Inside advice

It may be a job seeker's market, but IT executives say prospective candidates better show their business chops if they're going to command an employer's attention and money.

"We're definitely looking for a customer-service mentality these days," says Michael Iacona, CIO and senior vice president at TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications, a recruitment advertising firm based in New York.

Iacona knows firsthand that most job seekers have a long way to go in wowing hiring managers. Since TMP spun out from Monster Worldwide late last year, he's led dozens of interviews to fill 18 technology positions, ranging from local help-desk support to IT managers.

Click to see: Joanne Kossuth, CIO at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.

"Some candidates were technical whizzes, but they couldn't carry a conversation and weren't good listeners," he says.

Iacona, like many hiring managers today, has been looking for a blend of "soft" skills, such as an excellent ability to communicate, and "hard" skills, such as knowledge of the latest hardware, software and programming languages.

"We're not a very large company -- only 630 people -- so we need people that are flexible and adaptable and can wear many hats. A programmer may be great at cranking out code, but if he can't work with a client, then that's a problem," he says.

Iacona has seen résumés during this intense hiring period, which is almost complete, that are laden with technology buzzwords, such as Web 2.0 and AJAX. "Rather than just throwing out buzzwords, I'd like to see what they accomplished by knowing that technology. How did their knowledge help their employer? What value did they bring to the company?" he says.