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Tag Archives: IT staffing

2 Questions to Ask in IT Job Interviews

IT recruiters and IT staffing firms can help you prepare to answer questions in IT jobs interviews, but a good candidate comes to any interview armed with their own questions to ask.  Technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies love working with candidates who can ask insightful questions because it really wows hiring managers.  Here are two questions that will not only help you ascertain if you want the job, but also impress your interviewer and IT staffing agencies and IT recruiting firms.

How would you evaluate somebody’s performance in this role?  This question shows that you’re thinking about how to succeed in the role.  Managers want somebody like this—somebody who asks the right questions so they can nearly manage themselves.  If you are aware of your own goals and hold yourself accountable for them, you make your manager’s job easy.  Asking this question makes you a very attractive candidate indeed and make you more in demand with IT staffing companies.

What do you really value in your employees? Asking this question provides a similar impression, but on a more macro level.  Instead of looking for information about how to be successful in this particular role, you’re asking about how to contribute well to the company and team in a more general way.  Pay attention to response here, because it’s important that you feel like you can truly identify with their response.  For instance, if they’re looking for long hours and you aren’t, this is a red flag.

 

Tardiness in IT– Not So Straightforward

The IT job board, Careerbuilder, conducted a recent survey on tardiness to work illuminates some interesting trends, but it doesn’t tell the whole story for the nuances of what is acceptable in terms of tardiness for jobs in information technology. This year, the survey reports, over a third of hiring managers surveyed had to fire an employee for being late.  In the IT field, IT consultants tend to be doubly responsible in their jobs for tardiness—they report to their IT managers, but they also are technically reporting to IT recruiters Boston, too. If they are fired for lateness, IT contractors are not only losing their own IT jobs, but possibly losing future business for the IT staffing companies who placed them.  This, of course, could burn that bridge for the IT consultant, making IT recruiting agencies reluctant or simply refusing to work with him/her in the future.

Though technical recruiters and IT managers both would certainly prefer uniform promptness, the sheer variety of roles for IT professionals dictates a wide range of lenience for tardiness. The severity of the consequences for lateness definitely vary from role to role.  For instance, a programmer, who works more independently and in a “backroom” capacity, wouldn’t likely cause much of an issue if he was late for his company or his IT staffing agencies.     A help desk role, on the other hand, which is very visible more “front of the house” would certainly hurt his and his IT recruiting firms reputation if he was constantly late and holding up any trouble shooting operations. The permanency of an IT professional is also a factor.  IT contractors hired on a temporary basis (and requiring payment both for their own work and the IT headhunters’ fee) are far more vulnerable to scrutiny than permanent hires.  This scrutiny obviously includes tardiness.

One factor that seems pretty universally irrelevant throughout the IT staffing industry is the reason for tardiness.  Too much of it is always a problem, whether it is because one is busy putting a raincoat on their concrete duck or due to traffic.

Hot New Thing: The Internet of Things

What’s really driving IT job growth in the IT staffing sector right now?  Things.  The Internet of Things, or Machine to Machine (commonly referred to as M2M) has exploded and in its wake lie whole new sectors of the IT recruiting field.  Part of the Big Data Revolution, M2M information technology essentially allows IT recruiters to track data from brand new places: things.  M2M has been nicknamed the “Internet of Things.”  This new “thing”-derived data is usually in the form of information from IT recruiting companies that can be taken directly from the products (generally equipped with wireless censors of some sort) that IT staffing companies produce, often as they are being used by their technical recruiters.  Wireless Carrier, Auto Insurance, IT recruiting firms and Energy Management companies are some of the most prevalent users of the technology, but its applications are boundless, bringing new connections between IT staffing firms and the customers they want feedback and data from.  Some IT recruiters CA are even suggesting that M2M might revolutionize not only the technical recruiting world, but the non-profit world and developing countries.

Want to make sure you’re not only professionally relevant, but in demand in the IT consulting field?  Finding opportunities to work on M2M projects will bolster your experience in this hot area.  Professional roles in M2M jobs have a generously wide range, giving a myriad of IT professionals a chance to jump on the Internet of Things bandwagon.  One could definitely say M2M is the thing to do!

IT Recruiting Firms Embracing YouTube

As prospective IT consultants search the net for resume writing and interview tips, it would be in the best interest of IT recruiting firms to have helpful and interesting content that ensures these candidates land on their website and ultimately look at their IT jobs.  In today’s social media age, YouTube is one of the best resources that prospective candidates can use for any number of self help tips.  Subsequently, IT staffing companies should have their IT recruiters create mock interviews covering common questions and proper etiquette then post it on their website for others to see (ultimately drawing more people to their site).  Additional ideas could be a “do” and “don’t” interview with various technical recruiters and their advise how best to work with IT recruiters Boston or IT recruiters CA.

YouTube provides an unlimited amount of ideas and potential videos for IT recruiting companies and their IT staffing salespeople and technical recruiters Boston.  It could draw prospective candidates to their website and ultimately promote followers on their social media sites.  Therefore, by embracing YouTube, IT recruiting agencies can ultimately drive revenue.

Arming IT Staffing Salespeople with Technology

IT recruiting firms do their best to stay atop of trends and provide their IT recruiters and IT staffing salespeople with as much technology as possible to help make them more efficient and ultimately profitable.  Pagers are out, while PDA’s are pretty much mandatory for IT recruiting companies as technical recruiters need to be accessible around the clock.  Web-based CRM’s such Salesforce  that allow IT recruiters Boston the ability to log into their resume database from virtually anywhere is also a necessity.  However, there is one growing trend that continues to catch on with IT staffing companies:  arming their account managers with iPads.

With built-in wireless, iPads are giving IT staffing salespeople the ability to bring up information technology resumes right there in a client meeting in front of an IT manager.  Some salespeople might even turn over the controls to the manager to let him/her see what type of resumes they can find in a resume database such as Bullhorn.  Other technology advances include resume crawlers that work around the clock to populate the databases of IT recruiting firms.

Ultimately, IT staffing firms should evolve and align with their technology-driven industry.  IT recruiters San Diego can be more productive and and drive more revenue if armed with the same, or more tools, than other competitive IT recruiting agencies.

A Look Back at IT Staffing in 2012

Now that we’ve entered a new year, it’s a good time to look back and reflect what was for IT recruiters and the best IT staffing companies in 2012.  For all intents and purposes, 2012 was a solid year for most IT recruiting firms.   While most industries struggled to overcome one of the worst recessions in our nation’s history, the IT staffing industry stood strong.  IT recruiting agencies were not only stable, many of them grew over the past year.  This speaks volumes to the strength of the IT recruiting industry, the niche need of IT consultants and the importance of technology in today’s business world.  All three are key ingredients to success for IT staffing agencies.

As most companies enforced a budgetary freeze on spending, there were mission-critical IT projects (which required the need for IT recruiting companies to provide technical consultants) that could not be ignored.  Since many companies rely upon e-commerce as a main (and sometimes only) source of revenue, utilizing IT staffing firms to help deliver these projects were critical to their success…and survival.  To put into perspective, if Reebok needs to spend a couple of million in IT recruiting resources for a neccessary application development project tied into the sales of their sneakers online, the return could be in the ten’s or hundreds of millions.  Therefore, spending the money and utilizing IT recruiters Boston to find them IT consultants to help deliver the project is a no-brainer.  Once again, it’s the technology industry that drives the spend on mission-critical projects.

Therefore, if you’re looking to enter the recruiting world, take a good hard look at IT staffing.  As we saw during 2012, and over the course of the entire economic recession, IT recruiting companies MA not only remained stable, many of them grew.  There are very few industries that can say the same.

IT Recruiters Can Work From Anywhere

Back even a couple of years ago, technical recruiters could work from anywhere with an internet connection.  However, in today’s information technology age, IT recruiters San Diego can work from virtually anywhere there is a wireless signal as they can use their cell phone as a modem.  How times have changed.

Back even five years ago, IT recruiters Boston were forced to come into their IT staffing office to do all of their work and conduct searches.  However, with web-based systems, what IT recruiters can work remotely and from the comfort of their own home.

Additionally, as technology advances and people continue to utilize email or texting over talking to IT recruiting companies, technical recruiters Boston can do more and more without even picking up their phone (this means late night emails and IT recruiting).  Having said that, no candidate should ever be submitted to a client without having spoken to an IT recruiter live on the phone.  At the end of the day, regardless of the technology advances, there is no substitute for screening out a candidate live or on the phone.

Therefore, if you’re considering working for any number of local IT recruiting firms, and a career as a technical recruiter, then you will have the ability to work at virtually any time of the day.  Ultimately, what you put into working for IT staffing companies is what you’ll get out of it.

How Technology Has Impacted IT Recruiting

A dozen years ago IT recruiters relied upon paper resumes and referrals to identify IT consultants for various technical jobs.  There were very few, if IT job boards and CRM’s to make the job of technical recruiters easier.  The landscape today has changed dramatically.  Here are the biggest advancements that have ultimately transformed the IT staffing industry:

1)  CRM’s:  This allows IT recruiters Boston the ability to organize their candidates and efficiently find/contact them for various IT jobs.  CRM’s today all IT recruiters MA the ability to mass mail – thus sending one email to hundreds to thousands of candidates.

2)  Monster:  Still the premiere technical job board on the market today, Monster is the #1 resource for prospective candidates and IT recruiting companies alike.

3)  Linkedin:  Allows IT recruiters CA the ability to find passive candidates, while giving IT staffing salespeople the ability to find hiring managers within their target accounts.

These 3 technologies have transformed the IT recruiting industry.  Most all IT staffing companies have access (or upgraded accounts) to each.  If you’re looking at a career in technical recruiting, make sure the IT staffing firms you meet with provide their IT recruiters San Diego access to these sites.

Finding Ideal Office Space for IT Recruiting Companies

Finding the right office space for IT recruiting companies can be challenging.  Typically, most IT staffing firms like to have a large bullpen where all of their IT recruiters can sit.  This space is usually wide open so technical recruiters Boston can hear the conversations and easily interact with other IT recruiters Boston.  There should not be any columns or walls to divide, the desks should include very low cubicles.  Surrounding the pit should be offices for the IT staffing salespeople.  Offices are needed as client conversations sometimes should be kept private and without any loud disturbance/noise (music, other technical recruiters or IT staffing salespeople, etc) in the background.  Of course, this may not be possible for IT staffing companies who reside in a large city as the space is limited.

The Manager of Branch IT Recruiting and the Manager of Branch IT Staffing Salespeople should sit somewhere in the pit, while the Director of Operations should have a corner office.  All other administrative personnel should be in the pit as well to ensure an easy flow of communication.

Given these ideal parameters of office space for IT recruiting firms, it makes the search extremely difficult.  Factor in the commutes for your IT recruiters San Diego and IT recruiters LA, proximity to nearby highways, sandwich shops and restaurants, the list of possible locations becomes even smaller.

Lastly, budgets obviously play a major factor.  While most companies would like to have an office in a major city to draw young professionals looking for a career in technical recruiting, the rents can be extremely high.  Thus an IT staffing office in the subburbs might make more sense.

The Highly Competitive IT Staffing Industry

IT staffing is a very lucrative industry that gives IT recruiters the opportunity to make six figures + (most at a very young age).  Subsequently, there are thousands of IT recruiting companies and tens of thousands technical recruiters.  Therefore, IT staffing companies must find ways to differentiate themselves from the competition.  One of the ways to do so is to provide exceptional customer service.  No matter how many IT recruiting firms out there, client companies and candidates alike will gravitate towards the IT staffing agencies that treat them well.

Unfortunately, because of the abundance of IT recruiters Boston, coupled with their ability to produce significant returns, technical recruiters Boston have developed a bad name.  The consistent feedback is that IT recruiters San Diego will only call a candidate when they need them (ie when they can make money off of them).

Once again, IT staffing firms can differentiate themselves by providing better customer service.  Simply put, IT recruiters CA should treat candidates the way they would want to be treated in return.  This means, if an IT recruiter submits a candidate’s resume to any number of IT jobs, they should follow up with the candidate on a weekly basis at a minimum.  Even if technical recruiters have not received feedback from their client, they can simply pass along a message to the candidate that says they’re trying and that he or she hasn’t fallen through the cracks.

Ultimately, it doesn’t take much for IT recruiting agencies to separate themselves from other technical recruiting companies.  Their IT recruiters just need to provide better customer service than their competition.