As with anything else in the information technology field, hiring trends come and go, becoming increasingly refined as time goes by. Chief information officers are expected to ring in the new year with a whole host of progressive recruiting patterns, and IT professionals should be ready to rise to the occasion and meet the higher bar to be set by CIOs. In return, new additions to tech departments can anticipate some advantageous adjustments to the way their teams do business.Something old, something newAccording to Informationweek, companies have not completely given up on SAP databases. Although cloud computing is the way of the future, there are still a fair number of organizations that employ these more traditional forms of technology in some capacity throughout their operations. Even for businesses that have already elected to switch to the cloud, it can be challenging to make a swift and instant conversion, meaning that at least some of their IT functions can be found on older infrastructure. Because of this, the skills required to handle SAP are essential for employment prospects.In light of this lingering necessity, most CIOs could encounter some difficulty when recruiting qualified professionals in the years to come. At the moment, IT professionals are still trying to quickly adapt to emerging tech solutions, scrambling to become trained and certified in everything from big data to mobile tools. As a result, CIOs may find it challenging to land employees who boast these kinds of skills.”Big data demands a new breed of data scientists, and advancements in mobility, social, and sensing technologies rely on resetting the design and architecture of applications and user interfaces,” said John Michelson, CTO of CA Technologies. “These are highly specialized skills currently lacking and impossible to recruit completely within any one organization.”However, as more and more people learn the ways of the latest technology trends, IT executives areprobably going to face hurdles in locating applicants who can still deal with their SAP databases. Consequently, these transitional years will put recruiters in a difficult position, and they may have to pick and choose the skills that are their top priorities.Recruiters do social snoopingThe methods that CIOs use to recruit new talent is also subject to change. In recent years, the rise of social media has influenced the hiring process for many companies, especially within their tech departments. Informationweek explained that resumes on their own are no longer enough to for IT professionals to land a job. Businesses are looking for candidates who not only boast impressive qualities and credentials on paper, but who also have a strong presence on social media outlets.”If you look at the evolution of recruiting, it started with going through phone books, then job boards, and what’s changed everything today is that everyone has a social footprint,” elaborated Shon Burton, founder of software firm HiringSolved. “All this information offers us a much more rich profile of candidates than we had before.”Make your online image pristineIT professionals searching for positions should take a twofold approach to ensuring their social media efforts are up to par. As with anything else on the Internet, people have to be mindful of how they present themselves, being certain that there is not anything that would paint them in a bad light. Media Bistro reported that three-fourths of recruiters now look at applicants’ social media pages, whether they are provided or not. Additionally, one-third of hiring personnel rejected candidates because of something they found on prospects’ profiles.On top of cleaning up their social network profiles, IT professionals need to take an active approach to show that they are engaged in their line of work by partaking in industry-related discussions online. If tech recruiters search for applicants, they may be impressed by the number of hits that come up related to candidates’ participation in forums or blog posts related to their field. This shows that individuals have a strong interest in what they do, are willing to share some insight with the public and are open to learning a thing or two from other experts. For this reason, IT professionals should aim to please recruiters and get themselves noticed by becoming more active members of the social media community.