Thought Leadership

13 Interview Red Flags To Watch For

A robust interview process can help hiring managers recruit top-tier talent and avoid costly hiring mistakes. As a part of that process, we recommend including a defined list of candidate behaviors o

The Role of AI Chatbots in Recruiting: Opportunities and Challenges

Job seekers are already accustomed to the use of technology in the hiring process, from automated keyword screening on resumes to video interviews. Now, some companies are using artificial intelligen

5 Reasons Agile Workforce Planning is a Game-Changer for IT Leaders

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, traditional workforce models aren’t cutting it anymore. Workforce needs fluctuate, and especially in the IT arena, are often project-based. IT leaders

Five Key Traits of Successful Tech Leaders

As the pace of change accelerates, effective technology leadership has never been more important to your organization's success. To navigate a dynamic landscape, successful IT managers and CIOs are p

Hiring Mistakes: How an IT Staffing Firm Can Reduce Costs and Risk

Hiring the right IT talent for your business is crucial for success – but what happens when a hire doesn’t work out? The cost of a hiring mistake can be high –not just in terms of wasted time a

7 Strategies for a Positive IT Team Culture in a Hybrid/Remote Work Environment

We recently shared our tips for recruiting the best IT talent, so now let’s review some tips for keeping that talent engaged and productive in a remote or hybrid work environment. You hear a lot

Revitalize Your IT Recruiting: Six Actions CIOs Must Take

As a CIO, finding the right IT talent for your organization can be a bit daunting. That's where BravoTECH comes in. In this blog, we discuss six actions you can take to achieve your IT recruiting goa

6 Reasons Engaging an IT Recruiting Firm is a Smart Move

Looking for a DevOps pro with 2+ years of experience who fits your unique team culture and can help meet your diversity hiring objectives? A good IT recruiting firm can help you fill open roles quick

Tips For Surviving the IT Talent Shortage

The IT talent shortage rages on – which means recruiting processes need to become more creative and proactive, and retaining valuable employees will be more challenging. Here are a few consideration

The Three Rs of Background Checks and Other Evolving Employer Challenges

By Andrew C. Jackson I have recently seen an uptick in three employment areas that employers should be aware of.  If you employ IT professionals, you likely have experience with one of more of

8 Best Practices for Validating Candidate Credentials (Without Losing Top Talent in the Process)

A 2020 survey by ResumeLab found a majority of job seekers fudge a detail or two on their résumés.  Fake candidates are an even more insidious problem, wasting significant time and money for

Hybrid and Remote Roles Increase Hiring Success

A recent Careerbuilder.com poll found remote positions pull in seven times more applicants than in-person roles. Read more for current data on employee preferences and the benefits of remote and hybri

When the Thrill is Gone: Four Steps to Take When You Don’t Love Your Job

By Andrew C. Jackson You work...a lot. Even if you work from home, you may spend more time working and thinking about work than you spend at leisure activities. So what should you do when you start t

The Shrinking Shelf Life of IT Candidates

By Andrew C. Jackson, President, BravoTECH This is an update to an article I penned two years ago and it is even more relevant today. Do applicants for your technical positions have a shelf life

Ten Ways to Attract Quality IT Candidates and Win the Talent War

By Andrew C. Jackson The war for talent is nothing new for IT leaders, but it has grown in intensity with no end in sight. As the economy continues to expand, tech pros with in-demand skills are n

Avoiding The Great Resignation

In what psychologist Dr Anthony Klotz called “The Great Resignation”, workers began quitting their jobs at a record-setting pace following the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Some predict this trend

The IT Talent Shortage Rages On (And Four Things You Can Do About It)

By Andrew C. Jackson   True:  Unemployment figures were way up in 2020 and have not returned to the levels we saw prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also True:  The majority of the jobs l

ABCs of Virtual Meetings

The use of video conferencing technology exploded in 2020 as millions of workers transitioned to work from home (WFH) and business meetings went virtual. Most WFH rookies learned the basics of video c

Where Do We Go from Here?

Some things to consider when returning to an office environment By Andrew C. Jackson So where do we go from here with regard to where and how we work?  Work-from-home has been a good fit for some j

Four Remote Work Personas

By: Andrew C. Jackson During our transition to a remote work environment, I began to notice the different ways in which individuals adapted to working from home. While I am not a psychologist and don

How the Pandemic Changed Our Use of Technology

The 2020 pandemic changed every aspect of our lives, including our relationship with technology. Analysts predict many of the changes are here to stay. Here are 14 stats and fun facts about how we use

The Importance of Staying Connected

By: Andrew C. Jackson Last March, like many other firms, we transitioned to a 100 percent remote workforce. This was a dramatic shift for our company. Our IT systems were already cloud-based, wh

Some Recruiting and Hiring Trends Are Here to Stay

By: Andrew C. Jackson The pandemic changed many of the ways organizations do business, including how they recruit and hire. Some changes may be permanent, including new benefits for employees.  Org

Taking Your Business to the Next Level

By Andrew C. Jackson While watching a webinar the other day, a presenter made a comment that caught my attention. He said, “this pandemic is not just a tsunami…it’s climate change!” As a bus

What are Your Business Resolutions?

It’s mid-January, and if you’re already struggling to keep a New Year resolution, know that you’re not alone. A study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology found that it take

Following Up: The Essential Thank You Note

A well-written and timely thank you note will give your prospective employer a positive impression and improve your odds of getting an offer. In fact, some hiring managers say they only extend offers

Unpredictable Candidates? Don’t Shoot the Messenger

With an unemployment rate less than two percent for IT professionals, retaining qualified tech employees is harder than ever. In fact, I’ve noticed that the hiring process has entered a new phase of

Why You Should Attend Industry Conferences This Year

Each fall presents a multitude of opportunties to attend industry conferences and attend professional networking events. It's also a busy time of the year for companies, with annual planning and budge

Get Out of Your Office! Three Reasons IT Leaders Need to Network

The other day, I called an old friend to catch up. He recently took a new position as CIO for a fast-paced company, and I hadn’t seen him at the usual industry events. When I mentioned it, he lament

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

It seems like we’re constantly bombarded with negative news, doesn’t it? We live inside a 24-hour news cycle, where cable television, social media and hundreds of online news outlets compete for o

Half a Dozen Points for Staffing Success

By Andrew C. Jackson We're headed into another positive year for business growth. For the technology sector, this equates to a continued period of low unemployment and the associated scarcity of skil

Holiday Networking Works

As the year-end approaches, business moves at a slower pace. Phones ring less often as colleagues and clients take long-awaited holiday breaks. Hiring slows down significantly between November and Jan

Demystifying Dress Codes: Business Casual vs. Casual

You just landed a new job, and your manager tells you the dress code is business casual. This is great – no worries about what to wear, right? Not exactly. There’s no universal definition of bu

How to Avoid Hiring Fake Candidates

Have you discovered that an employee you recently hired isn’t turning out to be as capable as they said they were? If so, you may have been fooled by a fake candidate – a growing scam victimizing

Excellence 101

Why do some people achieve more than others? In my career as a manager I have noticed there are two types of people when it comes to what motivates them to excel. The first type – and most of us

The Shelf Life of Candidates is Getting Shorter

To say we’re experiencing a tight IT labor market is an understatement. The current unemployment rate for IT professionals in the U.S. is hovering around two percent, while the rate for certain IT s

Finding Hidden Gems to Meet Your Hiring Goals

As you talk to job candidates, you may have noticed a shift in their attitudes. They are in high demand and they know it. This shift is forcing employers to look for innovative ways to identify and re

Eight Ways to Improve Employee Retention

As the demand for skilled IT professionals continues to outpace supply, hiring managers have increased their focus on recruiting and hiring strategies. To secure the best talent, many companies have a

Four Ways to Prepare for the Peak Hiring Season

Hiring is cyclical. Traditionally, the peak hiring seasons are mid-winter (January and February) and fall (September and October). The slowest hiring seasons are the summer months, June through August

Old School Ideas That Have Stood the Test of Time

Technology has changed the business environment so rapidly that we have to continuously challenge our assumptions about how we will serve customers, manage employees and remain competitive. We are now

Improve Hiring Success Through Better Interviews

  Bad hiring decisions cost us time and money. At best, they keep us up at night worrying about an employee (or worse, a manager) who is limiting productivity. At worst, they can cause the los

Balancing Flexibility and Innovation

IBM recently rocked their employees' world in a controversial move. The company that pioneered telecommuting announced it was bringing employees back to the office. It was a radical concept when IB

Why We Really Fail to Achieve Our Goals

Most of us get "stuck" at some point in our careers. We're not happy where we are, but we don't know how to get to where we want to be. We've tried a few things we thought might help us get the resu

Tips for Surviving the IT Talent Shortage

The first quarter of 2017 reported the largest IT hiring increase in more than five years. This isn’t necessarily good news if you’re a hiring manager, since it may take more effort, more time and

Advance Your Career Through Power Networking

Everyone agrees that networking is valuable, but few people do it well. Whether you’re seeking a new position or just looking to expand your professional contacts, successful networking requires mor

What to Do About a Job You Hate

You work -- a lot. In fact, many of us spend more time at the office, getting to work and thinking about work than we spend with friends and family. So what should you do when you hate your job? Th

How to Run Killer Meetings

“Why am I here when I have so much work to do?”  We’ve all asked that question while sitting in a meeting that lacked direction and energy. And it’s the last thing you want people to think ab

Do You Want to Lead?

As the role of business technology evolves, growing companies will increasingly rely on IT leaders to take them to the next level. Do you have what it takes to move into management? Here are some trai

Interpersonal Skills Are Critical for IT Professionals

By: Andrew C. Jackson As the role of IT departments has evolved, the need for IT professionals with strong interpersonal skills has grown. Experts say that customer service and communications skill

Expedite the Hiring of In-Demand IT Workers

By Andrew C. Jackson The high demand for skilled IT professionals in the Dallas-Fort Worth area continues.  As candidates consider multiple offers, we’ve seen hiring delays that can lead to lost

Keep Productivity High During Summer Months

Summer vacations are an American tradition, and they are important to our mental health. Vacations allow us to reconnect with our families and alleviate stress, which in turn can have an energizin

Communication is Key in Your Job Search

By Andrew C. Jackson, President BravoTECH How you communicate is critically important to a successful job search, because there are no take-backs or do-overs. From building your resume to the f

Don’t Let Communication Skills Get in the Way of a Good Hire

What is one of the worst reasons to pass on an IT job candidate? Communication skills. Difficulty understanding a candidate's speech during your initial conversation is not a good reason to exclude

Interview Do’s and Don’ts

By: Andrew C. Jackson Google “interview tips” and you’ll find a year’s worth of reading…222,000,000 results, to be exact. With all this available advice, you would think that today’s In

Six Ps for Conducting a Great Interview

By: Andrew C. Jackson In the current IT hiring market, managers should be selling as much as they are screening when interviewing candidates for their open positions. The scarcity of technical profes

Six Early Actions to Ensure Success in Your New Position

Congratulations! You landed the new gig and you are ready to start. Here are a few things you can do to make sure you are quickly aligned with your new team and accepted into the company culture.

Make Networking Work for You

Networking, when done correctly, is one of the best ways to accelerate your career and enhance professional relationships. When I receive an inquiry from an IT executive seeking a new opportunity, I a

Ace the Interview — 10 Tips for IT Professionals

Achieving your professional and personal goals can sometimes require a job change. Here are a few tips for acing your next interview. Arrive early. This advice may seem elementary, but walking in

Business Benefits of Summer Interns

By: Andrew  C. Jackson,  President, BravoTECH, Inc. Last June, I phoned my neighbor’s daughter after her first year of engineering school at the University of Oklahoma. She had been our favorit

Attracting Top Talent Requires Multiple Strategies

Recruiters have three basic employment models to choose from when going after candidates for your next opening: direct placement, contract, and contract-to-hire. The contract-to-hire model appeals to

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Tackling the Turnover Problem

Written By: Andrew C. Jackson, President BravoTECH A few years ago I wrote about the importance of keeping employee morale high during the lean years as a hedge against high turnover. During a r

Follow Your Passion, But Make a Plan

Over the years I have counseled many people who wanted to make a career change. Most of them experienced some degree of fear and hesitation. My advice to them has usually been the same - if this is re

Candidates Have a Shelf Life

By Andrew C. Jackson, President and Cofounder, BravoTECH The "shelf life of top IT candidates is getting shorter as demand for skilled technical professionals increases. An unemployed or under-empl

10 Networking Tips for Introverts

You want to get into the networking game to expand your professional network - but you keep procrastinating. It seems like you've always got something more pressing to do instead of attending that awa