IT Hiring Criteria vs. Valued IT Competencies

Introduction

Hiring for the IT milieu is both art and science. The number and breadth of competencies desired n the successful applicant necessitate a thorough screening process. Thus, it’s incumbent upon the HR professional to identify job candidates with the requisite technical skills in addition to the right mix of soft skills, personality, and attitude. In many instances, the successful IT professional must resemble a chameleon—able to change at a moment’s notice. The change might be from discussing IT’s role in the company’s strategic plan with the CIO, to going over web design options with a company technician, to meeting with an end user, unhappy with the new software installation.

Hiring a person who can successfully perform all of these roles is a daunting task, yet it’s one that an increasing number of HR professionals must face. The material that follows will provide an overview of IT hiring, including a discussion of the hiring process and the screening venue (in-house HR professional versus IT recruiter). After a discussion of the special considerations involved in IT hiring, the results of current scholarship assessing the disparity in valuation of IT hiring criteria used by IT recruiters and the valuation of those criteria by IT executives is presented.