We also have learned most candidates still want to be kept informed about what is “hot”, and we continue to receive feedback about the value of Xtra Effort’s simple spreadsheet (click) that details:

1) What types of technology companies are hiring?

2) What roles?

3) What they are paying?

4) Where are the positions are located?

5) How much travel is required?

Security, Business Process Management, Business Intelligence, Compliance/Risk Management, and cloud computing systems management (application development, deployment, and performance) represent the enterprise technology companies with the most frequent hiring needs – at this time.

Xtra Effort’s client required a Project Director (permanent, full time position) who could manage a complex, multi year, global workforce management customer engagement. Dan’s recommendation resulted in a satisfied Xtra Effort client and candidate.

Thank you Dan!

“Mobile computing” with quotes is a facetious way to infer that this discipline should not always be considered such a distinct category of skills and knowledge, especially for Sales, Sales Engineering, and some Professional Service positions (as compared to engineering positions, where the learning curve is more challenging and time intensive).

Mobile computing challenges facing technology companies and enterprises frequently evolve around security, analytics, content management, business process, social media, and integration. A candidate with domain expertise in these areas will often be considered desirable among employers, but it’s the candidate’s responsibility to identify needs beyond “mobile computing” and show alignment with past experience. It is critical to make the alignment obvious, especially when working with recruiters or human resource managers who may limit their initial screen to seeing “mobile computing” on a resume.

Employers seeking candidates with mobile computing experience may also want to review an open position’s most prevalent and difficult attributes, and see if candidates with related skill sets would make for a quality hire. This is becoming particularly true as mobile computing continues to grow and the labor market tightens.

Relative to security technology itself, enterprises seem to distinguish candidates according to their particular technology background, particularly (Wikipedia definitions):

Network security: consists of the provisions and policies adopted by the network administrator to prevent and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of the computer network and network-accessible resources

Data security: protecting a database from destructive forces and the unwanted actions of unauthorized users.

SIEM: real-time analysis of security alerts generated by network hardware and applications. SIEM solutions come as software, appliances or managed services, and are also used to log security data and generate reports for compliance purposes

Authentication: authorization (determining whether a privilege will be granted to a particular user or process), privacy (keeping information from becoming known to non-participants), and non-repudiation (not being able to deny having done something that was authorized to be done based on the authentication).

Identity Management, including single sign on, password management, access control, and risk management

Xtra Effort has found candidates whose experience is limited to network security are easier to find than the others, and they receive less compensation.   Enterprise security technology candidates who have experience selling or implementing security solutions related to the remaining disciplines are more highly sought after.  Especially if they can sell, architect, or configure solutions that achieve business objectives, enable productivity, and still protect the enterprise and their customers.

Employers want enterprise sales, sales engineering, and professional service security candidates who have knowledge of these security concepts AND how they relate to INDUSTRY SPECIFIC RULES and regulations. Healthcare, federal government and financial services are the most prevalent examples.

Sales professionals, project managers, business analysts, or industry specific professionals may enter the security world because of their deep knowledge of industry regulations, etc., without having the actual technical skills. They will be part of team which includes security technologists.

All candidates within the world of enterprise information security improve their careers by being well versed in solutions development, industry rules and regulations, and security technology.

I can no longer continue to acknowledge having an awareness of  the term with no real clue what it is all about.

“Big Data” seems to be real.  Bummer.  I have to concentrate and really think about something new.

You should too. This ComputerWorld article makes it easy to learn and digest.  Voilà,  you are now a “Big Data” guru!

From an enterprise technology recruiter’s perspective,  Xtra Effort has seen LOTS of change.

We originally helped enterprise technology companies in the content market segment hire Sales Engineers, Account Executives, and Professional Services personnel with capabilities related to document management, workflow, and static web content.

Enterprise Portals then became all the rage where data or unstructured content from disparate silos can be retrieved by users who were internal or external to the enterprise.   This is where Xtra Effort observed a convergence of the need for content management and SOA (or web services, EAI) skills, because integration was such a huge factor in portals.

Enterprise Search technologies became a popular destination among content professionals because – similar to portal technologies – it enabled users (inside and outside the enterprise) to access and make sense of disparate data and content to satisfy their information needs.  However enterprise search allows the user to have more wide open views to content without the predefined views or self- service capabilities often associated with a portal.

Eventually enterprise social media enabled users to create content that is inherently visible and accessible to several unique parties from day one of the content’s existence, without as much need for portal or SOA technology to integrate.

Enterprise mobile computing brings all of this to the forefront, from considerations for rendering static content, to accessing legacy content stored in disparate silos, to user creation of content from their mobile devices.

And of course enterprise content security has been a constant throughout the years. Security skills have become increasing more important because social media and mobile computing technology enable users (including external users) to create and share content from anywhere device. 

Wow! So much change!

So what is constant among enterprise Sales and Professional Service personnel?  Enterprise content management has always required both the user community and IT to be concurrently involved in the discussion.  Considerations for scalability, security, compliance, and integration are very close to even the smallest move related to content management.  The result is customer facing professionals must have exceptional political and communication strength to always be balancing what is possible (users) from is scalable, secure, and compliant (IT, Legal, and Audit).     

We would suggest hiring managers specifically ask candidates about their experience maintaining this balance during their selling campaigns and delivery projects.  Candidates should be prepared to articulate their experience and position its relevance when interviewing for careers that feature new content management technologies. 

How can the term Business Intelligence be viewed? Many different technologies and projects can be tightly or loosely related to the “BI” ecosystem. 

Data needs to be extracted, housed, manipulated, interpreted, and shared.   Depending on the size of the company and project, each of these phases can represent different technologies and discussions. Traditional technologies associated with these different phases include data warehousing, data modeling, dash board, performance management, financial reporting, OLAP, and ETL.    Some aspects of this continuum include highly technical discussions and others more related to the information needs of business users.

Business Intelligence is most commonly associated with gaining access to data in a way where users can better see what has already transpired relative to sales, profits, human resources, marketing, manufacturing, etc.  However, there also disciplines within business intelligence such as “data analytics” that enable the users to interpret or even speculate about why trends are occurring and speculate what may happen in the future.   Analytics can occur outside the traditional “business” functions, such as web analytics.

“Enterprise search” has been a popular technology that enables users to apply business intelligence concepts to unstructured content, i.e., web content, documents, emails, etc.  

Candidates should be aware of where can they extend their careers across the evolving world of Business Intelligence.   Be sure to recognize where you need additional technical training or at least read publications that increase your credibility with the evolving vernacular.   Awareness precedes the next important step of communicating where you have been versus where you are going.   Communicating without initial thought and awareness sounds like senseless babble or generic blah; conversely, awareness without communication is a waste.

Enjoy the gift certificate. It is now in your email box.

All parties seem psyched.

Thanks again Kevin.

Xtra Effort.

Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Consulting Services, and Security enterprise technology companies are growing and adding headcount.

Separately, Constant Contact seems to think 22 spam reports out of 10,000 emails is too many.  Xtra Effort now needs to have all its candidates, clients, and partners proactively ASK to be on our email list.  So the ball is in your court if you want to receive future email updates: CLICK HERE.

Thank you.

Mark