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IT Employment 2011 - Predictions

Over the past year, we’ve seen a tremendous uptick in requirements for highly-skilled hands-on IT consultants, here in the Northeast.  We’ve also seen quite a few new fulltime positions for these types of candidates.  Qualified candidates are getting harder and harder to find, as the economy improves, which is why our clients are coming to us for help.*  

Over this same period, many of the candidates who have come to us in search of work have been managers or other non-technical (or formerly technical) folks like Business Analysts and Project Managers.  This is because their responsibilities with their former employers have often times been loaded on to the few technical employees who were retained through the Downturn.

As new projects get funded and more hands-on technical employees are hired, we will soon reach a point where the Techies are overwhelmed with responsibilities in their main skillsets, as well as those that they’ve inherited, like Project Management and resource management.  It will soon become necessary for employers to rehire some of these non-technical employees, to ease the workloads of their Technology teams.

Those employers who continue to hire technical employees without Management and Support employees will see an exodus of talent, as employees seek opportunities which may pay more, but more importantly, will allow them to focus on what they enjoy the most, Technology, rather than being burdened by other non-technical tasks.

Therefore, beginning around Q3 of 2011 we will see a marginal amount of increased opportunities for IT Management, Business Analysts, Project Managers, Office Admins, and other support staff within IT.  Some employers will still be gun-shy and may have continued restrictions on headcount.  These companies will start off with consulting opportunities which could then lead to permanent positions in 2012.  The job-seekers who take these consulting opportunities will also be in a better position to take fulltime roles with other companies because they will have the “freshest” resumes.


* Since October 2009, the staffing industry has added almost half a million jobs to the U.S. economy, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And during those 14 months, journalists, economists, and business analysts have repeatedly cited ASA and staffing industry leaders for insight into staffing trends and analysis on what those trends reveal about U.S. employment.

Ridgefield One provides An Extra Sets of Hands on a Temporary Basis

Offering IT and Creative Web Services for companies located in Fairfield, CT and Westchester, NY. Now assisting companies with their Adminstrative Staffing needs.

Resume Writing 101: The Obvious and the Not so Obvious

Writing a resume can be a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. Here are a couple of suggestions, along with basic writing guidelines, that can help put your mind at ease and in a better position to be hired.

The basic formula that many recruiters like to see on a resume, whether they're internal HR people or third-party agents like us is in this order:

-     Skills List

-     Employment History

-     Education

-     “Other” which may be hobbies and industry affiliations, but should never include political or religious indicators.  This section is optional may help show what type of person the candidate is, but could work against them if it says stuff like, “Horror Movie Aficionado” which we've seen and caused the HR recruiter the resume was sent to to tell us she wasn’t interested in the candidate because he was scary.

Putting the skills list up front allows the resume screener to match up the right buzz words with the job requirements, even if that screener is not qualified to do the type of work for which the candidate is applying.  In many cases, this HR resume screener will never have done any other job but HR or Recruiting, so the candidate wants to provide as many skills there as possible, even if it’s obvious to them – the screener may not be able to read into it and make the assumptions.

Once that’s done, the candidate should make sure that each of those skills listed is then referenced in the Employment section.  This should be a descriptive account of how the skills were used and what the ultimate goals were.  It could be in outline format or narrative – doesn’t matter, as long as it gives the non-technical resume screener an idea of the candidate’s experience with the skill in question and is easy on the eyes.  Industry jargon is OK, as long as it doesn’t end up looking like alphabet soup – keep it simple.

Finally, while we don’t want to read a whole novel with every resume, the candidate should also not be too worried about making the resume fit on one page (or some other arbitrary number of pages).  Indeed, it should be concise, but not at the expense of leaving out a good description of a valuable skill.  This is really important: IF IT’S NOT ON THE RESUME, THE CANDIDATE DOESN’T HAVE THE SKILL.  I can’t tell you how many times hiring managers have told me that.  It’s my job to look beyond the resume and do a write-up on each candidate that I meet, but many of my clients ignore that write-up and only go by what’s printed on the resume.  So it’s important to include everything the candidate can do – they just need to be sure they can back it up.

There are many online resources out there that provide templates and advice on how to write a resume. But keep in mind the points mentioned here. They're critical and not always obvious.

Ridgefield One provides An Extra Sets of Hands on a Temporary Basis

Offering IT and Creative Web Services for companies located in Fairfield, CT and Westchester, NY. Now assisting companies with their Adminstrative Staffing needs.