To take advantage of said high salary rates, many IT professionals approach IT staffing agencies to look for jobs. Said IT staffing jobs will cover a wide range of positions from web masters and developers to computer systems administrators and network engineers. As the competition for available jobs grows, so does the number of people looking for work through IT staffing organizations.
Benefits of Using Staffing Agencies
Said growing popularity can also be attributed to the many benefits of becoming a contractual employee of an IT recruitment agency. Here then are a few of these benefits from the perspective of the IT professionals:
* Most of the clients in need of IT services prefer to work via their partner recruitment agencies to avoid the hiring process. In the end, your resume may still be sent to the staffing agency for evaluation purposes.
* There is no need to deal with the clients before actual work on the assignment starts since the staffing agency takes care of the contract negotiation and administration. In fact, all contract-related issues will be handled by the agency, thus, permitting more time to do more work on the IT project at hand.
* Payment issues are directly handled by the staffing agency, which means that your payment for the project is on time regardless of late payments on the part of the client.
* The possible employment opportunities expand with the relationship with IT staffing agencies, which is due in large part to the latter's wide network of clients and contacts, not to mention an established reputation. Now, contrast this with cold calling on the prospective clients - potentially wasteful activity. Indeed, the IT staffing jobs are almost yours for the taking.
These benefits are made on the assumption that your qualifications from college education and training to work experience and skills set correspond to the hiring requirements of the IT staffing agency. It is a good idea then to submit updated curriculum vitae to as many staffing agencies in the IT sector as possible.
Tips on Dealing with Staffing Agencies
Like with most contracting and recruitment agencies in other professions, the success of the professional relationship between the IT professional and the IT staffing agency rests on finding the legitimate agency to work with in the first place. There are many ways to determine if a staffing agency is illegitimate including no responses to advertised jobs from either the agency or the client and no replies to queries about the status of the submitted curriculum vitae. Even when a reply is received, it is usually computer-generated.
Now, when the right IT staffing agencies have been pinpointed, there are certain important tips to remember when dealing with them so as to ensure that IT staffing jobs are poured in your direction. First, make sure that your resume is updated, concise and tailored to the purpose for which it was submitted. Ideally, the curriculum vitae should only be two pages long since staffing managers do not have time to go through each and every achievement.
Instead, limit the information in the resume to the pertinent technical skills and capabilities, industry experience and accreditation, relevant details on roles in previous contracts, and renewals on the contracts to reflect reliability as a service provider. If possible, polish and re-polish the resume until such time that it can generate attention in the first few seconds of reading it.
Second, always make an elevator pitch during meetings for contracts. Keep in mind that staffing interviews are sales meetings with your own self as the main product. The tips on nailing an interview apply from dressing up properly and smiling at the interviewers to answering the question honestly and directly.
When you do secure the IT job, be sure to ask plenty of questions, too. You want to be informed about the project from end to end so that appropriate approaches, techniques and solutions can be applied. Of course, don't forget to ask about the financial aspects of the contract. Ultimately, IT staffing agencies are your partners in securing profitable projects - work with them.
