IT Hire Wire

You don’t need to have the following of a celebrity to get a job through social networking, but utilizing these channels to “be seen and heard” by strategically networking on these sites will help. Two of the largest and most used sites to network for job opportunities right now are LinkedIn and Twitter.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is not only a place to upload an online profile and resume, you can also engage and connect with other LinkedIn users through groups. Groups are formed around interests, industries, location, etc. Hudson has their own group, Hudson Network, with over 1,259 members ranging from clients, candidate and employees. If you were looking for a job at Hudson, or any company with a group, participating in a group discussion is an easy way to get your foot in the door.
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Bernadette Floyd
Instructional Design Consultant and Project Manager
Hudson IT Learning & Development Contractor

Q: Can your responsibilities make or break the success of an IT project?

A: Absolutely. If the end-users don’t know how to use the system, how successful can the project be? My job is to ensure that the end-users know the correct and most efficient way to complete each task based on their job function.

Q: On a typical project, how do you collaborate with the IT world?

A: It all depends on the type and stage of the project. Often training is not involved at the very beginning of the project. Usually there is some document about the system. I try to read up on that before approaching anyone in IT so that I have a baseline level of knowledge. From there, there may be someone from IT assigned as your point person who will answer your questions. If there is a training database, I’ll work with IT to get the data needed for hands-on practices loaded.
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Robert Schechter
IT business analysis

Conducting JAD or business requirement gathering sessions can be a nightmare.  As a business analyst, the ability to find a path through the thick weeds of requirements is an important skill set.  In my experience with leading requirement gathering sessions for system migrations, identifying which requirements are crucial for a business is challenging.  A good percentage of the information captured from “subject matter experts” is based upon their assumptions which can not be validated rendering the information as useless.

Q: How do IT business analysts build up their skills in weeding through business requirements?
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Let’s assume that you have already used Twitter to increase your knowledge in the IT field as I’ve mentioned before, or as suggested to IT execs by Peter Kretzman in Getting’ Twitter, from the Technology Executives Perspective. Now you are following a strong network of interesting and potentially useful networking contacts. You’ll need to engage these Tweople to receive the maximum benefit for your job search.

Here are a few easy tips to quickly build a savvy network on Twitter and in the IT profession:
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It’s imperative to try Twitter for your IT job search if you want to make social networking work for you. The key to doing Twitter right though, is to use it as a turbo-powered networking tool rather than just another job board. Let me show you what I mean. Doing a simple search at search.twitter.com using the keywords “IT Job Chicago” turns out 48 job postings. You could give Twitterjobsearch.com a try (which I’m not yet a huge fan of) and get similar results. Job postings on Twitter link to the source of the posting and allow you to apply with your standard resume. The thing is, you could do that on Monster and CareerBuilder already, so how is using Twitter in this way any different?

Professional Networking on Twitter

I suggest that you think of your presence on Twitter as a new avenue to pursue your career interests. Notice that I didn’t say use Twitter as a new way to tell the world you are desperately seeking work.
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Jim Tomczyk
Project Manager specializing in IT healthcare
Hudson IT Contractor

Q: What has been your career path?

A: My path to project management began years ago, when I was a developer. I learned early that even the most elegant code (coding is an art form, after all) was useless if it didn’t serve the customer’s needs. By always keeping the customer in mind, it helped me to learn and grow the skills needed to move up the ranks in IT: requirements analysis, design, development, testing, implementation and support. My PM experience has included projects across several industries, including my current assignment in the Enterprise Program Management Office at a major health insurance company.

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This morning at Harvard Business School, Bob Brennan, President and CEO of Boston-based Iron Mountain, delivered a vision for the future and reflected on the notable mid-recession growth and profitability of this perennial giant in the world of records management, data storage and disaster recovery.

Casual observers marvel at how this company not only survives but thrives even though it shares the same challenges as “Dunder Mifflin Paper Company” on The Office – a core business built around a mundane, semi-obsolete medium, paper (similarly semi-obsolete medium, magnetic tape) in a hip digital age.

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In today’s down market, finding a job may seem impossible.  I have some suggestions to help you find your next daily grind – the first of which is to throw most of the traditional job search techniques out the window.  We all know unemployment is rising.  So turn off CNN and navigate away from MSNBC.com.  Instead of listening to the voices of doom and gloom, dramatically increase your chances of landing a job via Twitter.  As many of you know, Twitter is a social networking tool that helps you get in touch and stay in touch with your network of personal and professional contacts.  And networking with those personal and professional contacts is how 60% of people find their next gig.

While some of you may be groaning out loud at the thought of keeping up with one more online networking tool, you should know that Twitter has become such a popular tool in networking and job searching that many people are now wondering Is Twitter the Next Monster?
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I recently attended a business luncheon in Chicago with Jim Skinner, CEO of McDonald’s as the keynote speaker. His company has certainly been getting some positive attention lately as one of the few consumer-focused companies actually growing in this economy. As I listened to his description of the tactics McDonald’s utilizes to grow their Fortune 500 company around the world, I was struck by the fact this man started his career in his local McDonald’s while in high school. After he graduated and joined the Navy, Jim returned home and took a job as a McDonald’s restaurant manager trainee. From there, he worked his way up to CEO in 2004. Pretty cool story.

I wonder, in our current period of economic uncertainty, what might motivate an IT professional to step off the traditional career path through America’s cube farms and into a quick service restaurant environment?
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While IT hiring demand remains relatively stable in an unstable economic climate, it goes without saying that great job opportunities are few and far between these days.

Just last week, one of our recruiters actually sent a short-list candidate home to change his “loud” tie before a face-to-face interview with the client.  His position:  You must be very mindful of any little detail that could impact first impressions, particularly given the tough hiring environment.  Knowing his client’s corporate culture well, this recruiter knew the candidate’s tie simply would not fly.
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