Things You Probably Didn't Know About The IT Job

Everyone's into IT these days. And why not? They pay's good, the job is in demand and it's the wave of the future. But of course we still hear complaints all around because despite the high pay and the high profile and advanced technology, there are still a lot of down-sides to the IT job.

Here's an article from ZD Net that discusses if the best IT job exists

Even though being a systems engineer nets you what has been deemed the best job in the United States, recruitment experts in Singapore point to the ups and downs of being an IT professional.

Earlier this month, a study conducted by Focus.com ranked being a systems engineer as the best job in the U.S., ahead of other professions including physician assistant, college professor and nurse practitioner.

While local experts ZDNet Asia contacted were unable to pin down a specific IT role that should be the most sought after in Asia, they did offer some thoughts as to the pull and push of various industry positions, based on indicators such as remuneration, work hours and job security.

Demand for role and job security

The good: Tay Kok Choon, head of strategic sales development at JobStreet.com Singapore, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail that the general demand for IT skills remains "very high". This, he explained, is because aside from traditional application development, many industries such as healthcare depend on IT professionals to improve their customer care and services.

Brian Richards, who heads Kelly Services' IT resources business unit, also noted that those in "hard-core" technical roles or who have specialized skills tend to be recession-proof. "For example, deploying top talent [to develop] efficient applications and provide effective support for systems would be even more important during a downturn when dollars and cents and productivity are closely scrutinized," he said in an e-mail.

The ugly: The more "generic" skills, such as project management, tend to be vulnerable during an economic downturn, added Richards.

Pay, perks and progression

The good: According to Richards, IT jobs within the financial services and IT consulting sectors tend to accord higher salaries, even though bonuses in these verticals saw a "noticeable dip" in 2009 due to the economic slowdown.

Perks and incentives, he said, tend to be higher in specialist areas such as information security, as skill sets are not readily available but nonetheless critical. Another group that receives better perks is senior project or program managers whose roles have a direct impact on business operations.

IT candidates, Richards added, can "pursue careers purely along the technical path, eventually moving into middle- to higher-level positions such as IT director, CIO and CTO, regardless of whether they come from support, infrastructure or application development backgrounds". They may also broaden their experience by taking on "hybrid" roles that require technical skills as well as functional, domain or business experience. Such expertise could eventually lead them to assume senior positions such as COO.

According to Robert Walters' Global Salary Survey 2010 released in February, there will be upward salary adjustments for several IT positions in Singapore this year. The designations include IT risk and compliance director whose salary range is expected to be from S$160,000 (US$113,840) to S$280,000 (US$199,220), up from S$150,000 (US$106,725) to S$250,000 (US$177,875) in 2009. Service delivery managers can also look forward to remuneration of S$130,000 (US$92,495) to S$160,000 (US$113,840) in 2010, an improvement over S$120,000 (US$85,380) to S$140,000 (US$99,610) last year.

When it comes to contract positions, Axer Goh, Robert Walters' manager for IT contract division, said IT specialist roles are the most highly paid in Asia. Those in these roles also have the luxury of selecting projects and working in a new environment with every assignment.

JobStreet.com's Tay noted that many IT roles have a regional responsibility which allow employees to develop softer skills, such as managing cultural and solutions diversity.

The ugly: Robert Walters' Global Salary Survey 2010 stated that roles including director for service delivery, EAI (enterprise application integration) middleware specialist and software engineer can expect to see their maximum salary dip by about S$10,000 to S$20,000. No reasons were given for this forecast decline.

Working hours

The good: Kelly Services' Richards said non-IT support roles tend to operate within office hours, even though the average number of hours worked a day is around 10 to 12.

The ugly: "Occupational hazards" of IT professionals, he noted, revolve around work hours. Firstly, tight timelines and thin budgets typically call for IT professionals to clock longer hours and face tighter timelines than their counterparts in business roles. Major IT systems implementations also typically happen during non-working hours over weekdays, weekends and public holidays so as to minimize business downtime.

IT support jobs also tend to incorporate shifts due to the "follow the sun" nature of system support roles in global organizations, added Richards.

JobStreet.com's Tay pointed out that IT professionals need to be not only fast, but also thorough in their work. "The QA (qualitative analysis) process that was deemed applicable traditionally may no longer be sufficient in today's context. An IT professional needs to stay alert [and] be passionate about his role to reduce incidents of mishap," he said.

Top Three Interview Questions And How You Should Answer

Wondering what they'll ask you during your interview? Here are the top three interview questions practically all interviewers ask during job interviews. More experienced (and senior) interviewers will go through your resume in detail and will jump start questions from different sections like where you previously worked, what you used to do.

The questions here are more the generic type that most likely an HR person will ask. As you go through the door, take note that the HR personnel is the gate-keeper. You are more often than not, not going to get to the boss if you are rude to the human resources department.



1. Tell me something about yourself

This is a natural question given the interviewer has no clue who you are. This is also a way to test your eloquence at presenting yourself.

The ideal answer here should be relevant to the position your applying for and should be brief but concise. Don't delve into your childhood or how well you play siatong. Be smart - put your best foot forward

2. What are your strengths and weaknesses

The key as always is to be honest. You don't need a job interview to tell you that. Your strengths and weaknesses will be recorded and referenced once you start or they will be cross-referenced when they do your background check

You HAVE to mention a weakness. There isn't a person in the world without a weakness so might as well be straight forward. But of course note how you are improving or the steps you've taken to improve

3. Why should we hire you

Now to be able to answer this accurately, you will need to do some initial research on the company and the position you're applying for. You can't just mouth off on all your skills (which may help sometimes) but instead of shooting in the dark. Your answer should be precise. Note the need of the company via your position. Understand what the company does and show your interviewer that you did look them up - this will definitely impress them.

These are just some of the secrets to getting hired. Stay tuned for more updates

Secrets Companies Don't Want You to Know about Sign-up Bonuses

Really the sign-up bonuses these days are just off the charts! I just saw one from Telus PLDT that was P 40,000! Amazing! I hear People Support gives out rather hefty sign up bonuses as well for specific accounts.

Employees and would-be applicants would do well to know what they're getting into before being blinded by such up front efforts to purchase their "skills." Here are some secrets that BPO companies don't what you to know about sign-up bonuses

1. I was told by a BPO company's president that the reason for this is that they want experience call center agents in the door, and they want them quickly.
2. These companies don't have or don't want to invest in training so you shouldn't expect much coming in the door
3. The average monthly compensation won't be as high - they just want you through the door
4. There is usually a bond to these sign-up bonuses. You don't get them for nothing. Companies will have you commit to staying for six months/ a year/ or perhaps for the duration of the account.
   

Depending on the deal, be careful about what you're getting into. Ask about the fine print on the sign-up bonus deals.

Three Most Popular Online Job Sites

I've often encountered a lot of people looking for job opportunities abroad and I don't blame them. But the first question to ask is, "How do I find jobs abroad?" It's never a good idea to leave the country without a plan or without options/ opportunities in place that would help you start your new life in a new country

Here are a number of online job sites which I have been able to collect over the years. There are some other requirements of course that you'll have to complete on your own.

Of course there are the most popular three local sites in the Philippines

1. JobStreet.com - they have about eight locations and I think they're pretty active here in the Philippines - their locations are all in Asia though. Haven't received feedback on people getting hired outside the Philippines but the local traffic is quite high I hear
   





2. Jobsdb.com is another big local site that supports about twelve countries. The site is available in Asian and Western countries. The website is a lot more complicated but I would think they have a lot more job listings

1. Bestjobs.ph is the only non-paid job site I think. Other job sites have paid versions/ services. There are a number of companies there as well. Interface isn't as sophisticated as previous two though. There are a number of opportunities abroad - like Dubai and the US but not as neatly laid out. Probably because it's free
   

I'm in no way connected to the above mentioned companies and am not getting referral fee or anything like that. This is just my personal option of the most popular online job sites, based only on my personal experience.

Four Rules To Answer The Toughest Interview Question

In interviews, I've noticed one of the toughest questions to answer is "What is your greatest weakness?" Simply because your answer can work against you and the inability to answer is also by itself considered a general weakness. I looked up Shine.com - a job site, and this is what they had to say on the subject

Read the complete article from Shine.com here:

From blatant... 'greatest weakness'; 'weakest attribute'; 'most significant failure' to soft 'what might your previous employer say? even softer 'you certainly seem to have a lot of strengths, but we understand no one is perfect' The question will come one way or another, everyone knows it, yet still befuddled by it. There have been many Rules of Thumb developed over the years, from making light of the question with an answer like “Pizza!” (Do not pass go; do not expect a job here) to true confessions, putting a cloud over everyone, to developing a response that actually demonstrates a strength: “I tend to be a workaholic” or “perfectionist” (Yuk!)

I find many Rule of Thumb to be off the mark and misleading. What may be good for one may not be for another. That is not to say there are no rules that can be applied; there are. Just choose your medicine carefully.

So the 4 rules when answering this interview question are:

Rule#1: Stay Positive…Always! “What’s your greatest weakness” is your opportunity to shine. One way is to demonstrate that you are a positive person by nature. Everyone likes a person with a positive nature, right? Remember you are in the interview to make yourself desirable for hiring, so you might say, “I rarely sit there and think of myself in those terms, nevertheless, I do want to respond to your question” or something on those lines. Notice by the way I did not say “I rarely sit there and think of my weaknesses”. Okay, I take it back. Here’s a rule of thumb that always applies: Do not use or repeat negative terms, even if the interviewer throws it out there.



Rule#2 No Superlatives! Keep it singular. Superlatives such as “weakest” or “worst” or “biggest” indicate the greatest degree of whatever is it describing. “Worst weakness” is the weakness of the highest degree implying there are other weaknesses of varying degrees but weaknesses nonetheless. That begs the question “what are some others?” Likewise, “need most to improve” implies there are others areas for improvement. In any case, try this as an alternative: “If I had to come up with one…” (No negatives; no multiples).



Rule#3 No Absolutes! The absolute, as in “my weakness is…” states that the weakness exists unconditionally: Utterly fixed and not likely to change. Wow! Wouldn’t it be better to be a little less restrictive, something more conditional like “it could be that I am…” Conditional responses suggest you yourself are not completely convinced of it. This type of response also accomplishes what the bungling technique of using a “strength” to describe a weakness consistently fails to achieve – that your “weakness” may not be a weakness after all.



Rule#4 Keep it real! Your “weakness” should be one (singular) that is subjective – of your person. Humanize it! “If I had to come up with one (singular) it might be (non-absolute) somewhat (qualifier) of a lack of internal patience (human)”. Continuing … “I seem (unconvinced) to have strong tendencies to expect the same from others that I do from myself (human). Not just in terms of results – I’m smart enough to realize that not everyone has the same level of skill, abilities and education (real) … I do however, expect others to give their best effort, and if that’s not there, then yes, that might (conditional) bother me to some degree” (Ah! … “bother me to some degree” … human, non-absolute, qualifier, and conditional … Don’t you love it!) Another tact, similarly keeping it real, could be an incident resultant of some area where improvement was needed (potential weakness) that turned out to be a learning experience and later grew into a personal asset, thus giving you, once more, an opportunity to showcase strength.