Behavioral Interviewing Tip

September 24, 2009
by KirbyPulikowskiOP

Behavioral interview questions (you know, the ones that often start out “Tell me about a time when you…”) can sometimes be the most difficult to answer.  When you are faced with such a question, this simple acronym is a great tool for organizing your thoughts.  Just remember to be a STAR!

S – What was the SITUATION?
T – What was the TASK you had to complete?
A – What ACTION did you take?
R – What were the RESULTS of your action?

Providing a sentence or two for each of these four points can help ensure that your response is thorough, structured, and concise.

Some New Positions to Highlight

September 3, 2009
by BenSolomonOP

We have four positions that we’re working on that I wanted to take a second to highlight.  Our client is the IT Consulting Services Division of a Fortune 50 firm.  All 4 of these positions are-contract to hire positions.  It’ll be 50% remote/telecommute work, 25% travel along the East Coast, and 25% onsite in Pittsburgh.  The four position are:

If you have any interest in one of these positions, please apply through our website and we will get in touch with you!  Please feel free to forward these along to anyone you may know that might be interested as well.  Thanks!

Why Everyone Should Be Linked In

June 22, 2009
by MikeBayleyOP

It seems that everywhere you look on the web there is another new social networking site to follow these days. I admittedly fall guilty of perusing Facebook when I should be doing other more important things. I have started to tweet a bit on Twitter, and I can still remember the days of MySpace. But one social networking site that I am on everyday is LinkedIn- and I believe you should be too.

LinkedIn is the modern day networking tool that will give you access to the people that will help your career or business grow. You can connect to CEOs or industry experts, get recommended by former colleagues, and have your questions answered by some of the best in the business. For anyone looking for their next career move being accessible on the internet is paramount and with more and more recruiters searching Linkedin you cannot afford to be missed. Some people put their whole resume in their LinkedIn profile, while others just put the key points; it is up to you what you want other people to see. You can also find out about a company that you might be interviewing at and take a look at some its employees and their backgrounds- who knows, maybe you and the CFO went to the same University.  Above all it’s a very discreet way of reaching out to people professionally without harassing them, and you will not be bothered by friend requests from the kid you never liked in high school.

Weekly Hot Jobs for May 20th

May 22, 2009
by BenSolomonOP

Every Wednesday morning, the OP team meets to discuss our recruiting efforts.  Each week after our meeting, I’ll be posting a list of some of the hottest openings at our clients right now.  Please contact us if you have interest in one of these positions, and feel free to pass this listing along!

  • Data Management Analyst
    at a trading firm in Houston, TX

    • Proficiency with SQL
    • Data cleansing, queries, stored procedures
    • Programming and scripting skills (Unix/Perl/Java)
  • Senior C++ Developer
    at a trading firm in Chicago, IL

    • C/C++ development experience and Linux
    • Socket/network programming
    • Multi-threading and STL
  • UI Applications Developer
    at a trading firm in Chicago, IL

    • C++ programming in a Windows environment
    • Knowledge of TCP protocol and pub/sub middleware
    • Experience with multithreaded programming
  • MS SQL Server DBA
    at a trading firm in Chicago, IL

    • Hands-on experience as a DBA with SQL Server 2000/2005
    • Knowledge of Windows Server 2000/2003, Active Director, and Linux/Unix
    • Knowledge in at least one programming or scripting language
  • Networking Engineer – Packet Analysis/Protocol Expert
    at a trading firm in Chicago, IL

    • Network protocol and traffic analysis experience
    • Operating system network stack profiling and tuning; network monitoring
    • Scripting
  • Telecommunications Engineer
    at a trading firm in Chicago, IL

    • PBX and VoIP design, implementation, and support
    • Experience with Avaya phone systems and Cisco CallManager and Unity systems
    • Experience with Trading Turrets
  • Database Engineer
    at a trading firm in Chicago, IL

    • Experience with database administration and maintenence
    • Hands-on experience with SQL Server VLDBs and T-SQL
    • Basic Windows programming skills

Welcome

May 7, 2009
by BenSolomonOP

Welcome to the brand new Objective Paradigm blog.  Objective Paradigm is a premier technical recruiting and executive search firm based in Chicago.  The goal of this blog is to give you, the reader, an insight into our recruiting process and to provide useful information for job-seekers and for companies considering using a recruiting firm to help them grow.  So, be sure to check back here often for new job openings, helpful career tips, technology news and discussion, and more.

In the meantime, check out OP’s presence across the web – visit our website and job board, or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.