TRAITS OF GREAT IT LEADERS

Things are always changing in the tech industry, and that includes leadership. Today, being an IT leader means something different than it did even ten years ago. Leaders are no longer controlling, reviewing, and directing every aspect of a project-instead, they’re empowering skilled team members to work both independently and collaboratively, doing what it takes to get the job done with efficiency and excellence.

So what makes a great IT leader? Here are a few of the most common traits shared by successful leaders in the tech industry, and how these traits help them guide and develop the most powerful and complex component of IT-human resources.

They know themselves

The best IT leaders are self-aware. They have high degrees of emotional intelligence-understanding their own strengths and weaknesses, and knowing who to surround themselves with in order to complement those aspects. They’re also aware of their own emotional triggers, which helps them to manage logically.

To be a successful leader, you also need to know your own leadership style. When you’re aware of both how and why you manage as you do, you’re able to project an authenticity that your team can detect in every interaction-making it easier for them to respect you.

They create a team environment where it’s safe to fail

Collaboration is essential in today’s IT landscape. A great leader is able to encourage effective collaboration by knowing who should work together on what projects, along with when and where collaborations should take place. Leaders embrace the idea that “none of us is as smart as all of us.”

Working together can also help to cultivate innovation-and a strong leader is aware that innovation sometimes requires failure. It’s important for an IT leader to encourage team members to take reasonable risks, and not to penalize them or call out individual employees if a risk fails. Team members should know that they’re allowed to make some mistakes along the way.

They’re always learning

Without question, the most successful IT leaders never stop to rest on their laurels. Even those who reach the pinnacle of the company ladder are aware that they don’t know everything-and they’re always looking for ways to grow and improve.

This is especially essential for leaders in the tech industry. With frequent changes and upgrades, and continually emerging technologies, the only thing IT professionals can be sure of is that things will be different tomorrow. Staying up to date with the latest advances that are relevant to your company is crucial for successful leadership.

However, keep in mind that you shouldn’t only strive to improve your industry knowledge. If you’re aware that you struggle with soft skills like decision-making, or communication, or strategic thinking, you can continue to learn more in those areas-take a course, read relevant books, or even network with and learn from other leaders you admire.

Most great leaders aren’t born that way. They learn to improve through awareness and experience-and you can, too.

If you are looking for a staffing partner to help you recruit top IT talent in California, contact us today. The Armada Group has the top IT recruiters in Santa Cruz.

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TIM CHAPMAN JOINS THE ARMADA GROUP AS EVP

The Armada Group is pleased to announce the addition of Tim Chapman to their senior leadership team as an Executive Vice President. Mr. Chapman will be responsible for corporate sales leadership and direct management of Armada's new Silicon Valley offices.
Mr. Chapman has more than 17 years years of information technology staffing and recruiting experience, previously serving in leadership roles for TEKsystems and Volt Information Sciences. In addition, Mr. Chapman is a U.S. Army Veteran with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Houston.
According to Armada CEO, Jeff Tavangar “Tim is a proven IT services leader who thoroughly understands technology staffing in the Bay area.  He will be a great resource for our clients who are looking to develop more effective talent management strategies.”
Mr. Chapman will focus on the delivery of The Armada Group's proprietary talent consultation process to enable companies to more effectively and proactively hire and manage their technical staffing requirements. According to Mr. Chapman, “By joining the Armada Group, I am thrilled to be a member of the team that has been a key solutions provider to an impressive list of who's who in global technology companies with roots in the Bay Area. Armada's expansion is a natural step in our commitment to deliver the best available talent with the companies that require it.”
About The Armada Group
The Armada Group provides on demand talent solutions for the world's most innovative companies. Armada's clients include global technology leaders like Cisco, eBay and Paypal, Fortune 500 companies such as HP and Sony, as well as fast growth VC funded tech firms.
The Armada Group was founded in 1995 to connect extraordinary talent with world class opportunities. Because of the incredibly competitive nature of technical recruiting in the Bay Area, Armada developed a proprietary technical talent evaluation and hiring plan process that enables employers to more effectively source qualified resources and ensure timely access to full-time and contract staff.
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THE “MINNIE” SCOOP ON CISCO’S TELEPRESENCE SYSTEM: A VIDEO TEST ENGINEER’S EXPERIENCE

For over a year now, Minnie Yuan has been a team member of The Armada Group working as a Video Endpoint Test Engineer for Cisco Systems, Inc.  Prior to working for Cisco, Minnie attended the University of Massachusetts and graduated with a M.S. in Computer Engineering where she began working for High Tech company in Massachusetts.  In 2000, Minnie relocated to California to explore her opportunities in the world-renowned Silicon Valley.  When she reflects on the advantages of the West Coast, she comments, “With so many companies in [the] Silicon Valley, we [engineers] definitely have an advantage with working for different companies with software testing experience and expertise.”  Through Minnie and Armada’s team effort, she was connected to such an experience, and has since enjoyed working with Cisco’s TelePresence System.

From her previous years of working experiences, Minnie had learned much about the processes and structures of working for a large company.  As she explains in her own words, “…the process is the most important thing.  We all come from different backgrounds, and if there is no process to follow, [then] everyone does their own thing and no one works together.”  As part of Cisco’s process, test engineers are required to become familiar with a project before they begin working on it.  To gather information about the product, test engineers must first conduct their research by looking at relevant in-house documentations.  Since in-house documentations are not always up-to-date, Minnie relies on her co-workers for information on new or unfamiliar projects.  From her personal discovery she states, “The fastest way [of researching] is talking to people who have worked on the same project… [because] each of their answers will point me to one area.”  If her co-workers help is still not enough, Minnie resorts to the Internet.  As she recollects the past, she notes, “Before Google, we only searched for information in-house.  Now we have it [available] worldwide for common knowledge, and if you want more information on something you can Google it.”

As a video test engineer, Minnie is also responsible for setting up software and ensuring product quality.  When the products have been ordered and shipped from in-house manufactures, the test engineers must assemble the different cables and wires.  Once the hardware pieces are positioned in place, the engineers go online to attain the product’s source code to set up the network.  According to Minnie, getting the hardware and the network running can be tedious and take up to a couple of days.  As soon as both systems are set up, the test engineers can finally test the video product itself. 

Testing the product and making video calls to other test engineers is Minnie’s favorite part of the job.  Minnie said the hands-on experience of using the product is both fun and vital to the overall quality of the TelePresence System.  As she points out, “…for video products you still have to have a human experience.  It’s not like you can just let the machine run automatically overnight [for] 24 hours per day to get pass or fail results.”  Engaging and interacting with the product is also important in gaining insight and knowledge on how the customers will be using the TelePresence System.  During testing, Minnie explains, “…you definitely need to hear it and see it… because that’s what the customer is going to use every minute when they turn on the TelePresence.  They are going to talk, see, and share information.” After the engineers finish their initial examination of the product, they begin focusing on testing assigned features of the system.

When testing the system’s specific functions, the engineers are required to examine many defined feature cases to find and correct product errors.  With new hardware or software, test engineers treat each of these cases as important, but if they are working with a newer version of software, they focus on prioritizing the importance of each case.  In order to accomplish looking over 300 test cases, Minnie makes 15 cases a priority and executes those first.  If she finds anything wrong with the products from her test results, she is quick to inform the developers so that they can immediately fix the problem.  Once the higher priority cases are looked over and the errors are fixed, the remaining cases are considered medium to less important because of their low impact on the entire project.

The experience Minnie has gained as a video test engineer for Cisco has been most valuable and educational.  She enthusiastically says, “I am very happy to have the opportunity to work on a very high-end product with such a great company.  After a year of working on the job, I really see a lot.”  Also proud of her success is the Armada team who helped connect Minnie with her worldwide experience at Cisco’s Telepresence.  We are inspired by her accomplishments and hope to connect our future consultants with similarly successful and innovative opportunities.

Contributed by: Renee Gonzalez, The Armada Group(LIfe @TheArmadaGroup)

TOP 5 CHROME EXTENSIONS OF 2013

In just five years, Google Chrome has become the most widely used desktop browser, surpassing both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Chrome is pretty impressive right out of the box, with the latest update (Version 27) featuring excellent security, fast response time, superior HTML5 support, cross-device bookmark and preference syncing, and a built-in PDF reader and flash player.

However, extensions and add-ons can make Chrome even better. There are now almost as many Chrome extras—more than 50,000 of them—as there are in the extensive Firefox library of add-ons. Here are five of the best for 2013.

Security extension: Click&Clean

Maximize your browsing privacy and security with this full-featured extension. Click&Clean features a drop-down menu with 1-click actions like clearing your cache, deleting cookies, and erasing your download and browser history. You can also delete temporary files, Flash Cookies, and client-side Web SQL databases.

This extension offers more than a fast way to erase your browsing activity. Click&Clean gives you a one-click link to external security applications, like Bitdefender to scan for malware and CCCleaner or Wise Disk Cleaner to securely delete files. You can also use this add-on to watch flash videos offline.

Interface extension: AdBlock and AdBlock Plus

Both of these Chrome add-ons serve the same basic purpose: they keep ads from ruining your online experience. The community-driven AdBlock Plus blocks banners, pop-ups, and video ads, including on Facebook and YouTube.

AdBlock (without the “plus”), which is unrelated to the extension of nearly the same name, takes things a step further by blocking banners, pop-ups, and all video and Flash ads, including those in Flash-based games. The latest version, 2.6, also includes a counter that shows you how many ads have been blocked.

Productivity extension: RescueTime

Ever wonder where the time goes when you’re online? Now you can figure out which sites are your biggest time drains with this handy add-on. The RescueTime Chrome Productivity Meter keeps track of which sites you’re using online. An automatic pause feature stops the timer when your keyboard and mouse go untouched for two minutes, and you get a report letting you know exactly where you spend the most time.

Bonus extension: Can’t seem to pry yourself off Facebook or YouTube? Pair RescueTime with StayFocusd, an add-on that limits the amount of time per day Chrome will let you spend on certain websites before the browser blocks them. You can set StayFocusd to monitor your time on entire sites, specific pages, or even apps and Flash games.

Sharing and bookmarking extension: AddThis

A faster way to bookmark pages, share content on your social networks, and more, AddThis makes it easy to save your favorite things online. You can bookmark or share anything with a tool bar drop-down menu, or by right-clicking anywhere on a page. AddThis supports more than 300 services, including the big social media networks, blogging platforms, and email services.

Tab extension: Awesome New Tab Page

The default new tab in Chrome shows you shortcut options based on recently visited pages or most-used bookmarks. With the Awesome New Tab Page add-on, you get a customizable Windows 8-esque tile menu that lets you arrange your favorite bookmarks and custom shortcuts, add dynamic widgets, launch apps, and more. You can move, resize, and delete your shortcuts and widgets at will with a drag-n-drop interface.

If you are looking for software developer jobs in Santa Cruz CA, contact The Armada Gorup today. We would love to hear from you.

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The Armada Group Makes Inavero’s 2012 “Best of Staffing” Talent List for a Third Year in a Row

The Armada Group recently announced that it has been named to Inavero’s 2012 Best of Staffing™ Talent list. Best of Staffing, presented in partnership with CareerBuilder, is the nation’s first award that recognizes staffing firms that receive remarkable reviews from the people they find jobs (employed talent). Fewer than 1% of North American staffing firms have been named to the 2012 Best of Staffing Talent List.

“We are thrilled to have been recognized for our efforts by Inavero. Over 90 percent of Armada’s business comes from repeat customers or by referral and we believe Armada’s commitment to connecting extraordinary talent with world class opportunities, is the reason.” Armada’s CEO, Lisa Sullivan said. “It is an honor to see Armada recognized and validated a third time by an independent survey and to be in the top one percent of all staffing companies nationwide.” 

Staffing firms competing to make the Best of Staffing list underwent a rigorous survey process followed by careful analysis of responses to determine satisfaction levels. The Armada Group received satisfaction ratings of 9 or 10 out of 10 from 71.4 percent of their talent, significantly higher than the industry’s average of 50 percent. Best of Staffing participants secured a place on the list by earning an average Net Promoter Score that was nearly double the national staffing industry benchmark for talent who had been placed in a job. 

“The staffing industry continues to play a key role in helping to revitalize the economy,” said Eric Gregg, Inavero’s Founder and CEO. “Staffing firms give growth-minded organizations a more flexible alternative to recruiting their own employees, letting both the employee and employer determines if the fit is right for a more permanent position. Both sides receive tremendous value in a flexible, yet meaningful working relationship, and as they engage with staffing firms to help achieve those goals, the service experience they have is very important to their success. The Best of Staffing lists are a resource for businesses and talent who are trying to find staffing firms that provide exceptional service.” 

Inavero’s complete Best of Staffing list can be viewed at http://www.bestofstaffing.com. For more information about Inavero, visit www.inavero.com. To learn more about The Armada Group visit www.thearmadagroup.com. 

About The Armada Group Armada provides On Demand Talent solutions for the world’s most innovative companies. We connect extraordinary talent with world class opportunities. Founded in 1995, Armada is a leader and trusted partner to many of Silicon Valley’s most influential technology companies. 

About Inavero, Inc. Inavero designs and manages satisfaction surveys for a global list of staffing and recruiting firms in more than 15 countries. Inavero’s proprietary technology platform gathers and reports staffing firm client and talent satisfaction information through online surveys. Inavero’s team analyzes satisfaction feedback from more than 500,000 staffing firm clients and talent each year, and serves at the American Staffing Association’s exclusive research partner. 

Temp Jobs Up 57% Vs. 4% For All Others Since Aug. 09

A boost in temporary employment typically presages strong full-time hiring, but four years after the Great Recession’s end, temp jobs keep growing briskly as skittish businesses avoid permanent hires in a sluggish, uncertain economic environment.
Since bottoming in August 2009 at 1.75 million, the number of workers provided by staffing agencies has been on a steady upward trend to 2.74 million workers last month, a 57% gain, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other nonfarm payroll jobs are up just 4% over that span. Temp jobs as an overall percentage of payrolls is now 2%, near an all-time high.
Staffing industry executives said the increases have come across the board, from secretarial to blue-collar work to professional and technical services.
Sluggish economic growth has made employers reluctant to add full-time staff or step up investment, even though corporations sit on more than $1 trillion in cash. Congress and the Obama administration have lurched from one fiscal crisis to the next, while ObamaCare and other major regulations give employers an incentive to use temporary workers.
Temps Here To Stay
The staffing industry is reaping the benefits.
“The economic policy uncertainty … has undoubtedly played a role” in temp job gains, wrote Steven Berchem in a report for the American Staffing Association. “Uncertainty can be good for the staffing industry.”
Temp jobs comprised one in 10 jobs lost during the Great Recession, “but they have been responsible for more than 16% of net employment gains since the recession ended,” he noted, crediting temping’s growth to “the flexibility factor: employees want it, businesses need it and it’s good for the economy.”
Jonas Prising, president of ManpowerGroup, a Milwaukee-based staffing and consulting company, said although businesses desire the flexibility and “organizational agility” for themselves, that doesn’t always mean all of their temps want such fluidity in their working situations.
“The majority of people would be taking the jobs under whatever contractual conditions,” he said.
Regardless, the employment services industry is expected to grow two-thirds faster than overall employment, according to BLS. It expects 631,000 more temp jobs in 2020 than 2010.
Structural Vs. Sluggish
“All the research that we’ve done (shows) the trends are pointing towards the flexible workforce,” said Jeff Tavangar, CEO at The Armada Group, a Santa Cruz, Calif.-based staffing company.
Yet not everyone sees structural change, just a weak economy.
Alan Gin, an economics professor at University of San Diego, said employers won’t see the need to curtail the hiring of temps until the jobless rate — now 7.3% — gets back to 5%-6%.

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SILICON VALLEY IT STAFFING FIRM LAUNCHES LARGE-SCALE CAMPAIGN TO CIRCUMVENT ADDRESS HIRING CHALLENGES

Santa Cruz, CA – It should come as no surprise that Silicon Valley businesses are finding this to be the most challenging technical recruiting environment in history and future trends are not favorable for fast growing companies experiencing or planning for hyper-growth with accelerating technical hiring requirements. In fact, 1 in 4 Silicon Valley CEOs said they were either unable to pursue a market opportunity or had to cancel or delay a strategic initiative because of talent constraints. Local IT Staffing firm, The Armada Group, has announced today a year-long campaign focused on educating hiring managers, addressing recruiting challenges, and helping local area businesses to improve their competitive advantage through stronger talent acquisition strategies.

The Armada Group’s CEO, Jeff Tavangar, was quoted stating, “The biggest challenge to for our local economy is the lack of skilled technical graduates candidates in Silicon Valley. One of our country’s primary hubs of technology, innovation, and job creation is positioned to experience drastic problems in the future if we cannot address these issues. While the number of jobs openings for IT professionals has grown by almost over 25% in less than 2 years, the number of undergrads who are computer science or computer engineering majors has dropped nearly 40% since 2000. It’s important to for all of us here in the Greater San Francisco area to be aware of the challenges and work together to address them.”

In today’s recruiting climate, more companies are turning to On Demand Talent solutions to meet their critical hiring needs without having to absorb the additional costs overhead of recruiting, onboarding, training, staffing, and potentially losing employees. Companies incorporating this flexible model experience faster deployment and execution of strategies because of the ability to quickly ramp up and scale down as needed. These firms can still secure top tier talent, complete projects effectively, and create U.S. jobs– without the additional cost and burden that can come with recruiting direct hires for shorter-term requirements. According to Tavangar, the biggest challenge for these companies is determining what to do and how to do it. With options such as systems integrators, offshore outsourcers, VMS/MSP’s, contract recruiters, and staffing firms, companies are often left using trial and error to determine what their best option is.

Beginning November 5th, The Armada Group will be offering complimentary educational resources, workshops, lunch and learns, and consultations to help businesses address challenges in talent acquisition. For more information on these resources and how to position your company for growth, visit www.SolveMyHiringChallenges.com or call 800-123-4567.

The Armada Group is a Silicon Valley based On-Demand Talent Solutions™ firm that specializes in IT, Project Management, and Software Development. For over 17 years, Armada has worked exclusively for innovative, high-growth, companies. Their highly-trained Talent Consultants are dedicated to solving their clients’ toughest hiring challenges. Among numerous industry awards, Armada has been recognized by CareerBuilder/Inavero as one of America’s Best-of-Staffing by both Clients and Talent 3 years in a row. In addition to a world-class core technical team, The Armada Group maintains a nationwide virtual bench of more than 60,000 pre-screened IT and software professionals. For more information on The Armada Group, visit http://www.TheArmadaGroup.com or call (800) 408-2120.

Media Contact:

Lisa Sullivan
The Armada Group
325 Soquel Avenue
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
Phone (831) 459-6590

Review of OS X Mavericks from Apple

Recently, Apple released the OS X Mavericks, billed as “the world’s most advanced desktop operating system.” Designed to help Mac users port the iOS experience to their desktops and laptops, the new system has a lot of new features and advanced technologies—and best of all, it’s a free upgrade. The new operating system comes with apps for the desktop that also work with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad devices. Here’s what’s new with OS X Mavericks, which you can download and install now from the Mac App Store. Device syncing for iBooks The iBooks app included with Mavericks makes your library accessible through your Mac. This upgrade syncs iBooks libraries through iCloud, the OS X storage—so when you highlight, bookmark, or take notes on any device, the changes appear in all your devices automatically. The app also remembers what page you’re on, and lets you keep multiple books open at once. New and improved Maps Apple took a lot of flak over its Maps function when it was first introduced in 2012 with a host of glitches and mistakes. Now the improved Maps interface contains fewer mistakes, and also has features like the ability to look up directions on your Mac, and send them to your iPhone for voice navigation en route. Recent searches and bookmarks are saved to the iCloud and synced with all your devices. The app offers information on local points of interest, and uses the interactive, photorealistic Flyover view that gives Maps a great look and feel/ Facelift and features for Calendar In addition to a great new look, the Calendar app for OS X Mavericks comes with an event inspector that auto-suggests points of interest or addresses when you start filling in the location field. There’s also a weather forecast display, one-click directions, a travel time calculator, and notification scheduling.Password storage with iCloud Keychain This app uses 256-bit AES encryption to store website user names and passwords on user-approved Mac and iOS devices. In addition, it can store your credit card information, and auto-fills the data to save you time when you’re signing in or checking out.Improved functionality for multiple screens Apple’s OS previously treated multiple screens as primary and secondary displays, with the Dock and menu bar only available on the primary display. With the Mavericks upgrade, multiple screens now behave as two primaries, each with a separate menu bar. The Dock is accessible through whichever screen you’re using, and you can run any combination of multiple windows and full-screen apps independently. The multiple display functionality also lets you use an HDTV as a functioning second display with Apple TV and AirPlay. Better organization with tags A new tag function with OS X Mavericks makes it easy to find files and documents stored on your hard drive or in the iCloud. You can tag files with keywords, and retrieve all files tagged with a specific keyword at once by either entering the keyword in the search field, or clicking on it in the Finder sidebar. Efficiency and performance boosts OS X Mavericks has redesigned not only the looks, features, and interfaces of desktop apps, but also their performance. A Timer Coalescing feature for processing groups operations to put your CPU into low-power mode more often for increased energy efficiency, and App Naps powers down apps while they’re not in use to save even more energy. There’s also improved HD playback efficiency and a Compressed Memory feature that keeps more memory available by compressing data from inactive apps. If you are looking for software developer jobs in California, contact us today.

The Armada Group Makes Inavero’s 2013 Best Of Staffing™ Talent List

Santa Cruz, CA – February 12, 2013 – The Armada Group announced today it has been named to Inavero’s 2013 Best of Staffing™ Talent list of award winners.  Presented in partnership with CareerBuilder, the 4th annual Best of Staffing list provides the only statistically valid, objective, service quality benchmarks in the industry and reveals which staffing agencies are delivering exceptional service to the permanent and temporary employees for whom they find jobs. This year’s list highlights a growing divide among the industry’s leaders and laggards, and identifies The Armada Group as one of the best staffing agencies for job candidates to call when they are in need of employment.

Less than 1% of all staffing agencies in North America receive the Best of Staffing award for service excellence. Utilizing the Net Promoter® methodology, the 2013 Best of Staffing Talent winners achieved satisfaction scores more than double the industry average. This stark contrast in scores is a clear indication that the firms who have earned their way onto the 2013 Best of Staffing Talent list truly stand out for their service quality. The Armada Group received satisfaction ratings of 9 or 10 out of 10 from 63% percent of their permanent and temporary employees, significantly higher than the industry’s average of 48 percent.

“It’s an honor to be recognized for the 4th year in a row as the top 1% of staffing firms in North America, by the high caliber technical talent we represent,” said The Armada Group’s CEO, Jeff Tavangar.  “Considering the competitiveness of the IT Labor market and Staffing Supplier market in the Silicon Valley, it’s a real testament to the strength of our team to be named to the Best of Staffing Talent list yet again.”

“Few things are more important to companies than the employees you hire,” said Inavero Founder and CEO Eric Gregg.  “The same holds true for candidates on their quest for employment.  Staffing agencies have proven to successfully connect companies with permanent and temporary employees.  Since the end of the recession, the staffing and recruiting industry has created more jobs than any other single industry in the country**, yet so many companies andjob seekers don’t take advantage of this expertise and resource. Our hope is that both companies and job candidates use the Best of Staffing lists as a benchmark to help select a staffing agency that can either secure the talent or employment opportunity they need.”   

®Net Promoter, NPS, and Net Promoter Score are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter Score is calculated by taking the percentage of respondents who, on a scale of 0 to 10, rate their likelihood to recommend the staffing agency with a score of 9 or 10 (promoters) and subtracting the percentage who rate the staffing agency a 6 or lower (detractors).  

**Bureau of Labor Statistics

About Inavero
Inavero administers more staffing agency client and talent satisfaction surveys than any other firm in the world.  Inavero’s team reports on satisfaction surveys from more than 500,000 staffing agency clients and talent each year and the company serves as the American Staffing Association’s exclusive research partner. 

Inavero’s Best of Staffing™ is the nation’s only award that recognizes staffing agencies that receive remarkable reviews from their clients and the people they help find jobs (employed talent).  The Best of Staffing winner lists are a central place that businesses and talent go to find the best staffing agencies to call when they are in need.

Building Your Personal Brand Can Help You Advance Your IT Career

You know better than anyone how technology can revolutionize systems, so it shouldn’t be a shock that one of those revolutions is how landing new opportunities and moving forward in your career are being changed by the social web.

Resumes are becoming passe, and taking their place is the concept of “personal brand” – signature traits, achievements, and contributions that reflect what you alone bring to the table. Your personal brand is your reputation, your work legacy, your defining role in the industry. Careful cultivation can create a personal brand that will open up doors as you progress along your career path.

Be the Next . . . You!

Many people have tried to predict who will be ‘the next Steve Jobs’. Will it be Jeff Bezos? Elon Musk? You? The problem with trying to the next someone else is that it isn’t authentic. Your personal brand has to be just that – personal. It’s that unique intersection between your knowledge, experience, and passion—and how you share that with those around you in the workplace.

Figuring out your personal brand is as simple – and as difficult – as taking a look at your top traits and what you are known for. Are you a usability evangelist? Do you educate people about quality assurance? Are you seen as a great team leader, or viewed as a lone wolf visionary? Look at the consistency of your work; does it have a theme? What do you know the most about and how do you communicate it? How does that tie into your career goals? Leverage the best of what you have to offer, and how you offer it, to purposely develop your brand and its message.

Get Social to Get Noticed

Now that you’ve gotten a good start on identifying your personal brand, a large part of its development will be networking to help others identify it. While it’s not all about who you know, that does play a significant part in ensuring doors are opened to you.

LinkedIn, BranchOut, and Google+ are three excellent social networking sites with a more professional focus. Work hard on your LinkedIn profile – don’t just view it as your online resume. Join industry groups and interact with them. Follow industry influencers on LinkedIn and elsewhere, making sure to comment on articles. Be as useful as possible without fawning over them. Add valuable insight to keep the discussion going, and you’ll soon stand out. Hone your writing skills to make sure you communicate well – it’s going to come in handy…

Create a Voice Worth Sharing

The next level of building your personal brand is creating and sharing your own content. If you’ve paid attention to what and how the IT leaders are sharing, you should have a sense of the kind of content that’s valuable to your industry. It’s time to add your voice.

There are multiples ways your brand can deliver its messaging: A blog on your own site, guest posts on respected industry blogs, forums and groups, whitepapers, participating in an open source project, speaking at or leading a seminar, even ‘micro-blogging’ and delivering nuggets of wisdom on Twitter. Your first priority is to create valuable content; your second is to promote it. This hierarchy should guarantee that your focus is serving others – the reverse will come across loud and clear that you’re not ready to lead and therefore not worthy of followers.

Branding tells the story about what you ‘produce’ and why, but it’s not just about promoting yourself. If you want a brand that communicates how you are the right choice for that next step up, it has to be about how you are really qualified. Otherwise, your brand will simply become more noise lost in a busy online world.

If you are looking for information technology jobs in California, contact us today.

Top IT Talents in California : The Armada Group

iOS Developer
• Over 4 years of experience in Objective C.
• Over 3.5 years of experience in application development using XCode and Instruments.
• Experience in XML Parsing, Threading etc.
• Great optimization and debugging skills.
• Updated knowledge of Xcode, iPhone SDK and Cocoa Touch framework.
• 3 years of experience in iPad application development, handling different orientations and using split view controllers.
• Plenty of Web Development experience using HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc.
• Updated knowledge of HTML 5, CSS3, JQuery etc.
• Extensive experience in C and C++.
• Development experience in using pointers and references.
• Plenty of Object Oriented Programming expertise.
• Ability to create memory efficient applications.
• Familiar with data structures.
• Experience managing application flow using Storyboarding.
• Strong understanding of the MVC architecture.
• Expertise in MapKit, UIKit, GameKit, EventKit, Addressbook, AddressbookUI, Twitter, Account, and Core Location frameworks.
• Experience in integrating applications with the iCloud.
• Trained in SCRUM methodologies.
Android Developer
• 7+years experience in designing and implementing Java and Android Solutions
• Good knowledge of Android Application Framework and Framework APIs
• Experience in Android development using Android SDK, Android Emulator, Eclipse IDE along with android Plug in – ADT
• Expertise in developing application using Activity, Fragments, Action Bar, Animation, Notification Manager, Location Manager, MapView etc
• Experience in Android debugging tools – DDMS, LogCat, ADB
• Experience in working directly with vendors/clients on project estimation, infrastructure planning, requirement analysis and software design
• End -to- end knowledge of publishing an application in Android Market place
• Experience in Web Development, Distributed Applications, Client-Server and N-tier (Multi-tier) using Object Oriented Design(OOD), Object Oriented Analysis(OOA), Object Oriented modeling (OOM) based on Unified Modeling Language(UML) architecture using Rational Rose 2000 and Microsoft Visio.
• Proficiency in developing applications using Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server 2000, PostGres and SQLite databases
• Experience in version control tools like VSS , ClearCase, SVN, CMVC and Git
• Good understanding of Software Development Life-cycle(SDLC) and Software Test Life-cycle(STLC)
• Experienced in White box testing, Performance testing, Manual Testing and Unit Testing
• Experience in Testing tools like Quality Center(QC)
• Familiarity of Quality Assurance standards, process methodologies and strategies
• Programming with web based distributed architecture using Sun's Java technologies
• Experience in Developing Applications using core Java, WebServices, XML, HTML, UML, JDBC, JavaScript
• Experience in design patterns like MVC, DAO, Singleton
• Worked on Low level and High level Design and Documentation
• Experience in software development methodologies like Agile and WaterFall methodologies
• Experience in Media and communication, Healthcare and Finance domains
• Good Team Player with excellent Communication and interpersonal skills. Ability to learn and master new technologies and to deliver outputs in short deadlines
 
 
Senior Technical Lead/Architect

• Proven expertise with 15+ years of experience in System and Application Architecture – starting from bare metal, heterogeneous technologies (Servers, Storage, Network, Security, OS, Middleware, Web/App/DB server, monitoring), Cloud Computing/ Virtualization (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS), HPC/LSF, ERP applications (SAP, Oracle, Teamcenter), Databases (Oracle, MSSQL, NoSQL), Hadoop/BigData Eco System (HDFS, MapReduce, Hive, Hbase, Flume and other tools), Licensing, Business Analytics, Master Data Governance, Collaboration tools for a global and large scale projects catering IT requirements of various Business domains.
• Guide teams to do Capacity Planning, Performance Tuning, Security, Disaster Recovery, System Software, Software Configuration Management, Change Management, Incident Management, Release Management, Training , Consulting, pre-sales and post-sales support
• Experienced in technical/business discovery conversation, solution demonstration, custom demonstration creation, proof of concept delivery, RFI and RFP responses, delivering compelling and relevant presentations
 
 
System Admin/Operations Engineer

• 20 years of Linux Admin experience with companies such as Google and Cisco
• 15 years of experience supporting large scale Linux based production systems
• Expert in Bash scripting
• Confident in developing complex scripts to automate system admin tasks having over 15 years of experience
DevOps Engineer

• 6 years of DevOps experience with a start-up company
• Solid background in Ruby, Perl, PHP, JavaScript, HTML and CSS
• Managed thousands of deployment remotely
If you are looking for information technology recruiters in California, contact The Armada Group today.

Optimistic Outlook for IT Field

If you’re wrapping up your degree in one of information technology’s many specializations, or if you’re interested in a new position, the job market for IT professionals is looking pretty bright, even in an economy with slow job growth. We’ve collected a few good reasons you may want to brush up your resume and get excited about new challenges.

Accelerating Job Growth

The Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics has released figures showing that several IT specialties will be on the forefront of all job growth, in both volume and specific demand, for the next decade. Some of those high-demand areas of expertise include information security, cloud computing, and mobile app development. Analysts of many stripes – web, data communications, and systems – are also desired.

For many of these positions, the focus is more about solving business problems than just administration or coding. That means those looking to land a new position will need to have more than just IT skills—the ability to see the big picture and puzzle out the details will be essential.

Rising Salaries

In addition to the number of IT positions, salaries are also expected to progress nicely, especially in comparison to other vocations. In particular, mobile app developers, wireless network engineers, network engineers, and data modelers are all projected to see an average increase of over 7.5%. Several more IT specialties will see more-than-modest growth, making the field fertile with possibilities.

Multiple Job Offers in Multiple Locations

Looking to relocate? IT is everywhere, and great prospective careers can be found far beyond Silicon Valley. Companies of varying sizes across the U.S. are taking advantage of new technologies, and hiring the staff they need to harness its advantages. Mobile, interactive, and big data are all hotspots for the IT field, creating openings in many different industries. If your IT experience includes healthcare, expect to see more opportunities as well, as technology needs in this arena are exploding.

A growing number of telecommuting IT jobs are available, as employers realize this flexible feature is attractive to the top talent they’re seeking to add to their teams. Provided the communication and deliverability are there, you may be able to relocate your work environment to your home as part of your compensation negotiation with a new job.

Spending Predicted to Escalate

Perhaps not quite as strong as predicted earlier in the year, the 2013 IT spending forecast is still up over last year—and continuing to trend higher for the foreseeable future. Companies are recognizing that updating their technology, as well as exploring new tech tools, is a crucial investment into staying on the cutting edge. Collecting, organizing, and sorting big data is essential for maximizing information gathered from customers and potential customers. In turn, they are also seeking the right IT team members to implement solutions and manage systems, as well as specialists they can depend on to speed up progress.

Forecasting job outlooks isn’t an exact science, but considering how many of the important pieces are in place for growth, it’s pretty fair to say that 2013 is a great year for chances to advance your IT career.

If you are looking for information technology jobs in California, contact The Armada Group today.

How Mentoring Can Attract & Retain IT Talent

With the baby boomer workforce heading into retirement, it’s now urgent to create workplaces that can both lure new IT talent while ensuring employee knowledge is passed along. A good mentoring program can foster this exchange, bring top talent on board, and provide your company with other tangible benefits.

Creates a Team Culture

Mentoring means deeper personal relationships at work, whether it’s via one-on-one dialogues or group mentoring meeting – or, preferably, both. When an employer creates space for and encourages the building of positive exchanges, employees realize the company is truly interested in their professional development.

In a 2010 survey by the Corporate Leadership Council of the Corporate Executive Board, 64% of high-potential employees who identified themselves as dissatisfied with their current employment cited its lack of impact on their career development as one of the reasons they were considering other opportunities.

A company that makes more than a token effort for a healthy mentoring program is investing into an organizational culture where employees feel stronger bonds with their colleagues and their employer.

Creates Tangible Business Benefits

If your organization has been searching for a solid way to better its communication, foster diversity, or align its culture with its mission, mentoring can provide a channel to achieve these valuable business goals. Supporting the connection of worthy advisers to interested employees also increases accountability within a well-structured program, turning potential into performance as talent works with talent to set goals, define responsibilities, clarify expectations, assimilate feedback, and measure results.

When done right, mentoring can also help prevent knowledge loss, as experienced IT professionals advance their career paths or retire by passing along their technology understanding to new or less experienced employees. This gives mentorees insight into their careers, allowing them to give and gain long-term value to the company.

Creates an Enticing Environment for New Recruits

As the candidate pool for IT talent shrinks, companies competing for great recruits will need to demonstrate that they can provide more than just a paycheck and profit sharing possibilities. More than ever, employees want to know where a new position can take them professionally. When recruits see that a company actively invests in a mentoring program, they know they’ve found an employer who will help them along their career path. They will see growth challenges and a bright future.

This realization applies to both ends of the equation. While many employees will recognize the value of having a mentor or mentoring group, others will be excited about the opportunity to become a mentor, raising their industry visibility and increasing their leadership skills.

As you develop a mentoring program, build in recognition and celebration of the future impact mentoring will have on your company and your employees. This requires that you find and collect the success stories that will inevitably arise. These examples will become testimonials for recruiting, raise demand for mentoring, and help you improve the program as best practices are shared. Mentoring can help build an environment of trust and loyalty your IT team will appreciate throughout their career with your business.

If you are looking for IT recruiters in California, contact The Armada Group today.