If you want to achieve success as a global techie, put your personality over technical skills.
“The biggest shift that has occurred in hiring information technology (IT) staff in the US is that more clients are recruiting candidates based on work culture fit and personality fit above all,” says Monique Porras, President, The Kempington Group, a US-based boutique recruiting firm.
It is common to find two technically qualified candidates for a job. However, the one that receives the offer will be the one with the personality fit.
Potential employers are willing to look over some deficiencies in technical skills so long as the candidate will fit their “work culture”. Employers want individuals who are “collaborative, personable and humble”.
IT recruiters can help the candidate here as they “represent the voice of the candidate”.
“By the time our client is being introduced to our candidate, we can share their technical expertise, their story on how they got to this point as well as personality traits. When presented through us, we become the voice for the candidate much more vast and detailed than just the information on their resume,” Porras said.
Potential candidates must convey their personality through cover letters or through emails highlighting their characteristic traits. It’s difficult to accomplish this task with a standard resume.
Businesses want new hires to achieve concrete results. They seek candidates who have both solid technical skills and a likeable personality that can help them meet their long-term needs.
IT security jobs currently dominate the “hot jobs” sector in the US, largely due to high demand in the security arena.
“I feel it will continue to be relevant especially since hackers progressively create advanced systems to continue to jeopardize networks,” Porras said.
Other sectors expected to see a surge in demand include advanced machines, smart machines and autonomous vehicles.
Services, apps, devices and smart machines will also require incredible computing architecture demands.
Businesses seeking IT talent are willing to sponsor H1B workers with specialized or hard to find technical skills. Some may not sponsor because of cost issues. Indian candidates seeking opportunities in the US should improve their communication skills.
Porras advises potential recruits that “you only have one shot to make a first impression”. Recruiters, human resources personnel and hiring managers see tons of resumes during a given search and after some time, almost all of them will start to look alike.
She advises candidates to have their name stand out in the heading and create resumes that are aesthetically pleasing. Potential candidates should highlight their successes at each job as they prepare their resume.
Candidates should learn how to negotiate their salary, perks and other benefits by discussing these openly with recruiters as they serve as a liaison between the company hiring and the candidate. Recruiters divulge most of the perks that could become the selling point in helping a candidate make the next move.
There are three trends that worry IT recruiters. For one, the demand most often outweighs the supply and there are not enough qualified candidates.
Secondly, some candidates look only for money and forget the big picture and their long-term strategies to build careers. Thirdly, there are very few women candidates in IT.
And, if you are someone who is just starting out with a career in IT, think of getting a degree focused on Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) as it will provide both the soft skills and the technical expertise required to build a thriving IT career in the global arena.
(Sarat Pratapchandran is a US-based writer whose career spans content management, philanthropy and corporate social responsibility. A master’s in mass communication from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and Kerala University, he now works as a fund raiser for a major US-based health sciences university)
