Tracey Stone at Skillfinder

Let's speed up getting to gender equality in tech

IT is still one of the industries that is faltering when it comes to gender equality - we need to pick up the pace on fixing it now. While things are slowly getting better, gender diversity will be a prerequisite for a company to thrive in the future, so it's down to everyone in the sector to stop dragging their feet on this issue.Diversity in the workforce means better financial performance and a stronger reputation, which in turn increases the quality of potential new employees.It also means diversity in skills; companies are looking for ways to distinguish themselves by adding value to their brand, product and staff.Is IT still a difficult industry for women?· Women in the IT industry find balancing work and personal life is difficult, even more so for women who have or wish to have a family.· Many women reported that adjusting to the company environment was difficult, eventually leading them to losing interest in their job.· There are only five women CEOs among 41 tech companies included in the Fortune 500 list.Why are we still focused on women in IT?The first and most obvious answer is that women and men are equal. However, it seems this alone is not enough to change the hiring process, therefore here are a few points to help incentivise hiring managers:Strengthening team dynamics: Women have a proclivity in uniting people and draw together opinions and proposals; favouring the creation of teams, participation optimisation of the decision-making process.Improved work environment: A diverse workforce better reflects a company’s client base thus providing better knowledge on consumer preference; according to Forbes, women worldwide influence up to 80% of purchase decisions.Increases revenue: According to Mckinsey&Company, if women get a chance to work at their full potential, they will add $28 trillion to the global GDP by 2025.Individually, businesses benefit from diversity and inclusion programs; A 2014 MIT study on workplace diversity noted that companies with a lower gender polarisation increased their revenue by as much as 41%.How do we attract more women?- Your job ads should reflect the image of an inclusive and welcoming culture so that women consider sending their application.- Mention specific skills that women associate with such as collaborative working style, interpersonal skills, time management, flex working hours etc…and have a clear recruitment strategy to deliver that message.- Companies should promote and implement leadership and skill development programs for women as well as be transparent about their maternity policies. - Include more women in the actual hiring process which can immediately reflect on the company’s reputation.

How to Get Your CV Found Online

How to Get Your CV Found OnlineAll too often, we hear that candidates have been sending their CV out to hundreds of jobs and that they aren’t getting anywhere and feel like giving up...Your job hunting efforts should not be so difficult and yielding such low results with all of today's new methods for job hunting online!For now we want to look at how you can make your CV effective, so that when you do send it out or upload it to job boards, you're attracting the right positions.To make the most of your CV, you should be posting and uploading your CV to online job boards, recruitment websites and also using your LinkedIn network (get an account if you don’t have one!).When you post your CV online there are various methods and techniques that you can use to come up in all of the correct searches. In general, the better your CV is written in terms of keywords, the more relevant searches you will appear in online.If you're working with a recruitment agency or have sent your CV to recruitment agencies in the past, then it's very likely that you'll be stored on their internal databases, but it's still imperative you keep your CV up to date on external databases.How Do Recruiters Find Your CV?In house and agency recruiters like Skillfinder International use a set of keywords in search engines and databases to find new candidates. They will use words that have been given in a job description, to bring up the right candidates. That's why it's extremely important to use all words that are associated with your ideal job to come up in these keyword searches. If you miss anything out, then you risk not coming up in searches or being at the bottom of the search.Easy tips to get found include:1. Use descriptive words.2. Don’t use too many keywords! - sometimes candidates will fill their CV with keywords to ensure they get found. This has a negative impact on what you're hoping for because you will be labelled as a SPAMMER.3. Be clear with the keywords that you use - It should be clear to anybody (recruiter or not) reading your CV what your skills are and how they are relevant to the position.4. Keep your CV refreshed and updated online - Generally, recruiters will only look for the newer CV's, if you haven't updated your CV for a certain period of time, you may no longer be alerted for relevant jobs.5. Include relevant industry keywords - A lot of the time, recruiters will be looking for candidates in specific industries. If you don't put the industry keywords in your CV your CV will not appear, don't restrict yourself!6. Keep up to date with terminology – Especially in the IT & FinTech Industry, new terminologies and technologies are continuously emerging and you must be familiar with them In order to be found and considered for certain jobs.At Skillfinder International, we work very closely with our candidates and make sure that their CV's are always up to date. We advise and guide candidates if we think they could be doing something better on their CV, to enhance their chances of securing a new job.If you're looking for a new job in the technology sector, please send your CV to info@skillfindergroup.com or call us on +44 (0)203 763 9500