What is ransomware?   

According to CSO Online, “Ransomware is a form of malware that encrypts a victim’s files. The attacker then demands a ransom from the victim to restore access to the data upon payment.” It’s common for hackers to target businesses across all industries, though financial and healthcare organizations are targeted frequently, probably due to the nature of their business and the information they collect and house regularly. Luckily, many businesses have seen a decline in these kinds of attacks in recent years, but they do still pose a significant threat to organizations if deployed against them.   

How can businesses protect themselves against ransomware?   

There are a few simple steps that businesses everywhere can enact to help protect yourself against ransomware threats.   

• Pay attention to your networks and operating systems. Are they up to date, with all the latest updates installed? This will ensure there are fewer vulnerabilities to exploit. 
• Restrict downloads and use administrators to oversee installs. Employees can unwittingly download malicious software and businesses can save themselves time and money by ensuring that professional IT administrators are the ones who authorize access to the necessary software and files.    
• Install antivirus software. This is a simple step that can help detect malicious programs like ransomware as they arrive and prevent unauthorized applications from executing in the first place.  
• Back up your data and files frequently and automatically. While this won’t stop malware attacks, it can help impede the damage and prevent the complete loss of crucial data and information.   
• Educate your employees. Make sure employees know not to open suspicious emails or download any files that could be damaging. Teaching your employees how to recognize malicious communications can make your business safer.   
• Hire the best IT professionals. The administration and education necessary to prevent damaging ransomware attacks are conducted by your IT or IS teams. Make sure you’re staffed with the brightest people who are up for the challenge and will monitor trends as they develop to help protect your business going forward.   

Hire the right IT experts 

If you’re looking for the best IT professionals for your business, our expert team can help. Get in touch today to find the most qualified candidates to help keep your business safe.   

The post Protecting Your Company Against Ransomware  appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

Cloud architects are becoming a role necessary to helping business operations run smoothly, and is therefore a career path that has a lot of promise for both growth and stability. Here’s what to know about most cloud architect positions.   

What is a cloud architect?   

Cloud architects are responsible for building a company’s cloud computing strategy, as well as deploying, managing, and supporting cloud applications. Cloud architects usually have an expert-level understanding across several operating systems, and they also have skills and experience in networking, programming, and server security. When hiring for cloud architects, companies usually look for candidates who have a deep understanding of existing cloud services like Amazon Web Services. The best candidates also typically have experience with infrastructure and operations, vendor relationships and management, and IT service management.   

What are the top skills needed to become a cloud architect?  

In addition to experience and knowledge of cloud computing and systems, successful cloud architects come to the table with:  

• Familiarity with the principles of cloud architecture that businesses need to deploy for optimum cloud functionality 
• Experience with scaling cloud applications as a business grows   
• Understanding of the importance of cost and performance in cloud systems 
• Superior collaboration and communication skills  
• Ideally, a knowledge of several state-of-the-art cloud technologies and an ability to stay up to date with industry, technology, and software changes  

Overall, cloud architects typically earn between $117,000 and $196,000 annually. Because of this, the candidates who are hired for these positions have years of experience and often a whole set of cloud-specific qualifications, including AWS certifications and more. 

For those looking into making cloud computing their career, focus on growing your skills in the areas of security (like a deeper understanding of the functionality of firewalls, for instance), networking (becoming more familiar with with HTTP, DNS, IP address, and more), and operating systems (including Linux, Unix, Windows, and others). 

Are you a Cloud Architect Looking For Work? 

Our expert team can help you find your next IT role. If you’re looking to take your career to the next level, give us a call today.   

The post Hot IT Jobs: Cloud Architect Career Guide appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

Why is diversity a crucial component of your recruitment strategy?

1. More diverse employees can better represent the wants and needs of your customers: Your customers want to know that your business and your employees understand them and their wants and needs. One of the best ways to do this is to actively recruit diverse employees and make sure your staff is made up of people with different backgrounds from age to race to education.
2. Diversity gives more perspectives for better ideas and problem solving: If decision makers all have the same background and similar experiences, it increases the risk for businesses becoming “echo chambers” where all ideas are very similar. Without some risk-taking and outsider creativity, it’s easy for businesses to stagnate and even digress. A more diverse workforce helps employers leverage a wide range of ideas and experiences for better ideation and progress.
3. Employees want to work in diverse environments: The job talent market is becoming increasingly competitive. In this candidates’ market, more job seekers are proactively seeking out companies that allow them to celebrate differences. Smart job seekers know that too much of the same thing is not only boring but dangerous – fresh ideas and different perspectives are important for progress and growth, both personally and professionally and for both individuals and companies.
4. Better business reputation: When a community knows that a business has a sincere commitment to diversity and inclusion, you’re more likely to have a higher credibility with customers as a business with integrity and reliability. This helps drive up both employee and customer attraction and retention.

Open Systems Can Help Shape Your Hiring Strategy

If you’re looking to hire the best talent from a wide range of qualified candidates, give our team a call. Our experts have years of experience in matching the right technical talent for your open positions to help support your business and better meet your goals. Let us help you and your company today.

The post The Importance of a Diverse Recruitment Strategy appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

What is an employee brand?  

Employee brand is your reputation in your industry and with your employees. How is your business seen as a place to work? Do people feel inspired, creative, taken care of, appreciated, and challenged? Or do they feel stressed, overwhelmed, confused, disconnected, and frustrated? and inspired and creative environment is going to draw in more candidates and encourage more applicants. A mindful HR team, in collaboration with insightful leadership will help develop the employee brand with several different tools meant to cultivate culture. Everything from your company’s mission and alignment in their business goals to their vision to company communication to benefits and perks all contributes to the employee brand. This is not just important for finding new employees, but also for retaining your existing workforce.   

How do people know what your employee brand is?  

Candidates and job seekers can get familiar with your employee brand in a number of ways. Glassdoor reviews give candidates an honest insight into how people feel working for your organization, so it’s always helpful to keep an eye on that and course correct to improve the employee experience as needed. Another way that applicants will discover your brand is through social media.  More companies are choosing social media platforms to showcase company culture and give a more rounded, sense of the organization.  Finally, good old fashioned word of mouth – employees talking about their company to friends, family, or social media – is another way that employer brand messaging gets spread. This is why you want to pay attention to your employee branding and work to make it as strong and positive as possible.   

A strong employee brand is key to securing top talent, but having a recruiter to actively identify the best candidates for your open roles can help you hire faster.  

Connect with top talent 

Open Systems can help find quality candidates who match your mission and are excited to contribute their skills to grow the success of your company. 

The post How Strong is Your Employer Brand? appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

What are DevOps tools?   

Amazon notes that, “DevOps is the combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increases an organization’s ability to deliver applications and services at high velocity: evolving and improving products at a faster pace than organizations using traditional software development and infrastructure management processes. This speed enables organizations to better serve their customers and compete more effectively in the market. Under a DevOps model, development and operations teams are no longer ‘siloed.’ Sometimes, these two teams are merged into a single team where the engineers work across the entire application lifecycle, from development and test to deployment to operations, and develop a range of skills not limited to a single function.”   

The merging of these functions has substantial business benefits, and developing the skills and training to work in this area can be a significant step forward in your career.   

Best DevOps tools  

What are the best DevOps tools to get familiar with to help you excel in a DevOps career or readily contribute to a DevOps team?   

• Slack: Believe it or not, the popular chat and collaboration tool is a powerful DevOps tool. It gives team members a clear insight into the workflow. It also allows developers to collaborate using toolchains in the same space they’re communicating with other maintenance and service members for full transparency and superior communication.   
• Ansible: This tool is often featured on best-of lists for DevOps tools. It’s a simple and effective IT orchestration and configuration management tool that helps push new changes within the existing system and configure newly deployed machines. It’s a great tool for businesses looking to lower the costs of infrastructure and quickly scale projects without straining resources.   
• GitHub: This is a longstanding favorite of developers. It allows developers to make rapid versions of code and instantly notifies team members to the change. Because it has a branched history of revisions stored in the tool, it also allows for immediate rollback to previous versions in case of error or fallout.   
• Sentry: This tool is used by Uber and Microsoft and is useful for error and bug detection. It’s a free tool that supports a host of languages, including Ruby, IOS, JavaScript, and others; plus, it also features inbuilt SDKs for customized support of most languages and frameworks. It continuously scans lines of code and sends notifications if it finds an error or problem; when it highlights the problem, it offers a choice of possible solutions that can be incorporated in a click.   

All of these tools are popular, powerful options that help DevOps teams do their best work. Aspiring and current developers should pay attention to these tools to grow their careers.   

Are you looking for your next DevOps opportunity? 

Open Systems is your partner to help you find a great DevOps job that fits your skills with room to grow. Give our expert team a call or apply online to one of our available jobs. 

The post Best DevOps Tools You Should Explore appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

The Rise of the “Minternship”    

A “minternship”, or mid-life internship, is exactly what it sounds like – taking on a role in a company or industry that you have an interest in, but little practical or tangible experience. It’s also usually a role that’s temporary and often not considered a full-time employee, so pay and benefits may not don’t apply. In exchange, you can get guidance and mentorship from professionals at a company that you’re interested in working for or an industry that you’re excited about moving into. Like many college-level internships, this can sometimes lead to a job with the company, but sometimes it is just a learning experience to take with you on the way forward.   

Who Takes a Mid-Life Internship?   

“Minternships” are great for people who are feeling stuck in their current role. Whether it’s an inability to move up in the company, a lack of interest in the type of work, or a downturn in the industry, a mid-career internship can help people comfortably pivot and even get excited about work again. It’s also a great step for people mid-career who lost their jobs due to market disruption, company layoff or needed to take a professional break to attend to personal family or health reasons.   

It’s a risk for some people, as losing income or “starting over” can feel disheartening, but more people are choosing this path because they want to find meaningful work at a company they care about and can commit to for the rest of their career. Most companies are choosing to embrace this trend, as it often brings people who are genuinely excited about the work to their door as opposed to people only motivated by a paycheck.   

If you’re fresh out of your “minternship” or racked up new certifications through continued learning, we’re ready to help you find your next role and grow successfully in your new industry. 

Ready to start a new role? 

Give our team a call today and talk to one of our employment experts about how you can take your next steps forward.   

The post Avoid Career Burnout With a Mid-Career Internship appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

The Top 5 Hiring Habits to Avoid    

1. Taking too long: You don’t want to rush hiring, but you also don’t want to take too long to bring new team members on board. Many companies have lost excellent candidates due to lengthy gaps in communication. It’s important to connect with your candidates regularly throughout the process to make sure you don’t lose candidates to other companies that are hiring.
2. Focusing on only one area: You want to ensure that your candidates have the qualifications for the position and what skills are considered essential will vary by the job. But one area mustn’t be considered disproportionately. Even if your candidate is a rockstar in one qualification, make sure you know they have the experience in all the areas that matter. A willingness and desire to learn is important in any candidate, but you don’t want your new employees to struggle or fail during the first months on the job because their skillsets are imbalanced.   
3. Not hiring for cultural fit: Experience, education, and skills are hugely important, but the most important thing to consider with applicants is if their personality fits your team. Do their values mirror what your company wants to present to the world? Will they get along with your established teams? Don’t forget that criteria when conducting interviews and considering candidates.   
4. Not personalizing communications: No one wants to receive a form fill template to tell them they’re moving on in an interview or that they’re not longer being considered. You’ll connect with more candidates if hiring managers are able to personalize their communications with applicants before and after interviews.  
5. Not including a pay range in your job posting: Some companies worry that by including a pay range, they’ll alienate certain candidates and attract those that are underqualified. The truth is that you can end up wasting a lot of valuable time going through applications of people who have a very different acceptable salary in mind. Getting through the interview process with candidates only to find out that they won’t be able to accept an offer due to salary is frustrating. You can save your business, your HR teams, and your candidates a lot of time and effort by listing your salary range with your job listing.  

Ready to staff up? 

If you need help finding and hiring the right candidates for your open positions, give us a call today. Our expert team can help you get connected with the best talent today.   

The post 5 Bad Hiring Habits That Will Burn You appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

How to Upskill Your Workforce    

Here’s what to focus on to better train and educate your employees.   

1. Understand the talent gap: Where exactly are the knowledge gaps? What do you need to make sure your employees are capable and qualified to order to help your business succeed both now and long into the future? Technology skills, in particular, will become crucial to every area of your business, from finance to marketing to sales and HR. Are your employees and departments ready to learn what it will take to support whatever future work requires?   
2. Hire those who are hungry to learn: When it comes to ensuring that your workforce is prepared to take on new challenges and participate in employee-offered training is to find the people who love to learn. Whether these are people you identify when you’re first hiring for a role, or current employees that you work with or management helps you find. Upskilling really starts with finding the people who want to keep learning and see growth as an opportunity, as opposed to those that see “development” as a chore or company-issued mandate.   
3. Strengthen your in-house training: You might not have an in-house trainer, but you can still have effective training for employee development and upskilling. Start small by using YouTube tutorials or SlideShare presentations and begin to formalize small training groups and regular sessions to enhance needed skills.   
4. Find a training pro: For certain tech skills and training sessions, it makes sense to partner with an outside educational professional who can help develop and lead training classes and programs. There are many professional education and training companies who can help your company tackle tough training tasks, but businesses can also partner with colleges, universities, local technical trade schools, and more in order to bring in some additional resources.   
5. Consider apprenticeship or mentorship: One of the best ways to grow the skills of your current workforce is to match up employees with another expert in your company. This is particularly helpful for companies to do when they’re working on succession planning and strategy. It’s important that the knowledge and skills that exist within your company don’t get lost when someone moves on or retires. Passing along education and training from person to person can be valuable in both ensuring there are fewer knowledge gaps, as well as improve team collaboration and cross-business relationships.   

Are you looking for niche talent to close the gap? 

Businesses who are thinking about the future need to focus on their present and figure out what they have and what they need to get where they want to go. If you’re looking for the right talent – from the tech-savvy to those with advanced training skills – give our expert team a call.   

The post Upskilling Your Workforce appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

While you’re learning the ropes at your new job, here’s what else to focus on during the early stages of your career to help position yourself well for future work.   

Upskilling for Entry-Level Programmers  

What do you need besides a solid educational background and some work experience under your belt to help you succeed in your programming career? Focus your efforts here to get ahead:  

• Grow your network and Linux skills and get certified when possible: As a programmer in the early stages of your career, you don’t need to specialize to be effective and employable. Additional training in areas that you’re not super comfortable in yet can be beneficial in building your confidence to advance your career. Spend some time studying operating systems, networking basics, and keeping up to date with industry trends. You don’t need to become an expert overnight, but remembering to challenge yourself is an important habit to get into early in your career. After some time, your employer may even help you pay for certifications like LPIC- 1, Linux+, RHCSA, and more.   
• In-person networking: There’s the networking knowledge that’s crucial to technology jobs, and then there’s the ability to network as a professional. People from every industry and job experience level struggle with networking, so making this a priority early in your career can be a huge benefit. Learning how to talk about yourself, your career goals, and articulately answer and ask questions are skills that can significantly increase your ability to get noticed and hired. It’s also advantageous to find your people; developing personal and professional connections with likeminded people with similar goals and interests can help you grow as an individual and an employee. Start by joining online forums and groups for other programming professionals and grow your person to person connection skills over time.   

Are you looking to get your foot in the door with top IT companies? 

From specific technical training to better soft skills, slowing adding new skills and competencies is a sure way to help professionally position you for promotion or advancement. If you’re looking for your next programming role, get in touch with Open Systems Inc, today.   

The post How To Skill-Up When You are an Entry Level Programmer appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

Start preparing before you leave

If you’re leaving for a set amount of time and will be stepping back into the same role and responsibilities, you can take steps to make it easier to come back before you leave. Making sure you have a backup designated for work that comes in while your away as well as an organized inbox can help reduce stress about coming back to the office and help you more easily dive right back in when you return.  

Start preparing before you get back

Whether you’re coming back from vacation or returning to the workforce after some time away, one way to reduce anxiety is to start a routine before you get back into it. If you know that your day will need to start at 5 am for you to get to the gym, get showered, and get to the office, start working up to that routine before your start back date. Having that routine in place can significantly lower the stress of going into a new job or getting back to it after some time away.  

Give yourself a day

If you’re going on vacation or taking a long break, consider taking a day or two after your return before jumping right back into work. Having a short period of transition time (sometimes even just scheduling your trip to end before a weekend) can help keep you focus better when you return to work.   

Consider part-time

Some new parents often start easing back into work after parental leave by going back in for half days. This is also a smart strategy for anyone coming back from a disability leave or a sabbatical, as it helps to create a smoother transition and gives you time to get your feet under you in a renewed routine.  

Ready to get back to work?

If you’re looking to get back to work, Open Systems can help. Call our team of recruiting experts today to help you find the best next job for you in Alpharetta, GA, and beyond.

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