September 8, 2015 at 11:16Start-up - job search abroad for IT specialists
Earlier, I wrote an article about my experience of finding work abroad. I also mentioned employment agents with whom I worked and who often asked me if I knew intelligent programmers who just needed work abroad. Then I suggested to all readers of the above article that if anyone is interested, I can connect them with agents.
On the same day, I received 18 personal messages asking me to drop the contacts of agents.
In this article I will tell you how everything happened and what it led me to. The article will be useful to those who are seriously thinking about finding a job abroad (the reasons do not matter), as well as for those who doubt it or have not thought about this topic.
I believe that a number of readers have rightly raised the question whether this service is an attempt to make a second Monster or LinkedIn. I also asked this question and it was important for me to identify the differences in order to decide whether to develop this idea.
I received the answer to this question shortly after the beta version was launched. If on the first day 18 applications were received, then over the next few days there were approximately 40 more applications. In total, during the time the project was at the hearing, I received 84 applications.
I did not take any specific actions to promote the project and after weeks 3-4 weeks the applications stopped coming.
But I already had enough food to digest. Among the authors of the applications were programmers, PM, QA specialists and designers. Processing so many applications was not easy. We had to find out from everyone the desired position and the basic technologies that they own. Then wait for answers, figure out which agent is best to pass on the candidate, etc. And I have not yet taken a resume and myself did not check the level of knowledge of languages. I was only convinced that the intentions were serious and the candidate understood the need for knowledge of the English language at a sufficient level and then already recommended the candidacy to a specific agent.
It soon became clear that it was impossible to process such a stream of information manually. So the idea came up to create a website to automate certain processes, to be precise, to collect basic information about the candidate and automatically select agents for a particular candidate. We can say that the foundation was laid for the start-up project.
But I understood that it’s not enough to simply transfer applications to agents. It is necessary to provide a service that will be of value to both agents and candidates.
I began to receive many requests from agents. Most importantly, the need for visa support for candidates whom I could and can offer did not frighten off agents and employers, although initially I had such concerns. Moreover, the number of agents wishing to receive candidates has increased. Among them appeared independent agents (who work for themselves).
I perceived the interest from agents as a signal for a more detailed study of employment processes.
The most important conclusion is to provide a complete candidate profile. If there is no LinkedIn page - this is a minus. If there is no gitHub account with code examples - also a minus. If there is, but there is nothing interesting there - anyway minus. All this means that neglecting this, a very good candidate reduces his chances, as the primary impression on the employer is a resume and portfolio. And 100% wrong one who thinks that if he is an excellent specialist, they will notice him anyway. They will notice that only this will require much more time than if the specialist immediately showed that he was able to.
I can describe the job search process without and using the project as follows:
“Imagine an employment agent, whose name is Michael and who currently has current vacancies from a number of companies. To find candidates, he regularly looks at various sites similar to Monster for the availability of a suitable resume, as well as spamming on LinkedIn in the hope of an answer. If he finds a resume, he calls the candidate and passes his resume to the employer for review. The employment agent is not an IT specialist and he cannot check the level of knowledge of the candidate. Thus, the employer has about 20 resumes on the table, of which hardly 2-3 are worth attention. And it’s not only the level of knowledge, but also the compliance of the candidate’s knowledge with the requirements of the vacancy.
The objective of this service is to provide an agent named Michael with a completed candidate profile and pre-test the candidate’s knowledge. Thus, the agent receives a suitable candidate, and the profile of the candidate falls to that agent who has a suitable vacancy. Of course, the candidate could access this agent through Monster or other sites, but this would require the candidate time and knowledge to prepare the correct resume and post it on different sites. ”
Saving time and helping to prepare for a job search is a starter package that already offers a service. The next step will be testing candidates.
Certainly there is nothing unique about this. But thanks to the huge demand for IT specialists, there is still something to improve in the process of their employment.
Based on personal experience, I deduced my job search formula. I call this formula mine, because I can’t 100% say that the experience of finding work with others coincides with mine:
The process of finding work abroad should be taken very responsibly. You can’t just throw a resume and throw it to an agent or employer. They can still call you back and ask questions, but those who are not preparing will not be able to correctly answer them and leave a mediocre impression on themselves. I can tell you for sure that with a superficial approach of the candidate to the issue of training, agents, and even more so employers, will not be particularly interested in you (and this despite the fact that you can actually be a very good specialist, but still meet clothes). Not to mention the preparation for the interview. To study the available information about the company as much as possible - this is a “must have” before the interview.
Each interview is a source of knowledge, both technical and in terms of interview skills. But there is another important source of information - this is the reviews of the company. Knowing the honest opinion of the employer about yourself, although it can sometimes be unpleasant, is very useful. This practical information cannot be obtained with the traditional approach to job search.
If a candidate has failed a technical interview, this does NOT mean that he does not have sufficient knowledge. This just means that knowledge needs to be pulled up, and often it also means that you need to move from the category of specialist who can do everything google to the category of specialist who also knows a lot from memory. Answering a raid on basic technical questions is a very fat plus.Constantly improve your level and even having feedback on your progress - this is a huge help!
The level of knowledge of the language can also be tightened, and if desired, it takes about half a year.
The second point is also important, since its implementation guarantees a wide range of possibilities where you do not even suspect. I will give an example. Wanting to leave for the USA, a candidate can unsuccessfully spend years looking for work in American companies, while in Europe there are a huge number of companies with offices in the USA and with very real prospects of ending up in one such office after some time working in the European branch .
The third point, which becomes especially important after the successful implementation of the first two, is an interview with HR specialists. Sometimes it happens that after a successful technical interview, a refusal nevertheless arrives without further explanation.
So I got the idea to supplement the service with a service for building relationships with independent agents directly. If the candidates really want to find work and are ready to literally work on it, and the agents need good specialists and can, and most importantly - they want to go side by side all the way with the candidate - then the chances are very high.
Independent agents can prepare a candidate for an interview, tell who the company is looking for. Agents can help get feedback from employers after the interview. Agents can give advice on the level of the language, help with moving and other org. questions. Independent agents are more than anyone interested in the result and therefore establish good relations with company management in order to have access to insider information. Exactly the same relationship, I would even say that friendships should be with the candidates. You need to understand that it is important for an agent to build long-term relationships not only with employers, but also with candidates. If the agent sees the candidate’s desire and desire to grow, he will find him a suitable employer, even if it takes a year.
So, the main directions of the project:
1. Free agents - this is one of the vectors of project development. It is designed for high-level IT specialists. Almost all companies have a fairly strict approach to assessing the technical knowledge of candidates and preliminary testing at codility.com is one of the requirements.
At the moment, 2 free agents from Germany, an HR specialist with experience in Google and a company that provides services for applying for a work permit, confirming a diploma and other issues related to moving in, have joined the project.
2. Agents from recruiting companies - this is another source of vacancies. They are not as interesting with them as with independent agents, but they have a lot of different vacancies with different salary levels. The candidate needs to demonstrate his worth and then the agent will provide him with offers from companies. The project will help the candidate prepare a profile with code examples, a LinkedIn account and pass preliminary testing of knowledge on the technologies specified by the candidate (programming languages, etc.). It may be necessary to fill knowledge gaps, but all this will add confidence to candidates and increase their chances very significantly. It is worth noting that the training is not only aimed at increasing the chances of the candidate, but it also serves as a test of the truth of the desire to find work abroad. And this is very important first of all for the candidate himself.
3. Attracting companies that value good specialists and are ready to interest them is the main goal of the project.
Now I am actively implementing the first two areas. To implement the third direction, you need to earn the trust of all parties. I am glad to have the opportunity to share the experience and results of the project on Megamozg and really look forward to the feedback and opinions of the readers of this blog.
So far I have concentrated on Germany - it just so happened. Most likely because there the IT sphere is very developed and God only knows where a good specialist can get from this country. However, as I demand, I will expand to other countries in Europe and the United States.
itRabota has been recently updated and I hope the picture on the main page will be pleasant. I like.
In chapterFAQ has answers to your questions.
On Facebook and in the VK group I will post useful information, as well as information on the availability of relevant vacancies (there are already 2 vacancies there). By the way, the closest useful information will be about how the registration of a work permit and confirmation of a diploma in Germany looks like and how much it costs. This will be information from a partner German company that has been doing this for a long time.
Thanks for attention.
On the same day, I received 18 personal messages asking me to drop the contacts of agents.
In this article I will tell you how everything happened and what it led me to. The article will be useful to those who are seriously thinking about finding a job abroad (the reasons do not matter), as well as for those who doubt it or have not thought about this topic.
I believe that a number of readers have rightly raised the question whether this service is an attempt to make a second Monster or LinkedIn. I also asked this question and it was important for me to identify the differences in order to decide whether to develop this idea.
I received the answer to this question shortly after the beta version was launched. If on the first day 18 applications were received, then over the next few days there were approximately 40 more applications. In total, during the time the project was at the hearing, I received 84 applications.
I did not take any specific actions to promote the project and after weeks 3-4 weeks the applications stopped coming.
But I already had enough food to digest. Among the authors of the applications were programmers, PM, QA specialists and designers. Processing so many applications was not easy. We had to find out from everyone the desired position and the basic technologies that they own. Then wait for answers, figure out which agent is best to pass on the candidate, etc. And I have not yet taken a resume and myself did not check the level of knowledge of languages. I was only convinced that the intentions were serious and the candidate understood the need for knowledge of the English language at a sufficient level and then already recommended the candidacy to a specific agent.
It soon became clear that it was impossible to process such a stream of information manually. So the idea came up to create a website to automate certain processes, to be precise, to collect basic information about the candidate and automatically select agents for a particular candidate. We can say that the foundation was laid for the start-up project.
But I understood that it’s not enough to simply transfer applications to agents. It is necessary to provide a service that will be of value to both agents and candidates.
I began to receive many requests from agents. Most importantly, the need for visa support for candidates whom I could and can offer did not frighten off agents and employers, although initially I had such concerns. Moreover, the number of agents wishing to receive candidates has increased. Among them appeared independent agents (who work for themselves).
I perceived the interest from agents as a signal for a more detailed study of employment processes.
The most important conclusion is to provide a complete candidate profile. If there is no LinkedIn page - this is a minus. If there is no gitHub account with code examples - also a minus. If there is, but there is nothing interesting there - anyway minus. All this means that neglecting this, a very good candidate reduces his chances, as the primary impression on the employer is a resume and portfolio. And 100% wrong one who thinks that if he is an excellent specialist, they will notice him anyway. They will notice that only this will require much more time than if the specialist immediately showed that he was able to.
I can describe the job search process without and using the project as follows:
“Imagine an employment agent, whose name is Michael and who currently has current vacancies from a number of companies. To find candidates, he regularly looks at various sites similar to Monster for the availability of a suitable resume, as well as spamming on LinkedIn in the hope of an answer. If he finds a resume, he calls the candidate and passes his resume to the employer for review. The employment agent is not an IT specialist and he cannot check the level of knowledge of the candidate. Thus, the employer has about 20 resumes on the table, of which hardly 2-3 are worth attention. And it’s not only the level of knowledge, but also the compliance of the candidate’s knowledge with the requirements of the vacancy.
The objective of this service is to provide an agent named Michael with a completed candidate profile and pre-test the candidate’s knowledge. Thus, the agent receives a suitable candidate, and the profile of the candidate falls to that agent who has a suitable vacancy. Of course, the candidate could access this agent through Monster or other sites, but this would require the candidate time and knowledge to prepare the correct resume and post it on different sites. ”
Saving time and helping to prepare for a job search is a starter package that already offers a service. The next step will be testing candidates.
Certainly there is nothing unique about this. But thanks to the huge demand for IT specialists, there is still something to improve in the process of their employment.
Based on personal experience, I deduced my job search formula. I call this formula mine, because I can’t 100% say that the experience of finding work with others coincides with mine:
- Responsibly approach the issue of job search, and even more so, to interviews.
- Draw conclusions from the results of each interview.
- Do not get hung up on a specific country.
- Do not lose heart when you do not know why there is no result after successful interviews.
The process of finding work abroad should be taken very responsibly. You can’t just throw a resume and throw it to an agent or employer. They can still call you back and ask questions, but those who are not preparing will not be able to correctly answer them and leave a mediocre impression on themselves. I can tell you for sure that with a superficial approach of the candidate to the issue of training, agents, and even more so employers, will not be particularly interested in you (and this despite the fact that you can actually be a very good specialist, but still meet clothes). Not to mention the preparation for the interview. To study the available information about the company as much as possible - this is a “must have” before the interview.
Each interview is a source of knowledge, both technical and in terms of interview skills. But there is another important source of information - this is the reviews of the company. Knowing the honest opinion of the employer about yourself, although it can sometimes be unpleasant, is very useful. This practical information cannot be obtained with the traditional approach to job search.
If a candidate has failed a technical interview, this does NOT mean that he does not have sufficient knowledge. This just means that knowledge needs to be pulled up, and often it also means that you need to move from the category of specialist who can do everything google to the category of specialist who also knows a lot from memory. Answering a raid on basic technical questions is a very fat plus.Constantly improve your level and even having feedback on your progress - this is a huge help!
The level of knowledge of the language can also be tightened, and if desired, it takes about half a year.
The second point is also important, since its implementation guarantees a wide range of possibilities where you do not even suspect. I will give an example. Wanting to leave for the USA, a candidate can unsuccessfully spend years looking for work in American companies, while in Europe there are a huge number of companies with offices in the USA and with very real prospects of ending up in one such office after some time working in the European branch .
The third point, which becomes especially important after the successful implementation of the first two, is an interview with HR specialists. Sometimes it happens that after a successful technical interview, a refusal nevertheless arrives without further explanation.
So I got the idea to supplement the service with a service for building relationships with independent agents directly. If the candidates really want to find work and are ready to literally work on it, and the agents need good specialists and can, and most importantly - they want to go side by side all the way with the candidate - then the chances are very high.
Independent agents can prepare a candidate for an interview, tell who the company is looking for. Agents can help get feedback from employers after the interview. Agents can give advice on the level of the language, help with moving and other org. questions. Independent agents are more than anyone interested in the result and therefore establish good relations with company management in order to have access to insider information. Exactly the same relationship, I would even say that friendships should be with the candidates. You need to understand that it is important for an agent to build long-term relationships not only with employers, but also with candidates. If the agent sees the candidate’s desire and desire to grow, he will find him a suitable employer, even if it takes a year.
So, the main directions of the project:
1. Free agents - this is one of the vectors of project development. It is designed for high-level IT specialists. Almost all companies have a fairly strict approach to assessing the technical knowledge of candidates and preliminary testing at codility.com is one of the requirements.
At the moment, 2 free agents from Germany, an HR specialist with experience in Google and a company that provides services for applying for a work permit, confirming a diploma and other issues related to moving in, have joined the project.
2. Agents from recruiting companies - this is another source of vacancies. They are not as interesting with them as with independent agents, but they have a lot of different vacancies with different salary levels. The candidate needs to demonstrate his worth and then the agent will provide him with offers from companies. The project will help the candidate prepare a profile with code examples, a LinkedIn account and pass preliminary testing of knowledge on the technologies specified by the candidate (programming languages, etc.). It may be necessary to fill knowledge gaps, but all this will add confidence to candidates and increase their chances very significantly. It is worth noting that the training is not only aimed at increasing the chances of the candidate, but it also serves as a test of the truth of the desire to find work abroad. And this is very important first of all for the candidate himself.
3. Attracting companies that value good specialists and are ready to interest them is the main goal of the project.
Now I am actively implementing the first two areas. To implement the third direction, you need to earn the trust of all parties. I am glad to have the opportunity to share the experience and results of the project on Megamozg and really look forward to the feedback and opinions of the readers of this blog.
So far I have concentrated on Germany - it just so happened. Most likely because there the IT sphere is very developed and God only knows where a good specialist can get from this country. However, as I demand, I will expand to other countries in Europe and the United States.
itRabota has been recently updated and I hope the picture on the main page will be pleasant. I like.
In chapterFAQ has answers to your questions.
On Facebook and in the VK group I will post useful information, as well as information on the availability of relevant vacancies (there are already 2 vacancies there). By the way, the closest useful information will be about how the registration of a work permit and confirmation of a diploma in Germany looks like and how much it costs. This will be information from a partner German company that has been doing this for a long time.
Thanks for attention.