Especially as an IT headhunter it is important to know the industry and the potential candidates as well as their wishes. At indivHR, we know from our many years of expertise how to attract top executives for open positions. Whether you are looking to fill an IT consultant, a software specialist or a management position in IT - we are your headhunter for the IT industry. Let one of our Executive Search Consultants advise you in a no-obligation initial meeting.
Challenges for IT headhunters
The fast pace of life and the empty labor market in the IT sector are currently presenting IT headhunters and recruiters with major challenges. In order to bring enough industry expertise to fill a position, IT headhunters must always stay up to date thematically. This is the only way they can be convincing enough as recruiters for potential candidates. However, before this persuasion work can even begin, IT headhunters must first find the right candidates.
Since special expertise is often required in the IT industry, flexible recruiting methods must be used in headhunting to find suitable candidates. Also due to the fact that specialists and executives in IT are very often approached by IT headhunters, traditional recruiting methods are often no longer sufficient. Options such as working with freelancers, headhunting IT specialists and executives from abroad or recruiting applicants directly from university are increasingly being considered and implemented by IT headhunters. Talent relationship management, a good relationship with the candidate and building a network is more important in the IT industry than in any other industry.
What challenges does the IT industry face?
The many and constantly new trends in the IT industry also bring with them some challenges. But the implementation of digitization also continues to be a major topic for IT specialists. While IT companies are already researching new technologies, many industries are still working on implementing their digitization strategy.
The megatrends of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things in particular still pose challenges for the IT industry. Artificial intelligence still has to learn. It has to be programmed appropriately in order to approximate human intelligence. Accordingly, research still needs to be carried out in this area and application errors need to be rectified in ongoing processes.
But the further development of the Internet of Things is also still a major topic. The technical implementation and networking is a challenge, especially in the automotive sector for autonomous driving. The goal is to enable communication between all participants in road traffic - be it a car, a train, or a traffic light system.
The increasing volume of data on the network also increases the likelihood of hacker attacks and industrial espionage. The IT industry must develop measures and implement them according to the system of real-time detection in order to be able to continue to guarantee data security and also the security of companies.
How is the IT labor market changing?
The expertise of IT specialists is currently in greater demand than ever before. The number of unfilled positions in the IT industry is steadily rising, with 82,000 at the beginning of 2019. Software specialists and application consultants are particularly in demand, but it takes an average of almost half a year for recruiters or IT headhunters to fill such a position in the IT industry.
The IT industry is a very fast-moving sector. New trends and innovations are also constantly creating new profiles and fields of activity that need to be filled with suitable specialists and managers. However, with an unemployment rate of only 2.7 percent, the job market in the IT industry is currently empty, which makes it increasingly difficult for companies and IT headhunters to fill positions optimally. In the current market, candidates can choose who they want to work for in the future. As a result, companies and IT headhunters have to apply to candidates. The fact that IT specialists are not only sought after in IT companies, but also in almost all other industries, further improves their position in the labor market.
In addition, the IT industry as a whole is a very young and dynamic industry. Due to the constant technical innovations, employees and managers must always be willing to learn and flexible and move with the times. When filling open positions, recruiters and IT headhunters and HR consultants must therefore pay particular attention to willingness to learn. At the same time, many applicants in the IT industry also want this flexibility. Some IT specialists, such as software developers or programmers, already frequently work as freelancers for companies.
Trends in the IT industry
The IT industry is characterized by the latest technical trends. Innovations such as artificial intelligence, IoT and the associated IT security have emerged as the most important topics. But other trends such as virtual and augmented reality, big data, cloud and blockchain should not be neglected in the IT industry.
One of the biggest trends in the IT industry is the development of artificial intelligence. AI is a very research-intensive field that can be implemented in many industries. The use of artificial intelligence ranges from the development of autonomous driving in the automotive industry to care robots that can perform basic tasks in nursing. Currently, there are many startups working on artificial intelligence. However, the topic still requires a lot of research and brings with it a number of challenges.
According to experts, up to one trillion devices will be networked by IoT by 2022. IoT means the networking of devices with the Internet and with each other. In addition to private use on smartphones or in homes, IoT is also highly relevant for industry. Cars that communicate with each other about the current traffic situation or industrial machines in a smart factory are connected via IoT.
Due to the increasing networking in the IT industry, the topic of IT security is also becoming more and more important. As more and more devices are connected to the network or communicate with clouds, the probability of hacker attacks and industrial espionage is rising sharply. The IT industry must develop countermeasures for IT security. In particular, the development of strategic risk management is of high importance.
Summary
Many companies are still working on implementing the digitization strategy they have developed and are barely keeping up, while the management of companies in the IT sector is already working on new trends such as artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. This shows the fast pace of the IT industry. In no other industry are trends and innovations developed and implemented more quickly than in the IT industry.
Accordingly, there are also some big issues in the IT industry at the moment: Big Data and cloud systems demand the development of sophisticated IT security. At the same time, intelligent technologies, the Internet of Things, and virtual and augmented reality are very research-intensive areas. Due to the often decentralized structure of IT, many IT consulting companies have been able to gain a foothold in recent years and are intensively involved with the latest technologies. Security in particular is currently one of the major challenges in the IT sector. Increasingly strong networking of systems also increases the probability of attacks and cybercrime.
Applicants are in a very comfortable position in the current job market in the IT industry, there is a clear applicant market. For IT headhunters and recruiters it is a big challenge to find suitable candidates for open positions at all. They need strong persuasion and good benefits to convince candidates to move to another company and have to be very active in the IT job market.
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