How to hire an information technology professional

How to hire an information technology professional, step by step

Here's a step-by-step information technology professional hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write an information technology professional job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new information technology professional
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does an information technology professional do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your information technology professional job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find an information technology professional for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them an information technology professional to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire an information technology professional that fits the bill.

   This list presents information technology professional salaries for various positions.

   Type of Information Technology Professional	Description	Hourly rate
   Information Technology Professional	Computer support specialists provide help and advice to people and organizations using computer software or equipment. Some, called computer network support specialists, support information technology (IT) employees within their organization... Show more	$25-50
   Information Engineer	An information engineer is responsible for monitoring the efficiency of computer systems and network infrastructure, performing configuration to boost the optimal performance of the technology systems. Information engineers assist end-users in resolving network issues, identifying the source of inconsistencies, and create resolution reports for reference to avoid reoccurrence... Show more	$37-66
   Information Systems Technician	An information systems technician is responsible for maintaining the efficiency of various network systems' performance. Information systems technicians provide network troubleshooting, upgrading systems for optimization, maintaining the security of databases, managing the interaction of networks, and inspecting and troubleshooting system inconsistencies... Show more	$13-35

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Customer Service
   • Network Administration
   • Project Management
   • Java
   • SQL Server
   • Troubleshoot
   • Technical Support
   • JavaScript
   • SharePoint
   • Linux
   • Printers
   • Computer System
   • HTML
   • C Net

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Lead virtualization efforts to reduce hardware, enhance lab infrastructure, and achieve high availability within server environment.
   • Lead the architecture, installation, and migration to SAN environment from SCSI attach infrastructure.
   • Install new networking cabinet, run new cables, install new switch, manage SonicWall firewall, manage VPN users.
   • Create and effectively manage important HIPAA compliance programming.
   • Manage customer data extraction projects including analyzing and reporting from multiple POS systems.
   • Manage the data center and provide user desktop support at this manufacturing facility.

   More information technology professional duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the information technology professional job description is a good way to get more applicants. An information technology professional salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for an information technology professional in Georgia may be lower than in Massachusetts, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level information technology professional. Additionally, an information technology professional with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average information technology professional salary

   $74,686yearly

   $35.91 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level information technology professional salary

   $52,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 24, 2025

   Average information technology professional salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$96,380	$46
   2	Rhode Island	$93,497	$45
   3	New York	$93,149	$45
   4	New Jersey	$93,142	$45
   5	Ohio	$90,604	$44
   6	Illinois	$86,027	$41
   7	North Carolina	$85,254	$41
   8	Pennsylvania	$85,200	$41
   9	Nevada	$80,238	$39
   10	Iowa	$78,429	$38
   11	Vermont	$76,914	$37
   12	District of Columbia	$74,911	$36
   13	Wisconsin	$74,724	$36
   14	Nebraska	$74,360	$36
   15	Minnesota	$74,099	$36
   16	Virginia	$74,032	$36
   17	Washington	$70,391	$34
   18	Colorado	$67,643	$33
   19	Alabama	$66,569	$32
   20	Texas	$66,475	$32

   Average information technology professional salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Chevron	$127,834	$61.46	5
   2	MUFG EMEA	$123,177	$59.22
   3	Adobe	$117,244	$56.37	11
   4	Splunk	$113,050	$54.35
   5	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$112,889	$54.27	179
   6	Abbott	$110,238	$53.00	43
   7	Harley-Davidson	$109,915	$52.84	1
   8	McKinsey & Company Inc	$105,365	$50.66
   9	Hoffmann-LA Roche Inc	$103,575	$49.80	1
   10	Siemens	$101,875	$48.98	44
   11	Citizens Financial Group	$98,213	$47.22	18
   12	Kaiser Permanente	$97,716	$46.98	100
   13	Motorola Solutions	$94,839	$45.60	39
   14	Humana	$93,347	$44.88	211
   15	Lenovo	$93,200	$44.81	5
   16	Kratos Defense & Security Solutions	$92,608	$44.52	4
   17	Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance Company Inc	$91,540	$44.01
   18	ClientSolv	$91,343	$43.91
   19	Alliance for Sustainable Energy	$91,085	$43.79
   20	Jacobs Engineering Group	$90,956	$43.73

4. Writing an information technology professional job description

   An information technology professional job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of an information technology professional job description:

   Information technology professional job description example

   1. Being part of Battle Group staffs on ships at sea
   2. Working in C4I/Space/Surveillance on shore tours
   3. Serving on major Navy and joint staffs
   4. Serving in command of key communication and surveillance facilities around the globe

   TRAINING & ADVANCEMENT

   Those pursuing an Information Professional Officer position are required to attend Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Newport, R.I. Upon completion, they typically attend a five-week IP Basic Course of instruction in Pensacola, Fla., before or during their initial assignment.

   IPs must complete specific qualifications as part of their training during Fleet tours and are expected to pursue advanced education opportunities. Promotion opportunities are regularly available but competitive and based on performance. It's also important to note that specialized training received and work experience gained in the course of service can lead to valuable credentialing and occupational opportunities in related fields.

   EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES

   Beyond professional credentials and certifications, Information Professionals can advance their education by:

   1. Pursuing opportunities at institutions such as Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) or Navy War College (NWC)
   2. Completing Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) at one of the various service colleges

   Postgraduate education is important to the success of the Information Professional. Most IPs will complete a master's degree in C4I, space, information systems, computer science or modeling and simulation.

   There's also potential to pursue a graduate certificate, DoD certifications, federal executive fellowships and information assurance scholarships and internships.

   QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

   A four-year degree is required to work as an Information Professional. Candidates seeking an Officer position in this community must have a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution in a technical field, preferably in one of following fields: Information Systems, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Information Operations, Computer Science, Systems Engineering or General Engineering.

   All candidates must also be: U.S. citizens, willing to serve worldwide, eligible for a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) security clearance, and qualified for sea duty.

   General qualifications may vary depending upon whether you're currently serving, whether you've served before or whether you've never served before.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find information technology professionals for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any information technology professionals they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level information technology professionals with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   To find information technology professional candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting information technology professionals requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   Sometimes, it's not enough to interview information technology professional candidates, so you can ask them to do a test project. If you are not a technical person and don't know what a test project should be, you can use these websites:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new information technology professional

   Once you've selected the best information technology professional candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new information technology professional. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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