Thursday, August 5, 2010

Advice on Finding an IT Job and a Recruiter in South Florida

By : Michael K Daniels

Are you trying to find an IT Recruiter in South Florida? There are a few strategies to consider locally here in Florida before hitting the job boards. The first thing you need to think of is your location. South Florida is generally broken down into three major job markets, West Palm Beach (Palm Beach County), Ft. Lauderdale (Broward County), and Miami (Dade County). Broward County has the biggest strategic advantage from a candidate perspective, being centrally located. This is certainly something to think about if you are planning on relocating to South Florida.

South Florida is only 90 miles from North to South and about 15 miles from the Everglades (West) to the Beach (East). Commuting is more about traffic congestion than distance. You could live 5 miles away from your office yet it could take you the same amount of time to get there as someone who lives 20 miles away. Understanding the traffic patterns is extremely important. Companies also take this into consideration when making hiring decisions. They know that someone who's commuting over an hour each way will eventually look for something closer to their home and may have a more short term outlook on their current employment.

When it comes to technical positions in South Florida there are other things to think about. South Florida is large metropolitan area but it would not be considered a top tier market. This should be taken into consideration both by people who live here locally and those who are considering relocating to the area. Top tier markets like New York, Washington DC, Atlanta, and Los Angeles are the homes of some of the largest companies in the United States. These companies are more likely to utilize large enterprise level IT solutions in their environment. An example of this would be which database solution a company would choose, SQL Server or Oracle. Oracle is the more expensive solution which is tailored to large enterprise corporations. Oracle is often found in tier one markets. SQL Server has many of the advantages of Oracle yet is tailored for small and medium size companies both from a services and price point. SQL Server is more often found in companies that are in the tier two or three areas. If you are a candidate with either of these skill sets, you may want to consider which tier market you are in to give yourself a greater opportunity to find employment.

Most candidates will look on popular job boards for opportunities that are advertised. The main problem with this approach is that everyone else is doing the same thing. This is a very simple method which will attract the most people. For any given job there could be thousands of applicants. This makes it extremely unlikely they will even review your resume, let alone contact you for an interview.

You can also post you resume on popular job boards. This approach has value yet gives the potential employers a lot of information that could put you in a poor negotiating position at the time of an offer. Typically these sites will ask you a series of questions like previous salary history.

Another option is to contact a local staffing company and speak with an IT Recruiter. Currently there are niche companies, or divisions of companies, that will likely focus on your individual industry and skill set. For example, if you are a Software Developer you will search for a technical staffing company whereas an Accountant might look for accounting and finance focused staffing companies. These companies will have deep client relationships which make it more likely that your resume will be reviewed rather than sit in a pile on a desk.

I suggest contacting a local firm rather than a large national corporation. Local firms specialize in your local area and will typically have better relationships with local companies. This especially holds true here in South Florida. There are loads of national firms that lack specific relationships in the local corporate community. Many large national staffing firms have an interest in breaking into the South Florida market because they see profit potential, however they typically have high turnover which makes it increasingly difficult to build a solid relationship with a recruiter.

When calling a local firm, ask to speak with their top recruiter. Build a relationship with whomever they put you on the phone with. Ask to meet them either at their office or possibly for a cup of coffee. This give you an advantage over that thousands of other applicants resume's they see on a daily basis. If you present yourself in a professional manner, the recruiter will likely remember you when a position opens up with one of their clients that closely fit with your skill set. Also, try to be as flexible as possible when they ask questions like what is your target salary range and how far would you comfortably commute. The more flexible you are, the more likely it will be that they will contact you for an opportunity.

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