Resolution IT’s People & Culture Manager, Simon Le Pelley, explores the attributes we look for in our prospective employees.

Each year, the end of the summer holidays marks the start of our trainee programme planning which commences the following summer. Searching for the next group of Technicians to commence their IT careers is the part of my job that I enjoy the most. This year, the task grows even larger as we extend our search across Jersey as well as Guernsey.

We don’t have a secret ingredient to selecting the best staff, but we do try and keep our approach to recruitment as simple as possible and this has proven successful for us. In basic terms, when we meet with trainee applicants, we consider:

• With the correct training and support, does the applicant have the aptitude and passion to understand and learn the complex and diverse technology and systems we use.
• Secondly, do we believe they have the personal attributes to deliver an exceptional level of customer service to our clients in line with our values.

If you are wondering if this could be the right role for you, we can’t emphasise enough that regardless of your background, you should not rule yourself out of a career in IT. Some of our applicants will hold an IT related qualification from school, and others may have experience tinkering and building their own pcs, but we’ve also got some fantastic Technicians who before joining us, were just fascinated or had interest in the technology they use in their personal lives.

Many of our most successful hires have transitioned from other careers or industries. This includes ex electricians, hospitality workers, cocktail makers and administrators, all of which have transferable skills which have been invaluable to their quick progression at Resolution IT. These applicants have experience in customer-facing roles, which has been a massive advantage as once upskilled, our Technicians are often the first point of contact to our clients.

It is also important to stress how much commitment is needed towards personal development in our industry. There are constant upgrades in the systems and technologies available to us. To facilitate this, we offer structured career pathways, professional qualification support from day 1 and our 70-person strong team has decades of experience to learn from where you can shadow and be mentored by professionals.

We won’t pretend that a career in IT hasn’t got its fair share of challenges, but we try to balance that with a culture of fun and friendship in the team. Although the stereotype of an IT worker has (thankfully for us) changed in recent years, there is still perhaps a misconception about what working for an IT company is like. At Resolution IT, we have a very outgoing and social team with a diverse range of interests.

The social side of the company has been incredibly important through the years and although participation is not mandatory, we have a ton of employer-led initiatives for our team to spend time together. Our quarterly socials are extremely popular, we have a competitive table tennis and pool scene, a football team and a social and community committee who are always looking to participate in events such as the Guernsey Marathon and Havelet Regatta chair race!

If Resolution IT sounds like the right place for you, I encourage you to contact myself or Amy Robson, People and Culture Officer and we can discuss our trainee roles in more depth. You can get in touch with us here.