What kinds of questions should you ask during an interview?
IT recruiters are always prepping their candidates about what type of questions might be asked during an IT job interview. Although it’s important to be prepared and answer the questions effectively, it’s also key that you ask proper questions as well.
Answering questions is just as important as asking questions. Clients of IT staffing agencies are looking for find candidates who show interest in their company and try to understand the industry. Think of questions beforehand. Ask yourself, what type of questions would I think are thought provoking if I were the one doing the IT job interview?
Here are a few questions our IT recruiters believe you should keep in mind:
- How did this position open up (is it a new IT job or are you replacing someone? If you’re replacing someone, do you mind me asking why he or she is no longer with the company?).
- Can you provide a snapshot of this IT department over the past couple of years? Has it grown or decreased in size?
- How does upper management see this position fitting within the company’s goals?
- What is the organization’s outlook for the next five years and how will this IT department be involved?
- What do you enjoy most about working at this company?
- Could you get into more detail about the day-to-day responsibilities this job will entail?
- Could you describe the management style in this group/company?
- What type of employee fits well with this company?
- Will there be performance reviews? If so, how and who will be reviewing my performance? IS there a list of criteria in which an employee will be evaluated on? How frequently will performance reviews be made?
- Is decision-making shared between Upper-management and employees?
Keywords, the main ingredient to being found
In the IT staffing, there are keywords that are specific to a certain job position. Each one varies and allows them to find the appropriate candidates. Some keywords for example would be ‘Java’ or ‘.NET’.
When IT recruiters go on websites such as Career Builder and Monster, they type in keywords (such as skill sets) to search for resumes. Technical recruiters are usually well versed in using Boolean searching techniques in order to optimize their resume searches. Therefore, in order to make sure you come up in relevant searches, use the skills keywords that will help IT recruiters find you. Do not use terms that are not commonly used or synonyms. Be direct on your resume and include exactly what it is that you are skilled in.
IT recruiting agencies train their IT recruiters to pay close attention to keywords in IT job descriptions. Therefore take a look at a job description that interests you and model your resume using the relevant keywords.
Which will prevail in the end: Phone Interview vs. Video Chatting
Over the last few years there has been a lot of development in video chatting. More companies are rolling out programs that will allow you to call friends through your computer and see each other’s faces. This concept has also been applied to many conferences within businesses as well.
So why has it never filtered into the Human Resources departments or IT recruiting companies? For a hiring manager it could be a good way to gauge the personality and professionalism of a prospective candidate rather than just listen to them over the phone. Listening to someone’s voice is a lot different from just seeing the person body movements and facial expressions. Those are very important to understanding the prospective IT job candidate better.
From an IT recruiters’ perspective this can also go horribly wrong. First, their internet connection could be weak and cause a lot of freezing during the interview. A hiring manager would find this annoying especially if you will need to reconnect with them every so often. In addition, the candidate would need to tidy up the location where they are planning on interviewing. Most importantly, there can be many interruptions. Unlike being on the phone, the hiring manager will be able to see or notice interruptions from your body language and facial expressions.
The main difference with a phone interview and video chatting is that you need to sign on in order to video chat. A candidate could just not sign on due to forgetting about the interview. With a phone interview you can call them and either speak to them or leave a message. Either way, you can contact them regardless of whether you have a strong signal or not.
There are many things that are left to chance with video chatting that can cause the candidate to lose the IT job or the hiring manager to become fed up with the candidate. This could cost IT staffing companies placements or candidates themselves could miss out on a golden opportunity.