IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done (20 page)

•
Travel.
If there is travel required in the position, it's important that it be identified. Traditionally, it's identified as a percentage of time. It's important to be as honest here as possible. Since most candidates look negatively on travel requirements, you might want to be extra careful and overestimate the amount of travel. You may also want to describe the travel in more detail (local/domestic/international, or short trips of two or three days vs. weeks or months at a time).

•
Salary.
If you include a salary in a PD, give a range. If there is a bonus, simply say “bonus eligible.”

Figure 3.1 
Sample position description.

Advertising Options

First, Post Internally

In some companies, you
must
post open positions internally first. Find out if your company requires you to do so or allows you to do so only if you wish. Typically HR feels that existing employees should have the first shot at any new openings, and it is bad form for employees to find out about an opening through external sources. And sometimes you may want to let people within your department know a job opening is about to be created, but other times you may not want that information known until the last minute. Whatever you do, don't try and have it both ways; employees will find out that you are advertising behind their backs and your reputation (deservedly) will suffer. In short, don't advertise (inside or out) until you're ready for everyone to know about it.

Popular Websites

There has been a tremendous shakeout in job sites, and after many sites merged, there are only a few left standing. Monster.com, Dice.com, CareerBuildeer.com, and your local
craigslist.org
are the most popular. There are also site aggregators, such as Indeed.com and Jobster.com, that scour all of these sites and consolidate the results. In general, job posting sites are free to the candidates, but require the hiring firm to pay a fee to post the ad.

There are a small number of sites that also require the candidate to pay a fee, such as TheLadders.com and ExecuNet.com. However, there is no consensus among either candidates or recruiters that sites like these offer any real increased value.

In addition, social networking sites geared toward professionals, such as LinkedIn, have also become very popular, not only for posting job ads, but for actively searching for candidates that meet your criteria. In addition, websites for trade journals and professional associations very often have job postings.

Web Posting Issue to Think About

The good news is that your job will be shown to millions of people; the bad news is that your job will be shown to millions of people. And most jobs in IT can't be filled by millions of people.

Be prepared for a large number of responses. It sounds like a nice problem to have until it happens to you. Online postings routinely generate hundreds of responses in the first few days—even if you have the job sites filter the results.

Networking

Filling a job via networking can be a very rewarding process. Start by talking to your professional contacts (peers, subordinates, HR representatives, coworkers from former jobs, sales representatives, contacts you meet at conferences and seminars). You don't have to go into great detail, just briefly mention the type of job you have open, along with a brief description of what you're looking for.

Your network of contacts, though, extends far beyond the people you currently work with, as well as those you used to work with. Some people are ferocious networkers, tracking every contact made at a social setting in a complex database. You don't have to be that person, but know that your range of contacts is much larger than you might think; imagine talking to people at your church, or neighbors, Little League coaches, people you meet at trade shows, and so on. A little word of mouth can go a long way.

As mentioned before, social networking sites such as LinkedIn.com, Plaxo.com, ZoomInfo.com, and Facebook.com have become valuable tools for developing networks and contacts for both job seekers and job providers. A 2010 survey by Jobvite.com of HR and recruiting professionals found that:

•
92 percent currently use or plan to recruit via social networks

•
Of this group, 86 percent use LinkedIn, 60 percent use Facebook, and 50 percent use Twitter for recruiting

•
50 percent of hiring companies plan to invest more in social recruiting, while only 17 percent will spend more on job boards and 36 percent will spend less on job boards

•
58 percent have successfully hired through a social networking site

•
Of those that have hired through social networking, 89 percent did hires from LinkedIn.com (source: recruiting.jobvite.com/resources/social-recruiting-survey.php)

Professional Contacts

•
The HR department may have recently interviewed someone who was rejected for a position in another department, but perhaps fits your requirements better.

•
Members of your, or other, departments may know of people at their former jobs.

•
Your vendor representatives, who are probably already familiar with your environment, may know individuals at their other customer sites who would be a good match.

•
Perhaps someone who was a close second for a previous open position can be called back in for this position.

•
Professional organizations that either you or one of your staff belong to can be a good resource.

•
Local schools and universities may provide contacts.

Personal Contacts

•
People on your staff may have friends and colleagues who they can vouch for and know are looking for jobs. This connection brings a real bonus: What higher compliment is there for you as a manager than for one of your subordinates to recommend a friend to work for you?

•
Your community can provide you with a rich source of potential job leads. Let the word get out to your friends, to fellow community members, to neighbors, and to fellow squash players that you're looking to hire someone.

•
For all you know, the next person you meet at a Fourth of July barbecue softball game could know the ideal candidate for you.

Effectiveness of Networking

Does networking work? It sure does. Does it work every time? No. It's a matter of luck and timing, the people you contact, and the way you talk about the job, as well as other factors that you can't always identify. You never know the chain of connections that will lead you to the right contact. In fact, one of the coauthors found a job via someone he went to Sunday school with and hadn't spoken to in over 15 years. One of the nice things about networking is that it can be the least expensive way to find candidates, but it may not be the fastest or most effective. However, you can always use networking in conjunction with other recruiting methods.

Job/Recruiting Fairs

The value of job fairs has always been debated but its value has radically diminished for IT jobs in these everything-is-online days. There are job fairs that still work for some jobs, but in the relatively specialized world of IT, weeding candidates (and companies) online is much more efficient for both parties. Some companies still attend job fairs, but these jobs in IT tend to be “client-facing”; that is, there will be some contact with customers and companies want to see how potential employees present themselves. There is also concern that job fairs are more likely to bring the more desperate candidates (i.e., those willing to wait in long lines) as opposed to the most qualified.

The (Limited) Value of Print Advertising

The days of choosing one type of job ad over another are fading; newspapers, as part of their push to move online, have partnered with job websites. Many newspapers are offering print as well as online listings. Although print ads are a dying breed, they aren't dead yet. Very senior positions still often appear in “display ads” in the business section. Some companies choose to use print ads
in addition
to online ads, and some choose to use print
instead
of online, perhaps as a way of attempting to reach a different demographic. As recently as 2011, one of the coauthors spotted an ad for a CIO in the classified job section of the
New York Times
amidst several columns of IT job listings. Perhaps since the company was obviously looking for a seasoned executive, they thought that the newspaper might be a more targeted medium (maybe assuming that the type of candidate they're looking for probably grew up in the days when newspapers were pretty much the only venue for job advertisements). Or perhaps they were looking for a candidate who was thinking a bit outside the usual box of job search methods.

3.3 Recruiters

Whether you call them recruiters, agents, or headhunters, they are a fact of life in the modern corporate hiring world. Recruiters generally don't have a great reputation. Sometimes that poor reputation is deserved; many other times, however, a recruiter can mean the difference between success and failure of a project that is relying heavily on very specific types of employees. Using a recruiter has both advantages and disadvantages. Weigh them carefully before deciding. The costs for making the wrong choice can be high.

In truth, a recruiter is probably going to use some of the same methods (the Web, networking, etc.) that are discussed in this chapter, which you could easily use yourself.

Another factor to consider is that recruiters’ roles have shrunk dramatically in direct relation to the rise of job sites. The recruiting industry has also suffered from the recent economic downturn that saw more layoffs than hires. Finding a candidate on Monster.com may be the right method for you, but using an old-fashioned recruiter has some positives and negatives, too. Details for each option are discussed in
Table 3.4
.

Table 3.4.
Pros and Cons to Using a Recruiter