TechnicalJobs.com

It’s Not Easy

jmiller — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:32:46 +0000

“It must be so easy being a recruiter now with so many people unemployed.” I frequently hear this comment from friends and acquaintances when they express their feelings about my profession. This statement couldn’t be farther from the truth. Companies that use recruiters are hiring highly technical and very specialized people. These people are usually already employed and are not part of the layoffs and cutbacks.

The technical recruiting world is full of challenges and these challenges revolve around finding a very specialized candidate for a client’s very specific job requirement. It’s not easy!

Technical Job Interview Tips

jmiller — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 21:03:58 +0000

Let’s assume you’ve finished with the technical phone interview and you’ve aced it. You’re invited to the face-to-face interview where you’ll probably meet with the hiring manager, some peers in your department, an HR Manager and possibly the IT Manager or the CTO. Everyone will have questions for you, and since you’ve already passed the initial screen and gotten in the door, all they are really assessing at this point is how you’ll handle yourself in the department, how you’ll work with the team and how you’ll interact with users. You could handle yourself perfectly but still blow the interview by asking some really dumb questions.
There will be a point in the interview where you get asked, “Do you have any questions for us?” Never ask “Do you allow casual dress on Friday?”, “When can I get promoted?”, “Why did the last person leave?”, “What does the company actually do?” You need to be prepared with questions about the company, the IT Department or your role in the job.
If you prepare some solid questions ahead of time, you’ll be ready to handle that part of the interview.

Predictions

jmiller — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 22:14:31 +0000

One of the things I look forward to in the New Year is reading the technology predictions from the editors or bloggers for various tech sites on the internet (Forbes, InfoWorld, Global Knowledge, Information Week and Fast Company). They do their analysis and attempt to predict what will be going on in technology, software languages, networking, mobile apps, social networking, cloud computing, smart phones/tablets and other tech areas. Since I’m a technical recruiter, it’s important for me to see what’s coming up in future. They have the crystal ball and I don’t!! Will they be right? I’ll follow up next year and see how well they performed in their analytical skills.

Check it out. Here are the links to the 2012 predictions.

Forbes:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2011/12/16/integrate-everything-10-tech-predictions-for-2012/

InfoWorld:

http://www.infoworld.com/t/technology-business/2012-tech-predictions-idgs-editors-worldwide-182596

Global Knowledge: http://www.globalknowledge.com/articles/generic.asp?pageid=2885&country=United+States

Information Week:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/232301064

Fast Company:

http://www.fastcompany.com/1802338/10-bold-business-technology-predictions-for-2012

LinkedIn Works

jmiller — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:58:45 +0000

I had lunch recently with a friend of mine who is an IT Manager. He had been job hunting for 6 months and had just landed a new position. That’s tough to do in this job market. He started the lunch conversation with a thank you for my help in his getting the job. Since I didn’t do anything to get him the job, I couldn’t imagine what he was referring to. It seems that I gave him some LinkedIn advice back when he first started the search. I had told him to make his LinkedIn profile into a marketing tool. He had followed my suggestions and added the words “Actively pursuing a new opportunity” to his profile. He also included a way for employers to contact him in the contact section at the bottom of the profile. The good news is that he got found on LinkedIn and is now a Program Manager and will be starting the new job next week—all thanks to LinkedIn.

This might be good advice for anyone on LinkedIn who is job hunting: (1) include words to indicate that you are actively seeking employment (2) include some kind of contact information (phone or email or both) in the bottom section of the page (3) develop your profile so that hiring managers or recruiters can see your skills and accomplishments. LinkedIn is a great marketing tool.

Then and Now

technicaljobs — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:48:35 +0000

The year was 1996 and Computer Management, Inc was 11 years old. We had no idea what the internet was really all about or how people would use it to connect with each other. We had a website (called a “home page” back then) developed. It was so unusual for a recruiting firm to have a website that we got interviewed for the Baltimore Business Journal and asked what we thought about the internet versus traditional newspaper advertising. Who knew then that www.technicaljobs.com would be such a great url? That first website was done in frames. In 1996 no one ever heard of SEO or blogging or page linking.

Fast forward to 2011… We’re now in the fourth version of our website. This new one is in Word Press, and we’re paying close attention to Google rules and SEO. In the last 15 years the internet has really changed and changed the way we do business. All for the better! I wonder what will be the next step in technical advancements in recruiting?