5 ways to ensure the success of your IT contract - Viewpoint - careers advice blog Viewpoint careers advice blog

5 ways to ensure the success of your IT contract - Viewpoint - careers advice blog So you’ve asked all the right questions, completed the key steps to set-up on your own, found your first project and now you’re looking forward to your first day as an IT contractor. To enjoy a successful experience on your contract there are a number of things you’ll need to consider. Making the right first impression, prioritising visibility, building strong working relationships, documenting your work and managing your admin properly will all be critical and this is what I will cover in part four of this ITC Made Simple series. Here are some tips for making the right impact in your IT contracting opportunity: 1. Get the first day basics right First things first, you must be sure of what day you start, the address of the office and what time you need to be there. Being in the right place at the right time is obviously essential to making the right impression. You should also have a good understanding of your working environment before you arrive e.g. what’s the company’s dress code policy? How does the project and current team work? To gather this information it’s important to have a contact person within the client organisation you’re going to be working for (note: they could be different to the person that interviewed/hired you). I would always recommend calling your contact for an informal chat the week before you’re due to start to confirm their expectations and see if you need to bring anything particular with you on your first day e.g. do you need to read any documentation in advance? Do you need to bring your own laptop or will this be provided? This is also where using an experienced recruiter like Hays can be helpful. They can give you an ‘off the record’ overview of the client, which will help you develop a better understanding of the context behind the team, project, IT strategy etc. 2. Be visible Even if you are working remotely, you need to work hard to integrate yourself into your new team.   You should try to spend your induction week(s) in the office so you can get to know people personally. After that you should still make the effort to come in to the office at least once a month to re-connect with people face-to-face. This could make the difference when the client decides whether to extend your contract or looks to you again for a future project. 3. Emotional intelligence matters As well as technical expertise, many organisations are beginning to prioritise emotional intelligence (EQ) in their contractors. Strong EQ or ‘soft skills’ enable professionals to better understand, motivate and direct people, and as a result their teams are often more focused, productive and happier. Having a reputation for strong EQ will set you apart from other contractors and will be especially useful in challenging projects. For example, make sure you listen properly to your client to understand their needs and how you can best meet them. During my time in our Hays Germany business I found that many Public sector companies struggled because they weren’t experienced in hiring and working with contractors. Asking simple questions like “where are you with your project at the moment?”, “where do you need help?” and “what will constitute a successful outcome of my work?” can be a good way to open the communication channels and help both of you make the most of your time. This approach also applies to when you get into the nitty gritty of the project. In any project you will find a mix of ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’ and you might even have been brought in to turn around a failing project  but condemning everything that went before you as trash is not going to win you any friends (even if it might be true). Taking an approach of “I respect what you did before but this is how we can improve it in the future” is likely to be much more fruitful. 4. Always be documenting When starting with a new client you need as much information as possible on processes, templates and databases. This may not be offered up automatically by your client but you’ll need to have it to do your job properly. This will also help you to document your work. Every contractor should always have proper documentation of ‘what they did’ and ‘where they are now’ with their project. This means your client and new people joining the project will be able to work with what you’ve done after you’ve left. Even if your client doesn’t mention documentation to you â€" still do it. You don’t want to be in a situation where two days before you’re due to finish a contract the client suddenly remembers to ask you for your documentation. This can naturally cause a problem. Of course, clarifying expectations on documentation with your contact before you start can avoid any issues from the outset. 5. Keep on top of your timesheet “Who is going to sign?”, “how often?”, “what does the timesheet look like?”, “is it paper or online?” â€" These are all questions you should be asking about your timesheet. You should also find out if and when the person who’ll be signing your timesheet has vacation time and who will fill-in for them when they are away. Do not assume your client will already have a contingency plan in place. Being organised and making sure your client has all the information they need from you will mean getting paid on time should be a relatively painless process. You don’t want to have a mad scramble at the end of each month so you can pay your bills. This will also help to put across a good image of you to the client as being organised and efficient. In summary, they say a bad workman always blames his tools and in truth if a client is on the ball they should be proactively discussing all the matters above with you in advance of you starting your contract. That being said, you need to make yourself as easy to work with as possible, and anticipating any issues before they arise will certainly win you brownie points and positive recommendations you can use in the future. If all this sounds a bit overwhelming, working with an experienced recruiter like Hays means they can help you do this legwork in advance so you can turn up on Day 1 more prepared and free from stress. I hope this advice will help you to deliver maximum value to your first client. But the nature of the game is that it won’t be long before your project is over and you’ll be looking for a new opportunity. As such, in my next and final ITC Made Simple blog I will look at the art of hunting for your next contract. Hopefully you found this blog useful. If you did, then here are some other IT blogs you will enjoy: 3 necessary steps to becoming an IT contractor 3 questions Im always asked about IT Contracting Theres no such thing as a digital expert 2016: The year of the digital diviners Data is the new currency of recruitment The fruits of knowledge One thing is clear about digital transformation Watch this video to find out how Hays can help you find your next IT contract: Share this blog:

7 Tips for Using Your Job Search Time Wisely

7 Tips for Using Your Job Search Time Wisely Scanning for a new position is no one's preferred side interest. So as to find your fantasy work in the most brief measure of time conceivable, you should figure out how to utilize your pursuit of employment time astutely. Realizing where to distribute your time and vitality will help make each moment you devote to your pursuit of employment a gainful one. These seven hints will help you re-organize how you contribute your pursuit of employment time: Spare Different Versions of Your Resume Did you know there are three kinds of resume positions? While an ordered resume configuration may be best for one kind of occupation, a useful or half and half resume could be better for another activity. Keeping one of each saved money on your PC will make your pursuit of employment process increasingly effective and gainful. Adhere To Your Favorite Job Boards The universe of occupation sheets is a staggering one. It is ridiculous and to be perfectly honest, an exercise in futility, to endeavor to see each activity posting on each activity board. Set aside some effort to examine diverse occupation sheets and do investigate on which ones other employment searchers in your field have seen as the most supportive. Thin it down to a couple of sheets that you like most and adhere to those all through your pursuit of employment. Keep A Log Keeping your pursuit of employment composed will spare you from sitting around idly following your means. Keep a Google Doc of employments you've applied for with the date and status of your application. In the event that you have the recruiting chief's contact data, remember it for your log also. Jobhero has an exceptionally valuable dashboard explicitly for this reason. Development Clutching the employing chief's contact data will get you out when you need to catch up later. Subsequent to sending your application, hold up about seven days before catching up with the employing administrator. It is imperative to put on a show of being energized and excited as opposed to frantic. Following up will show the employing director that you are not kidding about the opening for work. This progression can be a life hack at long last since it will probably get you more meetings that the individuals who never development. Compartmentalize You will benefit as much as possible from your time in the event that you have a set arrangement for it. For instance, plan to consistently react to work messages first, at that point take a shot at follow up messages before looking at the particular employment sheets and filling applications. On the off chance that you plunk down to pursuit of employment with no arrangement, you will sit around idly simply making sense of how to begin. Improve Your Resume Some portion of utilizing your pursuit of employment time astutely is investing the essential exertion to make your energy compelling. In the event that you sort out your time, plan your pursuit of employment however don't invest the exertion expected to send a viable resume, it's every one of the a waste. Take the time expected to tailor and advance your resume for every single activity you apply for. Jobscan.co makes this easy! When you convey strong applications, you will get reactions all the more rapidly and all the more frequently. Make Your Job Search A Priority Many occupation searchers think that its supportive to include their hour or two of employment looking to their schedule. Treat it like a gathering or significant arrangement that can't be dropped. Having an inclination that it is a significant responsibility will assist you with taking the time you put into it genuinely. A debt of gratitude is in order for this visitor post from James Hu of Jobscan James Hu is the author and CEO of Jobscan, a web device that encourages you land more meetings by coordinating your resume to sets of expectations. With nine years of innovation item experience, he beforehand helped to establish an honor winning transportation fire up and filled in as item directors for Kabam Games, Groupon, and Microsoft. James experienced childhood in Seattle and moved on from the University of Washington and he is resolved to lead a group to assemble the best programming for work searchers. You can follow James on Twitter and Jobscan on Twitter and LinkedIn

11 Things Were Thankful For This Thanksgiving

11 Things We're Thankful For This Thanksgiving 11 Things We're Thankful For This Thanksgiving 'Tis the season to be appreciative. 2017 has been a serious year, high points and low points, huge news minutes and significant catastrophes. Regardless of everything, there are a couple of things to be appreciative for, particularly in accordance with our professions. Regardless of whether you live to work or work to live, there's no uncertainty that our occupations possess a critical segment within recent memory and can be viewed as a basic piece of who we seem to be. As you assemble with loved ones, think about shouldn't something be said about your activity or organization merits being grateful for. At Glassdoor, we briefly stopped to think about the season. Here are 11 things we're grateful for this occasion. Individuals come to Glassdoor to get ready for the huge meeting, to get paid reasonably, to find astounding organizations, to apply with the bit of a catch to their next huge chance. While there are many places of work out there, Glassdoor is tied in with engaging you with the data, bits of knowledge, and occupations so you can settle on the choice that is best for you. We are appreciative to both have gotten a new line of work that accommodates our lives, and to help more than 48 million individuals a month get a new line of work and friends they love. As one venture account chief shared , The strategic assistance individuals wherever get a new line of work and an organization they love is significant and is something I feel amped up for doing each day. I appreciate the discussions I have with our manager accomplices and I sense that I'm helping them shape their system. It's compensating work. We've burned through 2017 multiplying down on straightforwardness. While we've since a long time ago had audits and bits of knowledge from current and previous representatives on more than 700,000 organizations, this year we dove in more profound to truly mention to our clients what enrollment specialists and recruiting directors truly need . We have talked with handfuls and many selection representatives and surveyed almost a thousand employing leaders to give work searchers the genuine article. This is what we realized. Enrollment specialist and employing administrators need: As per Glassdoor's Chief Economist, Dr. Andrew Chamberlain, Gone are the days when pay rates were the focal point of the complete remuneration puzzle. Rather, laborers today want benefits - working environment wellbeing and health programs, retirement plans, free suppers, paternity and maternity leave and that's only the tip of the iceberg. As per an ongoing Glassdoor review , four of every five specialists today would lean toward new advantages or advantages instead of an increase in salary. Previously, it has been difficult to know whether you were being paid reasonably or comparable to industry standards. That is until Know Your Worthâ„¢ by Glassdoor went along. Propelled in October 2016, Know Your Worth has changed pay straightforwardness and given almost a million clients customized, custom pay estimates based on a person's title, organization, area, and experience. A million people have gotten their customized compensation report and are raving about the straightforwardness. Extremely useful and persuading, says one client. I've been searching for better work in any case yet realizing that what I do now is worth more than I'm being given is a kick in the jeans (as such) to get 'my Money's worth' for the aptitudes and mastery I convey. Know Your Worth gives everybody all the more bartering power. If you find your fairly estimated worth is over your ebb and flow base compensation, you might need to have a discussion with your chief . After having a discussion with your director since you have utilized Know Your Worth, you might be pondering looking for a new position . On the off chance that you do decide to perceive what's out there, the key is to consistently look before you jump. Applying to employments consistently appears to be a tremendous dragâ€"right? We get it. The application procedure consistently appears to be long, requires a great deal of altering to your resume and, after you get done with applying to one, you proceed onward to your next application, just to discover it's totally extraordinary and requests more data. It's so irritating. This year we revealed our new Glassdoor Job Search application for iPad and iPhone that makes it simpler to go after positions utilizing the new intuitive element included with iOS11. Along with the capacity to look, spare and apply to a large number of employments through the Glassdoor application , now work searchers can undoubtedly relocate their resumes from upheld outsider applications like iCloud Drive or Box, making it simpler to go after positions on your telephone. In case you're applying on PC or work area, we have truly accelerated the way toward applying to employments . At the point when you get a new line of work you are keen on applying to, on the base left corner of the page there's a blue catch that says Simple Apply and indeed, it is as straightforward as clicking this catch! Your continue is now attached and you can include an optional introductory letter in the content box. Except if the application explicitly requests an introductory letter, you can leave this clear. Basically click Apply, and you're finished. While we've been supporting straightforwardness for about 10 years, numerous organizations and C-suite administrators were attentive from the outset. Notwithstanding, the majority have approached our side, and they have gotten progressively straightforward with you the activity searcher and representative, like never before previously. From Elon Musk to Sheryl Sandberg, CEOs at United, Deloitte, Clorox, Memorial Sloan Kettering and even Sephora have addressed Glassdoor editors about what they truly anticipate from competitors, what issues they are attempting to fathom and the deterrents they despite everything face. This is straightforwardness more than ever. What's more, trust us, we weren't simple on them. We dove in to find the solutions you need. In addition, our exploration authority dove in more profound to find that a fulfilled workforce is a basic driver of CEO endorsement evaluations on Glassdoor. The most significant elements to organization culture are the opinion of senior initiative; perspective on vocation openings; and nature of pay and arrangement for assistance. Here are a portion of our preferred CEOs and administrators being transparent with you, the activity searcher: As indicated by our exploration authority, the latest employments report uncovered shockingly solid occupation gains in October, with 261,000 new openings made. That solid development pushed the country's joblessness rate down to 4.1 percent, the most reduced in around 17 years. From remote employments to occupations that let you telecommute or even the jobs that will pay you to travel, we feature everything. Here are a couple of our preferred articles demonstrating the assortment of employments and organizations who need to enlist you: The unimportant thought of a meeting sends shudders down a great many people's spines. In addition to the fact that you are confronted with the overwhelming errand of persuading others that you're really great individual for the activity - you additionally need to keep your cool even with such a large number of questions. This year we've reestablished our attention on setting up each sort of employment searcher for each kind of meeting they could confront. We got specialists to a nswer the 50 most regular inquiries questions , to give you precisely how to wow employing administrator. We tapped Work It Daily originator and profession mentor J.T. O'Donnell to shoot an eLearning video tutoria l on the most proficient method to do everything from research an organization, set up your educated inquiries and even tackle weirdo questions. Additionally, the quantity of current and previous workers who have loaned insider data has experienced the roof. Glassdoor has in excess of 35 million surveys and bits of knowledge for in excess of 700,000 organizations. On the off chance that you have a specialized meeting , be grateful we have a definitive manual for get you arranged. In the event that you've returned from a time of joblessness, flaunting your transferable aptitudes and envisioning enrollment specialists' inquiries are positively things to be glad and grateful for. October denoted the 85th consecutive month the economy has included occupations , a record-breaking record since the 1930s. In spite of numerous headwinds, the U.S. work showcase remains in a general sense solid, with near 6 million employment opportunities accessible on Glassdoor, and vigorous recruiting all through social insurance, innovation, proficient administrations, internet business and numerous different parts today. Got 24 hours before a meeting or a pay arrangement? No an ideal opportunity to do a full prep meeting? We have you secured. We comprehend that time is of the substance thus we've made profession counsel object free. This season we propelled our Glassdoor Guides , a one-stop-look for how-to and what-to-state exhortation from the geniuses. No compelling reason to open a lot of tabs on your PC or to go through days investigating. We needed to make investigating an organization and getting ready for your fantasy work considerably simpler. Look at these across the board assets: To wrap things up, we're appreciative for you! Our clients are what prop us up. You are our main goal. Helping you on your pursuit of employment venture and your profession way is the thing that drives new item development, a superior client experience, more straightforwardness and more occupations! We generally need to keep you first, each of the 48 you million who come to us month to month. You confide in us to be real and genuine and solid and information driven. We endeavor to convey on that guarantee each day, to assist you with getting a new line of work and friends you love. Also, on the off chance that we ever miss the mark, let us know. Give us criticism , give us bits of knowledge, post an audit , share your accounts of achievement and your snapshots of challenge. Much thanks to you for being with us on this excursion. Here's to some more!

Casual Friday

Easygoing Friday Easygoing Friday || Rebecca Taylor Embellished Top The most effective method to Wear, Office style, Outfits April 8, 2016 0 CommentsHappy Friday, you!! I am sharing a Friday easygoing outfit with you today, very dissimilar to my typical office closet outfits!But before that â€" what are your arrangements this end of the week? Doing anything fun? I am investing energy with family and WORKING OUT. Indeed, practicing has certainly been at the forefront of my thoughts recently. I blogged about how to remain sound in the corporate office way of life here, and in the event that you tail me on Instagram, you've presumably observed significantly increasingly energetic/athleisure kind of outfits and extras. For instance… .THESE SNEAKERS. Can we simply take an aggregate snapshot of quiet out of appreciation for how GORGEOUS they are?*silence*Anyhow… moving onto the outfit.It was simple assembling this outfit, on the grounds that the top essentially justifies itself with real evidence. I simply matched it with unbiased and calm sort of piec es so they don't contend with the top.I've consistently put stock in keeping a Monday outfit edge in easygoing Friday outfits. On the off chance that you work in a generally customary and moderate condition, regardless of whether it's Casual Friday, it doesn't mean you should appear in tore pants and transparent or sequin tops.The truth is, even on Fridays you are building a picture, a notoriety even, among your friends, your bosses, and your inferiors. It's alright to be increasingly agreeable and laid back, yet being decent and assembled should even now be a priority.Ok, the half-tucked-shirt pattern might be excessive on the off chance that you are REALLY setting off to the workplace now. In any case, I thought for the photographs I would toss it in to make the group more intriguing. Take care of it otherwise!This top was bought from the outlet site of Saks Fifth Avenue, Off Fifth (all inked beneath). As I would see it, it's one of the most underestimated sites to shop at. They h ave a huge amount of planner stuff at vigorously limited costs, you could conceivably be shocked! Rebecca Taylor Get Sale Alert Modest moto white leigh pants Get Sale Alert adidas Get Sale Alert Orla Kiely Get Sale Alert Le Specs Get Sale Alert What's your easygoing Friday outfit guideline? Do you have any? Offer with me below!All photography by Arielle Levy Photography