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The role of recruitment agencies is pivotal to the IT job market, so you are very likely to be dealing with these companies.
IT recruiters are central to the industry because many of IT roles are highly specialised. The actual employer may have very limited knowledge of these areas – so they won’t know exactly what they are looking for in a candidate. Furthermore, as new trends and technologies develop, sudden requirements emerge.
Companies employ IT staff through agencies as they are required. The employer relies on the agency to not only understand their requirements, the jargon, and the required skill-set but also to place the advertisements in the appropriate media, conduct initial interviews and send through a shortlist of candidates.
For their expertise, recruiters are paid a fee, usually between 15 and 30% of the successful candidate's salary. For example, if a recruiter places an IT manager whose salary is $130 000 they will charge the company a fee of $20 000-30 000.
Agencies that place contract staff will usually charge the client 15-25% of the contractor's hourly rate. So if the contractor is earning $40 per hour, the client (company) is charged $50-55 an hour for every hour the contractor works.
If you are called in for an interview on spec, ask the recruiter if there is a copy of the advertisement or a job description you can look at. Agencies will sometimes call people in just to have enough names on a short-list, so make sure you match the job.
More job search options:
Advertised positions
Graduate programs
Government recruitment
Networking
To find out what employers are looking for, get a copy of Career FAQs Information Technology now.
Excerpt from Career FAQs Information Technology
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