Researching Engineering Jobs Through Creative Job Searches
By Roger

Many university graduates in the United Kingdom fail to see the whole picture when they are performing a job search. Graduates feel that their university degree and their enthusiasm alone should be able to land them the job of their dreams. However, there are complex machinations that are involved in recruitment, hiring, and training in any field. The IT recruitment field, for instance, involves an incredibly difficult balance between budgetary considerations, personnel needs, and the gut feeling that a particular candidate has the potential to be a long term success. While it is easy to say that IT recruiters only see applicants as numbers, there is certainly more complexity than that statement would indicate.

IT recruiters face a number of pressures from their supervisors on a daily basis. Recruiters are expected to go to job fairs, universities, and open houses and meet with a certain number of graduates and young professionals. As well, they need to answer as many questions as possible, get contact information, and project a positive image for the company in question. Finally, IT recruiters need to deal with internal politics of an IT department or firm before heading out to deal with the public. Understanding these politics and the intricacies of IT recruitment can help recruiters and graduates alike.

One issue in information technology recruiting is finding the right criteria for hiring professionals. Technical and educational criteria are givens for recruiters but there is question about the validity of personal IT projects (i.e. creating a program at home) used as professional experience. Since technology is becoming much more personal and available to the general public, there is a difficult line to be drawn between the validity of professional experience and more informal experience that may demonstrate considerable talent.

Another issue for recruiters and IT firms is how to best draw in the highest calibre of IT professionals. Job recruiting fairs yield broad results but there are often hundreds of applications that can be tossed due to insufficient experience. Recruiters and firms often need to grapple with targeting their efforts toward the right professionals but they also don’t want to close the door to unconventional but talented candidates.

Finally, IT recruiters need to deal with the issue of applicants as investments. After all, well trained IT professionals are just as important as new equipment because they help keep things in order. Recruiters and firms often need to find the right balance between the human touch and the fact that their employees are important long term investments in a company’s success.