Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Recruiters offer tips for finding jobs in IT management

They field questions on how to get on the 'A' list for a job opening and whether it's OK to reach out to recruiters
Page:

What steps do IT executives need to take to get on the "A" list for a high-profile job opening? Is it bad form for IT managers to reach out to an executive search firm?

These were a few of the questions that were posed yesterday to three executive recruiters during a session at the 2008 CIO Executive Leadership Summit held in the US. The recruiters who fielded the questions were Rhona Kannon, a partner in the IT practice at The Cambridge Group; Beverly Lieberman, president of Halbrecht Lieberman Associates; and Phil Schneidermeyer, a partner at Heidrick & Struggles.

Is it a mistake to reach out to a search firm?

No, absolutely not, Lieberman said, but cold calls are tough for recruiters to respond to. Instead, she recommends that IT executives contact her and other recruiters through a source that both parties know and trust. "It's similar to how we get to know you," Lieberman added.

Another way to get on a recruiter's radar screen is by acting as a referral for a friend or colleague, Schneidermeyer said.

How does someone get on an 'A' list for an IT executive search?

Executive job searches are somewhat subjective, but they do include defined criteria, Lieberman said. Critical qualities include job candidates' personalities, such as whether they're affable. Strong communications skills are also a must, she said. Recruiters and employers look to see how job candidates "package themselves" in their résumés, she added.

Job candidates who lack a bachelor's degree face an uphill battle, Lieberman said. "If you don't have a bachelor's degree, God bless you," she said, and "if you're applying for a senior role, you'd better be enrolled" in a bachelor's degree program.

Another "A"-list factor is the candidate's current or previous employers. "We get to know companies in different verticals that are known for developing strong talent," Schneidermeyer said.

One thing Schneidermeyer warns against is too much citing of industry awards that an IT executive has received. "I had one recent job candidate who filled the back side of his résumé with awards, and it got me to wondering when the hell he found the time to do his job," she said.

Lieberman recommends that IT executives who have developed a relationship with a recruiter shouldn't let their guard down during the interviewing process. For example, it's bad form to dress informally for an interview with a recruiter, she said. Also, don't use slang language during the discussion or talk freely about personal issues.

Page:

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: recruiting
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Setting a strategy for secure mobile printing
    Where, when and how we work is changing. Increasingly, we’re doing business on the road, at the office without a dedicated workstation and from our home offices. A 2010 InfoTrends survey of more than 1,400 mobile knowledge workers in Brazil, Germany, India, Japan and the U.S. echoes this trend. Respondents reported spending, on average, more than half of their time away from hard-wired network access. Implementing an effective strategy to make printing secure and simple for employees—regardless of where those employees happen to be—can help reduce security risks. Read more.
    Learn more »
  • Investment Protection and Elasticity for your Network
    Enterprise IT teams are being challenged to increase overall IT flexibility and business agility by incorporating emerging cloud technologies into their next generation datacentre architectures. Top of mind is how to embed a high degree of elasticity to properly handle increasingly unpredictable application traffic loads, while still meeting strict performance service level agreements (SLAs). Satisfying these often opposing goals requires that individual elements within the larger datacentre infrastructure provide a native capability to increase capacity and performance as conditions dictate. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • The Need for DLP (data leak prevention) now
    When it comes to the terabytes of confidential and proprietary data on corporate networks, companies often use kid gloves to secure the data. This begs the question, why are office supplies subject to a higher level of security than the data? Many organisations are turning to a DLP solution to help them in gaining control over their seemingly uncontrolled data stores.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.