iitjobs.com - The IT Jobs Blog - General

360° Art of Job Hunting - Some Tips, Bits, Pits, Chits on Job Search

Your DisplayName here! — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:51:38 GMT

Year 2009 early September and global news floating around the dawn of global economy reviving – Few! Finally! Japan, Asia, EU and as per 'news' signs in America – Welcomed!

No - This subject is nothing new – so why waste writing one more – aahh, hmmm – as we are also waiting to get some work and nothing to do as such let’s write – Let's Share!

So – The Premises – Global Technology Professionals – Who have not yet seen 'that' slightest light beyond 30 days – very tough – we feel it - ……tried all friends and family and trying via external method to get till personal interview.

1^st – Create 'Skill-O-Meter' – What's that – Its kind of Demand and Supply of your skill - Check www.indeed.com or www.simplyhired.com and its regional properties as per your country/preference – Typically a Technology Professional can work on more than 3 to 4 titles.

2^nd – Search for your skill see how many openings it throws out – it will show on the top right hand side - put that number in your excel and see which State/City has the highest opening – do similar exercise in your different skills – so some direction…

3^rd – You can dissect the data, by Company, Location, Salary, etc. now with some direction where there are more openings for your skills, and observe daily number increasing or decreasing this way you can get some real time 'Skill-O-Meter'.

4^th – We suggest to have Gmail account – we have tested various major free e-mails – Hotmail, Yahoo, Live and specially e-mail provided by your ISP's they have such a high Spam filters that above 50% of time a recruiter's e-mail will go into your Spam box or not even reach you. Many e-mails that are auto-generated from companies Applicant Tracking System usually end up in Junk mail – We as recruiters have faced this situation many times with job seeker in turn missing an opportunity.

5^th – Your Phone – Always charged, Clear Voice Mail, Always ON – keep it in Silent Mode, if you are busy this way you can see who all had called. A very important tool.

6^th – Understand today's recruiter's are in immense pressure - to fill more position with less resources and within 24 hours. Companies are filling those few positions without even publishing within day or two. The process is On Demand, Now, Speed, sell first – fill later - They are overwhelmed with resumes – qualified or not but tons – so speed, response, follow up, research be ready with all your ammo (try Chawanprash)

7^th – Your Resume – Ah! Resume – Not giving 'gyan' over here how to write an resume lot of stuff on this is 'out there' – Somehow a resume 'view life' is just 10 to 20 seconds to get an Call or e-mail – really a resume is just browse through by a recruiter to 'screen' before it reaches to hiring manager or next step.

8^th – 'Be There' – Job Portals, Social sites, Open Searchable resume on Google, Niche sites, Classified sites, Tech Forum, Local Conference, Blog, Join Virtual Yahoo, Google, etc. groups, reverse interview/marketing, cold calling/e-mail hiring managers, volunteer, publish some articles on relevant forum/blog, YouTube…

9^th – Tips – Job Portals – Fill all the fields, keep editing every 7 days - this way resume shows on top when a recruiter searches.

Social sites – Keep it updated, get recommendation, you can also keep 2 profiles one professional other personal – Network within.
YouTube – Have 30 seconds not more than that it should be intriguing to get you an interview .

10^th – I think this list making thing is getting boring – so let me end here – try different things – will continue later – bring on some 'NEW' stuff – North East West South.

This weblog is sponsored by iitjobs.

Is there a cure for common cold ? In the same essence is there a cure for a technical recruiter ?

Your DisplayName here! — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 14:11:48 GMT

They say it takes two weeks to get over a common cold, with or without medicine. Is it not the same scenario for "Just in Time recruitment" ? Nothing seems to work most of the time. Internet search,traditional style Unix job boards,job boards,referral, advertisement or any other sourcing channel available to a technical recruiter, does not seem to work for recruiting a technology professional in today's market. What can today's creative technical recruiter do to stay ahead of the pack. These are a few ideas and suggestions:

°    Like in life " Prevention is better than cure " for common cold, in the same analogy I believe the technical recruiter has to learn to build a pipeline of prospective candidates way before the requirement pops up, I.e instead of fire fighting.

°    "Home cures help manage common cold better" Similarly referrals, ATS (Applicant tracking system) mining, networking and advertising for pipeline will help manage talent better than "just in time" recruiting

°    " Good immune system helps keep common cold away", similarly good HR practices, training and best practices help retain talent thereby helping to reduce attrition.
As the common cold is a contentious, nagging trouble sometime fatal, technical recruiting has to be taken in complete seriousness. While seeking help from as many sources as possible (like technology groups, networking, advertisement in addition to job boards mining as in common cold, like homeopathic remedies,steam inhalation, herbal potions, balms love and care in addition to antibiotics.)

In the same essence is there a cure for a technical recruiter ? We have tried various therapies like Monster therapy , Dice Therapy , Careerbuilder therapy , Iitjobs therapy.There are many job boards the world, but still its difficult to find the right candidate But then does the recruiter find the right kind of people ?

The answer is "yes" and "no" both .

Its time to accept the hard fact that free resume search websites for employers or recruiters don't help much but they do help in creating that valuable pipeline.Basically a recruiter needs to systematically build relationships and develop networks .Technical recruiters need to get creative, strong and persistent to help deliver the scarce commodity of technical talent.

This weblog is sponsored by iitjobs.

Search for a job in the UK

Your DisplayName here! — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 11:20:39 GMT

Being a recruiter the most commonly asked question which i regularly face is that,how to search for a job in the uk ? and my answer to that is always .....huh???? Recently the UK has opened its borders to the geeks and has virtually put a red carpet for IT professionals. This move by the is being seen as a major way to boost its inflow of high tech labour.

There yet are many countries yet to follow the suit but the UK has been the first one to implement this kind of policy after Uncle sam did way back in the 90's.Well over the times software industry has gone through some radical changes right from algorithms to outsourcing.People might argue that outsourcing is bad but frankly speaking its helping the economies more than ever.As per a report the average employment in th US has been to a record low,i guess this is a suitable explanation for the above.

Nowdays skills like SAP and open source technologies are in huge demand.SAP is very hot these days and of course traditional programming languages like C++ and Java are also in the wanted list.In the united states market SAP is in huge demand and so it is in UK.As the software industry is booming and cash is flowing like never before the companies have started investing more in ERP/CRM applications and even provide free training to its employees.If i would have been in some candidates shoes i would go for SAP or any other ERP/CRM package

Now comes the question "how to search for a job in the UK" ,well it isn't easy as it seems you can either post your resume on a job board or look for headhunters.While posting your resume on a job board is the easiest option but it may not be the most effective option( correct me if i am wrong ) but the best way out is through traditional means a.k.a Network.Job boards do provide a global reach for your resume but the key is posting your resume on a niche job board or a industry specific job board...that will greatly increase your chances of being noticed.

This weblog is sponsored by iitjobs.

Dawn of Niche Job Boards

Your DisplayName here! — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 18:43:44 GMT

Om Malick writes a contemporary article on the rise of Niche Job Boards. With online recruiting search at the highest growth rate and lack of trained talent in the market place the Niche boards play a pivotal role in the sourcing strategy of a cutting edge recruiter.

Click here to read the complete article.

This weblog is sponsored by iitjobs.

New IT specific Global Job Board--iitjobs.com

Your DisplayName here! — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 06:28:41 GMT

One More Job Board! WHY?
Yes, there are over 80,000 job boards and everyday new job boards are launched. A search result for key word “Job Board” in Google will yield a million results. Even after combining all the job boards across the world there is less than 50% chance of getting help for a technology recruiter or a candidate. But in reality if the job boards were working for technology recruiters, would we be needing the recruiters at the first place?

More and more technology recruiters are working long hours to serve their clients. Job boards form a miniscule part of their sourcing strategy.

The intention is not to coach, but the success of a technology recruiter lies in networking and having his own dynamic searchable candidate pool. We are providing those tools so that your resume database becomes dynamic and network within them. Also, experienced technology professionals when seeking opportunities are comfortable within their network to make career moves. As more and more companies are growing globally, a single 'dot com' address that serves their sourcing strategy is required to attract top IT talent.

Therefore the idea is to empower the IT community by providing unique tools for the technology recruiter and for the candidates to maximize their skills globally. Moreover there is a push from industry to all the major governments to have favorable immigration policy for Technology professionals or so called speciality skills.

Our focus is only in Global technology talent acquisition space. – iitjobs.com

Are we Crazy?
Maybe….maybe – Yes there are people behind iitjobs who have decided to take up this crazy idea (bull by the horn).

The idea has been in our mind for two years, but it was a little difficult to muster courage to quit our well cushioned jobs and burn our savings in a heavily crowded and competitive market.

As we ourselves were using multiple – fragmented ‘all-in-one’ job boards in our daily recruitment and seeking for opportunities, we were merely looking for solution to our own problems. We are a team of technology recruiters who have recruited people from Brazil to Australia, Africa/EU/Russia to USA, Canada, NZ, Singapore and India, almost everywhere in the world.

And team of Technology professionals who have worked on global technology projects were looking for tools which are not offered by fragmented ‘all-in’ job boards.

So the question was, why not to develop a single IT specific global job board AND MAYBE the world’s first – iitjobs.com – (Feel free to correct us)

The Jump:
Passion, Vision, Urge to get it done and two inspirations.

ONE – The World is Flat – by Thomas L Friedman.
TWO – A quote by a person with the “midas touch”

“An entrepreneur is someone who dares to dream the dreams and is foolish enough to try to make those dreams come true."

These were good enough reasons to make us dive for iitjobs.com

Our Mission:
To be the ‘eBay’ of IT Job Board. Our key mission is to serve IT recruiters and IT candidates in a simple global job Internet based marketplace.

Our Vision:
Lead the ‘flattening’ of global IT community by harnessing technology for talent acquisition through innovative solutions.

Our Philosophy:
Search. Simple. Speed. Scalable. Secure. Sincerity. Service. Innovation

Search:
This is core to our heart and we keep investing our sweat in this area. The question was, being global, how can we provide accurate fast and precise candidate search?

Simple:
Our job postings, applicant tracking system, management dashboard view, in-built communication, candidate portal, etc, each functionality is built around simplicity. We have not built complex system where you need hours of training to actually use the system.

As it’s just a job board you can figure it out by yourself, we guarantee you will not break anything.

Speed:
We would not like to award a coffee break from a click to opening a page. We despise slow speed. We will never let that happen.

Scalable:
As we have built-in web based applicant tracking system you could have your own pool of candidates in a secured area and who knows it may grow to a million resumes!

Secure:
We would like to ensure that your data is secure. As the system is web based it is insured against coffee spills, theft, virus and maintenance.

Sincerity:
This is more towards our honesty we guarantee to the technology professional (Privacy Policy). We understand that your resume has valuable information that can be misused, but we would like to reassure that your information is safe and secure with us.

We do not sell the trust you've reposed in us by sharing, selling or blasting your vital information.
Your resume will be accessible only to hiring firms.
We do not blast or mass mail resumes to any company or job sites.

In the unlikely event of finding a breach at our site we request you to inform us immediately at support @ iitjobs.com

Service:
We provide various value added services like resume migration from paper, .pst, or any other system to our ATS. Custom reports, Job Advertisement Distribution, Creative writing for your job advertisement, System Customization or just ask.

Innovation:
Is it not the only way to Live?

This weblog is sponsored by iitjobs.

Michael Specht digs out an interesting list of words to be avoided in a resume

Your DisplayName here! — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 05:48:02 GMT

Michael goes deep to dig out a excellent resource for job seekers. From an article of Tech Republic he lists the words a candidate needs to avoid while writing his resume.

Excellent resource for job seekers, especially freshers.

Click here to read more

This weblog is sponsored by iitjobs.

Global Brain Gain phenomena

Your DisplayName here! — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:53:19 GMT

Hello All, September is here and friends are already planning for New Year! Think Goa ! is the vision for 12 -2006 – ping me if you would like to join our party! It was not too far when there was talk about ‘Brain Drain’ and there is now all talk about ‘Brian Gain’. An interesting article in 1999 saying India ’s ‘Brian Gain’ is a very distant future - http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1625/16250880.htm

Just in 6 years there is talk about global brain gain – From Argentina, Brazil , China , India etc - http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HWW/is_29_3/ai_66675393

My guess is beginning of brain gain in India started when there was global slow down started around 2001. An interesting speech by Dr. R. A. Mashelkar on brain gain in 2003 - http://www.ibef.org/artdisplay.aspx?cat_id=100&art_id=1566

At present, at least in India there is big inflow and interest of ‘coming back’

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5290494.stm and

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1056694.cms

Oof it’s too much of brainy stuff – my head needs to get drain out in Goa ! See ya all

p.s – hunt for global talent starting in India ! Followers are soon going to follow a leader

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5272672.stm

This weblog is sponsored by iitjobs.

Pitfalls to avoid while looking for a new job

Your DisplayName here! — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 17:15:54 GMT

Gretchen 's simple advice on the mistakes job seekers do while searching for new jobs. A absolute comman sense approach and yet not so commanly followed by a job seeker.

early warning signs of a job search gone bad

This weblog is sponsored by iitjobs.

Sifting through the mountain of resumes (To attract top talent and to land in the top job)

Your DisplayName here! — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 06:16:55 GMT

Guy Kawasaki's, interview with Libby Sartain of Yahoo! is an excellent resource for candidates as to what are companies and specifically Yahoo! looking for and secondly for recruiters, how do you differentiate yourselves in the market place.

Click here to read complete interview

This weblog is sponsored by iitjobs.

Job Boards 2.0 and 3.0 -- Future Trends

Your DisplayName here! — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 03:06:48 GMT

Michael Specht 's article on Job Board consolidation and examples of the Australian Job Board Markets triggers a thought process. What will the future Job Boards look like? What are recruiters and candidates looking for in Job Boards 2.0 and 3.0 ? The answer lies in some of the links on Michael's article.

http://www.specht.com.au/michael/2006/07/21/job-board-consolidation/ -- Job Board Consolidation

http://www.specht.com.au/michael/2005/06/23/job-board-with-integrated-ats/ -- Job Board with integrated - ats

This weblog is sponsored by iitjobs.

Welcome--- Global Technology Community

Your DisplayName here! — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 16:13:55 GMT

Hello Welcome to iitjobs.com

As a unique pure IT global career portal it is our endevour to bring together global expert views on recruitment and career growth. Please suggest your views to neeraj @ iitjobs.com.

-- Neeraj

CXO - Bla Bla

This weblog is sponsored by iitjobs.