You’ve accepted a new job. Now what?

After all the “Congratulations!” have passed, it’s time to think about shutting down your search.

Sure, you could just ignore recruiter calls and employer emails, but you might need those relationships again one day, and you never know when that might be.

Whether you were in the IT job market for years, months, or just a few short weeks, it’s important to close one chapter in your life before starting a new one. To avoid burning bridges, take the proper steps to ensure you’ve shut down your job search appropriately.

Taking your resume down from job sites isn’t hard. Neither is changing the status on your social networking sites. But there is more to wrapping up your job search than you may initially think. Keep these tips in mind to make certain you’ve tied up all the loose ends:

Inform the Right People

Think about all the people you reached out to for help with your job search. You probably enlisted family members, friends and former coworkers, for starters. Let these people know about your new job first, and enjoy the kudos for a search well done.Next, make a list of all the recruiters, business contacts and networking groups you need to update.

Calling personal and professional contacts after you’ve made a decision to accept an opportunity may feel uncomfortable or unnecessary when you’re eager to move on to your new job. Think of that call or email as a courtesy: you wouldn’t want someone to offer your name as a prospective candidate when you’ve already accepted another position.

Preserve the relationship by thanking them for their assistance, and leave the door open to continue to work together in the future. Consider saying, “I really appreciate you introducing me to XYZ Company but I have found another opportunity which is a better match to my goals.” Be gracious and express appreciation. And remember the golden rule: always be professional.

Withdraw Your Candidacy

If you were in an extended or very active job search, you were probably under consideration at a few different companies. Do them a favor and email your contacts at the companies you were in the process of interviewing with to let them know you’re no longer in the running.

Express your appreciation for their interest and tell them you have accepted a new job. Do this out of courtesy! It’s very frustrating for a hiring manager to be surprised when they call a candidate to follow-up on someone they think is an active candidate, only to discover they’re already in a new job.

Keep that positive connection and create goodwill for future opportunities by being proactive and notifying them that your status has changed. This level of professionalism will be remembered, and it may benefit you in the long run.

Send an e-mail to all the recruiters and agencies you were working with, informing them you have accepted a new position. Don’t expect an agency that was actively promoting you to let you go easily; but if the opportunity is a true fit for your criteria, a recruiter with integrity will be pleased for you!

Go Online: Update Social Media and Job Boards

Lastly, don’t forget to take your resume off all job boards and websites, or turn your status to inactive. If you leave your profiles up and active it could indicate to your new employer that you may still be looking, which is not an ideal first impression.

Remember social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook where you may have posted a profile or status update about your search. Share the good news about your new position, and add your new job to your profiles.

By taking the time to provide closure to your job search, you’re giving yourself the best opportunity for a new beginning. You’ve most likely put in a lot of hard work to land this new position. So relax, give yourself a pat on the back, and treat yourself before starting your first day.

Image by Sasha Wolff via Flickr.

Everything about the new opportunity you’re presented with seems perfect: the job description fits to a “t”…the company has attractive benefits…and your hiring manager has painted a beautiful picture of what your new working life could look like.  But is this position truly going to be a mutually beneficial match?

How do you know if a job is the right fit or if looks may be deceiving? You could be honestly enthused about it, but are you only interested because you intensely dislike your current job or have no job at all? Accepting a new job is a big commitment, and you want to go into it with your eyes wide open.

From ensuring the job is challenging yet enjoyable, the corporate culture matches your personality and there exists a good opportunity for advancement, here are the steps you should take to make sure this job is “the one”:

• Determine what matters to you
• Research the company
• Assess company culture
• Talk to future coworkers and your supervisor
• Evaluate the job offer

Determine what matters to you
Taking a moment to figure out what matters to you in a job is a step most job seekers skip. You should have some idea of what ideals you’re looking for in your next job (or conversely, know what you’re not looking for based on previous negative experiences). Jot down some of your “must haves” and “nice to haves” such as location boundaries, job hour requirements, travel obligations, and what you would like for salary and benefits. Coming up with a list ahead of time will help you have a clear vision of where you’ll draw the line on certain issues. Know your boundaries and be confident about what you will and won’t compromise on.

Research the company
Naturally, researching the company you’re about to work for is an important step. You’ll want to find out:

• How the company is performing financially?
• How do they stack up against competitors?
• Do they have a good reputation in the industry and are they perceived well?
• How does management reward performance?

See what you can dig up in an online search and by talking to others in the industry.

Assess company culture
While the interviewer is assessing you to make sure your skills are a good fit for the company, you should be doing the same thing to ensure the company is a good fit for you. Consider the company culture and traits such as:

• What are the company values? Are they consistent with yours?
• What is the work environment like?
• Were you greeted warmly by everyone you met at the company? Do coworkers seem to be getting along?

Be an astute observer of your environment, read between the lines and make sure the culture fits with your personality. 

Talk to future coworkers and your supervisor
Asking questions of your supervisor is a no brainer. But it’s important to not only ask direct questions and listen for the responses, but to also listen to what’s not being said. What kind of management style does this boss have? Is he hands-on or hands-off? How is his communication? And what if you only meet with the boss and never get a chance to speak with future colleagues, coworkers and team members, then make a special request to talk to at least two different people at the company on the phone or in person.

Evaluate the job offer
While a lot of the job offer consideration is about the money, face it: money can’t buy you happiness. How is the total package? Are the other benefits attractive, valuable and competitive? Has anything changed from the initial job description or what you learned during the interview? And lastly, take a look at the opportunity for advancement and career path. What will life at the company look like 3-5 years from now?

Final Words: Job Interviewing is Like Dating
Finding a job that’s the right fit is sort of like dating and marriage. You have to date to get married, but not every date will turn into a marriage. Look for small clues and go beyond solely judging the job by its cover.

The new year feels like a breath of fresh air as IT trends reflect growing economic optimism. While challenges remain, the IT job market is seeing signs of life with increased hiring and slight growth in salaries for IT positions across the board.

Keep reading for recent data on IT hiring trends, and watch for our upcoming Market Pulse newsletter with more in-depth analysis of the IT job market.

IT Trends to Watch in 2012

Janco Associates, Inc., a consulting firm that conducts semi-annual salary surveys reports additional trends to watch in 2012. As competition for top talent grows and compensation begins to increase, IT professionals will see:

• Growing demand for IT executives in mid-sized companies as the recession comes to an end.
• Accelerating hiring of CIOs, with slight increases in  large enterprises and significant demand in mid-sized firms.
• More opportunity for flexible hours and work schedules, viewed as a low cost /  high value benefit.
• In the last 12 months mean compensation across all IT professions has increased by 0.81% (from $77,604 to $78,229), with an increase from  $73,934 to $74,435 in for mid-sized firms and from $81,273 to $81,644 in large enterprises.

Competition for Top IT talent is on the Upswing in 2012.

According to a Computerworld’s annual Forecast survey, (as reported in TechRepulbic), the top  IT skills for 2012 are:

1. Programming and Application Development, including website development, mobile applications and internal systems. 61% plan to hire for this skill in the next 12 months, up from 44% in the 2010 survey.
2. Proactive Project Managers who can anticipate users needs and translate demands for IT staff.
3. Help Desk/Technical Support staff who can help end users with the proliferation of mobile devices and applications.
4. Networking from VMWare and Citrix to virtualization and cloud computing. Diverse projects and emerging trends drive the need to networking expertise.
5. Business Intelligence to capture new opportunities as employers shirt their focus from recessional cost-cutting to strategic investments in technology.
6. Data Center - The move to the cloud has not slowed the need for IT professionals with expertise in data center operations and systems integration.
7. Web 2.0 and end-to-end social media skills will continue to be in demand, from .Net, AJAX and PHP to  HTML, XML, CSS, Flash and Javascript.
8. Security - While demand is down from  the 2010 survey, security remains stays perennial concern of IT executives to protect business investments and customers’ information.
9. Telecommunications - Demand for IP telephony skill continues, and  those familiar with Cisco IPCC call center systems is strong.

Read the full post here: Top IT Skills Wanted to 2012.

Learn More

To stay current on IT staffing trends, read Agile’s quarterly Market Pulse report. Subscribe to this blog for regular news and updates from Agile. Choose an RSS subscription, or get the weekly email using the “Subscribe” box on the top left side of this page.

This week’s guest blogger is Beth Armkrecht Miller, CMC – Leadership Advisor, Coach and Vistage Chair.

So why is it important to have a trusting workplace? And how do you know if you have one?

Studies show that a trusting workplace increases employees’ level of happiness, work effort, productivity, and engagement. It also provides an environment that encourages open communication and promotes people to share their ideas.  When people feel comfortable sharing their ideas, there is a greater capacity for innovation within an organization keeping a company current and relevant in the marketplace.

Evaluating the level of trust in your workplace

Below are eight factors that studies have shown influence trust in the workplace:

1.  Openess: Do you as a leader display having an open mind? As a leader, when you show others around you that you are open to new ideas and encourage others to share their opposing opinions not only do you create an environment of trust but you are enabling innovation within the organization.
2. Vision and Values: Are both vision and values communicated and lived on a consistent basis?  Without a vision for your company and a set of values, your employees will not have a sense of direction.  When they understand where the company is headed and it will you get to there, they trust decisions that are being made in the organization because they understand them. The key is to make decisions consistent to your values. It isn’t enough to put values down on paper; they need to be demonstrated throughout the entire organization.
3. Courage: Do company leaders have the courage to do the right thing even if the decision or action could put them at risk?  It takes courage to stay the course when obstacles get in the way of your vision. Leaders often take the easy way out when faced with difficult challenges.  Those who are able to make the tough decisions which support the company’s values, build trust and respect amongst their team members. They do the right thing even if in the short term it impacts them in a negative way.
4. Shared Goals: Do employees understand how their individual goals impact the organization’s goals?  Goals that are shared build stronger and more committed teams. And when the goals are clearly linked back to the company’s vision, you are strengthening the understanding of your company’s journey and how you will get there.
5. Community: Does your organization promote giving back to its community? Community service projects build relationships amongst employees and are viewed as not self-serving by employees. And, when employees are involved with the decision process of what projects the company should be involved with, they feel important and you show them that you value their opinions and ideas.
6. Integrity: Do leaders keep their promise and commitments to employees?  Do they tell the truth to them?  When leaders are transparent and share information honestly, employees trust what is being told them. Promise and commitments are not just those that are made to individuals but to the organization as well. So what are those promises and commitments you make to an organization as a leader? They are things like stewardship of company resources including finances and human resources. They watch over the finances by making sound decisions and develop their employees’ talent to the best of their ability.
7. Manners: Are employees recognized for good work and thanked for their hard efforts? Companies whose leaders consistently thank, praise, and reward employees for their good efforts demonstrate good manners and increase the level of trust employees have in the company and their leaders.
8. Care: Do employees feel like leadership cares about them? Companies with leaders who make all employees feel important and part of the team create a feeling of safety. They actively listen, are visible and accessible, and take an interest in people’s personal lives. Employees feel genuinely cared for by their employer.

If you really want to get understand how your employees rate workplace trust, develop an employee feedback survey to determine what areas you and your organization need to improve on to increase the level of trust.  The sooner you identify the areas of needed improvement, the sooner you can put a plan of action into place to increase your employees’ productivity, engagement, and level of happiness.

Beth Armknecht Miller, of Atlanta, Georgia, is Founder and President of Executive Velocity, a leadership development coaching firm accelerating the leadership success of CEOs and business leaders. She is also Chair to two Vistage groups. She is certified in Myers Briggs and Hogan leadership assessment tools and is a Certified Managerial Coach by Kennesaw State University. Visit http://www.executive-velocity.com  or  http://executivevelocityblog.com or follow her on twitter @SrExecAdvisor.

Agile has compiled data on IT and staffing trends in the Atlanta technology community, and will publish our Q32011 Market Pulse report in the next week. This quarterly report provides information that we have gathered and analyzed regarding IT employment in Metro Atlanta.  It also includes findings from a survey sent to over 300 IT executives in the Atlanta area.

Based on our data and survey results, three things are clear:

1. IT employment in Metro Atlanta is definitely on the rise as overall jobs decline.
2. Atlanta companies want to hire highly skilled IT professionals on a permanent basis.
3. Almost half of the executives who responded to our survey expect increases in IT projects and hiring next year.

Agile’s Market Pulse will be available on our website (www.gotoagile.com), but we’d like to offer you a sneak preview of what’s inside the latest issue:

• The number of IT jobs in Metro Atlanta grew 2.3 percent year-over-year in Q32011 to 92,433. For the same period, the number of ALL jobs in Metro Atlanta declined 1.4 percent to about 2.23 million.
• Employers are ready and willing to hire top IT talent on a permanent basis; data shows a nearly 70 percent increase in the number of openings for perm IT jobs in Q3 as the number of openings to fill contract positions declined by 30 percent.
• There has been a steady rise in “days to fill” IT positions which may be contributed to employers requiring IT professionals with unique/hard-to-find skills.
• Our survey reveals more than two-thirds of respondents report there were more activities and projects in 2011 than in 2010; more than half of those responded that the increase was between 10-24 percent.
• Half of the respondents expect their activity and project levels in 2012 to be about the same as 2011; 45 percent believe they will be busier in 2012.
• When asked about their biggest challenges in 2012, 40 percent said that “growing my IT organization” was at the top of the list.
• When asked what they believe is required to generate job growth, more than two-thirds stated that cutting or reducing government programs and lessening the tax burden on business is necessary.

Some of the above findings may not surprise you, but some may – especially survey responses from local technology leaders.  We hope you’ll find the information both interesting and useful.

Please check Agile’s web site (www.gotoagile.com) next week for the complete Market Pulse report.