By Sheryl Silver
High Tech Careers Editor
Special Advertising Recruitment Supplement to The Washington Post
Sunday, March 15, 1998

As the frenzied pace of recruiting IT professionals continues unabated in the metro area, qualified candidates have become harder to find and the competition for available applicants has grown keener than ever. Although some employers say they enjoy the challenge of recruiting in this type of environment, others openly express their frustration at the scarcity of qualified talent. IT professionals, on the other hand, are understandably thrilled about the current state of affairs and the market leverage it's providing those with sought after skills.

As desirable as the situation is for candidates, many recruiters and human resource executives are sounding a cautionary alarm. Mistakes are being made, they say. The accelerated pace with which offers are being extended and accepted is producing more bad hires than usual and costing candidates and employers alike.

"I don't know if it's a matter of people overselling or underselling, but in this fast-paced environment, people are making decisions too quickly," observes Jean Callahan, director of recruiting services for Booz, Allen & Hamilton Inc., in McLean, Va.

Callahan urges candidates to take more time and ask more questions during the interview process to increase the odds of making the best choices. "In this competitive market, I'd remind candidates that they should be evaluating companies as much as those companies are evaluating them during interviews," she said. "It's important that candidates take a global look at both the firm they'd be joining as well as the position they're considering."

In evaluating a company, among the questions Callahan recommends people ask are: What are the values and ethics of the firm? What's the company's reputation? If they join the company, Callahan says, "In the future, that reputation flows to them and will impact their marketability."

Callahan also encourages job hunters to get a sense of the long term view of a company as well as the role they'd be playing. "Ask about the company's strategic, long-term vision," she suggests. "And regarding the position, don't take only a short term view. Find out if the long-term environment will give you what you want. Will it provide the training and development opportunities or the opportunities to supervise or manage people that will make you well- rounded?" A functional expert can reach a limit in an organization, she says, while the more well-rounded individual, who's had exposure to key fundamentals, tends to have greater options.

Dave Samuelson, president of the Bethesda, Md.-based IT recruiting firm Quest Systems, also urges IT professionals to ask more questions about the positions they're considering. He says he too has seen more poor hiring decisions than usual lately, particularly in the software development arena. The source of the problem, he says, is the scarcity of candidates with certain skills and a willingness by some employers to hire individuals and train them in those hard-to-find skills.

"The temptation is a strong one for many candidates who are eager to pursue both the learning opportunity and the enhanced marketability and earning power being offered to them," he explains. "Unfortunately, we're seeing some of these people when they leave their new jobs after only a month or two because they can't do the work." According to Samuelson, "The problem seems to arise either because the candidates overestimated their ability to pick up and learn the technology necessary or the employer underestimated the height of the bar involved. Usually there's dissatisfaction with the time it takes the new hire to pick up the needed skills."

Whatever the cause of the mismatch, says Samuelson, the outcome is the same: an extra job change to explain. "The candidate has had something that impacts their job history. It does have to be indicated on any application a prospective employer presents to them," he notes. "And just recently, I've seen resumes where people had to make two quick job changes because of someone's mistake."

Of course, for the employers involved, there are also costs. Replacing the terminated individuals generally means starting the recruiting process from scratch since anyone who was a qualified candidate a month earlier has likely already accepted a job elsewhere.

To help prevent these undesirable situations, Samuelson urges candidates to ask more detailed questions before accepting job offers that require learning new skills. Among the questions he suggests people ask are, "What skill sets will I be expected to have coming in the door? What skill sets will I be expected to learn? Within what time frame?"

Samuelson also recommends probing for details on other aspects of each job you're considering. "What will the work be like hour by hour, day by day for the first six months? Where in the lifecycle will I be picking up the work? These are other legitimate questions to ask," he says. "You have to protect yourself by asking enough questions and analyzing the answers you get. It's wonderful to have the opportunity to learn new technology, but only if you're clear about your limitations and the company's expectations."

In fact, when it comes to your own capabilities, Samuelson stresses the importance of being honest. "Be confident about your skills but don't oversell," he advises. "If, for example, you recognize that you need a mentor or a more senior person to oversee what you would be doing to produce the desired result, communicate that to the employer. Don't assume the person interviewing will always know enough about the technology involved to know whether or not you're capable of performing the work on your own. Not all managers have current client server skills."

Travel requirements are another factor to keep in mind when asking about a position, says Samuelson, "Sometimes," he says, "travel requirements are glossed over during interview discussions," even though in some companies, they can be extensive. The same is true of overtime. "People often get called upon to do things they weren't prepared to do," says Samuelson, in part because they didn't ask about those issues.

Take Time to Respond

Although Samuelson doesn't recommend prolonging the decisionmaking process longer than necessary, he believes taking a week or two weeks to make a decision about a job is still reasonable. "See as many companies as you can as quickly as possible so you can see what you get," he suggests. "Then make a decision without stringing out the process."

What if a company insists on an answer to an offer within a week? "If you're not ready to make a decision, be honest about it," advises Samuelson. "Thank them for the offer. Explain that you're looking at several situations but can't guarantee you can get back within a week. Tell them that after evaluating all the options you're considering, you'd like to get back to them and if the position is still available, you'd like to discuss it then." They'll either accept or decline, says Samuelson.

Callahan similarly cautions candidates to resist any pressure to accept an offer prematurely. "If you're too pressured about rushing to decide about an offer, your questions aren't being answered," she says. Rather than rushing to respond before you're comfortable, Callahan says, "Trust your gut." If you pass up one position, she contends, "Another equal or better position will come along."

Samuelson agrees. In this market, he says, there are plenty of opportunities for qualified IT professionals. "Ask yourself, what's going to be more important three years from now," he suggests. "It's going to be looking back on what work you've been doing, not whether you started your job a week or two later. You've worked so hard to put yourself in a position of having a valued set of skills. Take time to market yourself wisely."