The Boomers are out; Gen Y is in.

So how do you attract the best and brightest, without turning your IT organization upside down? You have to strike a new balance. Prepare for the changes to come by learning more about Gen Y. Stay flexible, and meet millennials halfway by accommodating their needs as much as possible.

To help, here are some great strategies for recruiting the best IT talent the next generation has to offer:

1. Take a viral approach. Develop Flash videos and other materials for your organization (think interactive, entertaining and hip) that young people will want to send on to their friends. For example, Facebook allows you to develop apps that sit on other people’s profile pages. They, in turn, can invite friends to include the app on their own pages. A viral approach can enhance awareness, properly position your IT organization with millennials, and increase job referrals.

2. Leverage industry blogs, forums and social network groups. The best Gen Y professionals stay on top of their game by constantly seeking out new information. Become a trusted source they turn to. Write and post articles that are ahead of the curve in your area of technical expertise, and you’ll attract the IT performers you need.

3. Put your best foot forward. Like it or not, millennials judge organizations by their technology acumen and arsenal. In many cases, millennials even research your IT portfolio before agreeing to sit down for a job interview. So if you haven’t already, develop or update your IT profile. Outline your current platforms, software and hardware; create a review of your company’s cutting-edge projects (current or slated); show how your organization incorporates Web 2.0 tools.

4. Beyond your technology profile, you should also be prepared to demonstrate your company’s CSR (corporate social responsibility). Gen Yers place a high importance on an employer’s ethical standing–show them how your ethics and beliefs match their own.

5. Use your current Gen Yers. Millennials are particularly peer-influenced. As a result, your Gen Y employees may be your best choice for connecting with Gen Y candidates–especially on college campuses. As already devoted members of your IT staff, your current millennial employees can tell potential candidates what life will be like “in the trenches,” and serve as “IT ambassadors” to address individual questions and concerns.

6. Market your company to parents, too. Many millennials were raised by hyper-involved parents. Now, these “helicopter” moms and dads hover over every life decision their children make – including career moves. To win over Gen Y, you must win over their parents as well. Consider offering family site tours, hosting a Parent’s Day, or including information on your website that parents would find helpful (plain-language overview of your business, review of benefits and extras that emphasize company support, training and/or mentoring programs, etc.).

7. Consider a virtual job fair. Some companies have used Second Life to recruit talented millennials for IT slots. By creating avatars to conduct virtual job seminars, these employers have attracted a subset of talent not easily recruited by traditional methods. While the start-up cost is moderate, your organization may want to consider a virtual job fair if you have the internal talent to handle scripting, avatar development and recruiting video creation.

8. Enlist the help of specialists. Recruiting millennial IT talent is a daunting task, under the best of circumstances. To help save time and money, while minimizing your frustration, consider working with an IT staffing service.

At Bayside Solutions, our Technology Solutions division maintains a database of highly qualified candidates, and can quickly deliver the tech-savvy candidates you need.  To discover more please contact us today.

Whether preparing to evaluate job candidates, or getting ready for an upcoming job interview yourself, this list of top interview questions will help you prepare:

Question 1: Describe a recent project where you were responsible for managing multiple people or teams. What were some of the key challenges and how did you handle those challenges?

This question demonstrates a result-oriented leadership behavior. Project managers need to demonstrate delivery and a desire to attain the end goal. Staffing project managers who simply point out problems but do not help resolve them will not drive the project to completion. Effective project managers demonstrate how they’ve managed a project, coordinated across multiple teams, overcame obstacles and delivered the project’s goals.

Question 2: Describe a time when you implemented a new idea without being asked or pursued a new opportunity that could improve the project or company.

Demonstrating courage and a willingness to take action without being asked is a key delivery characteristic of effective project managers. Project sponsors entrust the project’s goals, budget and their own reputations on their project managers. Project sponsors don’t have all the answers and need intelligent and motivated people to solve problems, identify new opportunities and take action without being prompted.

Question 3: Describe a scenario where you had to balance competing customer demands with project constraints. How did you ensure customer satisfaction while maintaining the goals of the project?

Maintaining a customer focused approach while ensuring the project deliverables are completed on time is a delicate balance. Business partners don’t understand all the technical details required to turn business processes into software solutions. They just want the system to work and accommodate their changing business needs. Effective project managers build rapport with their business partners, seek to understand the underlying needs and proactively address their concerns. It is a difficult balance as project managers commit to delivering the project scope while addressing a business customer’s changing requirements.

Question 4: Describe a time when you had to balance quality management with a challenged project schedule.

As projects execute and schedule variances occur, there is a tendency to shorten the quality testing cycle to maintain a project end date. In some projects, the end date can be extended, and in other projects, the end date must be maintained. Effective project managers recognize the importance of quality management in the software development cycle and prioritize the test cases and test cycles that deliver the project’s critical functionality. These project managers successfully commit to a quality mindset and ensure defects are resolved or mitigated.

The project manager should also recognize the challenge of managing the triple constraint and maintain a commitment to quality. Recognizing delays in the schedule early will help project managers adjust testing schedules so the support team isn’t called in from a day off or a holiday.

Question 5: Describe a time when you had a difficult situation working with a vendor or another peer. What was your approach to resolve the issues while maintaining a positive relationship?

Without a cohesive team, a project manager cannot be effective. Projects often depend on vendors and supplier team members to provide services. The nature of the client-vendor relationship emphasizes mutually beneficial goals. However, the vendor doesn’t always prioritize the client’s interests as heavily as their own. The ability to effectively develop teams across corporate borders is critical to project delivery. Clients will always try to maximize services at a minimal cost while vendors are motivated to increase costs for additional services.

In a challenged project with strained vendor relationships, it becomes even more important to focus on the critical issues to work together and deliver the end goal. The same skill is needed when working with other peers who are not necessarily motivated to help the project team. Strong relationships help solve problems and support project delivery. The best project management system, tools and techniques cannot replace the power effective relationships have across multiple teams.

Need more help?  Our Technology Solutions Team would be happy to help.
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