PARTNER – RECRUITER | PREDICTING IT RESOURCES FOR NEXT WEEK…
In the ever changing world of recruiting and sales in the IT world, I sometimes find myself wondering what technologies are next to take off. Every day, it appears anymore, some new technology catches the fancy. Newer methods, newly packaged tools all appear to be going up and down the hype-cycle at a rapid pace. Last it it seemed like you could not crack open a journal without seeing Big Data, the year before Cloud, and before that Self Service and Apps and Monetization and on and on. ( … and more is coming, take a look at the Gartner Hype Cycle Chart of 2016).
I hear a lot about Artificial Intelligence (AI) these days( AI, along with smart data discovery, IoT, smart robots, cognitive expert advisors) is rapidly edgding towards the peak of the cycle, before it becomes truly productive. This appears to be the new area of huge growth and with a relative lack of qualified candidates. Being that very few schools here and overseas teach this as a discipline the lack of an adequately qualified resource pool is particularly troubling.
Being in this business for years you may ask me; “How do we find these types of candidates when they are either employed or don’t exist?” The answer, I’m afraid is…you don’t. What you do instead is to create talent much the same way a great coach creates an outstanding football or a basketball program. You find people who can, not just those who already have, and you nurture and adjust and develop.
In this world what we tend to do is find candidates that have certain engineering, mathematics and software experience mixed with a knowledge of software development and IT architecture. We work with the clients to develop a program,educate both player ( candidate) and environment (company) and help select a candidate that has certain skill sets that help compete the team even if individuals lack complementary areas of importance. Truly, it comes down to how well you know and understand your team and what is needed to balance it out. The more you know and understand about the team need, the better your results will be.
I get this question a lot and that is; “How are you able to receive information from your clients on what they truly need?” The answer is and always will be…your knowledge, flexibility,partnership and your relationship. Even still clients will only share information with you if you have benefited them in the past. It takes time, dedication, investment and tenacity to ultimately educate yourself what are the benefits to the client and not to you.
Predicting what next week looks like should always be something you do as you gain your experience, knowledge and develop your business.