ITCareerCoach Training - Coaching » HR managers http://www.it-career-coach.net How To Take Your Career To The Next Level Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:09:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 How to Tap Into Magical Hiring Powers http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/08/18/how-to-tap-into-magical-hiring-powers/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/08/18/how-to-tap-into-magical-hiring-powers/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:28:09 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3269

Tapping Into Your Magical Hiring Powers

Tapping Into Your Magical Hiring Powers

As a Career Coach, I come across questions or discussions from job seekers “looking for recruiter who can get them a job“.

From the way these statements are worded, it seems that all it takes for the job seeker to get a job is finding a recruiter with magical hiring powers.

But, is it really true?

Do recruiters have hiring powers and how much of the success or failure of the job search depends on the recruiter’s magical hiring powers?

In this post, I will clarify the recruiter’s role and show you how to tap into the magical hiring powers available to job search candidates!

  1. Recruiters Are Gatekeepers

    Recruiters, staffing agencies or placement services simply screen and then forward resumes to employers / clients.

    A placement service will forward your resume to the client / employer if you have performed jobs in the past related to the job posting.

    If the employer is picky about resumes or complains about the quality / number of job candidates, the staffing / placement service will raise the requirements for submission.

    But keep in mind that recruiters do not exclusivity to job postings in a broad sense because you can always forward your resume to employers, have a staffing agency do it for you or do both.

  2. Recruiters Are Lie Detectors

    Generally speaking, many recruiters in the Information Technology (IT) industry do not have a technical background.

    They have not worked with or used the tools listed on your resume / job posting and cannot really say whether you are qualified or not.

    So, what they do is check your resume to see if it will pass a very basic, unsophisticated lie detector.

    Recruiters want to know such things like: where you have worked, what titles you held and whether you are eligible t work for the client.

    Note: when working with recruiters, take the extra step of convincing them that your resume and background is a good fit, because they may not be able to tell the difference!

  3. Can Staffing Agencies Claim Exclusivity?

    Generally, employers will use multiple staffing agencies and then use their own internal hiring team to narrow the pool of resumes down to a few candidates who would be interviewed or hired.

    An Employer may also decide to be discreet about the hiring process and use only one staffing agency.

    But even in this case, the staffing agency does not make a hiring decision. All the placement service can do for you is forward your resume to the employer.

  4. Who Makes Hiring Decisions?

    In all cases, it’s the employer’s internal hiring team / manager that makes the hiring decision and not the placement / staffing agency.

    Recruiters do not have magical hiring powers and you cannot base your job search on claims of exclusivity by a recruiter.

    Remember that the job search process is a democratic process and that you, the staffing agency and the employer all participate or play active roles in the process.

Discover Magic In A Law Of Numbers

One of the most important laws in the hiring process is the law of numbers.

This law says that “the more resumes you submit and job interviews you take, the greater your chances of getting hired!”

The law of numbers gives you magical hiring powers because the more recruiters, staffing or placement agencies you submit your resume to … the greater are your chances of getting hired.

So, my advice is, don’t look up to recruiters, staffing / placement agencies instead, look-up to yourself by tapping into your own magical hiring powers!


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/08/18/how-to-tap-into-magical-hiring-powers/feed/ 1 6 Principles That Transform Your Work http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/04/6-principles-that-transform-your-work/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/04/6-principles-that-transform-your-work/#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 07:01:42 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3132

six principles that transform your career

six principles that transform your work

Are you looking for a transformation in your work situation? Follow these 6 rock solid success principles that summarize what I have learned about building careers or online communities!

Whatever your industry, background or situation, these six principles will help you “Discover Your Passion“, “Do What You Love” or “Take Your Passion To Market“.

The first two (2) principles are designed to help you choose work that matches your strengths, education, training, background, skills, experience, hobbies or interests.

Principle #1 – Choose Work Based On Passion

Work is much easier or more fulfilling when you do something that you are passionate about as opposed to something that stresses you!

On the other hand, when you are not passionate about your work, you will lack the desire to excel or motivation to perform at work!

Some people don’t believe in the “Do What You Love And The Money Will Follow” principle because the picture that comes to their mind is that of starving artists who do what they love and yet cannot pay their bills.

The good news is that you don’t have to be a starving artist because you can actually do what you love and have the money follow you :-)

The first step on this path to success, is choosing work that is at the intersection of something you’re good at, something you care about and something other people in your chosen industry, niche or market need, find useful and are willing to pay for.

Read this article titled: “How The Starving Artist Achieves Career Success Using Social Media“.

Principle #2 – Learn the Most Marketable Skills

Learn the most marketable skills for the work that you have chosen to do.

Your skills are just a means to an end which usually involves meeting the needs of customers in the industry or market.

When it comes to choosing skills that you will learn, be as objective as possible and choose based on facts or data as opposed to emotions or personal opinions.

Remember that the more marketable your skills are, the easier it will be for you to find a new job, earn an income or stay employed.

Read this post titled: learn the most marketable skills

It is easy to learn the marketability of a skill, just count the number of job postings that require that skill!

For your own personal education, after reading this post, “Download the Free Report” below which describes the Top 100, Most Marketable Skills in the Online Employment Industry.

The next two principles described on this post belong to a coaching course titled: “Do What You Love“.

These two principles will take your performance to an advanced level or give you the freedom to do what you love without fear of failure.

Principle #3 – Stay Current In Your Industry

Stay current with the information coming out of your industry by reading a lot of blog posts, articles or books.

Do not neglect to read professional textbooks because the fundamental principles, concepts and techniques are often explained in great details in them.

Subscribe to and read the blog post of the most influential professionals in your industry. Nowadays, the latest, cutting-edge information is often posted in blogs before it makes its way out to industry textbooks.

Invest time and money in learning because ours is a knowledge-based economy and the most valuable currency is your knowledge, skills or experience and not the money saved in your bank account.

In other words, the more you learn and put to work, the more money you will earn … and the less you learn, the more likely you are to lose your income!

Principle #4 – Advance Your Skills By Taking Tests

Study hard but better still, take frequent tests because they improve retention, comprehension and recall and also help you excel at work by sharpening your skills!

Read more about the Benefits of Taking Tests in this post titled: How To Ace Job Interviews Using Practice Tests.

It is important that you become highly skilled because when the economy sheds jobs, the easiest jobs to cut are those employing the least skilled workers and the most likely to get hired again, are the most skilled workers!

In other words, the only safety net for your job is to become highly skilled at your work, career or business!

Remember that you live in a global economy where a job can be outsourced to a professional living in another country simply because that professional is better skilled than you.

An article by Pam Belluck of the New York Times reports a new scientific finding in the “January 2011 Science Journal” which backs up my findings about the importance of taking frequent practice tests.

Click here to read the article titled: “To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test”.

This scientific finding suggests that taking tests is good not only for certification exams or assessing knowledge but for helping people learn new information as well!

The conclusion is that students who read and take a test asking them to recall what they just read perform better than those who use traditional learning techniques!

The next two principles described on this post belong to a online coaching course or web design & web marketing consulting services titled: “Bring Your Passion To Market“.

These last two success principles are important because without marketing your ideas, skills or business, someone else who is less qualified but more visible will take the opportunities meant for you!

Principle #5 – Blog Your Way To Success

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket by depending solely on your resume and online job postings. Learn to market your career with a blog.

Blogging is the process of putting out well-researched, informative or authoritative articles on your industry. When done right, it will keep you visible to a high number of employers.

Blogging can distinguish you in a global, competitive job market by helping you develop and market a unique personal brand, which is something that employers apparently value!

The value of blogging is that it can open the communication doors between you and potential employers or customers.

As you talk or write, yo differentiate yourself from your competitors and potential customers or employers begin to value your expertise.

Principle #6 – Invest In An Online Community

Invest time, effort and money in an online community that incorporates your strengths, your blog posts and your social media networking activities.

Your online community must be built around your passion and your strengths so that members feel energized, inspired, motivated or helped when they interact with you.

If you passionately help out your community members by giving your time and expertise, they will reciprocate the favor by referring customers, employers or new opportunities your way.

Building an online community can only be described as the best publicity or customer relationship management (CRM) tool and in the end all the good work that you do will benefit your reputation, online brand, business or career as well.

Bring Your Passion To Market: regardless of how good your skills are, you must stay visible to employers or potential customers, if you want to get hired.

These six (6) principles are documented in my FREE thirty six (36) page Report titled: “The Survivors Guide To Unemployment” which you can download below.

Click here to discover your passion: or find work that is at the intersection of something you’re good at, something you care about and something other people in your chosen industry, niche or market need, find useful and are willing to pay for.

Or hire our web design & web marketing consulting services: to help you bring your passion (ideas, products, services, skills or business) to market.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/04/6-principles-that-transform-your-work/feed/ 0 Which Courses or Certifications Guarantee A Job? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/13/which-certifications-or-courses-guarantee-a-job/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/13/which-certifications-or-courses-guarantee-a-job/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 01:11:22 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3070

Which Certifications Or Courses Guarantee Jobs?

Which Certifications Or Courses Guarantee Jobs?

This question is frequently asked by job candidates searching for certifications or training courses they can put on their resume, present to an employer and get a job.

However, the answer to the question: which online courses, certifications, college degrees or classroom courses guarantee a job is NONE!

This type of question is seriously flawed because it assumes that there is something out there … a college degree or online course or certification program, that you can put on your resume and hired fast!

But what really guarantees you a job is the depth of your handson experience, skills and knowledge or your ability to convey, present or market your career competency in a job interview.

Yet many job candidates read a job posting and then immediately say to themselves: “regardless of the requirements for this job, who or what can endorse me?”

Instead of addressing the gaps between the job posting and their “skills, knowledge or experience”, they try to short-circuit the employment process with the rubber stamping of a course or certificate!

Listen, don’t try to game the employment system. The only way you can guarantee yourself a job is by giving employers what they want … which is typically stated in your plain view on the job posting!

Dear Friend,

Start your job search by first placing yourself in the employers shoes and not with pre-conceived, mis-leading or half-baked ideas on how the job market works!

In this post, I will help you understand how the job market works because this knowledge will keep you employable for years regardless of your chosen profession.

WHAT DO EMPLOYERS WANT FROM JOB SEEKERS?

The first and most important question that you have to answer before you begin a job search is the question: “What Are Employers Hiring For?“

At a minimum, 80% of the jobs out there have these basic requirements:

  1. Knowledge Requirement – the comprehension or understanding of the practical facts needed to get the job done.

    This knowledge may be gained from an online class, traditional classroom course, coaching, mentoring or self-study program.

    Employers don’t care how you get the knowledge … they just want to be assured that you have it!

  2. Skills Requirement – the ability to recall knowledge and apply the right solutions to problems.

    Skill is developed by rehearsing the answers or solutions to common problems using practice tests, quizzes or certification programs or by repeatedly solving a problem on the job.

    Most employers will probe your skill-level at the job interview regardless of what you claim on the resume.

  3. Handson Experience Requirement – the quality of exposure to real-world projects where your skills and knowledge are used to solve practical problems.

    Note that handson experience is not given by certification programs.

    Handson experience is developed over time by performing the roles, responsibilities or duties associated with your career.

  4. Personality Match Requirement – employers want you to have the right personality for a job and the right personality for their corporate or organizational structure.

    You may be a well-qualified job candidate and still fail at a job interview because the hiring manager perceives a clash or mis-match between your personality and the company culture!

  5. Marketability Requirement – the probability that you will get a job is also dependent on the demand for your skills.

    If you want additional guarantees that you will be hired … pay attention to the job outlook for your career!

    The less your skills are in-demand, the more aggressive you must be with your job search and the more your skills are in demand, the more you are guaranteed a job.

Now, let’s review the responsible actions you may take to guarantee yourself a job.

BRIDGE THE KNOWLEDGE GAP

Learn everything you can about your career or job using self-study, coaching, mentoring or training programs.

Don’t make up educational requirements thinking that it will move your employer to hire you.

Employers care less about your endorsement from an educational institution but they care most about the relevancy of your knowledge, training or education to their job!

BRIDGE THE SKILLS GAP

Your skills measure how practiced you are at solving problems or your competency.

Skills are developed by taking lots of practice tests or by repeating quizzes until you can answer questions or solve problems without thinking.

Expect an employer to test your skills by asking open-ended questions at a job interview …. which you have to answer promptly, comprehensively and confidently.

BRIDGE THE EXPERIENCE GAP

You can only develop handson experience by working on real-world problems.

So, the more tasks, duties, roles, responsibilities, assignments or projects you take on … the more experienced you become.

Be creative and find ways to get experience even without a job because your getting hired depends on it!

MATCH THE PERSONALITY

Employers want you to have the right personality for a career and also for their corporate culture.

Here are a few personality mis-match situations for your consideration:

Computer programmers are expected to be more geeky than business analysts and project managers are expected to be more assertive than either software developers or business analysts.

If you’re an introvert or shy of developing relationships or weak at verbal communications, you may fail at convincing hiring managers that you are good fit for their business analyst or project management jobs!

So, now you have it … THE GUARANTEED WAY OF FINDING A JOB.

Do not abandon these FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF HIRING for endorsements of any kind because that would be like chasing your own shadow!

With all this in mind, here is how our online courses, coaching, training programs or step-by-step bootcamps will help you:

  1. Knowledge – You may get the knowledge needed to do your job through our online video training or coaching courses.
  2. Skills – You can use our quizzes or practice tests to boost your skills or even ace certification examinations.
  3. Experience – You can use our in-built, handson assignments or coaching advice to jumpstart the experience needed for your career.

This how we (IT Career Coach) help … by aligning you with the requirements of your career or job.


What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?



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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/13/which-certifications-or-courses-guarantee-a-job/feed/ 2 Don’t Worry Get Married: How to Cope With An Ever Increasing Workload! http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/09/16/how-to-cope-work-life-conflicts/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/09/16/how-to-cope-work-life-conflicts/#comments Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:59:10 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3002

don't worry get married

don't worry get married

This post is written for professionals looking for ways to cope with conflicting or demanding work and life commitments.

How to cope with an ever increasing workload? Tech workers are under increasing pressure to get more work done during office hours, vacation time, weekend time or even away from the office at home.

How to keep up with the demands of our careers? And IT professionals are worrying about how they can learn new technologies or sharpen their current skills because of the constantly changing face of technology.

So, we are going to address the increasing pressure on IT workers to get more work done in less time or keep up with the fast pace of market and technological change.

Let me tell you a story

In January, one of the business analysts attending our training from the United Kingdom, (UK) asked us for help on how to deal with a conflicting personal situation.

You see, she had enrolled in the Business Analyst Boot Camp, a few weeks earlier but was now in a dilemma that proved to be an eye opener for us.

A few weeks earlier, when she started the training, she knew exactly what she was going to do with her life. She was going to attend our business analyst training, pay serious attention to her studies and carry on with her work or professional duties.

But as we’ve all experienced at one point or the other, life happened to her and she fell in love and decided to get married!

So, this was her dilemna, “how to get married in January, take time off for her wedding and at the same time avoid disrupting her business analyst training schedule!“.

Here is the good news: in-addition to getting married, our priceless scheduling & time management feature built into our learning management / training system (LMS) allowed her to achieve a work-life goal without adding to the stress of her hectic wedding preparation.

How We Can Help You Achieve Work or Life Balance More Easily

You can manage or schedule the demands of your workplace, life or personal commitments using the scheduling or life-management features built into our learning software.

  • What happens if you miss a lesson?

    When you’re assigned a practice test, assignment or video training and you don’t complete it for any reason including work or life scheduling conflicts, you will start receiving late reminders.

    However, these late reminders are sent without any penalties because our learning system will keep your course active and waiting for as long as it takes you to get back on track!

  • What happens if you are unavailable?

    Assuming that you will be unavailable for a longer period of time or you simply don’t want to get late e-mail reminders, simply PAUSE the training from your learning software with no penalty.

    What this really means is that you may RESUME or PAUSE your training at-will and the learning management software will keep a track of what you’re working on now or what you’ll be learning next!

Every part of our training is designed for professionals living in the real-world. We understand that dealing with life or work scheduling pressures is important to you, so we’ve provided you with tools that allow you to take control of your schedule.

A Recap Of How To Cope With Life Or Work Scheduling Conflict

  1. You may take your training during office hours or at home or from any location that fits your schedule as long as you have a computer and a high-speed connection.

  2. You may submit your late assignments or watch your training videos at any time of the day or late … after they are due. There is no penalty for late assignments.

  3. You may PAUSE or RESUME your training because you’re going to be unavailable for longer periods of time This feature may also be used by you at-will.

  4. You can complete the training on time or late. There is no pressure from us or system constraint that forces you to get out of the training after a certain number of weeks or days.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/09/16/how-to-cope-work-life-conflicts/feed/ 0 #3 Success Principle: When It Comes To Experience, Beggars Can’t Be Choosers http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/01/07/3-success-principle-when-it-comes-to-experience-beggars-cant-be-choosers/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/01/07/3-success-principle-when-it-comes-to-experience-beggars-cant-be-choosers/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:17:52 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2753

Beggars Can't Be Choosers

Beggars Can't Be Choosers

One of the bigger issues facing IT professionals is: “the challenge of building experience“.

This challenge exists because employers still require experience for hiring, even when you need their jobs to build experience!

It’s the classic Catch-22: “chicken or egg which came first challenge” that may be solved through internships or full-time jobs.

However, internships are getting increasingly competitive (Read More …) and employers are still insisting on handson experience before making job offers.

Why Internships Are Hard To Get

For a while, internships helped provide the missing handson experience to IT professionals learning new skills or transitioning careers.

Now internships are hard to come by because employers are refusing the burden of hiring or managing interns. And here is the reason why:

  1. Productivity: interns need to be managed by experienced employees meaning that productive time will be lost to employers.

    Productive time is lost when experienced workers have to show interns the ropes, supervise or assign work to them.

  2. Risk: employers are unwilling to invest in interns because they are more likely to fail at completing their assigned tasks or duties.

    There is also the added risk of redoing the work done by interns when it fails to meet expectations!

  3. Money: employers hesitate to pay interns because there aren’t sure of the immediate economic benefits and they refuse to hire unpaid interns because unpaid interns also cost money and time to supervise or train!

How To Build Experience From Scratch … Without A Job

The challenge facing those that fixate on getting experience through internship programs or full time jobs is that of becoming stumped … when they can’t get either.

Really, when it comes to getting experience, the key is to stay flexible, creative or open minded because full-time jobs and internship programs are getting harder to come by.

How To Build Experience From Scratch By Keeping An Open Mind

  • Focus on Smaller Projects: don’t fixate on finding big projects because you are more unlikely to get big project exposure with little or no experience.

    Start with smaller projects first, because that is where your current background, skills or experience is likely to be needed or appreciated.

  • Build Up Experience Gradually: don’t expect to get a ton of experience in a short time. Instead, spread your efforts at building experience over a longer period of time.

    Overtime, the cumulative effect of all your project based work will begin to show and you will be rewarded for your hard work.

  • Don’t Fixate on Money: don’t be too picky about your income when you’re still building up your experience because the ticket to getting paid more money is more experience!

    Start by building your experience first and then work towards a better compensation afterwards!

  • Don’t Think Too Highly of Yourself: don’t be looking down on smaller projects because you’re thinking they’re beneath you and don’t be fretting over the size of your role, task or opportunity either!

    Always put your best foot forward and build up your experience at every turn. Because that is how to ensure that you qualify for bigger projects or even a full time job!

  • Stay Flexible, Creative and Open Minded: be on the lookout for experience building opportunities that don’t fall under traditional internship or full-time jobs.

    For example, you may signup for unpaid, volunteer work or start your own consulting business (yes, you can consult on almost any subject) or register for Hands On IT Career Training (click here for more information)

Expect that you will always be learning new skills or transitioning careers because of the constantly changing face of technology.

Understand that staying open minded will help you discover more ways to build handson experience without a job or an internship program.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/01/07/3-success-principle-when-it-comes-to-experience-beggars-cant-be-choosers/feed/ 1 How To Find Affordable, Flexible Career Training Programs http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/03/05/how-to-find-affordable-flexible-career-training-programs/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/03/05/how-to-find-affordable-flexible-career-training-programs/#comments Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:32:00 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/03/05/how-to-find-affordable-flexible-career-training-programs/

If you want to excel in an information technology career, you need to make a career plan or plot a career road map that will take you from your current skill level to a professional, highly skilled or expert level.

You will also need to create a plan for maintaining your skills at the level of
top performers or experts in your field when you get there.

Whatever your current career (business analyst, data analyst, software
developer, report writer, database developer, web designer, etc.), you need to
sharpen your skills using one or more of the following training options:

1. Self Learning

2. Online Training

3. On The Job Training

4. Coaching or Mentoring

5. Classroom Training

The best training programs I have found include a combination of two or more of
these training options.

Personally, I have invested a lot of time and money in self learning, online
training, on the job learning and coaching or mentoring. I have also
invested in class room training, but not to the same extent as the other
training methods.

What is really important, is that you create a definite goal for what
you want to attain and then define the specific training you will use to
achieve those goals.

This is important because without constantly training your skills, you will
begin to lag behind your colleagues.

When that happens, you will find it hard to ace your technical interview or
get hired, you will be passed over for promotions and you will be one
of the most likely to get fired on your team. Your job performance
will also suffer and you will begin to show signs that you lack the
confidence to do your job well.

How to choose the best training program for your career

Here are some tips that will help you choose the best training program for your
career:

Choosing Self Learning or Teach Yourself Programs

Self Learning or teach yourself programs are usually the cheapest programs of
studying. All you have to do is buy a book on the subject or topic you
are interested in learning. For example, there are books on Amazon.com on almost
any subject under the sun. You can also purchase e-books written by subject
matter experts (SMEs) on any skill you want to learn.

The advantage of self study is that it is the cheapest way to learn a topic.

The disadvantage of self-study is that you may still not understand a topic
after reading a book on it. Also, the books you buy may end up collecting dust
on your shelf because it takes a lot more personal discipline or effort to buy a
book and read it.

Choosing Online Training

Online training also known as e-learning, virtual classroom training or distance
learning is growing in popularity because online training is cheaper than
physical class room training.

Online training is usually location independent which means that you can
in theory take an online class from any location in the world as long as you
have a computer and an internet connection.

Online training is also more convenient for working adults who cannot afford to
take out time from work and family commitments to drive to a physical training
class.

Online training is more self-paced and more convenient than classroom training
because you may attend a virtual class at a time (evening, morning, afternoon).

The disadvantage of online training compared to to physical class room training
is that you don't have the physical, intimate bonding experience of being in the
same class with students and course instructors. For some, the lack of physical
proximity with other students and class instructors is intimidating, so they
will not enjoy an online training class.

Choosing On The Job Training

Learning with or mastering "on the job training" is a necessity requirement for
today's information technology careers. This is because no matter how much
online training, or self-studying or class room training you take, you will
always have to learn something new on your job.

For example, you will need to learn the business processes of every company you
work for, on-the-job. Also, it is not practical for your employer to send you to
a class, each time a new software program or technology is installed at your
place of work.

What this really means, is that you need to be adept at learning on the job to
survive in today's fast-paced and highly competitive information technology job
market.

Choosing Coaching or Mentoring

You need to have at least one coach or mentor at every level of your
career.

Your coach should be someone who is more experienced than you and can help guide
you through the challenges you will face on the job.

As you progress in your career, you will be faced with decisions that you
will not be able to find answers for in an online training class or book or
classroom.

Successful people in every career or discipline can easily name coaches or
mentors who influenced, inspired or guided them to greater success than they
where capable of by themselves.

The question "you should be asking" is not whether you need a mentor, but
"who is best suited to be your mentor"?

Adopting a mentor can be as simple as asking someone who is much higher than you
at work to be your mentor.

You can also read the publications, articles, books and informational products
published by professionals or experts that you recognize in your industry.

Remember that you need a mentor and that you also have complete freedome in how
you go about selecting or choosing a mentor … so choose wisely :-)

Class Room Training

Class room training is one of the more traditional programs of learning a skill.

The advantage of classroom training is the physical proximity between you and
your teacher.

The disadvantage of classroom training includes the cost of attending it.
Classroom training usually requires more of your time and costs more money.

My advice to you is to constantly sharpen and improve your skills, your career
and your life using two or more affordable and flexible career
training programs. If you do that continuously, you will become one of those
people who succeeds in developing their personal talents and skills in their
career or life.

About The Author

My name is Kingsley Tagbo and I’m a technical expert living in Saint Louis,
Missouri. I write about the training, coaching, mentoring
and personal development of software development professionals including
business analysts, computer programmers, testers, project managers, web
designers, data analysts, report writers, software developers and other
information technology professionals .

My firm, Exacticity, performs software development consulting and training for
clients throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore,
Australia and New Zealand. If you are in need of software development
consultants or training, target="_blank"
title="contact the author">click here to get in touch with me.


What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?



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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/03/05/how-to-find-affordable-flexible-career-training-programs/feed/ 6 How To Find, Hire Or Retain Good Software Developers Easily http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/13/how-to-find-hire-or-retain-good-software-developers-easily/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/13/how-to-find-hire-or-retain-good-software-developers-easily/#comments Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:05:29 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/13/how-to-find-hire-or-retain-good-software-developers-easily/

There is a high demand by IT managers for good, competent and skilled software
developers right now.A good number of software development job postings for
leading or cutting edge software development skills are taking longer and longer
to fill.

1. The demand for experienced, skilled software developers in Java, C# .NET,
Visual Basic .NET, SQL Server, SharePoint and ASP.NET exceeds the supply of
available, skilled and competent computer programmers.

2. Software job postings are taking longer to fill. In some cases, they are not
getting filled at all. I have seen IT directors, IT managers and hiring managers
post "job wanted" advertisements for .NET programmers or C# programmers that
take months to fill.

3. When IT directors, IT managers or hiring managers use recruiting firms, they
have to pay a premium to find competent computer programmers. IT staffing
agencies bill $70/hr. or more for finding and placing skilled temporary
Java, C#, ASP.NET and SQL Server computer programmers. Employers sometimes have
to pay as much as a hefty 20% placement fee to convert skilled temporary
software developers into a permanent employees.

Here a few tips that can help you with finding or hiring good, competent or
expert software developers.

How to find and hire competent software developers

1. Telecommuting:

Offer your software developers the option to telecommute as a perk.

I am amazed at how in 2008, not enough IT managers are offering telecommuting as
a benefit. Offering partial or full telecommuting will allow you to attract more
highly skilled and competent software developers because it is getting harder to
compete for and win software developers based on offering better salaries, 401K
or medical benefits. But you can more easily attract the attention of software
developers by offering telecommuting as a benefit.

2. Software Development Tools:

Invest in enterprise software development tools to attract and keep the right
software development talent. If you are an IT manager, project manager, IT
director, hiring manager, software development manager or you have the authority
to hire and manage software developers, make sure that you have a budget for
software development tools such as testing tools, requirement management tools,
database development tools, web development tools, source code management and
versioning tools and software build management tools.

If you don't or you skip buying the professional tools your software developers
need, you may find it more difficult to hire, attract or retain good software
development talent. Good, experienced or competent software developers expect to
use these software development tools for their day-to-day tasks and rank
employers who provide them with professional software development tools higher
than employers who don't.

3. Train your programmers:

Invest in the training of your computer programmers and other information
technology workers who are interested in learning computer programming.

Don't lose sight of the fact that computer programming is a skill that can be
learned just like any other skill. With the shortage of skilled, competent and
experienced computer programmers, you need to explore training employees who are
interested in learning programming knowing that you can get the return on your
investment (ROI) within a year.

Training has the effect of raising employee morale because it demonstrates that
you care and believe in the employee. It also provides you with a means of
standing out in the industry as an employer who invests in their employees.
Training your existing computer programmers also signals to senior, experienced
and competent software developers that you are the kind of employer who looks
after the career of your software developers.

These tips will make it is easier, less expensive and faster for you to find,
hire or retain good software developers. If you need assistance with
implementing any of these tips,
target="_blank"
title="contact the author">click here to get in touch with me.

About The Author

My name is Kingsley Tagbo and I’m a technical expert living in Saint Louis,
Missouri. I write about the training, coaching, mentoring
and personal development of software development professionals including
business analysts, computer programmers, testers, project managers, web
designers, data analysts, report writers, software developers and other
information technology professionals .

My firm, Exacticity, performs software development consulting and training for
clients throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and
New Zealand. If you are in need of software development consultants or training,
target="_blank"
title="contact the author">click here to get in touch with me.


What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?



What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here




ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES


Visit our Shopping Cart

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