IT Recruitment Industry Overview Richard Harrison Sales Director

Introduction Syntax and Personal Background Overview of the IT recruitment market – any trends? How to Enhance your career Where to look and how to apply CV advice Tips when dealing with recruitment agencies and recruiters In demand skills Agency Workers Register (AWR)

Syntax Consultancy Recruitment (IT & Technical Engineering) Learning & Development IT Services

Syntax IT Recruitment Services Location: Derby (London soon!) Established 1987 In 2010 we placed: 1087 Contractors, over 200 permanent staff UK Wide, Hong Kong, Germany, Singapore, Denmark

Syntax IT Recruitment Specialisms

Personal Background Joined Syntax 1999 Currently Sales Director (IT recruitment Services) and Co-owner Personally placed in excess of 1,000 contractors Responsible for Target Strategy, Recruiter Mgmt, Service Delivery, CIO/IT Leadership Engagement

Overview of the IT Recruitment Market 18,935 Agencies in the UK! (approx 5,000 IT recruiters) 2009 (recession started) – 15-20% less Contract Roles 2009 – 50% less Permanent Roles! 2010 – 10% recovery in Contract Roles Mixed performance ; some sectors such as Banking / Finance reported good recovery but others still weak Continuing high unemployment, ex-public sector candidates and low vacancies hamper broader permanent market but specialist skills continue to be in demand

18 months of year-on-year falling sales was ended in January 2010; Sales growth recovered throughout 2010 but much slower by October

Outlook: GDP versus recruitment industry sales turnover a clear-cut relationship

The Recruitment Process 1. C.V. Preparation 2. Approaching the marketplace 3. Preparing for interview 4. The interview 5. Follow up

CV Preparation 1. Two pages – simple (avoid graphics, Tables etc) 2. List Achievements 3. Metrics – budgets, team sizes etc 4. Objective 5. Play it straight 6. Check for grammatical and spelling errors 7. Have you Accounted for Any Gaps?

Approaching the Market 1. Online 2. National papers 3. Recruiters 4. Network 5. Be selective

Tips when dealing with Recruitment Agencies Some jobs are false adverts (Any REC Members will be legitimate – Write Down Conversations / Ask for When applying follow up with a call within 2 hours Ask When to expect feedback

The Interview 1. Concise 2. Answer the question (provide Examples, what you learned with hindsight, and would you have done anything differently) 3. What does the interviewer want? 4. What’s behind the question 5. Play it straight 6. do not give yes and no answers (if you have not worked with a specific skill, what have you worked with which relates) 7. OBJECTIVE: Get the job!!!!!

Preparing for Interviews 1. Prepare! (Plan your journey, what questions will you ask, what will you be asked?, Take your CV along, Dress Professionally) 2. Role play 3. Research the client

The Follow Up 1. Accept feedback 2. Stay in touch: Don’t stalk! 3. Update your network

In Demand Skills

Most In Demand Skills

In Demand Skills Portal / Collaboration / CMS skills.Net / Silverlight Apps Dev (most in demand contract skills – source cwjobs User Experience / Information Architecture – digital skills generally iPhone Apps Dev by 2015 – source IBM

Most Lucrative!! Interim CIOs - £750pd+ / £120k basics+ Programme Directors - £ pd / £85k+ Enterprise Architecture - £ pd / £85k+ SAP Business IT PMs vs IT PMs

If You want to Get to the Top - CIO Comms & Influencing – 87% Leadership – 73% Strategy & Planning – 61% Change Mgt – 43% ROI Oriented – 37% Outsourcer Mgt – 23% IT Awareness – 10% – Source PA Consulting – survey of 2,500 CIOs 2010

Agency Workers Register (AWR) 1 st October 2011 Designed to ensure temps are no worse off than permanent staff across EU Contractors now have equal rights in relation to pay and working conditions

Thank You for Listening!