Hiring for your IT market arrives with it’s own tricks: computer-savvy tech support and programmers have their own lingo and live in a completely different world than those not in IT; the IT industry is it’s own culture, from languages (HTML, C++, VisualBasic…) to sense of humour to dress style to acceptable attitudes.
Hiring those the IT business has two major niches: those who specialize in IT, and the IT workers. Those who specialize in IT include salesmen,
Windows 7 Starter, directors, SEOs, Marketing specialists… you know,
Microsoft Office 2010 Home And Business, people who could do well in any market but chose to go into IT. The IT professionals are the computer programmers, app developers, network analysts… the ones who get nitty-gritty with the hardware and software that make up technology. Employing IT professionals can be a little tricky.
IT professionals are in high demand: their knowledge and expertise are specialized and very focused – it has to be. Each area of the IT world could be a world in and of itself – that’s what makes employing for it so tricky. People who can not only understand this world but also work well with those outside it are of great value: it’s not the kind of thing a person could pick up in a few hours on a free Saturday night (not that we’d want to).
But there are a few guidelines that, if you stick to them, will wield fabulous results when hiring IT workers:
Willing to learn: if your candidate enjoys their area of IT, be it programming or network analysis,
Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus, that’s great, but make sure they are willing to learn. This means they will likely keep up with business trends, the latest and greatest. IT is an ever-evolving field: those unwilling to keep their skills up aren’t going to survive, and will likely bring down the company they work for.
Actively listen: it’s an unfair stereotype of the IT market, but the concern still stands: if your candidate thinks they know it all and can do everything,
Office 2010, beware! Every employee needs to have humility and accept their limitations. If an IT candidate doesn’t actively listen, they will be difficult to integrate into the workplace.
Ask questions: this adds on to active listening, but deserves mentioning on it’s own: unless your candidate is a new grad,
Microsoft Office Standard 2007, beware if s/he doesn’t ask questions. New grads tend to be easily intimidated, being unfamiliar with the corporate world, and that’s okay: it’s the seasoned professionals that should be asking questions. They should be just as interested in making sure the position is right for them as you are in filing the position with the right person!
Express themselves: IT professionals are generally great at taking direction because they like to solve problems. Where they flounder a little is in communicating, especially when they are dissatisfied with something. Typically IT professionals will try and let something that dissatisfies them blow over, so even a little expression of themselves is huge for an IT professional: don’t expect a lot in this area, and make special note when an IT professional does express their concerns!
Sense of humour: Most IT professionals have a great sense of humour, and is often necessary in the business because of the technical nature of IT, so be careful of those that don’t have a sense of humour; they can often be embittered easily, and embitterment combined with lack of expression is a dangerous thing.
Those are the top five things we consider to be important guidelines for anyone employing an IT professional. Are there any that you’ve come across that you would like to see in this list? Let us know in the comments below
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