Using The Right Tone in IT Job Interviews
When you’re searching for IT jobs, job interviews can be intimidating. Some candidates deal with nervousness by practicing with friends, family, and their IT recruiters and IT staffing firms. Especially for IT interviews (in which technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies may need you to brush up on particular technologies) practicing, doing your research, and studying are all important for success. However, there’s a line you don’t want to cross.
Though it’s not common, sometimes IT staffing companies and IT recruiting agencies will be told by an interviewer what a candidate sounded too rehearsed. This problem is very easy to avoid. Go ahead and practice with your IT recruiting companies. Study and role play with your friends and family. Try to stop short of memorizing answers word for word to particular questions. You want to keep the feeling of conversation in the interview.
Why is this important? Firstly, the interviewer needs to feel like they’re having a genuine conversation with you so they can see if you are truly a good fit for the job. Secondly, if you’re interviewing for a role that interacts with customers or end-users, then this is particularly important. The interviewer needs to be able to see you have an easy, professional rapport with somebody. Keep these things in mind and you’ll do well in your next IT job interviews.
How to Resign Your IT Job Gracefully
After a long search for new IT jobs with your IT recruiters and IT staffing firms, you’ll have one more task: resigning from your current job. Sometimes technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies hear about people handing this poorly. Here are some tips to make your resignation graceful so you don’t burn any bridges.
- Tell your manager in person if you can. If not, tell them over the phone. IT recruiting companies often hear about how people feel intimidated about actually resigning with their bosses. While it might seem scary, the best way to handle this is to directly tell your manager. Do not hide behind email, no matter how tempting it is. It probably won’t be bad at all, anyways.
- If your manager asks for it, write a short letter of resignation. This letter can be a single sentence. IT staffing companies and IT recruiting agencies would advise you to keep any grievances out of it. Don’t give any feedback or list the reasons why you’re leaving. Simply state that you’re resigning and when your last day is.
- Now back to that feedback: Should you share it? Only if you can do so constructively and you have somebody you think will be ready to hear it. If you think your manager or HR won’t be interested or take it well, it’s best to just hold back. Vent to your family or friends, maybe even your IT staffing agencies. It’s better to leave with positive relations at your job, even if you never want to work there again.
How to Call in Sick When You’re an IT Contractor
As the cold and flu season begins, more and more IT professionals will be calling their bosses to take a sick day. Plenty of IT recruiters and IT staffing firms have experience with IT candidates abusing their sick days. While it depends on the workplace culture, technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies want their candidates to operate via these rules of thumb:
- Make sure to notify the correct people that you’ll be out sick. Your IT recruiting companies and IT staffing firms will probably tell you this before you start the job. Sometimes you need to communicate with your IT recruiting agencies about sick days and sometimes the procedure requires you to tell a supervisor at the company you’re working at. Make sure you know ahead of time so you aren’t caught unawares on a day when you are indeed too sick to come into work.
- If you’re required to tell your boss that you’ll be out, be honest, but don’t overshare. If you have a personal matter you must be out to take care of, don’t lie. Be honest with your manager without giving too much information. The aim is to be open with them, but not to make either of you uncomfortable.
- For a list of amusing examples of reasons you should not give your manager, check out the results from this survey.
2 Reasons You Didn’t Get Called For That IT Job Interview
Sometimes during the search for IT jobs, it can be surprising when your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies say you weren’t called in for an interview. You and your technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies may have thought you were a perfect fit. Here are two things that could have gone wrong:
- Your resume didn’t show you were a good fit quickly enough. While your IT recruiting firms will usually help you update your resume, some of this is your responsibility, too. The resumes that IT staffing firms find most successful are the ones that have a strong professional summary and list of technical proficiencies. Time is of the essence for busy interviewers and hiring managers. If you can get these two top sections polished and tailored to the role, you make it more likely a busy hiring manager asks your IT recruiting agencies to get you in for an interview.
- You list duties, not achievements for your jobs. Again, while your IT recruiting companies will help you edit your resume a bit, some of this is your responsibility—especially since you are the expert on your own career. When you are writing your resume, make sure you make it easy for hiring managers to see how you’ve been impactful at your previous jobs. Don’t just list what you did, list the impact of what you did. Giving them a picture of your achievements will make it easier for them to picture you achieving more at their company!
Think About This Before Your Next IT Job Search!
When you’re searching for new IT jobs, there are decisions you need to make. There are plenty of things your technical recruiters and IT staffing companies will want to know: what kind of IT jobs do you prefer? Do you like client/end-user interaction? What kind of corporate culture do you do best in? But something your IT recruiters and IT staffing firms may not ask you about (but is still very important) is what kind of boss you think you can succeed with.
This might seem like a pretty straightforward question, but the more thought you put into it, the more likely you can make sure your IT recruiting companies and IT staffing agencies place you in a job you can be happy in. Start by thinking about your previous bosses. What qualities were great for your work style and what qualities weren’t? What qualities made you happy or unhappy? Make a list and share it with your IT recruiting agencies. During interviews, ask the kinds of questions that can (without putting your interviewer on the defensive) help you see if your potential boss has these qualities. While it’s not the most important part of a job, a boss will make a big impact on how much you enjoy it.
2 Easy IT Job Interview Mistakes to Avoid
There are a lot of mistakes you can make as you interview for IT jobs. Most are hard to avoid, even if you have the support of IT recruiters and IT staffing companies. Maybe you’ve spent a lot of time prepping both with your technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies and on your own, but you forget some crucial info. Maybe you wind up being late, despite extensive preparation and leaving early. There are just some mistakes that are hard to avoid. However, here are two mistakes you can very easily avoid (and make it more likely your interviewer gives you IT recruiting firms some good feedback).
- Leave any anger, bitterness, or sadness at the door. Even if your previous boss was terrible to you, you can’t bring your feelings about that into your interview. Interviewers will be overwhelmed and uncomfortable if you bring any emotion into the interview besides some moderate enthusiasm. Keep things light and your IT staffing firms are more likely to hear good things about you.
- Don’t overemphasize it if you’re looking for work-life balance. You may have been overworked in your previous jobs, but this is a topic for your IT recruiting companies and IT staffing agencies. If work-life balance is important to you, there are subtle questions you can ask that will reveal whether a position offers it. Check out this blog post on the topic.
Try This For Your Next IT Phone Interview
Technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies see candidates approach phone interviews for IT jobs too casually all the time. The truth that IT recruiters and IT staffing firms wish all their candidates knew: phone interviews are just as important, if not more so than in person interviews. These interviews are the gate to getting further in the process. So for your next interview, here’s a tip to really knock it out of the park and impress your interviewer and IT recruiting companies: take notes before and during.
What does this mean exactly? Start by taking notes for your interview when you prep with your IT recruiting firms and IT staffing companies. Keep these on hand for your interview so you have a plan for what you want to emphasize to your interviewer. Use them to guide yourself during the interview so you stay focused, concise and articulate.
Why and how should you take notes during the interview? Firstly the why. Take notes so you’re prepared if you get a second interview. Especially if your IT recruiting agencies are sending you on multiple interviews, it can be hard to remember details from a phone interview. Now the how. Take notes in a way that doesn’t interrupt the conversation. Keep the flow of it. But take important notes when you can. If you can’t at all, take them immediately after. Your interviewer at the next interview will be impressed, but you should make it look effortless!
2 Reasons IT Professionals Fail Phone Interviews
IT recruiters set IT professionals up for phone interviews for IT jobs a lot. IT staffing companies also spend plenty of time trying to prep people for these phone interviews. Here are two of the top reasons technical recruiters and IT staffing firms find that people flub phone interviews.
1. You weren’t enthusiastic enough. IT recruiting agencies hear this a lot. Candidates don’t advance beyond the phone interview because they sounded flat and uninterested in the job. This is so easy to avoid. Bring a little more energy to your phone interviews because the interviewer only gets to hear your voice. While in person your facial expressions and posture can give more of an impression, you don’t have that on the phone. Compensate by being just a little bit more energetic and enthused and your IT staffing agencies will probably hear some good news for you.
2. Your communication skills were bad. Especially in client-facing roles or roles where you communicate often with your team or end users, this is really important. Your IT recruiting firms won’t hear positive feedback if you can’t establish rapport with your phone interviewer—no matter how good your technical proficiencies are!
How Honest Should You Be in IT Job Interviews?
Interviews for IT jobs can be intimidating, even if you’ve prepped with your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies ahead of time. One of the things that can be very confusing to IT professionals is where to find the balance between saying something that will reflect well on them and their IT staffing companies and technical recruiters and saying something that is honest. Here are some tips that IT recruiting firms would recommend so you are more likely to land the job.
Firstly, know what your deal-breakers are. Do you hate customer service roles? Do you despise being locked away to code by yourself for hours? You need to be honest about these things so your IT staffing agencies don’t wind up getting you hired in a job that makes you miserable. If the job won’t be a good fit, definitely be honest.
Second, try asking some clarifying questions to see if you know what the interviewer wants to hear. Don’t just assume off the bat you know what kind of qualities are needed to succeed in the role. A clarifying question helps you tailor your responses so they’re both honest and get your IT recruiting companies some excellent feedback on you!
Lastly, keep things positive. If you’re going to be honest about some negative experiences you’ve had, times you made mistakes, dislikes, etc, always look for the positive way to spin it. Your IT recruiting agencies want you to be honest, but they don’t want you to be a sourpuss who’s difficult to work with. Mistakes can be learning opportunities. Bad experiences may have taught you new coping skills. These are the things that make you seem like a competent, capable human. And that’s what your interviewer really wants!
Go Beyond Just Polishing your IT Resume for your IT Job Hunt
When you’re searching for new IT jobs, you already know to do the basics: polish your resume, update your LinkedIn profile, and get back in touch with your technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies. There are a few more steps your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies would recommend you do, though. The most important is to clean up your social media accounts.
Why do IT recruiting companies recommend you clean up your social media trail? While it’s still important not to do things like bashing your boss, team, or employers on your Facebook account or Twitter, this all becomes magnified when you’re working with IT recruiting firms to get a new job. You want to sanitize any social media accounts you have so they are free from excessive party and alcohol-centered pictures, jokes in poor taste, and anything that indicates extreme religious or political beliefs.
The last one might seem less intuitive, but it’s basically meant to protect you from the chance that you could inadvertently offend a potential employer or hiring manager. While IT recruiting agencies might know that you are more than your political or religious beliefs, your potential employers don’t know much about you at all. They’re forced to draw quick conclusions from anything they learn about you. So play it very safe until you land an IT job: delete any posts that could offend on your social media accounts.