What We Look for When Recruiting Technologists within Consulting Firms

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Why Our Recruitment Focus Changes for Consulting Companies

At CultureFit Technology Staffing, we support companies across the country ranging from startups to Fortune 250s with their technology recruitment and staffing challenges. From long-term placement strategies designed to rebuild departments from the inside-out to emergency hires for critical positions, we’ve successfully placed a variety of tech positions.

However, most of our placements are for key technology roles such as developers, system administrators, architects, cybersecurity experts, programmers, and so on. We are also called in to help identify, recruit, and hire technologists within consulting companies looking to grow their advisory services. While these positions are just as important and urgent to place as any other, our criteria when it comes to tech consultants is slightly different.

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The reason that we take a different approach with recruiting technologists within consulting companies is because the knowledge required for the consultant to do his or her job is often similar to that of a developer, programmer, administrator, security analyst, and so on, but the application of that knowledge is different. Let’s look at a couple of areas in which recruiting technologists within consulting companies requires us to dig a bit deeper.

1. Technology Consultants Are Communicators

First and foremost is that consultants are not typically the ones at a desk writing code, setting up SaaS platforms, building integrations and workflows, or identifying potential indicators of compromise during security assessments. Consultants are the ones speaking with their clients’ organizational and information technology leadership teams (among many others) to advise them on best practices, solutions to common or uncommon problems, and long-term strategy. Tech-focused roles will be involved in strategy, communicating, reporting, etc., but their remit is primarily on the technology itself, and not always how that tech drives the organization forward.

What we look for: Technologists within consulting companies need to be refined and polished communicators capable of taking complex technology-related topics and pulling the high-level considerations and action steps out of them for leadership teams to understand. They must know how to navigate difficult situations, plan for and manage change throughout an organization, and report clearly on progress. They must know how to align organizations around a common goal, create a vision for success, and be able to manage efforts toward it.

2. Technology Consultants Are Strategic

You’re likely familiar with the term “tech stack.” This is the variety of tools, platforms, and solutions present within your organization’s technology environment. It can include SaaS tools, on-premise platforms, operating systems, specific hardware and software, and so on. Often, specific technology roles are focused on one or more of these platforms without an understanding of how they influence or impact one another. This is a much more strategic focus typically left to IT leadership positions like CIOs, CTOs, CISOs, and others.

What we look for: An understanding of the bigger picture is a necessity. While large enterprises have teams dedicated to a single platform or function and may even retain technology consultants to advise solely on those tools, a consultant must always be able to see their goal in light of the big picture. They must have experience in strategy development and execution as well as with the implementation of solutions and recommendations within the capabilities of the platform, team, or organization they are supporting. They have proven experience in these areas and the flexibility to adapt that thinking to new scenarios.

Examples of Successful Tech Consulting Placements

CultureFit is proud to have worked with a number of consulting companies in the recruitment of consultants for their advisory services.

WMP

West Monroe Partners (WMP) is a national business and technology consulting firm that partners with organizations to reimagine, build, and operate their businesses at peak performance. WMP was looking for talent with strong business consultative skills and experience in technology-based projects with deep technical skills and strong business acumen.

Although they have a strong and skilled talent acquisition team, WMP engaged CultureFit to help with key searches that fit their culture of smart, motivated critical thinkers and collaborators that will add to their values-driven consulting firm. CultureFit was tasked with finding top-notch developers, architects, and senior-level technical and advisory consultants in Chicago and other key geographic locations. We successfully placed three new positions within 15 months. As these positions are difficult to place, WMP continues to utilize CultureFit for support as we are the only agency that has succeeded in finding talent for its M&A practice.

C3.ai

C3.ai is a cutting-edge, small consulting firm and leading enterprise AI software provider for accelerating digital transformation. C3.ai delivers a comprehensive and proven set of capabilities for rapidly developing, deploying, and operating large scale AI, predictive analytics, and IoT applications for any enterprise value chain in any industry.

C3.ai was looking for talent that fit in with the lean, problem-solving, team-oriented, and career-driven professionals they already had on staff. CultureFit was tasked with finding software developers, architects, delivery managers, data scientists, tech support personnel, and more across Chicago and key geographic locations around the country. We have successfully placed seven positions over the past 18 months and are now C3.ai’s go-to staffing agency for critical technical positions.

NVISIA

NVISIA is a small Chicago-based consulting firm with a 25-year track record of using software innovation to create and enhance core business systems. NVISIA was looking for .Net developers that were not only technically sound but also able to communicate with clients and non-technical stakeholders. NVISIA wanted a higher pedigree of candidates but not those looking to code extensively.

CultureFit successfully identified candidates that were computer science majors with experience working in new development as well as on legacy systems and frameworks. Both positions were placed within the past six months. NVISIA appreciated the constant communication, and they have leveraged us as a trusted partner in their hiring practices as CultureFit is tapped into the current marketplace.

Find Your Next Technology Consultant with CultureFit

Technology consultants are a key part of your business. Make sure you have the right people on your team who understand your vision as an advisory services firm and can execute on that vision for the success of your clients. Let our expert recruitment team help you find them.