Tag: it recruiting

Categories
Growing your career: permanent & freelance IT Consultants

How to become an IT consultant that stands out from the crowd

How to Become an All-Terrain IT Pro
Standing out from the crowd as an IT professional isn't always easy. Here are a few quick pointers that will help you get to become an all-terrain IT Pro.

Nowadays, it is not enough to become an IT consultant, you need to stand out from the crowd to succeed in your career.

Here are a few quick pointers that will help succeed in your career path as an IT consultant.

Become an All-Terrain IT Pro

1# Reach a good level of experience

Cultivating a solid background at the end of your studies will allow you to differentiate yourself from candidates who are either too junior or too senior and therefore too expensive. Five to ten years of experience is usually the sweet spot in terms of employability.

2# Forget hyperspecialisation

Locking yourself into a skill and mastering it from start to finish may seem like the right way to go in order to differentiate yourself from overly generalist profiles. And in fact, there is nothing wrong with specialisation. It can be a solid career strategy. However, in the world IT —and especially if you are an independent contractor— it pays to adopt a multi-specialization approach. You don’t have to confine yourself to a single language or skill. You should not be satisfied with simple expertise either. Aim for “mastery”. Recruiters will move on quickly if mastery is not conveyed through your CV and profile.

3# Certify yourself

Having the right certification for the right position is a good approach. Certifications worth pursuing include Microsoft certifications, Ninja, Dev Star, and Code Crazy.

4# Soft Skills

Mastering the technical part of a position is not everything. Your personality will also weigh in the balance. Recruiters are looking for candidates who can be at the same time pleasant, knowledgable, committed, brilliant, altruistic, punctual, cunning, eloquent, humble, methodical, polite… Whether it is negotiation or communication, you need to master your soft skills as well. These are the essential soft skills every IT professional should have.

5# Compensation

Sensitive topic, but be realistic with your salary expectations and be ready to lower them a bit is the market calls for it. Especially considering the economic uncertainty brought about by the o pandemic.

Categories
About us Captains’s Log

Women in IT: Women Must Claim Their Spot in the IT World

Freelancers in tech: did you say precariousness?
How the Covid-19 Pandemic is Accelerating the hybridisation of Careers in Tech & IT

The numbers are clear: women are under-represented in most IT roles. Yet, ironically, companies are increasingly looking for women’s talent and their unique skills to fill technical and leadership positions. So how can we ensure that women get the place they deserve in IT? How can we collectively be better at speaking to their dreams and ambitions? How can we encourage them to pursue a career in technology?

By Manuela Delfort-Garampon, co-founder of Mindquest.

Looking for a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

It can often be difficult to find a single woman in the IT department of a large company, even across entire office floors. As we celebrate Ada Lovelace Day in honour of this champion of women in STEM; we should take a deep look at how much progress we have made towards equal gender representation in technology. Spoiler alert: not enough.

According to various recent studies on the subject, the proportion of women in IT professions varies between 10 and 30%. Gartner estimates this proportion to be at 31% globally in 2018.

What is more, the higher up in the hierarchy, the fewer women there are. Only 13% of women occupy the position of CIO according to the 2018 Gartner CIO Survey.

But most alarmingly, the gap appears to be widening if we consider the decline in the number of women enrolled in IT-related schools.

IT needs women more than ever

IT functions are affected by a terrible talent shortage. The number of unfilled positions in digital professions is exploding. To the point that the main threat to start-ups and large IT departments has become how difficult it is to find the right person for the job.

But, as it stands, the IT world is virtually depriving itself of half of its talent pool. Attracting more women would certainly go a long way in solving the problem.

On the other hand, IT professions would have everything to gain from welcoming more women for one simple reason. Gender diversity increases team performance. Numerous studies show the positive impact of gender diversity on employee engagement and confidence, customer satisfaction and the company’s brand image.

Sign up to to Mission Contol Center Newsletter

According to McKinsey, which has been publishing the “Women Matter” study series for ten years now, companies with 3 women or more within their management bodies; or 30% of a classic boardroom; obtained performance scores up to 7 points higher than more male-dominated companies.

The challenge of attracting interest

So, there is no lack of good arguments to move towards greater gender parity, but how can we push for it? Several axes should be tackled at once. The often-proposed principle of quotas could be a solution. But it is not a very good strategy from a talent quality point of view. Above all, it would be necessary to change social perceptions around women in tech. Rather than imposing, we should facilitate and streamline women’s access to IT professions and encourage them to choose these careers.

In the era of digital transformation, IT jobs have gained in atractiveness. But many functions are still widely associated with men. Systems architect, network engineer, project manager, data scientist, software developer … are all professions from which women tend to stay away. It is important that we give more visibility to the women already working in these sectors in order to attract future candidates.

Campaings like #WomenInTech or #WhomenWhoCode are good examples of how the IT community is working towards this goal.

Want to read more about Women in IT ? Discover our articles 20 Amazing Women Leading Europe’s Tech Revolution and A Look at Diversity in Tech

The challenge of empowerment

To break the glass ceiling, we must also make women aware of their abilities, of their value and what they have to bring to IT teams.

Today, great figures from political circles and the show business are encouraging women to get out of their comfort zone, to be vocal about their goals and fully unleash their potential and break down all these social barriers.

We should apply this global push to the world of IT so that women can stop devaluing themselves and settle for lower salaries. Finally gaining access to more strategic and technical positions.

Here again, education and communication are key. So are role models.

Women are undeniably welcome in IT, they just need to be more daring.

Join our IT talent community

Join our community and find your next job in IT

Categories
About us Captains’s Log

Calling on Freelancers: A Winning Strategy for IT Departments in Times of Crisis

IT Contractors: How to Manage Your Activity in This Unprecedented Period
The dual health and economic crisis we are going through creates a particularly high level of uncertainty and instability. How to manage your activity?

While flexibility, responsiveness and speed are more necessary than ever, the use of independent consultants takes on a new dimension.

Manage emergencies

IT departments – and especially support services – were put to the test during the lockdown. Between the massive deployment of remote work, the explosion of security threats and the problems of VPN congestion or application availability, support teams have had to deal with a major increase in requests. And this, overnight and under a lot of pressure. The business continuity of the company – and therefore its survival – is at stake.

Imagine that your organization is facing a massive ransomware attack. If you are not able to mobilize the right skills in-house very quickly, you expose yourself to serious consequences in terms of data loss and potential suspension of your activity.

Using freelancers such as cyber security consultants makes it possible to respond very quickly to the overload of work and to absorb the peaks in demand. Whether these are basic requests or tasks requiring specialized skills, calling on additional reinforcements on an ad hoc basis allows the company to have all the responsiveness necessary to respond to these exceptional and urgent situations.

Dealing with uncertainty

While the lockdown has plunged companies into paralysis or at least a slowdown in their activity, the looming economic crisis will be a long-lasting problem. Uncertainty and doubt set in, challenging businesses to continue to grow when they are virtually forced to navigate on sight.

In this context, agility and the ability to adapt are crucial. IT departments have long been used to working in project mode, but this ability to mobilize the best skills very quickly for success will become absolutely essential moving forward.

Ambient instability greatly increases the risk, especially in terms of recruitment. Caught between the need to restart as quickly as possible and the threat of economic crisis, companies must nevertheless act. In the IT field, using freelancers makes it possible to reinforce existing teams in an efficient and less risky manner.

Did you plan to recruit a Data Scientist or a Product Manager on a permanent contract before the economic and health crisis broke out? Opt for a freelance profile while things stabilize internally and externally. Companies can find the talented and experienced consultants they need, while still maintaining the budgetary and organizational flexibility needed if the situation worsens or if the prioritization of certain projects needs to be changed.

Without forgetting that freelancers have, in essence, a great capacity for autonomy and adaptation and are also more used to teleworking. They are therefore a particularly suitable response to the crisis.

Accelerate development

Despite the difficulties and complexity of the current context, there is no reason for companies to get stuck. On the contrary, they must find the tools to continue to develop and grow. This crisis is a test: companies must not only prepare for a quick recovery, but also think beyond the crisis and build solid and innovative models for tomorrow.

For these reasons, structuring technological projects and IT architectures that enable business transformation is at the heart of the game. It is essential, even vital, to continue to implement them, and even to accelerate them. However, the success of these strategic projects largely depends on the teams in charge. So how do you make sure you have the most competent people possible?

Using one or more experienced freelancers on specific IT subjects, such as cloud or machine learning, can save a lot of time and significantly speed up these major projects. In addition, the contractual relationship between freelancers and the company often requires them to make a higher commitment in terms of performance and quality of service.

In conclusion, the use of freelancers is not a one-size-fits-all solution and must be part of a more comprehensive strategy. But it represents a flexible, responsive and efficient solution for IT departments, which must more than ever learn to juggle between internal and external employees to emerge winners from this period of instability. One thing is clear: the success of companies in these times of crisis depends in large part on the skills and talent it can mobilize.

Categories
Hiring an IT consultant IT Decision-makers

Remote Hiring is Here to Stay: a Fresh Take on IT Recruitment

Remote Hiring is Here to Stay: a Fresh Take on IT Recruitment
Remote hiring has become as much of a necessity and a reality and, just like telework, it comes with its own set of challenges and peculiarities.

Any activity that could afford it went remote with the arrival of Covid-19. Now, as the months ahead remain uncertain and companies discover that is possible to operate remotely, the exception has become the norm. A recent Gartner survey confirmed the writing on the wall: a sweeping 82% of business leaders are planning on allowing at least some level of remote work moving forward, even after the pandemic is over. Yet despite being the other side of the employment coin, recruiting has not received that much attention thus far. In fact, remote hiring has become as much of a necessity and a reality and, just like telework, it comes with its own set of challenges and peculiarities.

Remote hiring & the new recruitment landscape

Gone are the days of overcrowded career fairs full of eager master’s students elbowing each other to get a minute with a representative of one of the top companies present. So are the endless rounds of in-person interviews that have candidates repeatedly come into the employer’s offices and meet half the team.

From now on, businesses will conduct fewer and more focused interviews, mostly online. Only the more critical and senior positions will get greater face-to-face time, with the rest of candidates being interviewed remotely except for perhaps the last interview, which is often just used to meet the chosen candidate and establish a more personal connection — something rather important in the colder remote work environment. In the case of IT contractors and temporal employees, however, the selection process is most likely to move completely online as flexibility and speed can be more of a priority.        

Career fairs and other networking events will also move online or even disappear completely, in favour of a new model that can accommodate safety measures while allowing for talent attraction. Eliminating the physical barriers of traditional career fairs will, in turn, expand the pool of candidates available to companies and democratize access to the top positions. Companies will be able to seek the best candidates regardless of location, while candidates will get to apply to positions that otherwise would have been completely out of reach.

A new series of challenges for employers with remote hiring

But moving the hiring process online will create new problems while solving existing ones. Assessing a candidate’s fit for the position and the company is more challenging when done through a computer screen. And there is a lot to assess in today’s candidates.

Hunting for the most in-demand technical IT skills was already tricky before the pandemic. Especially for the more niche skill areas, HR managers and recruiters who did not have that deep a technical expertise often had troubles assessing the technical skills of IT candidates.  

On top of that, the current crisis has created a need for IT professionals to possess a series of more business-focused skills. From change management and compliance to business intelligence, recruiters now have one more checklist to worry about when evaluating candidates.  

Additionally, the unique conditions of remote work make soft skills more important than ever. Softer skills like creativity and entrepreneurship were already becoming a must-have for IT experts. Now, interpersonal and communication skills are key to ensuring efficient teamwork dynamics and workflows. So is cultural fit. Employees need to be proactive in reaching to colleagues, making their work more visible and being open about their needs. Unfortunately, soft skills are some of the hardest qualities to assess when not face-to-face.  

Looking ahead

Both the new recruitment environment and the difficulties it brings along are forcing companies and hiring managers to come up with new best practices and processes in order to attract and retain the best candidates.

Ideally, the new approach combines a better and more targeted online interview model, with personal know-how and the use of the latest technological tools. For example, AI can help recruiters identify candidates who match the job’s criteria and are a

🔊 Subscribe to the podcast

Join our community and find your next job or expert in IT

Categories
Hiring an IT consultant IT Decision-makers

HR Managers: How to Assess the Technical Skills of IT Candidates

HR Managers: How to Assess the Technical Skills of IT Candidates
It can be difficult for hiring companies to assess the technical skills of IT candidates.

Undoubtedly, it can be difficult for hiring companies to assess the technical skills of highly specialized IT candidates. Especially when recruitment duties fall more heavily on the HR or Purchasing functions rather than on the more tech-savvy IT managers. 

That is even if you consider yourself to be an industry insider who knows all the ins and out of your company’s market. As a hiring specialist, you probably do not have the level of detail needed to assess a candidate’s skill in any of the technical areas of expertise currently most in demand.  

But that does not mean you are helpless. Not at all. Here is a series of steps that will help you identify top tech performers regardless of their specialty.

Assess the Technical Skills of IT Candidates

Start with the CV

The first step in the process of recruiting any candidate is CV analysis. Beyond providing an overall idea of a candidate’s profile and trajectory, a careful look at a CV also offers an opportunity to start filtering early on and be more efficient.

Tips on indicators to look for

Look at these indicators to get a first impression of an expert’s technical skills:

  • Real-world experience: someone who has worked on actual AWS migration projects, as opposed to someone with just an educational background, will have a deeper knowledge of this technology stack and related AWS tools (CodeDeploy, CodeBuild, CodePipeline…)
  • The level of that experience. Of course, a consultant with 25 years of experience and major projects on their back will be more skilled than a more junior profile
  • Specific training and certifications on given technologies. Yes. Education is still important. Not as a substitute of experience, but as a complement that demonstrates a candidate’s professional and career-oriented attitude and validates the depth of their expertise.  
  • The level of detail with which a candidate lists all skills and technologies. A truly experienced IT professional will have no problem specifying what programming languages, stacks and platforms. They dominate and to what level. Whereas someone with not as much experience will opt for more general and vague terminology.

Community involvement

Moreover, not all tech and IT professionals get involved with their community and attend events. Being an active member of the community is not a prerequisite for being good at one’s job. But it sure helps.

If you spot a candidate who attends trade conferences, shares their expertise on forums, or leads workshops on their area of ​​expertise, chances are they are the kind of committed and driven professional you are looking for. Positive signs here include having an active GitHub profile, which allows users to share original code and have an open debate a variety of issues.

Ask the right interview questions

The interview is the next step. Asking the proper questions about the skills covered in the CV and the job offer will allow you to get a more precise idea of ​​the candidate’s level of expertise.
Do not hesitate to ask for more detail on the candidate’s past experiences, to alternate open-ended questions and very concrete ones, and to propose hypothetical scenarios. Take the time to prepare your questions in advance.

If your level of understanding of the candidate’s area of ​​expertise is very limited, do not hesitate to be accompanied by someone who can help you prepare and conduct the technical part of the interview.

For more advice, particularly on how to approach interviews with independent contractors, you can check out our article on the 5 key questions to ask a tech or IT freelancer.

Put the skills to the test

Nothing beats an old-fashioned test when it comes to demonstrating certain skills. It is very common for companies to have their IT candidates take task-specific practical tests, both to assess their technical capabilities and other parameters such as essential soft skills and cultural fit.

Again, you can enlist the help of a tech-savvy colleague to design the test and interpreted. It is standard practice to develop a range of tests covering the most common positions, but you will need to do some extra work for areas of expertise that are not so ubiquitous or if the candidate needs to fulfil very specific project specifications. Working with an industry-specialized recruiter can also give you an edge here.  

Check the references

Last step: checking a candidate’s references. As it is the case with any other position, this process takes time but is essential to avoid mistakes. Especially when you do not know too much about the skills you are vetting.

Compare the answers that the candidate provided during the interview to what former employers have to say. Ask these employers about the depth of the candidate’s knowledge, as well as their role within the project and overall performance. Here you also have a chance to corroborate your first impressions of the candidates cultural fit and their soft skills.

🔊 Subscribe to our podcast

Join our community and find your next job or expert in IT

Categories
IT Decision-makers Tips & errors to avoid

Strengthening the IT support team: the top back-to-school challenge for CIOs?

Strengthening the IT support team: the top back-to-school challenge for CIOs?
Strengthening the IT support team ? Many companies have been hit hard by the Covid-19 epidemic.Their new mantra: adapt, anticipate, and reassure internally.

Many companies have been hit hard by the Covid-19 epidemic. Disruption was inescapable, from decline and suspension of activity to forced restructuring of teams and processes. IT teams were among the most impacted by these upheavals, as IT decision-makers had to take on a new role to help their organizations navigate the crisis. Therefore their new mantra: adapt, anticipate, and reassure internally. Is then strengthening the IT support team the top back-to-school challenge for CIOs?

As we approach the start of the new school year, the challenges for CIOs and other IT managers are increasing. Like who awaits impending doom, they are faced with the threat of a new lockdown at any minute. Adapting to a new way of working and conducting business won’t be easy either.

It is now more strategic than ever to strengthen their IT support team, guaranteeing operational continuity and completing the digital and organizational transformation of the company. Yet budget and organisational constraint make this a challenging endeavour.

Strengthening the IT support – A front-line service

IT support has always been a vital service within the company. Operating as an internal customer service, it helps solve end-user problems, responds to all their requests related to the work environment, and improves productivity.

In just months, the pandemic has strengthened the role of IT within organizations and propelled the IT service to the front line. While some companies had to completely shut down activity during lockdown, many were able to remain active thanks to telework.

But managing such a sudden and massive transition has required significant technical and organizational adaptation. Setting up collaboration tools, remote troubleshooting and technical assistance, rapid resolution of incidents, training of employees regarding cybersecurity risks… IT support teams had to put in long hours to ensure the proper functioning of remote work.

Moreover, to complicate things, cybercrime has skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic and continues to rise.  Hackers are taking advantage of the human and organizational weaknesses of companies, targeting remote access points and employee email. Finding the right security experts has become a big challenge for businesses in recent months.

In short, IT support teams have made themselves more essential than ever.

Facing new challenges

The challenges related to the Covid-19 crisis add to a multitude of already existing challenges within IT support teams. Issues such as cost reduction, process optimization and quality of service have only acquired more importance.

The notion of the internal customer is leading many companies to redefine their structure and put the user at the heart of the process to improve employee experience. This perspective, which brings benefits like satisfaction and fluidity, often requires support teams to unify points of contact, collect feedback and proactively participate in improving the image of the overall IT department.

Another challenge: reducing tasks with low added value and exploiting technologies such as AI to automate as many operations as possible. The idea here is to allow support teams to focus on more strategic tasks like provide guidance to users.

IT support managers have also one more major new challenge: communication. They need to be transparent and reassuring with their team and play an important role in raising employee awareness about increased security threats.

Set up an adapted Talent Strategy for strengthening the IT support team

To have a good IT support, you need to start by having a suitable team. Having the right people in place is an essential condition for success, as it is often the skills and motivation that make the difference between an efficient support service and an insufficient one.

But how do you make sure you have a strong team? You can start by following these few tips:

  • Perform an audit of current skills within your support teams: look at what skills are missing, see if key skills are concentrated in too few employees, etc.
  • Adapt your team’s organization to be able to call on the right people at the right time: in an emergency, you need to be ready to activate a reorganization plan to mobilize key skills
  • Identify the most efficient resources and secure your existing talent
  • Set up training mechanisms to re-skill certain employees whose area of ​​expertise is no longer suited to the current situation
  • Establish a recruitment plan to cover the missing skills and be able to quickly find the right candidates when needed
  • Focus on communication and transparency

Strengthening the IT support : Is calling on external resources an effective strategy for your IT support?

On top of operational challenges, the current economic crisis is having a heavy impact on corporate budgets. Many organizations have had to drastically cut down their expenses, especially their IT costs.

So how, as an IT decision-maker, can you strengthen your support teams without taking significant budgetary risks? Outsourcing or calling on IT freelancers can be a winning strategy in this time of crisis.

In addition to fewer administrative constraints and the positive effects that freelancers can have on your internal teams, the recruitment of an independent consultant can allow you to mobilize very specific skills to accelerate projects or resolve incidents in key business areas.

The flexibility of working with contractors allows you to limit risks during this unstable period, as well as access highly coveted expertise such as cloud and certain collaborative tools.

Regardless, the start of the school year promises to be pretty intense. Whether you choose to strengthen your support teams through hiring or by occasionally calling on external staff, do not neglect the importance of having a strong support team to face the coming months with confidence.

Join our community and find your next job or expert in IT

Categories
About us Captains’s Log

IT Contractors: How to Manage Your Activity in This Unprecedented Period

IT Contractors: How to Manage Your Activity in This Unprecedented Period
The dual health and economic crisis we are going through creates a particularly high level of uncertainty and instability. How to manage your activity?

The dual health and economic crisis we are going through creates a particularly high level of uncertainty and instability. And it will probably last for a while. How to manage your activity?

In this unprecedented context, independent consultants may fear a drop in the number of new assignments and income. Here are a few thoughts to help you better understand the situation and come up with a strategy to maintain and develop his activity.

Also discover our special guide: IT Job Hunting Done Well: A Step-by-Step Guide

The state of the market

In this period of relative normality, many wonder what the next few months will look like in terms of economic activity. And it is true: the outlook is worrying. All predictions point at GDPs falling across the world’s biggest economies.

While not the hardest hit, the IT industry will nonetheless feel the impact of the Covid-19 crisis. Gartner recently published a new report in which it estimates that global CIO spending will fall by 8% in 2020.

Before the crisis; during the Gartner IT Symposium, October 20, 2019; the same analyst predicted an increase of 3.7% in 2020. Entering now a period of resource management and reassessment, CIOs will suddenly be forced to prioritize critical services.

IT Pros: How to Work On Remote in the Post-Pandemic World

As a result, many projects are and will be postponed. This isn’t a complete market shutdown or outright cancellation of projects, but the impact is going to be heavy nonetheless. And there’s no denying the fact that freelancers are often one of the first to be scratched of the budget.

However, and this is the first reason to remain positive, IT freelancers are also the ones who are called on first when projects restart. (We are already seeing this with the confirmation of many migration projects to SAP S/4HANA). Freelancers offer companies a flexibility that is an obvious advantage in a context where business is unstable and where uncertainty remains.

We should also take a closer look at the IT sector, since its different sub-segments are not impacted uniformly. In some areas, the role of the IT department has even been reinforced by the crisis and certain skills are in greater demand.

With the advent of teleworking in particular, IT departments are under heavy pressure to implement dedicated technologies. While overcoming the cybersecurity challenges that go hand in hand with this trend.

Sign up to to Mission Contol Center Newsletter

Manage you activity: Tips for adapting in times of crisis

Several best practices can be recommended to manage your activity in times like these. The choice of industry is the first element that deserves the attention of IT freelancers looking for a job. If this choice was already important before the crisis; now it is even more so as all the sectors of activity do not suffer the same impact.

It is, therefore, advisable to sectors that are experiencing a strong peak in activity due to the Covid-19 crisis. Such as mass distribution, health or even online entertainment and education.

The second tip is flexibility. More than ever, the independent consultant needs to adapt to changing situations and be more flexible on certain criteria for choosing an assignment, such as the location or the context of the assignment. It is not about accepting just anything or being underpaid, but simply about punctually and opportunely expanding your usual criteria. For example, it may be wise to position yourself more in the area of TMA (third-party application maintenance) and carry out small assignments rather than embarking on full-fledged projects.

It is also important to pay special attention to your “self-marketing.” As always, you must know how to sell yourself. This can start by taking stock of your skills and aspirations to properly orient the way of presenting yourself before employers. Being active on social and professional online networks is also something that will help you stand out from the crowd and develop new connections.

Finally, you have to continue to train and learn, all while cultivating your softer skills. Keep in mind that the ability to adapt in times of crisis and other interpersonal skills can often make the difference between two similar candidate profiles.

Stay positive

Focus on the positive. We know that we have entered a difficult and complicated period from an economic point of view. However, as we have seen, there are several things that should keep IT freelancers positive. First of all, the IT sector is largely spared compared to other sectors (tourism, catering, hotel industry, etc.).

Secondly, the pandemic has strengthened the role of IT departments (setting up teleworking, cybersecurity, etc.), and the current circumstances can encourage companies to resort to hiring more freelancers.

Join our talent community - Mindquest

Join our community and find your next job in IT

Categories
Growing your career: permanent & freelance IT Consultants

How to Advance Your Career as an IT Freelancer

How to Advance Your Career as an IT Freelancer
Freelancing is often spoken of as the future of work, the career prospects are very promising. How to advance your career as in IT freelancer?

Freelancing is often spoken of as the future of work. Many people turn to this way of life to gain more autonomy and freedom and be able to focus on the kind of work they enjoy the most. In the world of IT in particular; where the share of freelance workers keeps on growing, the career prospects are very promising. Freelancers are not limited by that many obligations and can develop professionally as they wish. How to advance your career as an IT freelancer?

When you are an employee in a company, your career development is often planned and monitored by the HR department or by management. When you are a freelancer, you have to put in place a professional development plan by yourself.

Here are a few tips on how to do that.

Technology and IT, a rewarding sector for freelancers

In the digital and technological fields, freelance workers generally have no difficulty finding new assignments, but finding the dream assignment is another story.

With equal experience, a tech or IT consultant such as a full-stack developer will have less difficulty finding interesting opportunities than a freelancer in the creative arts. The technology sector is a one particularly sought after by companies, with the best organisations competing to attract and retain the best talent out there.

Top freelancers performers in tech are in high demand, and that is an advantage for anyone who is qualified and passionate about their area of ​​expertise.

Advance your career as an IT freelancer: specialize to evolve

The top freelance consultants are usually former junior freelancers who have evolved through countless assignments over the years. The choice of your missions, then, is key in the construction of a solid professional progression.

Expert profiles, those that are very specialized in a given technology, are very popular with companies. Think carefully and specialize in a skill or technology that is booming right now or will do so in a couple of years. Consultants specializing in cloud, cybersecurity and data science are very popular right now. For example, as companies wage a war for talent to fulfil their digital transformation goals.

By choosing a promising area of ​​expertise and developing your skills over time, you can achieve a higher average daily rate (ADR). Keeo on re-skilling so that your rate can increase over time. It is about constantly re-evaluating the added value of your work for your clients.

Evolve by taking on managerial functions

Another option to progress in your career when you are an IT consultant is to become a manager. Project managers or team leaders tend to access managerial responsibilities. Which often validate their technical or business skills, and allow them to work on larger projects.

This type of evolution is often considered the golden road to progress when working in IT. Since it allows you to “climb the ladder” in a consistent way. But managerial roles are not suitable for all profiles and are not an end in themselves for many IT freelancers, who prefer to focus on their area of expertise.

Manage your own skill development in order to advance your career as an IT freelancer

To develop your career as an IT consultant, you obviously need to gain experience. But don’t neglect training! And that’s not only because technologies keep evolving at a rapid pace. But also because you need to devise a solid methodology to speed up your skill development.

But that’s not all. Companies are looking for experts with advanced technical skills, but it is also often interpersonal skills that make the difference. Soft skills, such as communication skills, leadership or creativity are more than ever essential to the success of companies’ digital transformation projects.

Many training courses exist to improve these behavioural skills, including online training. Take advantage of them.

🔊 Subscribe to our podcast

Join our community and find your next job or expert in IT

Categories
IT Decision-makers Tips & errors to avoid

The Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring an IT Contractor

The Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring an IT Contractor
Recruitment: 3 major mistakes to avoid when hiring an IT contractor or freelancer: Hiring the wrong freelancers can quickly derail your project...

What are the top 3 mistakes that you should avoid when hiring an IT contractor? Working with IT contractors keeps getting more and more popular in the world of work. And for good reason: including freelancers in your projects can bring great benefits to your whole team.  

IT contractors are a workforce that is often very qualified and cost-effective. Especially in the context of a one-off increase in company activity or under special circumstances such as the Covid-19 pandemic. However, hiring the wrong freelancers can quickly derail your project and leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.  

Need advice on how to start or develop your freelance consulting business in tech or IT? Need to start a new permanent or freelance assignment? Join Mindquest and get support from our team of experts.

Recruitment: 3 major mistakes to avoid when hiring an IT contractor or freelancer:

1st of top mistakes to avoid when hiring: Not vetting the consultant’s qualifications thoroughly

You need to make sure that a consultant recruited for a particular skill possesses it and in a way that is well-suited to the reality of your project. 

To protect yourself against this difficulty; which can cause harm, both financially and in terms of reputation; it is necessary that you thoroughly vet the veracity of the freelancer’s claims and assess the true depth of their technical skills. Start with these questions: 

  • Has the freelancer provided a list of previous relevant projects? Have you verified their references? 
  • Has the freelancer justified their skills with a document or portfolio of any kind? 

During the interview process, you must ask pointed questions about the candidate’s area of expertise. It will quickly reveal the reality of the situation.  

Also read How to manage the onboarding of IT contractors in 5 steps

2nd mistake : Hiring a Consultant who does not align with your company’s values and culture 

In order to avoid divergences in operating methods, which can lead to confusion and frictions within the teams; it is preferable to choose a freelancer who aligns with the company’s values. Here, you should pay special attention to the candidate’s softer skills. As these are the ones that will determine how well the contractor fits into your existing team. 

The same goes for ensuring that the consultant aligns and complies with legal and confidentiality requirements. Make sure they fully understand your confidentiality policies and non-disclosure agreement (NDA) so that they unknowingly break the contract. 

Also read How to Manage the Offboarding of IT Contractors in 7 Steps

3rd mistake: Setting an inappropriate remuneration rate 

DevSecOps Job Description

The third most common mistake made by companies looking to hire a freelancer is to offer a pay rate that is not in line with market standards. Whether it is higher or lower than what is normally charged in that particular field of expertise and for that level of seniority. 

If you set a daily remuneration that is too high; you will end up paying more than what you need to. Plus, your collaboration with the contractor may not be sustainable in the long term. 

On the contrary, if you set a remuneration that is too low; you will have difficulty attracting good candidates with a suitable level of experience. 

Companies not used to working with freelancers are precisely the ones that usually make these mistakes. Keep in mind that collaboration should be seen from a balanced angle and in a “win-win” relationship. Only then will the collaboration be efficient in the long term. 

Embracing AI Trends in IT Recruitment

Lat but not least, the implementation of AI in recruitment practices has the potential to revolutionize how companies identify, engage, and hire IT contractors.

Here’s a closer look at how embracing AI trends can enhance your IT recruitment processes:

  • Streamline candidate vetting processes.
  • Analyze resumes for relevant skills and experience.
  • Predict candidate success based on data analytics.
  • Enhance decision-making during the hiring process.

By embracing these AI trends in IT recruitment, companies can not only stay competitive but also gain a significant edge in identifying and securing the best-fit IT contractors for their projects.

Don’t miss our Top 5 Strategies to Overcome the AI Talent Gap.

Mindquest, with its commitment to staying at the forefront of industry advancements, ensures that your recruitment strategies align with the latest AI innovations, facilitating a smoother and more effective hiring process.

Would you like to find out more about our recruitment service for IT consultants? Post your requirements now, or find out more about our job offers directly on our Mindquest platform!

Categories
Hiring an IT consultant IT Decision-makers

4 Keys to Hiring Top Tech and IT Freelancers

4 Keys to Hiring Top Tech and IT Freelancers

Freelance work has become largely democratised and, more and more, companies now rely on independent IT and technology consultants. Hiring top IT freelancers brings many benefits to your team, especially in times of crisis.

But the talent war rages and on in several areas of expertise, with professionals receiving up to dozens of mission proposals a day. 
Here is a series of concrete measures that you should put in place if you want to attract the best IT freelancers out there.  

Propose conditions in line with the reality of the IT freelance market 

Are you looking for a rare profile, with a high level of expertise and many years of experience? Be aware that this type of expert is often in high demand and can, therefore, afford to set higher rates. 

Learn more about the situation of your target talent market: what types of profiles are available? What are the average daily rates? Once conducted this research, you will be able to write a clear job description and propose suitable conditions. 

Keep in mind that compensation is not everything: all the benefits come into play here and can help you gain attractiveness top tech or IT freelancers — especially for long-term assignments (travel expenses, access to the company’s gym, etc…). 

Highlight your project’s strengths

Don’t forget that top-performing freelancers need to be passionate about their job. An IT consultant is not only looking for remuneration. Like permanent employees, they often look for a company that shares their values, with opportunities to learn and grow; a dream project, a friendly and talented team, etc. 

Don’t forget to indicate what you can bring to the table on your end. If a candidate must possess certain qualities and skills to be considered for a mission, you must also specify what you can offer.

It is not a matter of overselling the assignment, but simply of highlighting its strengths to attract the attention of the best candidates: peculiarities of the technical stack, visibility on the projects and possibilities for renewal, location, etc. 

Also, amidst the rise of DevSecOps, IT recruitment needs to adjust. Traditional methods fall short; recruiters must adapt to DevSecOps demands. Here‘s what to consider in recruiting for this era.

Work on your brand 

Your company brand is a critical deciding factor for potential candidates.

Don’t hesitate to collaborate with your company’s HR and Marketing departments to discuss how to best benefit from these communication efforts. 

Keep in mind at the time of the interview that the candidate is not the only one who has to convince. You need to make them want to join your team rather than choose another company. Try as much as possible to be transparent about the context and concrete objectives of the mission. Candidates highly appreciate this openness. 

Focus on retaining talent to hiring top IT freelancers

Hiring the best IT freelancers is not easy. But neither it is to make them want to stay. Take steps to ensure the satisfaction of the IT freelancers you work with and keep track of your missions. 

Implement specific measures to ensure that they are “freelance-friendly”: work on onboarding, regular feedback processes, etc…

Are you looking the best tech talent or tech freelancer and you don’t know how to go about it? Club Freelance is here to help you find the best candidate and support you throughout the recruitment process. 

Click here to submit your request.