Human Capital 2.0

TopLine Strategies is searching for multiple .NET Developers for internal positions within our firm and external positions with our clients in the Phoenix marketplace.

The .NET Developer must possess excellent software and database development skills. Must be an expert in OOP. His or her primary responsibility will be to work in a team to develop business applications in a C#/ASP.NET/SQL Server environment.

Minimum Qualifications / Requirements:

• 3+ years experience developing business applications using .NET, C#, ASP.NET and SQL Server.
• 3+ years experience developing data driven web applications. SQL Server 2005 or 2008 experience is required.
• Experience with database access using ADO.NET/ORM.
• Experience with .NET Framework 2, 3, 3.5 or 4.
• Experience writing and optimizing SQL statements and stored procedures in T-SQL.
• Experience implementing data access and object-relational mapping layers as Web Services.
• Experience with XML technologies.
• Excellent oral and written communications skills and a strong customer service ethic.
• Equivalent to Bachelor’s degree (preferably in Computer Science or related field).
• Experience working in a team and working within a pre-defined and designed software architecture.
• Experience with Team Foundation Server desired.

.NET, C#, SQL Server, ADO.NET/LINQ/Entity Framework, Javascript/JQuerry, ASP.NET.

To apply please visit the TopLine Strategies Technical Career Page.

Just came across this interesting infograph on hot IT jobs for 2013 and beyond. Provides some valuable information on medium job salaries for various IT positions as well as frame up the emerging trends of the industry. Stats indicate that for opportunities in areas like cloud computing and mobile platforms, there are not enough qualified professionals to meet the demands of the marketplace.  Check out all the interesting information below and let us know your opinions. And of course if you feel like your background may meet the demands of this growing marketplace please reach out to us and we will talk about opportunities in Arizona.  

On behalf of our client in Chandler, Arizona, TopLine Strategies is in search of a Quality Assurance (QA) analyst. This person will be expected to design and execute test plans from a quality assurance (QA) as well as a user acceptance testing (UAT) perspective and participate in end user support and author user documentation as necessary. This individual should have a minimum of 3 years experience in software quality assurance and test and be proficient with using Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) for test processes. A Bachelor’s Degree in Technical or Computer Science is preferred.  

Duties and Responsibilities:

- Define and document process

- Create test plans and organize test suites

- Write and execute test cases

- Write test reports that assess overall quality of new products and features

- Participate in analysis, design, and requirements of software features

- Increase usage of automated tests

For a full description of this position, and to apply, please visit the TopLine Strategies Technical Careers Page.

LinkedIn recently held a panel discussion co-sanctioned by RecruitLoop in San Francisco to discuss the effective ways that a small business can hire critcal positions when they do not have the budget or the time for a full-time Recruiting Manager.  

They came up with 6 great tactics that we wanted to share with you:

1)      Rule of 100 – The panel proposed that to get one hire, you need to have touched at least 100 people. Just like a sales funnel, imagine a pool of candidates working down the funnel until you finally uncover the right one. Be patient and reach out to as many candidates as possible.

2)      Leave the office – Network outside of the office at events, conferences and after-hour work related functions. You never know where you may uncover the talent you have been looking for or meet the person that can lead you in the right direction.

3)      Leverage your employees – Incentives can help motivate employees to dig through their network for top talent. But also ask them questions like “Who did you work with at your last company that was great?” Empower your employees to be a part of the process and encourage them to see how important the hiring process is to the growth of the organization.

4)      Research your role – Understand the nature of the position. If it is technical in nature and you do not understand the requirements, talk to an industry expert or a colleague with knowledge in the field. They will help you identify the persona and qualified candidate you are looking for.

5)      Build a relationship – As a small organization, you want to create a more personal experience with your candidates. When they are interviewing at larger firms it will be easier for candidates to feel lost in the larger corporate culture. Use this to your advantage and show them your small business environment is warmer and more accommodating.

6)      Sell the role’s difficulty – Often at a smaller organization, positions will require more obligations and time. Let your candidates know this and gauge their reactions. Often the best candidates for this type of a role will embrace this type of situation and be ready to jump on board.

On behalf of our client, TopLine Strategies is in search of Systems Engineer for a role in Phoenix, Arizona. This person will be a technical resource for supporting application development and production environments. They should have a broad background in current technology trends including: web services, configuration management, and fault isolation. Requirements include:

- 2+ years experience SOAP, REST, ActiveMQ, Puppet, Chef, Zookeeper

- 4+ years experience with J2EE, SQL, ZFS, Perl, RHE, Ruby on Rails, LDAP

- 6+ years experience with Apache, Tomcat, MySQL, Postgres, scripting languages, SSL, web protocols.

- 10+ years experience operating within large Unix/Linus environments

To view a complete listing of skills and requirements for this position, and to apply, please visit the TopLine Strategies Technical Career Page.

Our client is in search of a Network Analyst to join their team in Phoenix, Arizona. This individual will support the daily operation of enterprise communications networks and will serve as a backup to the Network Analyst III. This person will support the installation and repair of routers, switches, WAN equipment, terminal servers, leased line equipment, file servers as well as network and hardware aspects of clinical and financial systems and office automation and payroll systems. This individual should have an Associate Degree with emphasis in Computer Science, Management Information Systems or equivalent experience. Also a minimum of 3+ years MS Active Directory Experience, MS Exchange experience and batch file and windows command script language.

To read more about this position and apply, please the TopLine Strategies Technical Career Page.

TopLine Strategies is currently in search of a Desktop Support Technician on behalf of our client. In this role the individual will maintain, analyze, troubleshoot and repair computer and voice systems, hardware, software and computer peripherals. This person will also document, maintain, upgrade or replace hardware and software systems and support and maintain Incident tickets keeping user’s, management, peers and the Help Desk apprised of activities.

 This candidate should have 3-5 years of hands-on desktop support experience in a large enterprise multi-state environment and have certification with: A+ or Network+ , MCSA Windows 7 and ITIL.

To learn more about this position and apply, please visit the TopLine Strategies Technical Career Page.

As the economy shows steady signs of improvement, workers are beginning to test the waters for new opportunities and as a result, the competition for positions is becoming stiffer. With this in mind it becomes imperative that you do what it takes to attract and convince top talent that your company is the right choice for them. A recent article written by Paul Schoemaker on Inc.com identifies 6 important ways you can be sure to attract top talent as you look to fill your important internal positions.

1)      Align your current team around the new position that is being filled. Make sure everyone agrees and understands the reason that this position is being filled. You do not want your candidate walking in the door and receiving conflicting information from internal employees about what the position entails and why you are hiring.

2)      A good first impression is crucial. Make sure that your work environment is a place that is warm, welcoming and one in which this candidate could envision themselves working in 50-60 hours per week.

3)      Similar to statement #1, make sure that you and your team are aligned around why this environment is right for the candidate and why they should join the team. Everyone should be able to articulate why this move is in their best interest.

4)      It is not all about you. Do not spend all your time with the candidate telling them how great the company or position is. Understand what really matters to the candidate first then articulate how your company fits to their needs.

5)      Go out and find the talent you desire. Connect with colleagues in the marketplace and begin to track down names of top performers. Do not just sit idle, post a position and wait for the talent to come to you.

6)      Stay flexible and realize that the candidate is not 100% motivated by money. Top candidates want growth and career potential, recognition and lifestyle. Be sure that you can sell the candidate on those areas of your business as well.

Paul Schoemaker notes that you can not win the talent war by being passive and not involving everyone in the process. Make this a colloborative effort and understand that if you are looking to hire top performers they will have choices. So make sure your company clearly articulates how you can furfill their desires and you will find yourself landing the top talent that you needed.

A link to the article in its entirety can be found at: http://www.inc.com/paul-schoemaker/how-to-win-the-war-for-talent.html?nav=river