Mark Harwood
Name: Mark W. Harwood
Current Job: Division Director for Robert Half Technology’s professional service in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
Favorite restaurant in town? – Ginko & Pho Thang are my favorites, but Burntwood Tavern is my go-to.
Favorite thing about Cleveland? - The Metroparks, Blossom / House of Blues / Beachland Ballroom / Grog Shop.
Q: Mark, thanks for joining me today. First off, how are you dealing with the quarantine and work from home? Working from home has been an adjustment. I did 1-2 days per week from home before the shelter in place orders. Switching to full-time WFH so quickly wasn’t great. It took a few weeks for me to get an ideal space going. I’m happy about everyone getting to experience remote work but there will still be negative takes due to everyone not having the chance to properly set up. This is also amplified by everyone’s children being home all day. This isn’t the typical remote experience that is possible.
Q: Robert Half is in the recruiting business, can you talk about some of the trends that have occurred on the technology recruiting side since the pandemic started? Well, there are a lot more 100% remote jobs now, which is nice. There are also a lot more candidates available than normal. We were in a very “Permanent Placement” driven market for the past several years. Companies wanted to hire the best talent and keep them for as long as possible. Now with the financial uncertainty that everyone is experiencing, we’re shifting to a market that seems more interested in temporary help. Bringing in some heavy hitters on contract to assist with a specific project and having the option to hire them full time or end the contract when the project is over. I think companies appreciate the flexibility or that kind of arrangement. Not ideal for the job seeker at times, depending on the person.
Q: Mark, you are in a unique view in speaking with a variety of different tech candidates in Cleveland, what are some of the most common technologies being used by tech firms and what technologies have you seen on the rise? Northeast Ohio is a .NET region. JavaScript (obviously) has blown up over the last five years. Companies are moving / moved to the cloud, so leveraging cloud infrastructure is big right now. Automation and monitoring play directly into that, which is why we see more and more Site Reliability Engineer and Release Engineer positions popping up.
I think the most noticeable trend for me recently is business intelligence and data warehousing projects. We’ve seen a rise in companies asking for help building data warehouses and hooking visualization tools into them to make more sense of all the data that they have.
Q: For those looking for a new role, what tips do you have during this time to help secure their next job? Stay optimistic, and be confident in your ability. Working on a portfolio of side projects always helps. It shows companies you are passionate about your professional growth. Leverage platforms like PluralSight and Udemy, or get certifications if you can. Networking is also really helpful. Meeting new people and letting them learn who you are may result in a referral or a “good word” put in with someone they know working at a company that is hiring. Find a good recruiter who is driven by empathy (not commission) and ask them about their perspective on the job market. They may have information that isn’t immediately available, or they may have a really good relationship with a manager at a company that is hiring.
Q: What do you plan to do once everything returns to normal? I’d like to go back to Puerto Rico. My partner and I went in November / December of 2018. It was beautiful; 85 degrees and sunny every day for a week straight. I got this chalet Airbnb about 40 minutes from San Juan. It was technically in Puerto Rico’s rainforest. The views were incredible and the beaches were about 20 minutes away. The local food was amazing and the avocados were massive!!! I miss lounging at the pool every day or smoking cigars on the big wrap around deck the place had. We also did a rainforest hike and took some kayaks into this bay that had these light-up plankton. It was an unforgettable trip.
Something a bit more normal – I just want concerts to come back! That and going out for dinner and a movie IN A THEATER has never sounded better.