Employer

How Your Business Can Assess IT Candidate Skills

October 23, 2018 Comments Off Roxana read

In seeking jobs, many potential employees put out information about their qualifications that can be quite exaggerated. This act is likewise performed by those seeking jobs in IT companies. It is therefore imperative that IT companies master the art of hiring people and adequately assessing their skills in order to get the very best of candidates.

For any new recruit to fit into your IT corporation and be productive, they need to possess soft skills. While resumes may sound impressive, assessing a job seeker for soft skills plays a key role in promoting effectiveness in an IT company’s hiring process. This fact is well captured in a statement made by John Reed, executive director of Robert Half Technology, Menlo Park, California; “Companies want computer programmers who can go to meetings, gather information and talk about what clients want to accomplish. Written and verbal skills are at a premium.”

The challenges of hiring the best suitable candidates grow exponentially for small and medium-size companies that don’t have on-staff IT experts to help assess candidates’ skill sets. Fortunately, workarounds exist to help even the most IT challenged companies to find the right hybrid professionals. Below are some helpful suggestions on how to assess the skills of potential employees in your IT company.

Decide what is most important in your Resume search

When looking for hybrid professionals (i.e. those conversant in both business and technology) to hire, you’re likely going to have to focus in one direction or another. It is therefore very important that you decide which is more important in your open position – the MBA or the tech knowledge – and then pick carefully as you search resumes to attract top talent. This helps you to be clear enough on choosing the perfect candidate to fit in the position.

Be very specific during the interview process

Once you’ve narrowed your list of potential employees, your next aim is to get as much detailed information about their experience as you can. Ask detailed interview questions about prior positions, focusing on how they split their time between technical and business tasks.

Check for presentation, communication, and social skills

It is important that you look out for the ability of your job candidates to effectively make presentations, communicate and properly interact with other members of staff in the company.

Trust, but Verify IT skills

Be sure to have a tech person on your staff to do a technical evaluation of the IT skills of your potential employees. If you don’t have the staff to vet job candidates, you can employ the services of Testing companies like Brainbench, ReviewNet Services, and eSkill Corporation.

Hire someone who is experienced

Choose a candidate who has a proven performance record of accomplishing the task you need done and be careful enough not to be too hasty in order not to hire incompetent candidates.

By taking note of the above-given suggestions and putting them to practice, IT companies can be certain of being able to rightly and effectively assess the skills of candidates seeking employment from them and getting the very best of those candidates.

Employee

How to Succeed in IT Companies

October 18, 2018 Comments Off Roxana read

Information Technology (IT) today is an integral part of nearly every major global industry. It is the use of computers to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data or information and is vital to the thriving of businesses and enterprises in today’s world. With an increase in demand for professionals in this field, it is definitely one, many people will want to launch a career path into. How then do you excel and stand out in these IT companies? Below are some helpful suggestions.

Identify your Specialization

There are diverse areas of expertise in the IT industry among which are; programming and application development, database administration, web development, security/compliance governance, networking and project management, Therefore, in order to succeed in the company, it is very vital that you know the particular area to specialize in. This helps to channel your energy on a particular point of focus and this way, your career in IT becomes more stable and secure.

Have good research skills

It is very important that you are able to plan effectively and handle data properly. This can only be achieved by a person with good research skills. It also helps one to keep abreast of the latest industry trends and as well, threats that could potentially damage your infrastructure.

Develop excellent Communication skills

Communication isn’t all about verbalizing but also about listening, clarifying, empathy and conflict resolution. It is a vital people skill that will enable you to work effectively with others in any organization.

Think long-term

After answering the questions; ‘what do I want out of my career?’ and ‘how do I get there?’ you must ensure you do not fall into the trap of settling for a job that will impede your continuous growth and improvement in your field. Whatever step you take in your job, ensure it is a right one that will advance your career.

Embrace life-long learning

The IT industry is a fast-evolving one with new ideas becoming quickly obsolete. Thus, you must be open to continuous learning and updating of your skills in order to remain relevant and valuable to your company.

Integrity and Promptness

These are exceptional virtues that are required of every worker in any field. When you finish up your jobs before deadlines and do as you say, you become more trustworthy and reliable in the company.

Flexibility and Adaptability

As an IT professional, you will encounter a lot of new challenges requiring solutions. Solving these problems will largely depend on your ability to think creatively, innovatively and improvise. When you’re able to adapt and incorporate new ideas, then you’ll be able to solve almost all challenges pertaining to your job.

Take Initiative

Learn to make sound decisions in the company and to function as a project manager, team leader, and team member. Also, offer help, support, and mentorship to your co-workers when you have the ability and skills to.

Hard Work and Persistence

These are the basis for achieving anything worthwhile in life. Your job in an IT company will come with its various challenges, but by applying focus, dedication, and intensity to your job, you can be assured of success in the long run.

Employer

Why are developers so hard to keep?

October 16, 2018 Comments Off Roxana read

6 Reasons, Software Developers Quit Your Company

The field of software development is a fast emerging and very interesting yet challenging one. Hiring a software developer is one of the most important tasks for a start-up, if not the most important, but it can also be a very frustrating process. However, unfortunately, finding developer talent is only half the battle. Now, the work of engaging and retaining your new employee just starts

Creating something entirely new, as many can testify is not particularly an easy thing to do as it requires the bringing into existence of something that never existed before. Regarding software development, a number of factors make creation even more difficult. These factors include:

Frustration due to recurrence of errors in codes
Ease of entry into programming, resulting in poor programmers who adversely affect projects
Hindrances from external factors [government regulations, legacy data formats, scalability, performance preference, etc.]

Thus, those involved in the creation of new software (developers) may find it difficult to remain in an organization for a long period of time due to these factors and a varying number of other reasons. Below are some of the reasons why it is difficult to keep a developer.

Boredom

As said earlier, software development is very interesting. But one challenge many developers face is getting the kind of work that they fully enjoy. This issue is more frequent with hobby coders who would rather settle for a coding job that excites them than one that doesn’t.

Long hours of Work

Personal time is a precious entity to every human. Some project managers who have little or no knowledge about programming set unrealistic time frames for developers to complete projects. Therefore, for developers who are required to code for several hours, leaving such companies that take much of their time and at the same time cause them discomfort (from long hours of sitting) is one choice they usually make in order to get back their time.

Ideas being turned down

When a developer’s suggested ideas in a company are being consistently disregarded, such person can feel invaluable to the company and thereby go in search of one where he/she will be better valued.

Not getting enough help from Mentors/Instructors

Creating a new software is hard enough for developers. Working in a company where support is not sufficiently provided makes it even harder. Developers don’t want to just feel they are being managed. They want to be part of a team that they can converse with and get more insights and knowledge regarding their work.

Little Payment compared to Service Rendered

When a developer is hired and eventually paid far less than his/her skills deserve, such developer ends up seeking jobs where pay can correlate with the skills offered.

Not having a Career Road Map

Lack of clarity regarding goals and expectations on the part of the developers is one other vital cause of the inability to keep them in a company for long. Without a clear and well-defined career path, a developer will tend to more frequently move from a job to another.

Once the above factors are put in check, and a very healthy workspace is created for developers, then companies may be able to keep them for long periods. However, it should be noted that these factors are not necessarily responsible for the choice of some developers in leaving companies frequently. Some just like to freelance and explore as much as they can.