just on the go with little time to recheck their files, you usually just save in the default format.  This becomes a problem when you are switching computers and sharing files.

Our entire IT recruiting company in Boston will be converting to Microsoft Office 2010.  In preparation, I tested out the beta version of Office 2010 and compared it to Office 2007.  I honestly did not notice too big of a difference besides the design and feel of the programs.  The biggest jump was when they changed the user interface from their 2003 version to 2007.  Besides being visually appealing, the Office Suite 2010 is not worth the upgrade unless you are using versions before 2007.

Finding a Job in the Recession

Recent reports have concluded that the US recession will continue until 2011.  Therefore, how are we going to get IT jobs for all those unemployed workers in the US? One option that seems to be working for many is turning to IT recruiting agencies.

As an IT recruiter for an IT Staffing Company, you will hear about new IT job positions that need to be filled.  Most of our clients will turn to an IT recruiting company for prospective candidates before advertising the position to the outside world.  They know that if they immediately post that job online, they will receive hundreds of resumes from job seekers.  Subsequently, the IT manager will have to dedicate hours to sorting through resumes.  Typically there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

Instead, IT recruiters put in long hours and typically review hundreds of resumes for each position.  This is their job and their days are dedicated to doing such. Additionally, IT recruitment firms typically have robust databases of passive and active candidates that might not have responded to a client’s IT job posting.  This helps ensure the client is getting the best possible candidate for their position.

So next time you are looking for an IT job position or need to fill one, contact an IT Staffing Agency like AVID Technical Resources.

A Forward-thinking & Dynamic IT Recruiting Company

When companies remain stagnant, they eventually fail.  It starts with leadership.  If an executive is set in his or her ways, the competition will likely pass them by.  The IT staffing industry is no different.  At AVID Technical Resources, we pride ourselves in being a dynamic and forward-thinking IT recruiting firm.  As technology evolves, so does our company.  We embrace technologic advances from new software to social media.  AVID understands the importance of changing as the economy changes and evolving as our IT recruiting industry evolves.  Most important, we never stop moving; we never remain stagnant.

A good example of this is social media.  Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have grown in popularity over the years.  AVID saw the emergence a few years ago, before many companies had even heard of the sites.  Therefore, our company Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin pages have been built out, optimized and are designed to market every one of our IT jobs.

Another good example is Search Engine Optimization.  AVID recognized the dominance of Google and the importance of SEO years ago.  Subsequently, this IT recruiting company has invested years and thousands of dollars into optimization.  Because of this, our IT recruiters are able to identify more prospective IT candidates and our salespeople frequently have clients find them.

Slow-moving, stagnant companies eventually become extinct.  Forward-thinking, dynamic companies rise to the top.  This approach has helped AVID Technical Resources become one of the Fastest-Growing Private IT staffing companies in the country: https://www.avidtr.com/about-avid-awards-and-recognition.aspx.