The IT Recruitment glossary - All the job terms you need to know

Often when you’re starting out IT job hunting or when unique situations occur there’s a myriad of terms that are new so I thought I’d put this helpful list of terms together as a reference guide.

Please feel free to comment others that you have come across and would like further explanation - feel free to message me :-)

The Basics

CV: Curriculum Vitae or Resume. Your work skills, experience, interests that are best put into a 2-4 pages word or Google docs. Think of this as an awesome document to be proud of to really highlight what you can do and why you’re a great candidate.

Cover Letter: A short succinct letter (or email) that explains your current situation & why you should get hired for the job you’re applying to. Think of it like a 30 second elevator pitch.

30 second elevator pitch: When people ask what you do ie like you’re in a lift or elevator you can explain succinctly what you do. Hi I’m Bob I’m a software developer specialising in web technologies, working for Google in California, I’ve just returned home to Christchurch and I’m looking for a new job. It’s good to practice it too before you’re going to a networking event or conference.

Candidate: A person applying for or being nominated for a role. A Job applicant. Think of this as an opportunity to find your nirvana work place with great people, technology and market pay rate.

Interview: A meeting between the candidates and hiring employer / company. This is a two-way process for you to find out about the role, projects, people & culture and for them to learn about your skills & experience. Make each opportunity a way to meet new people even if you’re not successful this time around. A good way to think of this is that you both want the same thing - for you to get the job.

Internship / Work experience: A few days, weeks or months work in a company to get some experience of a type of job or industry. Often students will do a 3 month paid internship which gives you experience for when you graduate and the company might even hire you full-time.

Career fair: A job fair where lots of companies & organisations have stands to promote what they did. A great place for you to get in front of companies face-to-face. An example is the ICT Job Fair at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch held every year.

Vacancy: A job opening at a company or organisation that they’re looking to hire into. Your opportunity to fill this gap.

Permanent Job: Just that a permanent job you might be there for a good number of years so find a good one. Think of it as a career so what are your short, medium & long term goals and see if this opportunity lines up with these.

Temp / Freelance / Contractor / Interim: A short-term contract assignment normally paid on an hourly or daily rate which are often extended and are a more flexible arrangement. A great way to work on a specific project, fill a gap in your work career and also find out about an organisation before you commit long-term.

Fixed Term Contract: A specified term of work usually paid at pro rata of your salary. It’s a little bit of a halfway house as you don’t get the benefit of a premium contract rate nor the long-term permanent benefits but if you’re not currently working then why not.

Placement: When you’re placed in a new permanent job or contract assignment - happy days.

Timesheet: Hours worked by a contractor electronically signed off by the client for invoicing so you can get paid.

Basic Salary: The money you get paid before tax is deducted and not including benefits. Cold hard cash baby.

Benefits: Other things that come with the salary these might include medical insurance, a car park, bonus, flexible working, training etc and some industry specific discounts.

Remuneration: Often mistakenly misspelt & mispronounced this is total package including salary & benefits. Best to ask what the basic salary is and the benefits on top.

Notice period: The amount of time you (or your employer) have to give when you finish your job. ‘Handing in your notice’. Usually 4 weeks or a month for permanent jobs but can be less (for contract usually 1-2 weeks) and longer for C level executives.

HR: Human Resources are the friendly people in the company who will often manage the hiring process and will send you your job offer / contract etc. A good contact to ask if you’re unsure of anything as they usually will have the answer or will find out who does.

OE: overseas experience - go travelling  after your degree or once you’ve worked for a year or two - highly recommended because employers like hiring people with life experience.

Degree / Qualification: A tertiary qualification is something 90% of people in the IT industry have. It’s not only a great way to learn about an interesting subject but about learning how to research & critically think. It’s a really good test of self motivation too - no one else is going to manage your time and finish assignments for you. You’ll also meet inspiring people & life long friends.

The Interview process

Research: something you need to do before an interview to be successful. Look into the companies share price, current news on their blog, history, values, culture, tech stack & recent projects.

Job description: Just that a description of what the job entails. Work out the key requirements then write down how your skills & experience match these.

Job board: An online place to search for jobs ie Seek, TradeMe, LinkedIn, SJS etc. Set up a profile so relevant jobs are sent to you on a daily basis. Make applications (CV & Cover Letter) and follow up with a phone call for best results.

Phone screen: An initial phone screen before a job interview often conducted by HR to check your details & availability that you’re a potential match and are lining up for next stage interview. Make sure you get across why you’re a good match for the job and ask what the next steps in the process are.

Panel interview: A group interview situation in which you might have 3-5 people interviewing you at one time. Tends to be universities or government organisations that use this method.

Psychometric testing: Personality & ability tests. No right or wrong answers here. A chance to look deeper into your personality & preferences. Often scarily accurate but in a good way. From a recruitment stand point we take these ‘with a pinch of salt’ as just one part of the whole hiring process.

Job Offer: A job offer is a verbal offer that is legally binding in NZ law that is followed up by a written contract.

Reference: A work reference or personal reference to confirm you are who you say you are and that you worked at a particular company and a chance to shine. Make sure you pick people you can trust to give you a positive reference as this is the expectation.

Preferred Candidate: A candidate who is the front runner in the hiring process and is likely to be offered the role.

Counter-offer: When a candidate hands in their notice and your current company tries to tempt you to stay usually by offering you more money, a promotion or another position. Be careful as desperation to hold onto candidates, especially in technology can lead to false promises and the data says 80% of candidates decide to leave anyway after 6-12 months of accepting a counter-offer as they were unhappy for other reasons.

Offer Rescinded: When a company withdraws an offer. Very uncool but can be due to different reasons.

Ghosting: When you follow up on a job application and get no feedback, not even a no.

Once you have a job

Workshop: These are small group gatherings that can be on up-skilling, internal projects or initiatives or all manner of things that are good to be presented, worked on & discussed.

Seminar / conference: An external gathering of professionals in your area & a chance to learn about latest updates or trends in your industry - a very valuable way to continue learning & meet industry contacts & connections that can help you progress. A key part of your professional development. Some are better than others so ask someone you trust for advice. A key gathering in Christchurch is the Annual Canterbury Tech Summit.

Mentor: A person senior to you in the business (or external) who can show you the ropes on how to improve your skills & experience & progress your career to become a guru.

Career coaching: Something that you can gain internally or externally from a an experienced coach or consultant to help you sharpen up your game. Usually goal orientated so you can plan some milestones to aim for.

Human relations: A lot of work really comes down to people and how you get on with them whether you’re a manager or not. Influencing is important in career progression so read lots of books. The number one most popular book on Human Relations with a terribly cheesy title that has lasted the test of time is ‘How to win friends & influence people’ written in 1936 by Dale Carnegie. It’s a must read for everyone in business.

Reading: READ READ READ books on business, coding, self development, human relations and you will LEARN LEARN LEARN.

Secondment: I was very lucky to be seconded from Christchurch to Bristol on a project in my first job after university. Be open to these opportunities to work in another global office it gives you richness of experience and is a lot of fun experiencing travel, new markets, cultures & customs.

Sabbatical: Go travelling or take some time out to work on that life long project. Life goes quick and why have regrets - just do it. Learning about yourself and what you like is as important as career progression as they go hand-in-hand.

Voluntary work: give back to the community locally often arranged by you, your company, family or friends. Travel to a destination combining a sabbatical with some voluntary work overseas for an NGO. Again give back and these experiences can shape you as a person exponentially.

The not so serious

Networking event: No this is not learning about infrastructure or servers. This is an event where often a sponsored speaker talks on a tech or business subject and you get to meet industry folk and often get free food & drinks - although these days there are a lot online.

Unicorn: A multi-skilled techie with technical & people skills.

Cowboy: A recruiter who is reckless with your personal details or keeps on ringing you about jobs that don’t match what you do. 

Job hopper: Someone who doesn’t stay in permanent jobs very long and ‘job hops’ from company to company. Potential employers like to see some solid, stable work history. if you have left jobs after short period have a clear, honest explanation.

Personal projects: Fun new coding projects, often used to explore new coding languages or tech and can be shared on your Git hub or in the open source community.

Side gig: You might have some personal projects or other interests that earn you money. These can be work related or a different interest like brewing beer or ski guiding in the Himalayas.

Subordinate: A term that should never be used to describe a person you manage worse than minion but not by much.

IT Specific

NDA: Non disclosure agreement. This is a confidentiality document to protect the clients IP - Intellectual Property. Common in tech. You might even have to sign one at the job interview so you can have an open discussion, or usually when you start your new job.

Technical exercise / coding test: A written test or technical session for you to solve problems to test your technical abilities - they can be a lot of fun.

Dev: - Developer, coder or programmer. Someone who writes software to create systems that the world is now run on.

Tech Off: Two techies getting into a technical debate trying to prove one is more knowledgeable than the other. Only cool if it’s done in a nice respectable manner .

HR stuff

Credit check: A background check on your credit history often for roles that involve work in finance. Try & keep your personal finances tidy.

Security check: A background check to see if you have any criminal record.

Remote working: Working from a home office or other place. Something we’ve widely experienced recently with Covid. Some real advantages here when you need quiet space to focus on deep problems. Not so good for team banter as Zoom parties just aren’t quite the same as drinks with colleagues in person.

Furlough: Temporary leave of absence. People who are ‘Furloughed’ get to return to work.

Redundancy or Lay-off: When someone gets ‘laid-off’ it means they’ve been made redundant and don’t get to come back to work unfortunately. Someone can lose their job because of different factors - change of company circumstance, industry or company direction or major market changes like a global pandemic.

Professional development: A mix of personal & formal training & career planing to progress to a certain position or area of expertise. The best way is to read lots of books & attend meet-ups and seminars and really get involved in your industry if you want to become an industry expert.

Cost of living adjustment: When a candidate moves a different region sometimes companies will adjust their salary to allow for higher living expenses for example.

Bereavement leave: Time off available for a staff member when a close loved one passes away.

Job shadowing: A person ‘shadows’ someone else who is already experienced / skilled at a role to learn how it’s done. Great way to ‘learn on the job’.

Exit interview: An interview conducted when a person leaves an organisation. Really good way for the company & you to give feed back. Keep it professional as you never want to burn bridges.

EAP: employee assistance programme. In times where you have personal challenges companies often have a 3rd party help programme to help you which is often free - check it out.

Time in lieu: When you work over time you get some hours to take off ‘in lieu’ of the hours worked. Get some time back after those late nights spent on that huge project.

Culture: The feel, atmosphere, customs, social behaviour and the way people act in a company or organisation. Ideally you’re looking for a culture that will match your values & principles.

Internal recruiter: A recruiter who is based inside an organisation recruiting for that organisation or company.

Minimum wage: The minimum salary employers have to legally pay you. In New Zealand it’s currently $18.90 per hour as of April 2020.

KPIs: Key Performance Indicators are metrics to measure your work performance. Important because they often tie into how you get promoted or remunerated. So make sure you understand how these are defined with your manager and then go for it.

Garden Leave: Some industries let or insist employees once they resign to not have to work their notice period. This is termed ‘garden leave’ and is more typical in sales roles or jobs where there is security protocols.

OTE: ‘On Target Earnings’ or ‘Opportunity to Earn’: Usually for sales roles in which when you meet targets you get a bonus. The ‘OTE’ is the likely commission earned in a year sometimes combined with the salary.

Head hunter: A specialist recruiter who works by getting paid up front to do targeted searches on particular people, skill sets, companies or industries.

Search assignment: An assignment taken on by a head hunter to extract the best talent for the role targeting passive or non-passive candidates.

FTE: Full Time Equivalent. This is a full time permanent job.

PAYE. ‘Pay as you earn’ this is tax that is deducted by your employer and given to the government as income tax.

Take home pay: This is the amount of money after tax comes off.

IEA: Individual Employment Agreement. This is your employment contract and should cover all the important things you’d expect in a job: remuneration, leave, notice, sickness, role description etc.

Professional witness: Sometimes as a professional in a company you might be called on to give expert evidence or advice in a court case.

Employment law: Law that governs workers & organisations in NZ. Covered by the Employment Relations Act 2000.

ATS: Applicant Tracking System. A piece of software that manages the job application process for companies or recruitment agencies.

90 day trial / probation period: Businesses with 19 or fewer employees can only use this now.

Strike: An action by employees to stop work usually because of a grievance.

Smoko: An old term for a morning or afternoon break at work.

Emotional Intelligence: Is the way we understand & own emotions and those of the people around you.

IQ: Intelligence quotient is a total score derived from a set of standardised tests designed to assess your intelligence.

Business terms

Board director: A person who is elected to sit on the company board to represent the shareholders. Every public company must have a board.

Shareholder: Someone who owns a share of the company.

Partner / shareholder: Is a person whom with at least one other owns a share of a business.

Start-Up: Start-up company is a new company often referred to in tech for using blazing new technology or a new concept disrupting an industry.

Post start-up: A company that is past the initial ‘start-up’ phase and has paying customers & revenue and starts to take a more formal business structure.

Corporate: A large company or business usually with thousands of staff.

Enterprise: Refers to a large corporate company or organisation that often needs large software to map their processes ie the term ‘enterprise software’.

Acquisition / Merger: A take over when one company buys another. No such thing really as a merger as this is the way it might be marketed or presented but 99% of the time one company buys another.

Management buy out: When the internal management team buys the company. A great opportunity for a companies staff to get ‘skin in the game’ and become business owners.

Churn: Turnover of staff. Some turn over is healthy for an organisation say 5-10%. If it gets a lot higher than that with staff leaving a business a lot this can spell trouble.

C suite: Senior executives ie C stands for Chief in COO Chief Operating Officer or CEO Chief Executive Officer. The head honchos of a company.

Non-compete or restraint of trade agreement: Written into a contract in which your company tries to restrict you from working in a similar company or industry. Can be hard to enforce as it normally means stopping an individual earning a livelihood.

Pro rata: Latin meaning for Proportionally. This is used to divide a full time salary when someone for example is working less than a 40 hour or 37.5 hour week ie 25 or 30 hours you work out their salary pro rata.

RFP: Request for proposal. This is when a company is considering a 3rd party company to provide a product or service. It’s a tender process whereby usually account managers / business development / sales people / sales engineers put together info trying to win the business.

If you think of any I’ve missed or others that might be useful please email me: paul@sunstonetalent.com

Sunstone is an IT Recruitment & HR company specialising in recruiting IT roles within software, web, mobile, blockchain, big data, infrastructure, security & networks in Christchurch, South Island of New Zealand.