My Thoughts on 2010 - The playground of the Wgtn IT Recruitment Marketplace

The way we go about finding talent for permanent roles has changed dramatically. In the ten years I have been doing what I do, our percentage of placements in 2010 that have been made via headhunting / shoulder tapping increased dramatically. Looking back I think people are relying on being called vs. actively going out and applying to a role – thus meaning the ability of firms like ours to first identify the right people will come under the microscope and will be the making and breaking of some firms.

I would love to know the amount of IT contractors that are working at any one point in time! We think we know most people but then out of the woodwork we find another handful of outstanding contractors working within an organisation. Looking at 2010 I have seen the expectations on contractors from organisations increase, meaning that contractors cannot let their guard down or get to comfortable.

On that note we have seen many organisations that would not have entertained using a contractor actually engage in having a contractor or two involved in their projects.

There is now some obvious competition coming from the IT Vendors / IT Services firms (aside from the other IT Recruitment firms). Many government panel supplier agreements for ‘services’ are going to the IT Vendor / IT Services marketplace who either simply attempt to advertise themselves or come to us for people (in this particular instance the end user organisation effectively pays more than what they need to as two parties are involved in the transaction)!

I have also seen some parties who operate in the ‘consulting’ space effectively operating as recruitment firms. Fair play to them, but their clients might want to ask what additional value they are adding for their hefty prices, if they are simply body-shopping.

At the top end of the marketplace it is extremely competitive for CIO / IT Director positions. Recently I worked a CIO role which reported to the organisations CEO. We had over 100 individuals involved in this process, meaning that there were a few disappointed individuals. With a number of government departments being folded into other departments I can see that at the top end of the marketplace there will be a large demand for these types of roles.

LINZ's CEO Colin MacDonald speaking on the CIO role

No prizes for working out who is a great speaker and who needs to improve on speaking in front of a camera!!

http://www.920.co.nz/uncategorized/nathan-masters-with-colin-macdonald-from-linz

If it doesn't rain it pours!

Within 48-hours three different CIO roles go live

The Ministry of Social Development have had an acting CIO for over 12-mths but went to market yesterday searching for a CIO. Not a small role.

On behalf of Land Information New Zealand I am recruiting a CIO that will be a direct report to the CEO and along with the other members of the executive team contribute in the running of the organisation.

Then there is the Head of IT role at Trade Me. Jon McDonald the CEO is looking for an individual to join his executive team and help shape the future of Trade Me.

All different but fantastic roles. For the Ministry of Social Development role I believe Sheffield is running that process but if you are interested in finding out more regarding the Land Information New Zealand or Trade Me roles feel free to make contact with me on 978 1896 or nathanmasters@920.co.nz

Wellington - Full of genuises

On Friday I was sitting have a beer in 3C' listening to one of the founders of company who has been going for 13 years, listening to how a great partner relationship saved them one on occasion when things got a bit tight. The afternoon beer and chat got me thinking about:

- how talented some people are, to have done what they have done
- but also with some additional focus and investment (whether funding or tax incentives) how good we can really be when it comes to software or product development?

What I was most impressed by was the lack of ego and the passion these guys have for what they do. I could easily see how they have grown from three guys to over one hundred staff (but they do have some good war stories to tell).

Now there are many stories like this I am sure (just look at Xero, Starnow, Kitomba etc) but do we, the general public or the politicians know about them, especially those that are between one and two years of age where the acid really comes on small start-up companies?

I am sure talking to people inside the likes of Starnow and Kitomba they would have a few suggestions for the politicians on what else could be done for small entities, that can ship product off-shore or have the ability to capture an international audience based on their product / software to enhance there chances of succeeding.

Or is it as simple as going to the bank or going to angel investors asking for funding? Possibly, but I think there is still more the government can do as there are many, many geniuses in our city.

How powerful is Twitter?

People probably don't need me to tell them, but I was told a story yesterday which rammed it home for me about how powerful Twitter can be.

I was talking to a couple of guys from Trade Me regarding twitter and unfortunately for them the Trade Me site went down earlier this year (which is probably the worst thing that can happen to Trade Me). Anyway within a matter of minutes someone who was on the site 'tweeted' that 'the Trade Me website is down'. Someone from www.stuff.co.nz site was following that person and had the story up on the front page of the Stuff website - this meant that some Trade Me employees found out via Stuff that their own website was down - this is how quickly news can travel via Twitter!

It's the quick and the dead!!

I am noticing that organisations are getting frustrated by not being able to secure people that they want to secure, simply because they are to slow in:

• making a decision on wanting to see a person
• arranging interviews
• giving feedback after the interviews
• not having the correct approvals in place in the first place

In some instances where there might be an over supply of candidates (Helpdesk or Systems Engineers) they can possibly afford to take their time, but when it comes to Business Analysts, Software Developers, Software / Solution Architects and Test Analysts be prepared to lose candidates if you don't move quickly on someone you like!

I would encourage line managers / clients to ensure they have approval to recruit, ensure that if an exceptional candidates comes out of the woodwork, you can make yourself available to see that person, ensure that the people you want involved in the process are available and that you can turn around an offer quickly - all these things show candidates that you are serious, that you can be nimble and juggle things to accommodate them - those first impressions are critical.

I can't see the demand or the competitive nature of the current Wellington marketplace going away - in fact I can see it getting even tighter - especially when the demand from Australia is picking up.

Using SEEK

I was in Sydney for a couple of days around two weeks ago now and I was surprised to hear IT Recruiters and Employers talking about the way they source candidates.

The two recruiters I talked with very rarely would use www.seek.com.au but relied purely on their database, www.linkedin.com and getting referrals from people.

From what I can see within New Zealand the likes of www.seek.co.nz website still plays a vital part in the recruitment game (more vital than in Australia) and would get used alongside getting referrals and using the Linkedin portal.

There will always be a place for the Internet job boards but it will be interesting to see whether the trend in Sydney comes to New Zealand?

Regarding referrals people (agencies) were offering up to $1,000 AUD for referring someone to them that they placed into a role. From what I can see the most an agency is offering in NZ is $250 NZD - it might be time to increase the stakes?

IT Recruiter Required

The Wellington IT Market is rebounding quicker than expected, hence we need another recruiter to join the group.

Whether you are an experienced recruiter, an up and coming recruiter or possibly working in the IT sales space and wish to enter the IT Recruitment market, I am keen to hear from you.

Currently in Wellington we are 12-staff.

It isn't an easy career, people need to bounce back quickly from set-backs, be comfortable doing phone based marketing, enjoy meeting people as a large amount of our time is talking to clients and candidates in person.

From a rem point of view, you get a healthy base salary and we believe our bonus / commission rates are very good.

For further info you can call me on 029 201 47 45 or drop me an e-mail on nathanmasters@920.co.nz

Googled

I have just started reading Googled - The End of the World As We Know It written by Ken Auletta - I can't get enough of it

Oh to be an early investor into Google!!

I thought the Steve Jobs book was good, but I think this is going to top that. If you want to have a read after I have finished, let me know.

Lack of IT Graduates in Oz

While talking to a leading HR Consultant based in Melbourne yesterday regarding the state of the Australia IT market and she commented on a concern that her organisation has around the drastically declining amount of IT graduates coming out of the Australian Universities. They hire a large amount of IT graduates annually but are struggling to find the appropriate amount they require.

I heard that back in 2008 that Victoria University had a reduction of 40% of new enrollments looking to complete a Computer Science degree.

This doesn't bode well for looking to plug the shortages in the IT markets in Australia and New Zealand, meaning that recruiters, organisations and the government need to get smarter on how to attract suitably qualified people to New Zealand (I sense deja vu)

Wellington IT Market

Things have certainly picked up from what it was 12-mths ago.

There are large programmes of work occuring in the utilities and banking environments. Government are starting to get into some large change initiatives and rather than doing themselves the work is getting fed out to the services / vendor community.

If you are a candidate and seek either Test Analyst, Java Developer, .NET Developer or Business Analyst you should have no trouble finding work and if you are a contract Business Analyst with banking experience again you shouldn't have to much issue finding work.

Looking to the future I see New Zealanders being a target for the Australian market as that is extremely buoyant currently, so hopeful the budget that gets announced this week provides some benefit that keeps talented people on the ground.

Are JD's useful?

In the last couple of days I have sat down with a couple of organisations to discuss certain roles (nothing new in that). BUT I was thinking how much time and effort people put into developing them and how useful they really are?

JD's is short for Job Descriptions!

Now I am sure there are many people (I admit I am not great) whom can draw up a great JD and that there are some great JD's out in the market, that explain the job, the daily tasks, the culture of organisation etc but my head tells me that there are many, many JD's that don't do justice to the organisation and the role. In fact it may turn people away because it is to long, to dull, doesn't really tell me much etc

So what can else can you do?

- Put a video up on YouTube or your website on what the office is like - shows people that you have appreciation of Social Media
- Do a job description via a Video upload - have the line manager talking about the role, the challenges involved, the people in his team, some of the projects their team have been involved in etc
- Be upfront on what daily tasks people will be doing (if the role involves spending 2-hours a day drawing Visio diagrams tell people, as what you don't want is people being surprised when they turn up to the interview to hear certain things or even worse when they have accepted the role and get surprised).
- Get some photos up on your website off some social events involving your staff - snapshot of culture
- Get people to 'pass a test' (it might be a programming test) before submitting their resume - gives people an impression on what is expected

On that note I should take note myself of what I am writing!!

Are we a dying breed?

In the last 6-mths I have seen 'career recruiters' departing from the market which is possibly a sign of the times or it might be people making the call that IT recruitment isn't a career for them. For me it is all I know, so I need to be good at it otherwise I don't know what I would do.

It is certainly not an easy job or career but it is unbelievably rewarding and effectively we get paid to talk to people and to listen to people. We have the opportunity to meet some of New Zealand's most innovative and entrepreneurial IT people, help their organisations grow but also have the chance to better ourselves by seeing their behaviours and drivers.

For those that are willing to make it a career, it certainly becomes easier the more you deliver to your clients and soon you will be the only recruiter they call - that does far too easy, but it happens (is that sounding like Rachel Hunter).

Doing it yourself

We are seeing a handful of organisations (largely government) looking to get staff themselves via internet and print based avenues. For certain roles this will absolutely work for certain roles (Helpdesk is one job that comes to mind) in this marketplace - but they will be swamped with applications (expect in excess of 100). But what we are seeing is that organisations will spend maybe four / six weeks going through a process and then coming out asking for help. My point is, I would hate to think how much time, effort, productivity and money has been wasted in that period.

An example comes to mind that occurred earlier this year which if they had asked themselves the hard question "are we best to do this" they would of saved a huge amount of time, saved some people getting highly stressed, saved some money and they would have had a person on sooner than what they did:

- A SOE needed to recruit a new role - strong response - seven people interviewed - none of the seven deemed appropriate - another ad on Trade Me and SEEK - another reasonable response - four people interviewed - none of the four deemed appropriate. Then we get a phone call and I wouldn't say it was the easiest role to fill, but what was needed was some headhunting - ringing some people whom were comfortable in their role and tempting them with an opportunity. This organisations approach was 'well there must be a lot of people looking for a job, we will be right', and they were correct on the quantity point, but not right when it came to the quality!

By no means am I absolutely against organisations watching costs in these market conditions, but all I ask is that they think seriously whether they are in the best position / have the best resource and know the people they need before commencing a process.

Recruiting Blind

In some instances we get put into a situation where we have to work off a JD, without a conversation or a meeting with the line / hiring manager. I have seen it happen with our team at 920. There are many reasons why a lot of the times it certainly makes the task at hand even harder:

- It is great to hear it from 'the horses mouth' why this is such a great role
- We can talk to people about the type of person they will be reporting too - this may persuade or dissuade individuals (either way it helps)
- A JD doesn't necessary tell you the top three 'absolute must have's'
- A JD doesn't talk about the the key projects that lay ahead for the person and what benefits being involved will have for them

From a line / hiring managers point of view a 15 / 20 minute investment is certainly going to assist as if not you may receive profiles which for whatever reason doesn't match your needs. My advice - make the small investment and save yourself some time and pain in the future.

Tom Peters and The Results Group

One of the two in the blog title certainly was worth going to see. Tom is a 66-year old guy with big energy, simple ideas and is an amazing story teller. The Results Group well - there are a few words I want to use but probably won't. I think they see themselves as "Business Coaches", but it wouldn't surprise me if many of these guys battled to get a job doing anything, got some 'business coaching' and then started coaching!

Back to Tom - he told a great Nelson Mandela story on how Nelson Mandela was able to get his way via his disposition and his smile, but while in a South African jail he couldn't click with the Head of the jail. So each time he went to meet with this guy to discuss the possibility of him leaving it was always a 'no'. So he did some research on this Africans chap and found out that he was a Rugby nut, so Nelson Mandela for the next 6-mths studied and learnt Rugby. He managed to find out which team this chap supported, who he played for when he played etc.

The next meeting between Nelson Mandela and the Head of the Jail was going as it normally did - poorly. He waited until 10-minutes into the conversation before mentioning what happened in the latest South African provincial game that this guy team played in. Nelson Mandela talked about the key moments in the game, made comment on the referee etc. Nelson Mandela had this guy. From that moment onwards the relationship changed and Nelson Mandela got treated like royalty while in this Jail and eventually got released.

A little long winded but it smacks of great planning and research - something that is sometimes missing in the Recruitment game. It isn't overly hard hop on Linkedin and find the candidate you are going to interview, the client you are about to meet etc

One last thing from Tom Peters - well it is actually from Wayne Gretzsky - "You will miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - I love this attitude and thinking

Check out more from Tom Peters on www.tompeters.com