NZ Recruiter

Job hunting doesn't have to be sly - positioning is key

Link: Job hunting on the sly

Interesting opinion on how to sneak in job hunting while you're working. The key though, I think, is that if you really are focused on growing your career, then you can't just "hunt" for a job. It can be time consuming and incredibly difficult  when you're trying to do your real job. Most importantly - it's all about timing - what you want may not necessarily be what the job market has in the timeframe you're looking. So here's what I suggest: Keep an open mind and really position yourself for opportunities. . . continuously. Not just when you get that sinking feeling that you don't want to be at your current job or company anymore.

This isn't traditional active job hunting, but it'll bring you to what's really important - and that's being exposed to opportunities that may or may not be the right ones for you. It's best to have that option to decide and accept or decline, right? So what can you do?

• Be aware and open minded. Listen to what colleagues or business contacts are talking about and who or what they may know. 
• Be accessible. Make yourself easy to be found by people who have opportunities. Be accessible online in some social media or community groups or professional associations
• Let people know that you're open minded to opportunities perhaps not in your company, but outside of your professional circle - in your community, sports clubs, children's school, etc. Contacts are everywhere.
• Help others. If you hear of opportunities that could be useful to someone you know, get them connected. You never know when the favor is returned.
• Keep your CV current... just in case something comes up quickly. It's also a good way to track your achievements and newly developed skills with good detail - often something that's hard to do if you've been somewhere for several years and haven't reflected on what you've accomplished.

Test Lead Opportunity - Contract or Perm - Auckland

Are you an experienced test analyst ready to move to the next challenge? Here's a fantastic opportunity for a TEST LEAD role with an international consultancy that is globally recognized and highly ranked in its industry. Employer is flexible - this can be either a contract or permanent role.

Some requirements:

• Minimum 5 years commercial experience testing covering all areas of the testing lifecycle
• Ability to lead and collaborate with team members
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills 

To find out more about this opportunity, email me along with your CV.

If you're interested in other opportunities, you can also sign up for our newsletter.

 

Contracting vs Permanent Roles - What to do?

There's never an easy answer when it comes to deciding which path to pursue. But at least many highly skilled and experienced professionals have this option - especially in this year. Here's a basic rundown of what to consider. It's all up to your comfort levels in terms of what you define as "security" and how you feel about taking risks.

Permanent Jobs:

Most people, when asked to describe the benefits of a permanent job, would say "secure" or "stable". They see it as a guaranteed paycheck every fortnight or at the end of the month. I'm surprised if people still think this way in this day and age of recessions and live and let die. No job or company is completely 100% secure. Performance is still a condition, and of course the profitability of the company and market climate. But aside from that, sure it's relatively stable compared to contracting.

PROS of Perm Roles:

1. Relatively secure and stable - you can expect a certain amount of pay on a regular basis. Can budget your personal finances much easier. Ease of mind.

2. Depending on the company, certain employee perks and benefits - perhaps in-house training and other employee seminars or programs to take advantage of, health and fitness perks, etc.

3. Paid sick days and paid holidays

4. Kiwi saver or employer pension plan

5. You don't have to deal with tax administration, you receive your wages and your employer reports and deducts taxes for you

6. A sense of belonging to a collective group - camraderie 

 CONS of Perm Roles:

1. Lower pay. You receive significantly less than contracting in terms of hourly wage. As a salaried employee, most often you do overtime which is unpaid and often expected.

2. There is not much room for negotiation in salary once you've taken the job. All you have is your annual appraisal and that is regulated by a certain small percentage.

3. No flexibility in time. You need to also be present during the set work hours, regardless of the situation/workload. No opportunity to take an extended period of time off if needed.

4. You are not completely in control of your own time and efforts.

 

Contracting

The overall advantage of contracting is your independence and higher pay. You are your own boss and can decide where you want to work and command how much. The downside of it is that you are taking on more risks by constantly having to find a role to keep you going, and to be more financially responsible in your own taxation.

PROS of Contracting

1. Independence and flexibility - you can choose projects/contract jobs/companies you want to work for and when (that is, if there is a contract role available). You can make yourself available to all kinds of opportunities since you're not tied down.

2. Higher pay - contractors command a higher per hour wage, and with long projects, this can translate to a high "annual salary".

3. As a contractor, you are your own business. You have tax-deductible advantages and thus, have the ability to use pre-tax dollars to invest in your career/business.

4. Because you're more aware of your financial situation, you can be more savvy in your own financial planning.

5. Because you are more likely very experienced in your area (since you're hired strictly for that expertise), you are more marketable in that industry, anywhere.

 

CONS of Contracting

1. You need to sell yourself in gaining continuous contract roles. You have to be comfortable in networking and applying for new roles more frequently.

2. You have to feel comfortable in not having consistent income in between contracts, and IF that stretches out actually earning LESS MONEY not more.

3. To maintain/upgrade your marketability, you need to invest in your own training in different technologies (rather than having an employer pay for it or provide it)

4. As a business (either as a Sole Trader or Limited Company), you now have tax responsibilities in filing GST returns, provisional taxes and your own end-of-year taxes. 

5. May not get that "sense of belonging " if doing a lot of short-term contracts.

I'm sure there a several more reasons to place on either side of the equation, pro or con, but it boils down to what you value most (security vs. more money/independence), your personal situation (singleton? providing for a family of 5? rent? mortgage? ) and how you feel about your own skills and abilities. If you're thinking about contracting, see here how 2011 will be a bumper year for contractors. And if you're open to opportunities, link with me at LinkedIn.

Getting ready for the talent wars in 2008

The demand for IT talent has made employers up the ante in recruiting and especially retaining the exceptionally talented, creative and productive. ITworld.com lists 8 new weapons to fight the talent wars in '08. Here's a quick recap of their big 8 recruiting tools and strategies in getting the best and brightest:

1. Using social networks.
2. Using wikis, blogs, and forums.
3. Trying before buying, ie. right-to-hire agreements, contractors, temps
4. Global thinking - outsourcing abroad, specifically India, Russia, China
5. The anywhere workplace - providing for telecommuting and flexible work hours
6. Business vision - hiring more for than just strong technical skills; looking for people who are business savvy and have strong people skills to complement their technical strengths, no matter how hot the skill is (such as .net, PHP, J2EE expertise)
7. Pumped up paychecks (no explanation or comment required here!)
8. Imagination and creativity in compensation and perks - see examples of Great Work Perks, like on-site amenities, exotic research trips, gourmet cafes, countless bonus vacation time/sabbaticals, etc.

Now while these tactics are for employers and recruiters to use, potential candidates out there - take note of these "new weapons" and use some of them to your advantage in finding the best opportunity for you.

First in the list is social networks. If you've been keeping current with your online life (as you should be), you'd be strategic (and professional) in all your profiles and links with network sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Xing. According to surveys, more recruiters are using these online networks to filter in quality candidates because they can interact and get to know possible candidates better. Make sure you're easy to find and by the right people.

Second is Wikis, Blogs and Forums. The trend is for companies to "brand" themselves online through company blogs or employee blogs to attract potential talent. As such, online activity and your online personal '"branding" is important too. Work on your personal branding through your own blog and your contributions to forums. Again, elevate your profile for the right things (like expertise) and the right people.

Trying before Buying. If you're thinking of making a move to a new company or industry, it's probably a good idea for you to try it out as well. Consider a temporary assignment or contracting, although - contracting may be harder since the experience required for those roles are at the level where you can just hit the ground running with your expertise in that technical area and industry.

Business Vision. Work on your business and communication skills while you can in your current job and company. Get on projects where you're facing customers or clients or where you're playing a role in business strategy or managing relationships with other internal business units. Raise your profile in business relations and communication within your current role.

For everything else listed, it's important that you know exactly what your priorities are. What are the things that you'd forgo in order to have? Flexibility over cash? Vacation time over gym membership? Vice-versa? It's important that you know exactly what you want and can present yourself/negotiate when the time comes.

Job outlook for 2008

First off, I'd just like to wish you all an exciting and adventurous 2008! I think this year will be a challenging one for everyone but there are great opportunities out there and I think it's probably a really good time for those of you considering what you want out of your career to take stock and make some decisions. You might want to try asking yourself the following five questions to start the year:

1. What did I achieve in my career last year? (give yourself a pat on the back).
2. What would I really like to achieve in the next year? (push yourself).
3. How can I achieve that where I am now? (planning for it).
4. What is the long term goal that achieving this will support? (big dreams).
5. How can I achieve my long term goal where I am now? (more planning)

The best thing about planning like this is it will help you keep a weather report on whether or not your current employer is helping you achieve your dreams. If it becomes increasingly difficult to plan to achieve what you want where you are, then you need to start considering new places to work. Don't be overly keen to move though, the ability to creatively develop your job in any workplace can give you some very valuable skills as well. You also need to factor in some other important points that may be just as valuable as you getting the chance to achieve your goals. Good examples of that would be, the quality of mentors you have around you, and also the growth prospects of the company you are with. Both these factors can sometimes out weigh your goals because of the huge opportunities they can provide.

With all this in mind, rest assured you've got plenty of opportunities out there as companies look to increase staff, according to the latest Hudson survey of over 1700 employers. So reflect, take stock, and plan.

Tech Salary Negotiations - IT jobs | Negotiation Experts

Link: Tech Salary Negotiations - IT jobs | Negotiation Experts.

Here's a great article to read and to reread when the time comes for you to negotiate  in your job. Negotiation is such an important skill to have - not just for sales or if your job function is to close deals. It's for everyone who collaborates and works with other people. It's essential for you in managing your own career. It's a skill that definitely takes time and experience to master, and even then, it's something that you just need to prepare for well.

Calum Coburn gives an in-depth look at different negotiation rules and tactics for IT professionals when it comes to job offers and annual reviews. Why IT professionals? Because they mostly don't have that skillset or experience as say, sales or marketing people do. Nevertheless, I think these rules apply to everyone. So if you're about to go into a job offer salary negotiation or annual review, have a read of his 32 points. He also gives 4 exercises to complete to prepare for the big event.

Some things I'd like to comment on :

Point 4. His advice: Get all offers in writing. I say: Well, not necessarily. If this is about a job offer through a recruiter or headhunter, most often the negotiations are before the offer is written out. Most employers like to give a formal job offer in writing when the deal is done - that is, the job is accepted at a specific salary. Most involved parties in a job offer (the client, the recruiter, the candidate) want it to happen, so the going back and forth is done verbally before the final job offer is written. If the recruiter has done his or her job right, there should be a pretty close meeting of the minds when it gets close to that salary negotiation stage anyway. Of course, you always have the right to negotiate after the offer has been written, but you most likely would have played all your cards to get to that point. But with this in mind, it's Point number 14 is important - read the contract well.

Points 6 & 7 His advice: Set your sights high & Ask for more. It's true. You never know unless you ask. Have confidence but also be realistic and realize the circumstances of your situation. It's important to you know yourself well - to what levels you can perform and deliver.

Definitely a good checklist to keep and to refer back to when the time comes.

Recruit.net introduces 1-click salary checker for Australia and India

Link: recruit.net » Recruit.net introduces 1-click salary checker for Australia and India.

    
   

If you're interested in knowing how salaries compare in Australia or are actually looking for a job over there, check out Recruit.net. a job search engine primarily in Asia Pacific at the moment covering job opportunities in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and India. They have just partnered with PayScale (see earlier post) adding a 1-click salary checker to each job listing for Australia and India. Good resource to see what the market range is for specific roles in those countries. Hopefully they will be adding the salary checker to more countries.

Here are some of the reasons they give on why it's useful (I'm not sure about third one!):

- Wanting to negotiate a salary with a new employer, or reviewing your pay with your current company.

- Considering career or roles changes and wanting to know what the financial implication of making such a change is

- Wanting to know how much a potential romantic interest of yours makes (hey, the more information the better right?), etc.

Obviously, employers that visit us can also benefit of both the indicative salary information on the recruit.net site, or request a salary benchmark study to ensure your remuneration levels are on market.

 

Why You Should Give Referrals

I had an interesting question the other day from a candidate: "Why would anyone give you a referral when you get paid a huge fee and they get nothing?" I thought this was a great question. I actually addressed this in the Annual IT Architectural Summit I spoke at last week, so I thought I'd share my answer here.

Many would be surprised to hear that a lot of people give out referrals. And by far, most referrals I get are from senior candidates. That's right - senior candidates are easily the most open about not only giving referrals of people they know, but also giving what I call "blind referrals". This is when they hand out names of people who they think are reasonably good or worth talking to but aren't necessarily their personal contacts.

For senior candidates I think they see their ability to give referrals as almost an example of their strength and knowledge in their industry. It also shows that in their experience, they realize the importance and value of giving referrals as well as the long-term gains.

But to get down to the reasons why executives should give referrals: It's all about goodwill, reciprocity, and networking.

Goodwill. There's nothing really to explain here. When you help someone, it's a good thing. Becoming a referee for that person, referring that person to a recruiter for an opportunity - in the end, it's all for the benefit of that person - whether or not a new job actually materializes. The person you helped is better off by having had at least a chance to consider an opportunity. Opportunity is always a good thing.

Reciprocity. The Law of Reciprocation is powerful. I got this from Dr. Robert Cialdini, a widely recognized expert in negotiation studies, who said the power of reciprocation is extremely strong and should be used when presented with a moment of power; that is, when you have just done or given something beneficial to someone. When they thank you, it's up to you to seize that moment of power and respond:

"I'm sure you would do the same for me if I needed it."

That's the law of reciprocation. As it turns out from Dr. Cialdini's research, people will reciprocate when receiving a gift, advice, or help from someone, no matter how much time has passed from the initial giving. In what ways? Well, if you helped a colleague or former manager by referring them to a recruiter, or offering to be a referee for a potential employer, they may return the favour by looking out for your best interests as well.

Networking. This widens and the ties strengthen from you giving referrals.

The key is to give to them first. And the easiest way is refer them to a key person, or give them a referral if they need one for a new opportunity.

Hopefully, this answers the question. While it's hard to think past the short-term outcomes, like a referral fee, look to the long-term gains of having a quality relationship with someone in your network who can reciprocate goodwill to you when the time comes. It's an investment.

Giving referrals doesn't happen as much here in New Zealand as it does in larger markets, like the US or Japan. But it's something that I think should happen more often.

 

Emailing your CV - Do's and Don'ts

I saw this great quote by Jim Larranaga, George Mason University basketball coach: " I always tell the kids, 'You know what's great about going the extra mile? There's very little traffic.'" And since I was going to write about taking that extra effort in your email application to online job ads, I thought it suited well. After all, if you can make your email application stand out even before the recruiter has seen your resume, you've beaten out a lot of competition whose resumes wouldn't even be opened.

You really do need to go the extra mile whenever you apply for a job or talk to a recruiter. Nothing is as unimpressive as a blank email with only a CV attached and nothing written in the message. Personally, having to open an attached generic cover letter to every email is not something recruiters enjoy or do. So if you have something important to say, write it in your email.

Here are a couple things you shouldn't do:

• Use a generic cover letter - it just shows a lack of effort and interest. You'll get the same amount of interest in you from the recruiter as the effort you had put into copying that generic letter into your email message. (zilch)
• A slew of stand alone buzzwords that are overused by everyone and hardly indicative of anything at all about your performance and abilities.

What you SHOULD include in your email:

• A clear idea of what you're looking for in your next job. It should be  fairly short and to the point.  The idea you want to get across is that  you know yourself really well and can show your strengths clearly and how they fit with the specific job you're applying for.
• Buzzwords won't do it. But a list of achievements that are relevant to the job you are applying to WILL. These are clear examples of things that demonstrate good qualities and abilities.

So the next time you click the "Apply now" button, really take some time to think about how to make your email message stand out by being personal, clear, and relevant. By going that extra mile, you really will be competing against less people.

Networking an essential skill

Link: Give and you shall receive - 14 Feb 2007 - Employment.

Good advice from this article on networking. It's interesting to think of the idea of every person becoming his or her own “business” - since people are changing jobs more frequently, people are in a way becoming free agents, or independent "contractors". As a business, you need to develop and grow as well as market yourself – and the best way to do that is through growing your network. In addition to  suggestions in the article, becoming a part of the blogosphere and online networking makes it so much easier now. I also recommend Tim Sander's  Love is the Killer App - How to Win Business and Influence Friends and David Teten's and Scott Allen's The Virtual Handshake - Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online.