Why work with IT recruitment specialists to acquire the top talent?

The IT job market, mainly within specific areas such as popular big data, application development (both Web and mobile), business intelligence, and cloud computing, is a very cut-throat environment. While more and more companies get on the bandwagon of these state-of-the-art technologies and as the talent or resource pool gets minor, many industry experts and research agencies warn of a potential shortage of IT talent and skills in the pipeline. Companies are speculating where and how to get hold of the top tech talent and retain them.

However, if you are willing to lay out the money, an association with a specialist IT recruiter could be the answer to your problem. To shed light on the topic and help make the hard decision of whether or not to hire a search or recruitment firm to find your next employee, here are some testimonials and facts on how organisations can get the most of a tech recruiter relationship.

Why hire an IT Recruiter?

Obviously, the first question one should ask is, “Why would I want to hire an IT recruiter?”  The answer is, maybe you’re a small or medium sized business that doesn’t have time or the adequate HR resources to hunt for new talent or maybe you want to fill a mission critical position such as a chief technology officer, vice president, managing director, or development head, etc. and time is of the essence. In any case, the top talent isn’t essentially the person you’ll get on job boards or through word of mouth or online application. Frequently, the best resources or top industry talent are already hard at work somewhere and not searching for a new position.

Here are some services a suitable IT recruiter can provide for you:

1.       Recognise and approach passive and active candidates through various means.

2.       Offer objective input and insight regarding a potential candidate’s level of skills, expertise, and background.

3.       Conduct and manage candidate screening.

4.       Follow-up with the candidate to ensure a response on time.

5.       Provide secrecy to companies/employers that may need it.

But before you hire an IT recruiter, it is important to know how much experience the recruiters have in the market and what their professional network looks like.  If you engage in partnership with an agency that isn’t well connected in the market, you will get CVs that are off the mark and end up creating more work for you/your organisation because of the flood of resumes and tedious job of screening through them to find the right candidate. A good recruiter or recruitment agency actually builds a long-term relationship with the client through regular communication and feedback and as the hiring manager you/your organisation must reciprocate.

Probing for the top IT talent and professionals can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack, but using a head-hunter or a recruitment agency can help swing the odds in your favour.

Vertex IT solutions is a specialist IT recruiter and training provider.  We help IT professionals find suitable jobs in Oracle, web and software development, business intelligence, infrastructure management and IT support. For more details, visit us at: www.vertex-it-solutions.com.

Smooth transition to becoming an IT Manager

Switching from a technical role into a management position entails the need to move out of the comfort zone for most IT professionals. Here we’ve put together some great advice on making this move as smooth as possible:

Start Small! 

"Make the first move into management a small step," advises Dr Ben Booth, CIO of global market research firm Ipsos, a private research think-tank in the fields of media and advertising.

"If you’re moving from a support or programming role, it’s better to become a team leader rather than a fully fledged manager, to begin with." Rob Lambert, senior lecturer, Cranfield School of Management agrees: "If you’re the top Java programmer, then go for head of Java development, that way you’re still comfortable with the technical piece, while getting to grips with management skills." 

Be the inspiration

A good way to start anew and to set your mark, is to get together with the team and discuss a strategy/plan for the piece of work ahead. There is great truth in the axiom: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Take some time out and establish rapports with your peers and friends. Ensure that you get their buy in and involvement!

Take responsibilities

"Rather than jumping in at the deep end, a better strategy is to try out your management skills on an informal basis. Don’t say, ‘I want to be promoted’", counsels Dr Ben Booth, CIO of research giant Ipsos Mori. "Instead, if you hear of relevant projects put up your hand and volunteer to manage part of it. If it doesn’t work out, there’s no major fallout, other than a bit of wounded pride. The upside that you’ll have gained some self knowledge and that may help you achieve your goal of being manager one day." 

Make the break

The Professor Chris Edwards of the Cranfield School of Management advises:  "Don’t drift from one role to another, but make a distinct fresh start and use ‘breaks’ to reinforce the transition, make a break in time by going on a course to kick-start your new role. Most big organisations have internal training programmes and if you’re working for a small or medium sized business, there are plenty of third party courses to choose from. And you can make a break in location by moving to a new desk, even if you don’t need to. This acts as a signal to your colleagues, as well as a reminder to yourself, that you are embarking on a new role." 

Learn the art of delegation

Perhaps it is the most difficult part for techies. But it is important for you to perform in any management capacity. The word “Manager” is derived from the Latin word “Manus”, meaning literally to guide. Therefore, managers should not be always intervening in tasks or serving advices but should be able to act smart or make decisions when called upon. 

Show that you care

If you wish to win the support of your staff and peers, show them that you care, advises chartered psychologist, Dr Colin Gill. “Remember birthdays and take an interest in colleagues’ family life – and there’s nothing wrong with keeping memos about this kind of information”, he says. If you can hold a conversation with someone beyond the next delivery item, it will deepen your relationship. Nor does this personal bond mean you roll over and die for staff: “be very clear about instructions and expectations, and set these within formal objectives.” 

Check Vertex IT Solutions for miscellaneous jobs for IT professionals: http://www.vertex-it-solutions.com

What qualities to look for in an IT Project Manager?

Project management is a major discipline in overall project development and execution. From beginning to end, project managers ensure that information technology projects are well planned, effectively monitored and controlled, and meet suggested deadlines. In essence, IT projects are normally more challenging than usual manufacturing and business consultation projects. This is because these projects confront conventional project management challenge such as deadlines, budget constraints, and resource shortage, as well as technological challenges, including hardware/ software optimisation, security risks, testing methods, diversity of platforms, configuration, and interoperability /compatibility issues, etc. Therefore, to avoid failure, organisations must consider the resources it plans to devote to a project. It is important to understand the short-term and long-term needs and scope of the project  and to consider the schedule realistically, to be involved and share complete vision with the project workers, and set a development cycle for the project deliverables. Throughout the project design and development cycle, the Project manager plays a crucial role.

Several job roles claim the title of project manager, but in truth, they are a far cry from the conventional role with responsibility for the initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, control, and closing of a project. So, how you can be certain you are hiring the right person for the job?

First, profile the kind of person you wish to recruit. Below are some brief behavioural competencies and technological skills essential for a Project Manager in an IT organisation:

Behavioural Competencies

·         Enthusiastic, zealous and driven.

·         Focused and not easily disturbed/distracted.

·         Able to work independently and with initiative to strict schedules.

·         Exceptional interpersonal, communication, negotiation, and teamwork skills.

·         Creative, adaptable, and determined to find the best possible solution.

·         Ability to plan, organise, schedule, and collaborate on multiple tasks at a time.

·         Self-motivated and able to motivate/encourage others.

Technical Skills

General

·         Client communication management

·         Partner/Supplier administration.

·         Acquainted with outsourced and offshore operations.

·         Good people skills. Should be able to develop team, retain interest, and mentor staff.

·         Good influencing skills.

Project Management

·         Complete understanding of different project management methods such as Critical chain project management, PRINCE2™, Agile and PRiSM (Projects integrating Sustainable Methods), etc.

·         Expert in trade-offs between time, cost, quality and scope.

·         Able to produce, review, and update business cases.

·         Proficient in project planning.

·         Issue and risk management capabilities.

·         Familiar with change management techniques.

·         Total quality management systems.

·         Proficient in budgeting and cost control.

IT Skills

 For a technical project manager, it is necessary to have the following skills:

·         Expert in IT development methods.

·         Proficient with software testing methodologies and tools.

·         Business analysis and process design skills.

·         Able to develop service level agreement.

This comprehensive list covers major competencies, qualification, and skills required for an IT project manager role. Once you know what is required of the prospective candidate, create a job specification reflecting required elements. Post Job description/specification on relevant job portals, for example: Vertex IT solutions specialises in IT recruitment and professional development: to get the CVs rolling in. http://vertex-it-solutions.com/

Top 5 Oracle blogs for IT Professionals!

Oracle is the leader in database management solutions. It is the market leader for more than three decades now and with incessant development and best-in-class technologies, it has stretched to the entire tech stack, from servers and storage solutions, to database and middleware management, through application and into the cloud. Oracle, with its thriving past and present, has demonstrated that it can create technologies for the future on the basis of its innovation and knowledge of challenging market needs, explored by the best in scientific and business minds in the world.

Besides an interactive Web presence, Oracle has built an enthusiastic blogging community, where Oracle professionals, executives, technologists, and even employees share views and opinions about customer needs, best practices for using Oracle, and current/upcoming market trends. This uninterrupted response loop helps Oracle connected with the needs of its customers. For those looking to pursue career opportunities in Oracle, it is important to stay in touch with these blogs. So, here we have compiled a list of popular Oracle Blogs:

1.       Tanel Poder's blog: IT & Mobile for Geeks and Pros

http://blog.tanelpoder.com

Twitter: @tanelpoder

Tanel Poder is an IT enthusiast. He is an OCM certified professional with over 15 years of experience managing and improving Oracle-based database and application environment, troubleshooting, tuning, and training professionals. Tanel writes about a lot of things on his blog, ranging from Oracle, to Exadata, Linux, Performance, Troubleshooting and Mobile Life and Productivity.

2.       Jaffar's Oracle blog

http://jaffardba.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @sjaffarhussain

Syed Jaffar Hussain, an Indian national, is the Database Support Manager at Alinma Bank (Saudi Arabia) with nearly 20 years of Information Technology (IT) hand-on experience that also includes over 11 years as a Production Oracle DBA. Jaffar is a renowned Oracle professional and has received Oracle ACE Director Award for his work. He writes about Enterprise Oracle suite, implementation in finance sector, and database management.

3.       Oracle Optimizer

https://blogs.oracle.com

The Oracle Optimizer blog is written by members of the Optimizer development team. The goal of this blog is to provide an insight into the workings of the Optimizer and the statistics it relies on. The views expressed on this blog are of the Optimizer development team and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle and its affiliates.

4.       Doug's Oracle Blog

http://oracledoug.com

Twitter: @orcldoug

Douglas Ian Burns is an experienced and passionate Oracle expert with over 20 years experience as a Development and Production DBA, Trainer and PL/SQL Developer with particular knowledge and interest in solving complex performance issues using his extensive knowledge of the full range of analysis tools. The primary purpose of his blog is to share his various Oracle-related research papers, presented or plan to present at User Group Conferences.

5.       Oracle Scratchpad

http://jonathanlewis.wordpress.com/

Oracle Scratchpad is another interesting Oracle blog run by Jonathan Lewis. Jonathan is an independent consultant with a great understanding of how the Oracle database engine can be used to best effect. On Scratchpad he shares the wealth of experience on strategy, design, implementation, trouble-shooting, DBA cover, remote monitoring, and training.

For Oracle Jobs and Trainings, contact UK’s leading IT recruiter and training provider, Vertex IT solutions at http://www.vertex-it-solutions.com/.