Submit Resume
Submit Job Order
Locations
Submit Resume
Submit Job Order

Tag Archives: IT staffing agencies

IT Jobs, Danger and Responsibility: The Story of Pavel Durov

Most IT recruiters and IT staffing firms wouldn’t describe IT jobs as dangerous.  This is, of course, the case, 99% of the time.  Recently, though, IT staffing agencies and technical recruiters have been shown an exception: the wild story of a very dangerous IT job—being creator of Russia’s version of Facebook.

Pavel Durov, a celebrity in Russia on par with Mark Zuckerberg in the US, has recently become endangered due to issues between the government and his company.  While Russia’s own issues with corruption and censorship weigh heavily on this story, there’s another message for IT recruiting companies and IT recruiting agencies: IT is a powerful industry with a great deal of responsibility and power.  As it begins to truly shape our world and deeply affect our politics, Information Technology endows its jobs with a great deal of ethical responsibility.  IT professionals, and by extension, IT staffing companies, are not just coding—they’re deeply influencing the future.

 

Tips for IT Office Parties

As the holidays approach, plenty of IT staffing agencies and IT companies will be having office parties.  These may seem unnecessary, but they’re actually a great moment for you to network with technical recruiters, colleagues, and possibly increase your chances of landing IT jobs in the future.  Here are a few tips from IT staffing firms to help you ace your holiday office parties.

Firstly, be a little more casual and comfortable.  Events like this don’t call for exactly the same manners, dress code, etc as work.  In fact, if you’re too stiff, it will be detrimental.  IT recruiting agencies would recommend relaxing a bit, making a few jokes, and coming in clothes that aren’t quite business professional.

Second, don’t bring your smart phone with you and don’t cling to your date.  IT staffing companies would suggest that the best way to make the most of holiday parties for work is to be fully engaged.  Don’t spend long spans of the party checking your phone in the corner.  Don’t only speak with your date.  Work the room and be social with your coworkers and managers—it’s the reason you’re at the party.

Don’t indulge too much on the alcohol.  It seems like common sense, but it’s worth repeating.  IT recruiting firms would absolutely recommend keeping your drinking to a minimum so you’re fully in control for the whole evening.

 

 

Don’t Stop Your IT Job Search During the Holidays

As the holidays approach, IT recruiters and IT staffing firms are fighting the common myth that it’s not worth keeping up a job search until after New Year’s.  This misconception drives IT staffing agencies crazy because it’s simply not true—there are still plenty of IT jobs in November and December that they’re working to fill. Here are two reasons why you should keep working with IT recruiting companies and IT recruiters all the way through the holiday season.

Firstly, a surprising number of companies find extra cash in their budgets that they need to spend before the year’s end.  This means new projects, possibly even new IT positions that are temporary or permanent.  If you pick up your calls from technical recruiters during the holidays, you could be one of the IT professionals who gets hired with this unexpected money.

Secondly, Even if a company does not find money in the budget they must spend, they may lose workers over the course of the holiday season.  Workers will sometimes wait out a year-end bonus, and then leave a job.  IT staffing companies could be calling you to fill that spot.

 

The Golden Rule for Success in Your IT Jobs

So you’ve worked with some IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies to land your dream job.  How do you excel at your new gig so your boss and coworkers notice and IT staffing companies fight other IT recruiting companies to place you for your next IT jobs?  There are a lot of ways to ensure success, but there is one golden rule everyone should try to follow: Bring your boss solutions, not problems. 

How can you do this?  Make sure you think one step beyond issues that arise or you’re concerned will arise.  IT recruiting firms have an easy time placing the kind of employee who not only notices a problem, but can then anticipate for his boss what some possible solutions would be for it.   Employees who make solutions, not just identifying problems, their focus are easy to manage and work with.  These are the kind of people IT recruiting companies get requests for—employees that make life easier for their teammates and bosses.  Take a shot at this the next time you spot a problem—you’ll be surprised at how well this habit will impact your job performance and career.

 

 

Don’t Lose IT Jobs For These Silly Mistakes

IT recruiters see all sorts of reasons that IT contractors fail to get IT jobs.  Sometimes IT professionals don’t get jobs for good reasons: they don’t have the right skills, experience, or their salary expectations aren’t right for the job.  However, sometimes technical recruiters find out that their candidates don’t get the job for very avoidable reasons.  Here are a couple below that you can avoid the next time your IT staffing agencies or IT recruiting companies set you up for a job interview.

Don’t come off as selfish or too interested in compensation/benefits.  While compensation is certainly a very important part of any IT job, the best thing you can do is let your IT staffing firms handle this part.  Have candid conversations with IT recruiting agencies about what you expect for benefits and compensation before you go on interviews.  They can handle this topic for you, leaving you free to really focus on the job and the company in interviews.  When an interviewer gets the impression that you’re more interested what you’re getting paid, they’ll be concerned you’re not interested in the work itself.  This is a red flag you can easily avoid!

Don’t cross professional boundaries.  Sometimes, when people are either nervous in interviews or too relaxed, they can be less than professional.  You certainly don’t want to come across as a robot, but you’ll shoot yourself in the foot if you start to overshare, swear, or get too chummy with your interviewer.  Making your interviewer uncomfortable is the quickest way to lose a potential job, so keep things professional at all times!

Don’t show up too early or late.  Being either too early or too late are easy to avoid.  They’re also easy reasons interviewers to jump to all sorts of negative assumptions about you.  Show up 10-15 minutes early for an interview.

Don’t Make this Mistake at Your IT Job Interviews

IT staffing firms and technical recruiters will almost always prep you for the technical questions you’ll face in interviews for IT jobs or what you should wear.  However, the best IT recruiters can’t prepare you for how to milk every question in an interview.  The good news is this is a skill you can learn on your own, without the help of IT staffing agencies or IT recruiting firms.  Here are some tips on how to use every question of a job interview to highlight your own skill-set and experience, wow your interviewer, and make sure you’re the kind of IT contractor that IT staffing companies can place over and over again.

Ever had a question about experience or skills you don’t exactly have?  Don’t just answer no in these instances.  Take that moment to do a few things.  Firstly, suss out what the interviewer is asking about.  Do they want to know about a more general skill you do have or a kind of on-the-job experience (like ‘dealing with difficult coworkers or clients’) that you could easily suggest is similar to something you already do or have done?  You don’t have to go overboard, but really examining the questions they ask you and thinking about what they’re looking for in a candidate will make you look very hirable.  The best candidates for a job don’t just take its description at face value.  They also try to parse all the nuances of a job and figure out what success at that job looks like.

Once you know exactly what the interviewer is looking for, try to make a (graceful) connection here to showcase skills and experience that you have.  You may not have exactly the experience or skill the interviewer is seeking, but you might have something similar.  Highlight this for your interviewer.  Doing this will ensure they really see your full value as a candidate.

 

IT’s Next Best Employees: Veterans

IT recruiters and IT staffing firms tend to see plenty of resumes from recent veterans, but not all of them value the military experience.  While there plenty of IT staffing companies that do think about it, not all technical recruiters understand how military experience translates to most IT jobs.  Though the skills can be different, sometimes this is a good thing.  IT recruiting companies and the companies they work for are starting to realize that military experience can translate to special skills that not all IT contractors have.

This trend isn’t currently growing fast enough to accommodate the number of unemployed veterans in the US.  However, the good news is that it will likely grow in the future.  The military relies on technology more and more every day.  Soon IT recruiting agencies will be able to see a plain link between the jobs IT professionals have done in their military past and the civilian jobs they’d like to be considered for.  In the interim, it’s up to IT staffing agencies to be creative enough to start to see how well veterans are often prepared for civilian IT jobs.

IT Professionals and Ebola In the Workplace

The latest hot news topic- Ebola- has made its way into employment quandaries for IT jobs, IT staffing companies, and IT recruiters.  While it may not seem like a relevant topic for IT recruiting firms and technical recruiters, IT professionals wind up working in all sorts of settings.  These include places like hospitals, airlines, and news publications—all places that have already, or likely will, see a risk of exposure to people actively suffering from the virus.

While Ebola can’t be contracted from casual contact, there are still plenty of questions flying around in industries that may have contact with it.  People are debating the necessity of hazard pay, training, additional safety equipment, insurance, and when it’s acceptable to say no to a potentially dangerous task.  There won’t be any obvious answers to these quandaries for IT recruiting companies any time soon, but the conversation isn’t a bad one to start having.  Whether Ebola becomes a large threat or not in the US, it’s always good for IT staffing agencies to be prepared.

The Best IT Professionals Have These Traits

The IT professionals that IT recruiters love working with, the ones that land IT jobs over and over again, have at least a few traits in common.  Technical recruiters look for great resumes, excellent references, and strong interview skills.  But there are some things that IT staffing firms look for in an IT consultant that are a bit more intangible.  One of the most important things IT recruiting agencies like to find in a candidate is an ability to work well with IT managers.  How can you make sure you’ve got this ability?  Here are some tips.

Firstly, be easy to manage and coach.  IT recruiting companies look for people who make a manager’s job easy.  Take feedback well and be proactive with it.  Think about things from the manager’s, company’s and team’s perspective.  Acting with these things in mind will make your work meet and exceed a manager’s expectations.

Secondly, take up as little of your manager’s time as possible.  Managers are busy and they don’t need employees who require any more of their work day than absolutely necessary.  Keep emails, phone calls, and face-to-face conversations short and to the point (unless it would come off as rude).  Solve as much of your problems on your own as you can.  These are the things that really endear an employee to an IT manager—and to the IT staffing companies they work with.

 

Do You Answer This Question Right in IT Job Interviews?

IT contractors may encounter some tough questions in interviews for IT jobs.  One of the toughest questions IT consultants may have to answer isn’t about their resumes and isn’t one that IT recruiters or IT staffing firms are likely to prepare them for.  It is (or is some form of) ‘What do you see yourself doing in 5 years?’ 

While IT staffing agencies and technical recruiters can remind you to study up on relevant technologies or to practice basic interview questions, it’s up to you to practice a good response to questions about your long term goals.  The key to answering this question well is making sure the job you’re interviewing for is a part of it, but not just a stepping stone.  Giving the impression that you’ll be in and out of the company quickly would be a bad way to respond to a question like this.  Practice answering this question with your IT recruiting companies and IT headhunters or perhaps just with a trusted, knowledgeable friend or family member.  If you have a basic answer practiced, you’ll be ready to answer any iteration of this question well.