TEK Systems Fills a Gap in IT

Who: Sean Price, Senior Account Executive.

TEK Systems, a technical IT staffing agency.

Status: Worked 17 years with the company, mostly in the Denver Market.

Subject: Sean Price at TEK Systems talks to members of the Denver Tech Professionals regarding the need for 30 PC hardware Technicians during their weekly meeting.

Date: 20-Jan-2011

Here is the Transcript:

TEK Systems Fills a Gap in IT

I was actually the first account (sales) rep for TEK Systems to be working on our niche specializing in IT (information technology). I shouldn't say niche because we now have 35 account reps and 45 full-time recruiters, working on the front range, serving our customers needs.

Normally those needs are not necessarily a HR ( human resource) function, where you have a HR entity trying to hire on a full time basis. TEK fills the gap where there is a need for project specific work, that's technical in nature -- whether it be a couple of weeks for a hardware deployment or 12 to 16 months in regards to any type of network architecture, network stand up, application development, (or) database activity.

Technical Scope

So you could imagine all of the IT skill sets from the first couple of levels of support to the architecture on the network side, through application development, through test. Wherever there is a project need, TEK Systems has a place for technical resources.

Redeployment

Our goal, rather than let people fall off at the end of the project, we try to re-engage. We are tracking these projects 30, 60, 90 days. We align you with another recruiter. We have you lined up with another opportunity with at least a 60 day lead time.

We spend a lot of time on our end, reinventing the wheel, re-recruiting, as oppose to streamlining our bench process. We proactively prevent a gap in deployment.

We need 30 technicians

I contacted Krystal (Mires, Director of Career Services from Tech Skills), two weeks ago, because we have three customers who are in the middle of a crazy deployment schedule.

Over the last couple of years, you can imagine that there has been spending that has been skipped in refresh activity, in hardware activity, (and) network upgrades. Our customers have been passing over that in their budget cycle, so ... now that we are clearly ramping out of the big soup bowl of a recession, over the last year and a half, we are seeing our customers spend capital expenditures. And when they are spending capital expenditures they are spending on new services, hardware and refresh cycles. So we are seeing a few customers upgrading their hardware boxes and imaging them; so we need 30 technicians between two projects, right now.

Question: You need 30 PC hardware technicians. If some one had A+ experience would you hire them? Would that qualify them? How are you defining the role of PC Hardware technicians?

Reply: Ideally, it depends on the circumstances. Ideally, in this case we are looking for 2 to 3 years of hands on experience... and is capable... and has proven experience imaging machines... taking it out of the box, plugging it in, and getting it up and running.

Folks that have some knowledge but some industry "certs" (certifications) like A+, Comp TIA... absolutely, they are folks we can look at. Usually when we have a team of 10 folks, I can afford to put two or three very entry level folks, who at minimum have their certification in. Just by pure osmosis they’ll catch up pretty quickly. I’ll have some leadership from the team members who will help them keep their heads above water.

Question: What about uncertified real world job experience? For example Geek Squad. They do that stuff daily.

Reply: Yeah, if they've got the 2 to 3 years of hardware experience without the certification then its a no brainer. You bet. Plug them in.

Question: Krystal, Director of Career Services at Tech Skills:

"Is TEK systems offering a Project Management course? Our campus is offering that course. Is that an option?"

Reply: I didn't want to step on toes. TEK systems also has instructor led training. We have a class room about this size. Nothing like this massive facility (at Tech Skills). Its pretty state of the art. But we provide instructor lead training: the CISCO track, the Microsoft track. There's also a ( project management) PMI certification as well as the ITIL certification.

Question: Krystal: "... And you also work with the individual?"

Reply: Yes. if you are currently working with TEK Systems under contract and you can fit into our scheduled courses, it is offered to you at cost. So all you are paying for are books and fees. That's why you are on a W2 contract. That works out very well. That's a win for everybody. If anybody is curious about that I would be happy to send out a catalog of the schedule of classes.

Question: Do you have business cards available?

Reply: Yes I have a stack of them available for you to pick up on the way out (pointing to the nearby table).

If you are out there looking. Send me an electronic copy of your resume. If you have a hard copy, I'd like to take a it home with me right now. I'll be happy to look at them. I have 15 -16 tech recruiters in our office.

Four of them are dedicated to infrastructure skill sets. They are not the same recruiters who are interested in software development and java requirements.

Question: There is a lot of interest in business opportunities in the TECH CENTER but what about other areas, such as Fort Collins and Longmont?

Reply: We have another branch in Westminster, along the 36 corridor (HWY 36). Its near HWY 36 and Sheridan Blvd & Turnpike Dr.

(8700 Turnpike Drive, Suite 400, Westminster, CO 80030)

I've worked there for a number of years. Because we have activity in the Northern part of the State. We have a satellite office in Fort Collins. We are also doing business with Wyoming and state agencies. We have some business there serviced out of our Fort Collins office.

(Questions soon ended).

Reply: Thank You, Everybody.

Krystal: “Thank You, Sean.”

====== For more information contact:

TEK Systems

sprice@teksystems.com