IT Software-Engineer Job Headhunter Industry - Essay Example

History Background for Internship about I.T. Software Engineer Job Headhunter Industry History The process of recruitment involves sourcing, screening and hiring people for the desired jobs or vacancies within an organization according to the criteria set by the recruiters. Prior to the emergence of professional service providers, such as the professional recruitment agencies, known as the "headhunters" the process of recruiting eligible candidates was done on a personal basis. The emergence of this new genre in the hiring and recruitment industry, has led the organizations to rely heavily on such intermediaries, mainly because of the quality of the service provided by them coupled with their expertise in hiring eligible candidates for the job. "A headhunter could be described as an independent employment service that seeks out personnel for high - level executive positions; formally known as executive search company (or consultant)" (source: http://www.answers.com/topic/headhunter-2004'cat=biz-fin). The software industry emerged in the U.S. in the mid - 1970's, during the personal computer revolution. It encompasses within its domain, such services as the development, maintenance as well as publication of computer softwares. The industry has seen rapid growth since then and is developing at an amazing speed. The size of the industry could be gauged by its revenues, which totaled to an astonishing figure of $381 billion. The total world wide revenues in the year 2006 amounted to $394 billion representing a growth of 3.5% since the past one year (source: John Desmond, October 2006). With such increase in the size of the industry, the organizations today are increasingly resorting to availing the services of specialized recruitment agencies in order to tap the desired talents in the industry and hire the most desirable candidate for the jobs. However, prior to the emergence of such specialized talent hiring services, who have expertise in hiring talents from their particular field of knowledge; the recruitment process was highly traditional in its operation, consisting of employment agencies who were mostly approached by the prospective job seeker, whose application was then, to be forwarded to the respective organizations, thereby leading to a highly asymmetrical recruiting process. While yet others depended on their in - house recruiting firms, for hiring the right candidate for the job. However, the emergence of the headhunters brought about a revolutionary change in the way these organizations hired, recruited and managed their employable workforce, by introducing the concept of specialized services of niche recruiting, where the headhunters displayed exceptionally high skill levels in their knowledge about a particular occupation / job and helped the companies to hire the right candidate for the positions advertised with minimum effort, and through cost reduction and minimum amount of time by collaborating with the companies or organizations desiring to avail such specialized services (William Finlay, James Coverdill,2002) . The headhunters have a good standing in the society, whereby they are well linked to almost all the trade associations and groups in the industry. Their services are thus, mostly used for hiring talents, in terms of high managerial positions / senior management level positions, which is largely due to the fact that they hold specialized knowledge and expertise in their chosen field. Rationale The right mix of talented human resources coupled with dedication and efficient leadership leads to attainment of the predefined business goals and hence is a key to resolving any business issue. Thus the human resource management groups are increasingly turning towards the special recruitment service providers such as the headhunters, for hiring the best talent available amongst the workable population at their disposal, thereby availing the benefits such as lower recruitment costs, reduced time to close hiring requisitions, and freeing up resources to focus on strategic HR initiatives. The issue of good talent is of utmost significance in terms of hiring, for all the organizations. Thus the services provided by headhunters, prove to be quite useful in such cases, as they are well versed in their area of expertise and help in elevating the standards of efficiency and professionalism of any company. It also saves a lot of time, for the recruiters, as the headhunters classify the details of the desired candidates and filter out those who are undesirable or unsuitable for the position advertised. Thus such comprehensive tasks undertaken by these specialized recruiters help in enhancing the value added to the respective organizations, thereby optimizing the task of talent management in the process. The headhunters help in major cost cutting in an organization, as well saves time by providing value added services to the companies, by performing several tasks such as assuming the roles and responsibilities of the human resource department of an organization engaged in acquiring and hiring talent to fill the desired job vacancies in a particular department. Their services could be hired over a period of time wherein the organizations can resort to major cost cutting and avoids huge and unnecessary investments in hiring and recruiting new workforce. The rate of employee retention is maintained as the headhunters, being experts in their fields hire the best talent available for the advertised vacancy and thereby reducing the chances of choosing a wrong candidate for the job advertised and the subsequent investment involved in training the newly recruited candidates, thereby losing out on the opportunity of exploring the talents of the largely employable and eligible workforce that remains untapped (Jim Westcott, Greg Ambrose, Tony Olvet, June 2005) Purpose of being a headhunter The phenomenal rise in the growth rate of the software industry has in turn, opened new avenues for the business of specialized recruitment, fuelling the need for such specialized professionals - as the headhunters, dedicated to the service of hiring talent for the software industry. The increase in growth rate has led to increased demand, thereby leading to shortage of eligible candidates for the job, thus the need for hiring the services of such headhunters who are purely dedicated to hiring desired candidates to suit the needs of the vacancies of the positions advertised by the organizations. Their specialized knowledge gives these headhunters an edge over the other similar employment agencies in the business, as they apply their knowledge for attaining the desired results in a short span of time, and by implementing some of the best, in - house processes, by integrating the state of the art technologies and well qualified people having the required knowhow. The screening mechanism applied by the headhunters is highly effective in choosing the right candidate for the job, thereby saving a lot of time and delivering exceptional quality of manpower resources to the organization, thereby simplifying the task of the HR management in the process. Such qualities leads to their high demand in the industry, whereby companies and organizations are increasingly demanding the services of such professionals in acquiring talent for their companies as well, in order to avail the benefits of cost cutting, time saving and high rates of employee retention. Requirements The headhunters are generally specialists in a chosen field which might include area of expertise in a particular industry, type of employee or even a region. However the basic idea underlying the fact of being a good headhunter involves specialization in a niche area. For being an efficient headhunter, the professionals should not carry any preconceived notions about any particular industry or region and should be able and willing to readily absorb the existing market details and requirements. It also involves the process of bringing together the right client and the right candidate for the clients. Apart from the professional qualifications, there are certain inherent characteristics involved for being an efficient head hunter such as, good interpersonal skills which help in building trust with the candidates, patience, empathy, good decision making skills and selflessness (Carrie Mandel, June 2008). REFERENCES John P Desmond, 2006 Software 500: Deep Concerns over Security, October 2006, Available from: Read More