technical recruiter

account manager

recruiter

operations associate

desktop support technician

TEKsystems

Typical day to day:

•          Plan, build, Schedule, and Maintain Projects Utilizing Primavera P6 for Systems IT Development as well as Research and Development Projects (R&D)

•          Work with Program level Leadership, Project Managers, and Project Coordinators to Identify resources, via Roles & Skillset for their perspective assignments within project & Primavera, and systematically assign them via Interim cyber sourcing system

•          Conduct Project Inception Planning meetings to establish relationships between projects related activities, milestones and deliverables.

•          Obtain labor estimates from project resources to complete activities and work breakdown structures (WBS)

•          Scope identification 

•          Creating project scope documentation, supporting scope, execution and deliverables of project utilizing Visio.

•          Maintain Interim project tracking and reporting systems (Lotus Notes)

•          Track project financial health & funding 

•          Create & produce reports for program sponsoring executive leadership, as well as project management, for budget, resource time logging, schedule status, weekly labor costs, project forecasting etc. leading the overall health of the project(s)

•          Primavera weekly status updating & maintenance

•          Attend / engage in State Farm Leadership level development center (DC) meetings

•          Attend / engage weekly project team meetings (Onsite & Remotely)

•          Attend / engage in State Farm program specific meetings

•          Attend / engage with State Farm highly developed IT Release Team

•          Attending Interim Planner Advisory Group Meetings

•          Analyzing, accepting, and rejecting resource time sheet submissions to ensure of proper project time charging within assigned responsibilities, activities and Work Breakdown Structures

•          Allocating/ assigning resources to proper aligning time reporting activities and Work Breakdown Structures

•          Assist Project Managers and Project Coordinators with overall project coordination,

as well as, the coordination of deliverable approvals & acceptances within projects

•          Direct and assist PM to bring project to an orderly close

•          Maintain multiple projects

•          Identify, maintain, and status Cross project Dependencies across multiple development centers and projects.

•          Work directly with PMO office to ensure of proper coding for rollup reporting to State Farm IT release team

•          Meet the expectations of project(s) solution development methodology (SDM)

•          Create Project Glossary(s)

•          Many more role and skillset related responsibilities available upon request

•          Maintain a combined total budget of $6 Million dollars across all projects assigned

Lessons Learned:
A whole new side of professional project management in a very large successful corporate environment. Overall functionality in a  very complex ground up build IT development, in such a vast corporate environment, the structuring within, and the methodology associated with the such. 

Management:
Words cannot express enough the team work, the helpfulness, and the overall leadership in such a huge Enterprise IT development. 

Co-workers:
Everyone I had the pleasure to work with on my project teams as well as within my DC (development center), were wonderful, very hard working, friendly, and I can honestly say it was a pleasure meeting & working with each and everyone of them.

Hardest part of the job:
Clarifying levels / terminology of development & testing from one development center to another in a ground up IT Build infrastructure, as terminology and deliverables varied widely across 10 development centers.

Most enjoyable part:
The people I met, the relationships built, the aggressive teamwork conveyed, and the cultural diversity.

A typical day at TEKsystems starts with you connecting with your direct Account Manager and Sales Triangle at 7:45AM to go over your sales/sourcing strategy for your aligned requirement for the day. At 8AM your entire office gathers together at the Red Zone board which holds every single piece of business we have actively open. There we discuss the status of each of those positions and candidates. We will review strategy and positioning as needed.

From there you will begin going through your call sheet that you have made the day/night prior with at least 30 candidates you have sourced through our CRM System, LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, etc. in order to hit your daily goals of calls. You typically would like to speak to 5 new people that day that are actively looking or open for new opportunities. Other than your calling people for your aligned requirement, you will also be responsible for vetting out current candidates built up in your pipeline through their references and technical assessments.

If you have a candidate with fully completed references that speak to the requirement you locked them down on, you must then sell them to the Account Manager who qualified and is working with the client that the requirement came from. From there, you can prep the candidate and walk them through the rest of the process until an offer is made and they walk through the door on their first day of work.

Your day should be coming to an end around 5PM where you will connect with your Account Manager to review your numbers and day. You'll then discuss what direction you should go in the next day in regards to what requirement to work on next. From there, your final action item is to make your call sheet for the next day to find the ideal candidates for your next day's focus.

I've learned tons about recruiting, IT, and what these large companies we serviced are doing. I do believe management can be terrible with micromanaging and mixed messages, but that's mostly because management don't have management skills, but are sales people.

It's a very young environment. Most people are in their 20s. They play loud music all day (usually inappropriate music that candidates can sometimes hear over the phone). People celebrate a loudly in the office. It can be very distracting.

The hardest part of the job is the fact that not only are you managing people (that can be unpredictable), but also not being able to push back yourself to clients when they don't want to give an offer to your candidate. You will have to rely on your Account Manager who may or may not care dependent on how many other candidates they have from other recruiters in the office.

Best part of the job is the amount of knowledge and experience you will receive. It's also great that you can expense every coffee and lunch you have, plus the mileage it takes for you to meet individuals. I think it's a great job to start in, but not a place for long-term opportunities unless you get lucky or become a slave to your job.

I was sold on this position due to the great "culture" that was explained to me by friends working there, during interviews, and constantly during actual work. Me, and all my friends, found out that this was a thin veneer over a really distorted workplace.

Considering work/life balance, this is a pillar of their culture that was often preached, yet somehow a 50+ hour workweek was "expected." Leaving work on time and on schedule became regarded as something of a betrayal, as if I wasn't working as hard as the rest of the team. The work/life balance tipped the scales more in the direction of work.

I increasingly became uncomfortable with the communication aspect of the culture as well. TEK prides itself as an open communication workplace, however this is used more as a tool for weeding out dissatisfaction and "trouble makers" rather than a problem solving or team-building tool. I saw many people raise legitimate concerns over business practices/operations/management decisions, only to see them pulled into "development meetings" for a time then swiftly let go. The message here was, "Don't make waves, or else let me show you to the door."

There was also a manufactured sense to the "culture" - every other week there were small-team meetings discussing personal lives, goals, ambitions, etc. Participation was a little awkward - I feel there's a principle that you can't force or manufacture a great culture. It's something that has to be lived day in and day out. Having meeting to discuss aspects of the culture, how we fit into the culture, and how we live the culture in our personal lives quickly became something of a cult formation, rather than personal and professional development. I agree that there needs to be a certain level of group mentality at a company, working towards the same goals. However, this requires a more organic approach than structured meetings to talk about how great the "culture" is consistently. Especially considering how I saw the "culture" used to punish some very brilliant, kind, and hard-working people, I soon learned that the insistence on culture was just a sham.

So be wary of a place that sells too much on culture, and too little on the nuts/bolts/and drive towards success that should motivate people to work for a company. If your culture is so awesome, there should be no need to say it week after week - your employees should know it and feel it, and no company picnic or crazy office competitions can make up for the complete waste of cultural potential at TEK.

•Sr. IT Recruiter primarily specialized in Network/ Systems Infrastructure and Communications screening and selection; Systems/Network Architecture/Engineering/NOC/Desktop/Service Desk/ Project Management/ Directors/leadership roles/Technical Support/ Remote Support/Field Technicians and/or Telecommunications to align the top IT Talent to align with ongoing career opportunities. Daily duties included; 
o	Developing effective and innovative recruiting strategies for attracting and sourcing high quality technical candidates for client companies.
o	Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of  candidates following a thorough screening and interview process  to accomplish the following; negotiate wages, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment with candidates 
o	Oversee pre-employment steps including reference checks, onboarding paperwork, coordinating scheduling/start dates and completion of background/drug tests 
o	Build, manage and maintain relationships with the contract employees during and after each assignment 
o	Responsible for redeploying Technical Professionals before contract end dates
o	Schedule and/or complete on boarding and new hire paperwork
o	Interacted with TEKsystems Account Managers to reviewing top accounts and target skill sets to provide successful delivery and revenue
o	Communicate effectively with others in order to create a productive and diverse environment 
o	Maintain relationships with industry contacts to gain industry knowledge and get referrals 
o	Provided local market analytics, timely feedback Pre-interview preparation and post-interview follow-up and assisted with resume building for Technical Professionals. 
o	Set professional and personal goals for self and with the team to hold accountability and/or  be held accountable to drive peers, set positive work environment, motivate others to set up for success. 
o	Forming strategic partnerships with senior management to determine staffing needs. 
o	Participating in weekly recruitment meetings, conference calls, focusing on troubleshooting difficult positions and managing client issues
o	Responsible for closures of technical professionals into both contract and permanent employment opportunities
o	Assisted in negotiating, reviewing and Executing of rates on W2/1099/ contracts, customer agreements or Bill Rates with Vendors and Clients.

•	Train/Mentor management, teams as well as PMOs on effective execution of the Agile methodology and its practices in a repeatable and consistent manner.
•	Coach and Mentor the Agile PMO, Leaders, as well as the Scrum/Kanban teams to the preparation and execution of the new SAFe train launches via PI Planning, defining and restructuring the operating model & intake model, as well as clarifying roles and responsibilities changes to facilitate and support the organization’s Agile/Lean/SAFe transformation initiatives. 
•	Lead/Facilitate Agile Proficiency assessments of organizations and teams on the quarterly basis and work with the leadership and Scrum/Kanban teams on growth plans and actions. 
•	Guide the trains and teams through complex organizational or structural impediments such as offshore team members, lack of business engagement, part time team members, etc.
•	Facilitate Agile training and workshops for SAFe trains and Scrum teams as well as business/process-only organizations.
•	Build, refine, and instruct client owned Lean-Agile courses. 
•	Coach and mentor Scrum and Kanban teams to improve delivery performance through coaching and mentoring on team roles, tools, processes and ceremonies. 
•	Facilitate Kaizen events for continuous operational and/or team improvements
•	Facilitate Product Backlog workshops to prepare, elaborate and prioritize the initiatives, features, and user stories for large programs.
•	Advance Business, IT and Operations leadership’s understanding of their respective roles within Agile.
•	Provide training/workshops and support for Agile Communities of Practice.
•	Consult on and utilize the latest rapid development or other non-sequential project methodologies. 
•	Serves as subject matter expert on Agile development methods and processes, including SAFE.
•	Maintain relevant metrics that help the team see how they are performing.
•	Assist in refining and articulating the client’s Lean Agile Product /Software Development Lifecycle, Vision, and Roadmap to guide training, mentoring, coaching, and adoption.
•	Identify and recommend new and improved processes and practices and assist with their adoption.
•	Develop innovative ideas to improve the delivery and quality of software products and services.
•	Assist in the change management aspects, via Kotter’s Change Model, to guide client’s adoption of the Agile-Lean concepts and principles being trained and developed.

Actively doing to opposite of what the people say is valuable to them. They go on about how important the surveys they send out are and how they want to improve the company for their people but they actively do the opposite of what we value. We are in a rapidly declining economy and every employee has voiced how valuable the work from home days are so that we can save money on gas and child care during this tough time and their response was to take that away and come in office 5 days a week. Some people are now spending hundreds more a week due to gas, child care and extra food for lunch when we are already in a hard period economically. They made it very clear that there will be no raises to compensate for the extra money we are now losing and in fact are commonly giving "promotions" with no raises (aka, more work but no extra pay). They gave only 2 weeks notice so people are scrambling to figure out their living/child care situations. Most people took this job strictly for the flexibility (some even turning down higher paying jobs simply for the WFH capabilities and saving money/commute time) that they immediately took away under the guise of "office culture" but this has just made the office unbearable with everyone angry and stressed at all times giving such negative energy. Those who stay will struggle with a larger work load and the solution that management offered them is "we will just hire more people" which in turn only causes more mistakes when accounts are constantly changing hands (something we have also been very actively trying to avoid because of the stress it causes the entire team). They promise bonuses that people are lucky to actually see even half of because the expectations are so high. Many people openly admit that they have never even gotten a full bonus in all their years there. They openly admit that you have an unattainable work load but still say you're not doing enough. This company is the definition of overworked and underpaid. 
The second they said they knew they would lose people and they would just hire new to replace them was the second I knew that none of us really mattered. 
There are so many better options out there that actually care about their employees and not just the rich leaders getting richer.

If you are someone that thrives off being your own boss and building something from the ground up, then you are probably a good fit for the technical recruiting role. This is a DIFFICULT job if you need structure, direction, and to feel in control. 

You will never feel like you can catch up with the work expected of you. The commission structure is terrible compared to other recruiting companies and they don't explain it on the front end. It can be a toxic environment; constantly comparing how you are doing against co-workers. They say it's a team environment but when it comes down to it, it's an individualized job where you can feel isolated, lonely, and stuck. 

The perks of this job is that everyone is relatively within the same age range (mostly people straight out of college to mid 30s) which makes for a fun engaging environment. The people you work with become some of your best friends. I've truly met some of the most amazing people at this company. You will feel like you have a good support systems and people to cry to when you feel down. 

A typical day of work includes spending hours looking for top IT talent, cold calling for majority of the day, and trying to convivence FTE to move into a contracting role. The days are LONG if you want to be successful and you are expected to make a certain amount of calls, have x amount of quality conversations, meet these people, and talk about opportunities they may want nothing to do with. 

The management depends on which office you work in but you are aligned to a lead/account manager who is directly in charge of your success. You also have a director of the office that runs meetings, gives announcements, and performs routine performance reviews with you. 

This job has helped me learn that I need structure, SOME control of my success/outcomes, and that I am not built for a sales role. The cold calling is EXHAUSTING and never ending. They have ways around it but it all comes back to constantly find new talent. Every day is going through the same motions and the work is unfulfilling. If you are okay with having no control, can handle stress well, and willing to work more than 60 hours a week (without overtime) then this job is for you!! *turnover rate is super high too 

I should have seen the red flags from the very beginning. All of their job posts read "Sales Rep" or "Sales Trainee" or something of the sort. They basically do everything they can to trick you into thinking that you won't be an IT recruiter for potentially years on end, and never see a second of any "sales" work that you thought you were signing up for.  The only way you can be successful here is by pure luck. This is a completely saturated market/industry and everyone is replaceable. Lets face it, people in India who can't speak english, can do the exact same job that they're trying to hire you to do. They promote how they're going to "promote" you into a "sales territory" and they very well may....but since they've been around so long, they already know the large clients and the clients who truly need their services, and those clients are already aligned to the employees who have been there for 15-20 years and will never leave, because they all know they're sitting on cash cow accounts and get to send 4 emails a day and make 200-300k per year. This is where the Pure Luck is involved, if one of those 15-20 year employee's retires (unlikely because they basically already are) or passes away....then you may be the lucky one selected to take over that territory. 

In summary, if you want to be an Information Technology Recruiter, and have that truly be your "Career," then this really wouldn't be that bad of a company to call home. Or, if you want to make $50k a year and basically do nothing and make no difference in the world, this would be a great job also.

However, if you don't fall into one of those two aforementioned buckets, then do yourself a favor and work literally anywhere else. This does nothing to supplement your future career in sales, and you'll be forced to lie to companies in the future during interview, unless you plan to sincerely tell them that being an IT Recruiter was really the best option for you to cut your teeth in the sales world.

Y.I.K.E.S.

I have picked up contracts over the years through many staffing agencies. I only had the pleasure of working through TekSystems in the midst of the Covid Pandemic. Times were difficult during this period and finding employment was a challenge. TekSystems did help me to find placement for a technical role during that time and for that I am grateful.

The recruiters from junior - senior level all have very little experience in the profession. Granted, in their defense, it is a staffing agency and in most cases these type of agencies are used for entry level roles which generally consist of newer applicants. However, it makes a lot of important communications difficult. There were many times where I was asked to withhold information between one recruiter and another. Something that made me very uncomfortable.

I received many broken promises. There were many conversations around advancement, follow up for new positions, and also the possibility for pay raise. I was also informed that I would receive follow up from recruitment on a monthly or bi-monthly basis to address any concerns or to review additional options. It may be hit or miss here, depending on the recruiter that is assigned to you. Personally my recruiter was a ghost. None of my requests were ever fulfilled.

There were also quite a few issues with receiving the correct amount of pay and/or even scenarios where I was not receiving entire paychecks and when I had informed them, the immediate response I received was that I am making mistakes or there was a misunderstanding on my end. It was not until weeks later, when the entire team (of other TekSystems contractors that I was working with) began receiving the very same payroll errors. Finally, TekSystems began to take these matters seriously and work to address them.

This was my average experience with this staffing agency. I think it may just be a gamble of who it is you end up with. Outside of that, the actually company I worked for through TekSystems was great. I really enjoyed my time working with the employer and was happy to fulfill my contract.

I was fairly excited to start working for TEKsystems in their Accounts Receivable department. I had resigned from my previous career because they shut down my department after merging with another corporation, and it seemed like I have would have a great space to explore ideas for improvement and progress within the TEKsystems overall (very "family oriented", "open door policy", etc). I guess my goals were too lofty for my shoes. I was told all through my tenure that my technical abilities were above average and that I was picking up my roles responsibilities very quickly. That being said, apparently some of my behavior was not up to par in regards to how I was speaking with direct co-workers and other internal partners in other departments. Come my 60 day review and I was told that I needed to perform a 180 in regards to my behavior. Seeing as their main complaints were how I was speaking to internal partners and questioning things that had nothing to do with my job role I decided to speak the bare minimum to direct co-workers and go through my supervisor if I felt any sort of indication an email/message I was sending was in no way "egregious". They gave that less than a week before pulling be back in to tell me it was concerning that I could swing between the two extremes like that and it "wasn't going to be a good culture fit for me". That was on a Thursday at 4:00pm. They also claimed that because I wasn't saying hello/good morning to people and that I didn't respond to the team outing to Top Golf that it was going to be a culture clash. If you really want to work at a company that is "really fun and outgoing" and "loves to build internal culture" to the point that you aren't allowed to be yourself when you come into work, then go for it. From what I can tell, it's mostly a company of puppets and yes-people. Also, they aren't the best when it comes to Covid responses and LBGTQ issues. *All from my own personal experiences*

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