Inside advice

Two CIOs offer prospective hires suggestions about getting your foot in the IT door

By Sandra Gittlen, Network World
March 29, 2007 02:31 PM ET

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.

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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.

Checklist for success
CIOs Joanne Kossuth and Michael Iacona say the best candidates possess these qualities that can't be determined by a résumé.

•	Self-starter."You shouldn't need someone to tell you what to do. You should be an independent learner," Kossuth says. With a small staff, she says it's necessary for her team to be able to figure out tasks that need to be tackled on their own.
•	Expert at follow-up.After each interview, Iacona hands out his business card. "I'm looking to see that they'll send follow-up questions and a thank-you note. That's very important," Iacona says. This shows they'll be good at following up with clients, as well.
•	Sense of humor."This is high on my list. If you're in a customer-facing job and you don't have a sense of humor, you're going to go nuts," Kossuth says.

Click to see: Checklist for success

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.