Each year, professionals and companies alike spend time closing out and reflecting upon the previous year and kicking off the next one. It’s a time for reflection and renewal, candor and celebration, learning and planning. And at no time was this truer than within our own organization during the past two months.

Do you have a little beach time coming up? Maybe a few flights scheduled? What a great time to catch up on your reading! With that in mind, we’ve got some fantastic suggestions for you from our diverse team of leaders and subject matter experts, including top notch business books, suspenseful novels and uplifting biographies. Check these out and let us know if you have other suggestions or thoughts about the ones below. Happy reading!

So 2016 was an interesting year for sure and it had its share of ups and downs. The world lost some extremely talented people this year and here in the states, we experienced a very contentious political race. But there have also been some bright spots, especially as it relates to the job market; unemployment rates have continued to lower and companies have recommitted to hiring great talent, both on a permanent and a contract basis, which of course is music to our ears! We’ve also seen the rise of a more data-driven, customer-centric approach to driving business results, with rising demand in agile methods and practices as well as within the creative services space.

If you are a current or former college athlete, you know that one of the critical keys to success is managing your time wisely and learning how to prioritize your schedule; the balance between your academics and athletics can be tricky to manage but it’s certainly a great introduction to time management that becomes so important when you start down your career path.

Everything is going great! You love the company you work for. Your manager respects you and treats you more than fairly. Your co-workers are supportive and many look up to you. You also have the easiest commute you could hope for. Your IT career is taking off and your future looks bright, right? What would happen if this all ended tomorrow? Would you know who to call, who’s hiring or where to find your next position? Thinking ahead and good planning can perpetuate your career success.

Eliassen Group jumped 7 spots in being named #17 on the recently announced 2016 Largest IT Staffing Firms in the United States, as determined by Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA), a global advisor on staffing and workforce solutions.

If you’re a talented IT consultant looking for a contract or a permanent position, you know that your skills are in high demand in the current business environment. As many companies have a greater need for IT consultants who can jump in on specific short-term or long-term projects and have expanded their budgets to quickly ramp up when these needs arise, there are a plethora of opportunities available to you.

Having a well written job description is only the first step in finding quality talent for your company.  You also need to post it online for people to see.  Of course this includes your website but in order to make sure the right people see it, it has to be posted in the right places.

IT Job seekers look at hundreds of career postings during their job search.  Because of this they don’t spend much time looking at a particular posting to determine if the position is right for them or not.  According to research done by TheLadders, job seekers spend an average of 49.7 seconds before deciding a job isn’t right for them, and an average of 76.7 seconds if they feel the job is something they are interested in.

The new must have IT skill set is cybersecurity. IT professionals know that technology is always changing and improving. Keeping up with the trends can lead you to better jobs and higher salaries. IT professionals must adapt with the trends to determine what skills they need to get the best job and career opportunity available.

How come no one applied to my job posting?

Last time I provided some tips to help you create more effective job postings to attract more and better talent.  This time I’m going to talk to you about what not to do, as it is very easy to make some simple mistakes that can prevent people from applying to or even reading your job posting.

As a recent college graduate seeking a great career opportunity, one of the toughest obstacles to overcome is a lack of experience. But how do you gain experience unless you have an opportunity to obtain a professional job and show what you’re capable of? For many young graduates, this is an all-too-common challenge that is tough to overcome.

In 2015, Google announced that the number of searches on mobile and tablet devices have surpassed desktop searches. With this new revelation, we can see that mobile usability in web design is more important than ever.  Google even released a mobile-friendly algorithm update that gives preference to websites that have a mobile site or mobile friendly design.

In the past, looking for a job was as easy as skimming the classifieds section of the newspaper while you ate your breakfast.  In our increasingly digital world, the classifieds have been replaced by the online job boards like Indeed, Monster, etc. There are even job boards for specific types of jobs, such as DICE for technology related roles.

Remember those lavish company holiday parties complete with big dinners, dancing, holiday gifts and speeches? We didn’t think so. For years, many companies held elaborate end-of-year events at big hotels and invited guests and significant others to join employees for the festivities. But, for most of us, those days are long gone and for some, they have never even experienced the big company holiday party. With the economic downturn a few years back, many organizations opted for smaller events for employees and even though the economy has turned around, it seems that “less is more” has become the standard for most.