IT Project & Program Management Recruiters: Where Are They?

 

I know what you might be thinking: How hard is it to find recruiters who place for IT project and program management?

The issue isn't so much that they don't exist; the issue is how to sift through the vast field of technical recruiting to find the ones who specifically place in the project/program management realm. Typically, most candidates will not do that. Or they will start out trying to do that and then give up in frustration. (There are only so many hours you can devote to proper LinkedIn searches and so many hours you can devote to calling/e-mailing recruiter after recruiter to see whether he or she is a good fit.) Furthermore, most candidates still believe that locality is the #1 factor in picking a recruiter. So they just look for ones close to their home and start calling.

The truth is, though, that recruiting is not as local as it used to be. And all recruiters don't recruit for all types of positions.

The most common scenario we find is that candidates spend a lot of time calling around or doing online searches, eating away a lot of their job search time, only to find out they weren't using the right parameters to identify the recruiter in the first place. Even worse, they end up engaging with a recruiter who might sound good on the surface but doesn't really place in their field of interest (or at their salary range). So, yes, there are lots of recruiters out there who place for IT project and program management; the question is how much time do you need to devote to finding them?  

OK, so now you might be thinking, "Well, I only need one or two and I'm good."

That's true if you luck out and find ones who need you right now. (Maybe that is how it used to go. They came to you, or when you went to them, it was so simple.)  

Chances are, though, in today's job market, you will need to reach out to several recruiters before you find one who fits your parameters and who has a viable position for you.

(Watch out...some might engage with you but not really have what you are looking for right now; instead, they might see you as a fit for something else, something you aren't going for; you can waste a lot of time on this!) So, here's the deal: Save yourself hours of frustration and research. Don't exhaust it on trying to find the recruiters. Instead spend the time engaging with the right ones.  

Too much precious job search time is spent on the administrative details when there are options out there to alleviate that.  

Plus, they cost much less than several months of LinkedIn Premium subscriptions!  

My advice: Get a specialized directory of IT project/program manager contacts and be done with it! Or take it a step further and have a customized list created by a job search specialist just for you!

In an instant, you'll be ready to get started and you can focus your time on more valuable things, like proper engagement with this recruiters once you do reach out to them.  

Doesn't that sound like a better plan?

--About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!

How We Fall Into the Work-Life Balance Trap

Oh boy...I'm going to do it again. I'm going to trample over some sacred ground, crushing a few spirits along the way, kicking up dust, ruffling feathers.

 [Well, I hope my 5%-ers are not so easily flustered. (As for the other 95%, well, it is what it is.)]

I'm going to discuss the holy grail of today's world of work: work-life balance, and I am going to suggest there is a big trap surrounding it that many professionals fall into. Yes, I said, "a trap." Now, I know what you might be thinking...something like:

 "I've always put everyone else first. I’ve slaved away at this job and that only to be poorly treated. I’ve sacrificed too much family time for the sake of work. I never want to make these mistakes again!"  

I’m not suggesting you do. Nor am I suggesting that you become a pushover.

I am suggesting, though, that in your quest for these things you can’t lose sight of what the market really is: in need of dedicated service to keep it profitable, to keep us all profitable.

I know, I know: We live in a world full of capitalistic greed! But just like how you want what you want, the same is true for the marketplace. And if you’re not careful, you’ll miss this and make future career decisions in an unrealistic bubble.  

"But money isn't everything," you cry!

No, but profitability is. Without it, markets collapse. And when that happens, we collapse. And so does all this talk about work-life balance. (Not very sexy to hear, I know...but true!)

Listen. We have to protect the careers we've built (mainly because we care so much about our families). And the best way to do that is to understand what the market is saying/doing and make sure that you are presenting as a profitable employee who provides a much-needed service first.

In other words, offer benefits (not just features), and then you can receive benefits in return.

All to often, we try to leverage our "features" (aka, our credentials and experience) as deserving of whatever type of work-life balance we want. But features, as impressive as they might be, don't make life better just because they exist. They must be leveraged to benefit the companies/industries we serve.

And that is where the disconnect often lies.

If you don't understand how your company truly benefits from the service you provide, and you cannot articulate that, other than to say, "I've been around a lot and I have seen a lot and I have impressive certifications, so I deserve to work more flexibly," then you will likely find the rest of your career a frustrating prospect.

(And if you think your actions speak louder than words, and they should just "know" all the benefits you provide, you most likely need to think again. Contrary to popular belief, in the world of work at least, actions rarely speak louder than words. You must speak up.)

But if you can say, "I leverage my stellar experience by solving X problem for my industry on a regular basis, which results in X improvement," then you've moved out of the trap into a much better position for receiving the benefits you want, be it work-life balance or whatever. Sounds simple?  

As a technical career strategist, I can tell you that the inability to see the difference here is the #1 issue most professionals are facing out in the job market today, regardless of age, level of experience, job title, and so on.

And it's too bad, really, because they go into the job search pitching the features and not the benefits. (And not without cause, mind you, as every job posting description you'll ever read is features based [lists of credentials and experience wanted]. The problem is that most hiring is benefits based [how will you make leadership's lives better?]. Companies are made up of people, like us, who say one thing and do another.)

So think about what you say and do when it comes to your career. Is it service first?

Get that right, and then work-life balance can be a true discussion.  

--About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!

Is Your Technical Recruiter Right for You?

Outside of lack of response during your job search, the next most frustrating issue is spending too much time talking to the wrong people.  

And this is particularly true when it comes to technical recruiters.

I watch candidates on a regular basis jump through hoop after hoop for recruiters, writing special presentations and bios, changing this and that on their resumes, and showing up at this and that meeting only to find out that the recruiter doesn't really have openings for their specific background or salary range.

It's a big waste of everyone's time. And it can be A LOT of time. But it happens all the time.  

So what can you do about it? It starts with proper matching.

Most candidates are under the impression that if a technical recruiter is in their geographical area and is willing to speak with them, then he or she is a good match. But it goes further than that. You need to know if he or she has placed people with your skills/industry background and at your salary range before, and geography is no longer the indicator it used to be as many recruiters place people over a much broader region than they used to.  

So it start by doing your research.  

Of course, research takes time.

 A lot of time. Even with LinkedIn and premium search tools, you still have to have set parameters and know how to research them. It can take hours of precious job search time to find just one or two. And then you still have to know how to approach them, engage with them, and make sure they really are the good fit they appeared on paper.

It's why so many candidates give up.

But there is a lot of value in finding the right technical recruiter because when the match is right, the whole process is much easier. Not to mention the fact that recruiting is on the rise and will continue to play a large role in the hiring process in 2015.

So if finding the right technical recruiter is important to you, there are ways to make it easier. You can simply tap into a general directory of technical recruiters (Ours has 1350+ based in the U.S.) already prepared with full contact info. Or you can take it a step further and engage a recruiter matching solution where you can work with a concierge service to have a customized list of recruiters built for you and your needs by a technical job search specialist (not to mention get good guidance on how to approach the recruiters).  

It's not that you can't do it on your own; it's that you no longer have to.

(Also, check out our directory of 800+ project/program manager recruiters or directory of CIO recruiters.)

--About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!

The Rise of the Corporate Entrepreneur

In my recently released book UNCOMMON with Brian Tracy, I wanted to focus on the concept of "corporate entrepreneur." Thanks to feedback from my social media connections, I was able to gather some great data and comments on what corporate entrepreneurship means to today's professional.

Below is an excerpt from the book, due out later this week (June 11). If you'd like to download the entire chapter, click on the cover graphic and I will send it to you!

 
Click on cover photo to receive rest of chapter

______________________________

THE RISE OF THE CORPORATE “ENTREPRENEUR”

Let’s face it. The world of “work” is more uncertain than ever. It penalizes you for things you often can’t control ... for being too “old,” too experienced, too qualified, too “educated,” too “expensive.” It might not reward you for this certification or that title. On top of that, corporate hiring processes are a sophisticated mess (to put it mildly), internal cultural and multigenerational conflict is commonplace, and many companies are struggling with how to retain their top talent.

As a result, professionals now make an external career move every 3 to 4 years. That means the average 30-year-old with 35 years (or more!) left in the marketplace can expect 10 or more company changes before he or she retires. Even if this professional were to beat the odds with an internal promotion or two, by say double, he or she could still be out in the market every 6 to 8 years.

If all that corporate “goo” isn’t bad enough, then there’s the job market “zoo” to contend with.

BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT IT’S NOT ALL BAD NEWS!

Each day I work with professionals across the globe dedicated to building in career protection, and they are achieving tremendous results. Just like the rest of us, they face many of the same limitations: age, gender, level of experience, geographic restrictions, lack of credentials, market instability, and so on. The difference is in how they approach these limitations and build in their protection from the storm.

IS THERE REALLY SUCH A THING AS CAREER “PROTECTION”?

People tell me that “job security” is a myth today or that if you work for someone else, such as a corporation, you can’t really control your fate.

And I understand what they mean.

IT SEEMS LIKE SOMEONE ELSE IS HOLDING ALL THE CARDS.

(For the rest of the story, click on the graphic above!)

--About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!

How to Get a Whole Lot More Than Just Another IT Resume

When it comes to the hiring process, 95% of professionals spend their time worrying about, and focusing on, credentials. Not surprisingly, then, they end up creating, or looking for writers who will create, resumes focused on showcasing lists of credentials backed by experience.

On the surface, this makes sense, especially when you do what most rational people would do, and that is listen to what companies are saying when it comes to their ideal candidates. After all, they say they want someone with X experience and X credentials, so why wouldn't you produce documents that tell them you have exactly that, right?

Well, how many times have you or someone you know applied for positions that you were 100% qualified for and did not get the job, maybe not even a call or an interview?

It happens all the time. The reason?

Because companies are human too! And us humans have a habit of saying one thing and doing another.

And when you look at what companies do in regard to hiring, what you find is that they respond more to benefits than they do to features. In other words, while they like all the credentials and experience you list out on your resume, those things are most often not what persuades them to hire you.

Instead, they are looking for how all those credentials and skills can be leveraged to make their lives better. And they don't want to have to connect the dots.

That's where your IT resume comes in...it must begin the process of connecting the dots. Then it must be reinforced by additional content (what we refer to as a portfolio) and a holistic job search strategy that completes the connection. The result? You get a whole lot more than "just" another IT resume. You get an approach that is proving to be much more effective.

To find out more about the IT resume portfolio approach we take, and why we take it, feel free to request:   --About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!