How do companies like Technology Resource and other information technology staffing services recruit their consultants or professional technical temps? They recruit through the Internet, through advertising, and especially through referrals. They look for people with skills to staff help desks, and others who have marketable information technology skills.
Technology Resource, like other information technology companies, qualifies employees by resumes, telephone interviews, and personal interviews. Sussman says his experience has taught him that it is 60-70% attitude and 30-40% technical skills that determine whether someone is the right fit for a particular professional technical job.
The professional technical information technology temp can expect to be measured for skills by taking software tests and by answering questions that will determine if the temp has the knowledge for certain jobs. Many services will ask for consent to perform background checks and will ask that you take a drug test. The information technology professional technical temp can also expect to have references checked and to sign confidentiality agreements. These agreements mean that the client who is paying the staffing service to provide information technology skills owns the work that the professional technical temp performs for the company. How does the information technology professional temp determine what salary to ask for? In this field it depends on supply and demand in the industry. Every 90 days there are new skills being developed and new demands for these skills. The salaries in this field change according to supply and demand.
To be a successful professional technical information technology temp, one should understand programming language tools, have good communications skills, understand database design, and have a grasp of business.
Training for the Computer/Information Technology Temp
There are two current schools of thought regarding training for the information technology temp. Some firms do not want to spend time training the information technology person for the job. Many assignments that are temporary in nature require the person doing the job to hit the ground running. In other words, a company needs a job done right away and wants to hire someone for a limited time to do that job. That means the person needs the computer knowledge to do the existing job and does not have the time or luxury for any on-the-job training.
For example, Computer Company calls Anyone's Staffing Service for a computer programmer to install a certain type of system. The system needs to be up and running in 10 days. Anyone's Staffing must find a person who can start the first day with the knowledge to do the job. The service will not be able to fill the job with someone who has to learn how to do the job. That is not what Computer Company needs, and if Anyone's Staffing sends someone in who is not qualified to do the job, the service risks the assignment's not being performed to the satisfaction of Computer Company. Then Computer Company can ask for a refund of the money they paid to Anyone's Staffing, which will not be good for the reputation-or balance sheet-of Anyone's. Much of the work Anyone's Staffing obtains is by reputation, and if word gets out that Anyone's is not conducting business in a professional way, the service will risk loss of market share and going out of business.
The other school of thought for training is that information technology technical staffing services can teach professional technical temps new skills during times when they are not working for clients. Manpower Inc. has been doing this for several years through CBT Systems. Temps can learn different languages and skills in computer software at their own pace when not actually working. Technology Resource pays its employees an annual salary, and the company teaches them the latest technology when they are not out working.
Only you can decide what type of training you want as a professional technical temp. You will need to stay up-to-date regarding the skills demanded or sought by businesses in order to work effectively. You may want to consider working for a staffing service that has the foresight to train you so that your skills will stay current.
Computer programmers are one of the fastest growing groups for staffing services. That is because programmers write and maintain the detailed instructions-called programs or software-that give commands to a computer so that it is told what it must do.
Programmers may follow descriptions prepared by systems analysts. These analysts have carefully studied the task that the computer system is going to perform. These descriptions list the input required, the steps the computer must follow to process data, and the desired arrangement of the output. Some organizations, particularly smaller ones, do not employ systems analysts. Instead, workers called programmer-analysts are responsible for both systems analysis and programming.
What all of this means to the professional technical temporary is that there is a demand by smaller businesses for the skills of programmer-analysts. If you have the skills to work on both systems analysis and programming, a staffing service may recruit you to go work at smaller businesses that cannot afford to keep a full-time programmer-analyst on staff. As a professional technical temporary with these skills, you may be paid by a staffing service to become a full-time employee and be sent from small business to small business, where you will analyze and program different systems for small businesses.
