Company Name: Modulant
Headquarters: North Charleston, SC
Office Locations: North Charleston, SC; Long Beach, CA
Web Site: www.modulant.com
Founded: 1989
Number Of IT Employees: 55
The Company: Modulant, a privately held company, is a provider of enterprise information solutions through the delivery of superior products and services. We are a growth company that has a rapidly expanding customer base with revenues in excess of $10 million annually. Contextia, Modulant's products and solution set, enables a CIO to reduce the total cost of ownership of enterprise IT resources by ensuring the correct information is available to the business when and where it is required thereby insuring business information integrity. By ensuring information integrity, organizations can increase the functionality of their present IT resources and achieve the operational efficiency—reducing lost time and money.
Hiring Leaders: Peter R. Everitt, Senior VP and CTO
Hiring Plans: Expecting to hire 10 to 20 IT professionals this year. We have three groups that will be hiring IT individuals this year and the skills vary by group. We expect to hire JAVA and .NET developers, data management professionals including those with knowledge of database administration and data modeling. Business analyst and project managers will also be skill we are looking for.
|
|
|
For more expert career advice and articles on
career issues and topics, visit TechCareers.
| |
|
|
|
Given all the news about the talent crunch, have you or are you finding it more difficult to find qualified IT professionals?
Yes, we have noticed it taking longer for us to find the people with the right skills. Those with experience in JAVA programming seem to be harder to find.
What are your primary recruiting strategies?
We mostly post our jobs online for the IT positions. We found that we get fairly good response from the on-line postings, but we have had to change the sites that we have posted on. Earlier we had success on Monster, but we have seen a shift to more IT centered sites.
What is the hiring process?
Our interview process depends on the job, but primarily we have interview set-up with a functional peer, the program manager, the director of professional services, and me. If the position is for an IT programming job we do have a test that is administered.
What should candidates know before they interview with Modulant?
We are concerned primarily with communications and ability to work on the team. There are minimum technical qualifications to get qualified for the position but the person that we choose will have communications and the ability to work on a team. We have found that superior coding ability is not a replacement for communications and working together so if the person has the technical abilities but can't work on the team we will not hire them. We also value those that can be innovative and solve problems in innovative ways. There are great opportunities to take chances and make a difference in a smaller organization.
What makes for an outstanding potential hire?
A person that wants to make a difference and has the skills we need to make a difference. If they are energetic and want to be innovative, but still understand that the customer's requirements have to be achieved on-time, we try our best to get them.
What are red flags you look for when reviewing resumes, doing interviews—what are some issues that thwart candidates?
If they have moved jobs every six months, we are somewhat concerned that this person might have problems working with a team. It is not always the case that the person is not good, but it would be a concern. Also, if the references provided are not recent.
What kind of non-IT skills do your IT team members need, if any?
Communications skills are the most important. They should be able to clearly state ideas and the ability to be open to ideas. They must be able to work with customers and those not technical to provide a complete solution.
How important is the cover letter in job queries?
It depends on the level of skills and their experience levels. It should not be a marketing document with all the great things you have accomplished, rather it should be informative on why you want to work for us. Honest evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses is good, but make sure your weaknesses are not listed as critical to the job. If the work environment is critical to your enjoyment of the job, then state the ideal business environment you would like to work in. It may not get you the job if we don't have that environment, but you shouldn't want the job anyway. If I see someone passionate about the work environment and it's a match with us, I tend to go to the next step in the hiring process even if the skills are not completely there. There might be another job that I have not posted that the person does fit.
Is the IT organization looking for certified skills, is that a must have or is there any other qualification that is a must have?
We do have some jobs that require certification usually required in a contract with a government agency. We have citizenship requirements that sometimes make it difficult to find the right resources.
Does the organization hire 'newbies' and invest in training and how well does that work, and if not, why not?
We have an intern program which we hire promising students enrolled in four year college computer science degrees. It has been a great success, some have joined us when they graduated others choose other organizations. We have had interns from Indiana, Tulane, Virginia Tech, Clemson, and the College of Charleston they have all been great. Two of them answered ads for regular positions, but I was impressed with both their cover letter and their imitative to respond and we hired them.
What characteristics or personality traits do you want in a hire, and don't want?
We look for individuals that have self confidence but not conceit. They respect others, but can work independent as well. We actually have five employees that work from home in Utah, Greenville, SC, Kansas, and England. So for the right person, we have made those arrangements.
What does your company offer IT specialists as an employer?
We are a small innovative company that can provide challenging and exciting work. We have the benefits and pay of a large company with the ability to be innovative and control your own destiny.
Other recent articles from TechCareers
Career Profile: VP CIO/Northrop Grumman Corp.
Career Profile: VP Of Development/salesforce.com
Become a member to take advantage of more features, like commenting and voting.
Register or sign in today!