Applications & Development IT Staffing Services

How to Decline a Job Offer

March 9, 2018

When you’re in the tech field, job searching can be easier because you’re more in demand. You’ll often have IT staffing companies reaching out to you, even when you’re perfectly happy in your current job. If you are searching, you may be juggling multiple interview processes at a time and even multiple job offers. This means that at some point you’ll be put in the position of declining a job offer. This can be a delicate task with lasting effects. Here are some tips from IT recruiters on how to gracefully decline a job offer and avoid burning any bridges in the tech sphere.

You must respond. Do not under any circumstances just ignore the offer. Reach out to the employer or technical recruiters and reject the offer if you don’t want it. You’ll definitely torpedo your reputation with employers and IT recruiting companies if you don’t give any response to a job offer. Putting out job offers is a labor-intensive process for employers that takes a lot of time. To not even give a rejection is unthinkably rude and makes you look incredibly unprofessional.
Keep it quick. Don’t drag your feet on rejecting a job offer when you know it’s not right for you. The sooner you can tell the employer no, the better the whole interaction will go. It’s especially important not to do something like accepting a job offer, then waiting for something better. Or dragging your feet to respond to a job offer while waiting for something better. It can be tempting, or even feel completely logical to do this. You’ve got to look out for yourself, right? But pulling a move like this will likely hurt you in the future. If you deceive an employer or reject it in a way that obstructs their hiring process, you’ll definitely frustrate them. You’ll probably blackball yourself as an applicant at that company in the future. You’ll also likely hurt your reputation with the people who work there. Considering how small the tech sphere can be sometimes, that’s a big risk to take!
Keep it respectful, gracious, and pleasant. It’s entirely possible to reject a job offer without offending or frustrating a company. If you adopt the right tone and thank the company warmly for their time and consideration, IT recruiting agencies find that you can still walk away with goodwill. Find specific things you genuinely liked about the job, company and/or team and mention them. Specifics will go a long way in proving that the company made a positive impression on you. If you’d like to be able to apply to this employer in the future, say so. It’s entirely possible that a job offer right now at company X isn’t a good fit, but 5 years from now, it will be! Companies understand this and will appreciate it if you’re clear about it. There are cases where this won’t work, of course, but that’s a red flag in itself. If a company responds to a gracious rejection of a job offer with hostility and animosity, then they may not be pleasant to work for anyways!
Give a reason if you have one that is temporary and palatable to an employer. In some cases, it can help to give employers a straightforward, honest reason why you’re rejecting their job offer. It can be completely acceptable to say you’ve received an alternate job offer with a higher salary, better commute, or more flexible schedule. It’s also fine to tell an employer if your personal circumstances have changed and you’re not ready to make start a new job. Maybe you have a sick relative, you need to move, etc. As mentioned before, your aim should be to keep the whole conversation positive. There are definitely reasons that you should NOT give to an employer for rejecting their job offer. The most obvious is if you’re taking a counter-offer from your current employer. While this is usually a bad move to make for yourself (check out this blog post here), it also looks terrible to employers. It can make them feel like you’ve used their (extensive) time and effort just to get yourself a raise from your boss. At the very least, it looks like you have bad judgement, which makes you seem pretty unhirable.

tech job offers — Rejecting a job offer isn’t as easy as saying ‘no.’ Photo credit: TayebMEZAHDIA via Pixabay.

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What Technologies Will Get You a Job in 2018?

February 5, 2018

What will be the hot skill sets for tech job seekers in 2018? IT staffing firms are finding that technologies that pertain to mobile development and UX are highly in demand right now and will likely continue to increase in popularity. If you’re thinking about ways to expand your options for IT jobs in 2018, here are 2 reasons why you should pick up mobile development and UX skills.

User experience is becoming imperative for a business’s success. Having a stellar website has become key to attracting and keeping Whatever the business, customers want to be able to do more online—from deciding whether to purchase the product or service, to using or maintaining it. Consumers are demanding online tools where they once accepted in-person and phone options. But it’s not just about providing those tools online. It’s also about making sure those tools are attractive, easy to use, and even enjoyable. Having a website with tools like that gives a company the edge over competitors in world where consumers do all their buying (and arguably, much of their living) online. As one high level executive says, “In a global, internet-saturated market, anyone from anywhere in the world can compete in any time zone. Competition is fierce and many “contemporary” UI elements come out of pre-canned toolkits. The piece that cannot be canned, the key market differentiator, is the delightful experience that can only be captured via a deep contextual understanding of the user and what they are trying to do.” In light of all of this, IT recruiting firms are finding that more and more companies are investing in their UX teams. This means more open UX roles for people with the right skills.

Mobile development is key because mobile devices are rapidly overtaking desktop ones. When it comes to consumer behavior, mobile is becoming key. On Black Friday of 2017, stores estimate that 40% of sales came from mobile devices, not in-store sales. Companies that want to engage with customers online (which really should be every business, as mentioned above), must make sure their website translates well to mobile devices like cell phones, tablets and laptops. There’s also the element of SEO. Companies that want to be ranked higher in Google searches must have a decent mobile presence. In fact, websites that don’t translate well to mobile get dinged by Google and presented further down in search results. Considering how frequently most consumers look to Google to find their next vendor, companies can’t afford to ignore this information. Between consumer behavior and SEO rules, businesses are changing their priorities to be competitive. Technical recruiters are finding that employers are putting significant resources into expanding their mobile development team. If you have mobile development skills, you’ll likely enjoy a short, easy job search!

So if you’re ready to consider diving into mobile development and UX jobs, what technologies do you need to focus on learning or sharpening? For mobile development, IT recruiters suggest that candidates learn Swift, Object-C, Cocoa Touch, Kotlin, C, C++, Python, Java, Phone Gap, Xamarin and Xcode. If you want to get a UX job, you’ll want to buff up on javascript frameworks (especially Angular) and HTML5. (Of course, UX also includes plenty of other skills that are less technical and more artistic/design-oriented.) Whichever direction you go in, you can be sure you’ll become a much more attractive candidate to employers and recruiters.

IT job search tips — Are you ready to look for a new job? Swift, Object-C, and Cocoa Touch might help! Photo credit: StockSnap via Pixabay.

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Why Were You Rejected from that Tech Job?

January 9, 2018

So you polished up your resume, you built a stellar list of references, and you got yourself submitted to some IT jobs that look perfect for you. But lo and behold, your IT staffing firms called you to let you know you didn’t land the job (or maybe even the interview). What happened? What should you do? Here’s a little insider info from IT recruiting firms.

Why didn’t you get the job? There are a lot of factors why people are rejected from the hiring process. You may never know which reasons apply to you, but it can be a comfort to know them, because many of them are completely out of your control and have nothing to do with your marketability as an IT professional. Here are the main reasons IT recruiters see people rejected from a job.

The project or the role changed. This happens all the time, especially with more technical roles. The kinds of projects that IT professionals work on are subject to change for all the usual reasons a company’s project changes, but also because technologies themselves change so quickly. Perhaps a company plans to use Angular for a project, but decides they’d like to move on to a hotter new technology and use Angular 2. That means the roles they’re hiring for drastically change, just like that! Roles will also change if they’ve been open for a long time. If a company is having a hard time finding the perfect software developer, the life cycle development of a project still won’t stop. A team could need a software developer with different skills as the project progresses.
You weren’t a culture fit. This may seem like a small thing compared to technical acumen, but IT staffing agencies find that it’s not. In fact, one of our own technical recruiters estimates that culture fit issues account for 50-60% of the candidate rejections he sees! The days of heads-down coders are over and Scrum and Agile are all the rage. Companies usually want a team that gels well, because they’ll be working together closely. For roles that are client-facing or customer service oriented, this becomes all the more imperative. If, for instance, you’re applying for a Helpdesk role or Sales Engineer role, having a warm, engaging personality is one of the explicitly stated job requirements.
Maybe other candidates really were just better. It’s natural to feel like you’re the best candidate for the job. The truth is, though, you’ll almost always be competing against other candidates. You never know if your completion has more experience, a better arsenal of technologies at their disposal, or is just more pleasant to work with. You may always feel like you’re the best fit for the job, but statistically speaking, you can’t always be the best fit for the job. Sometimes another candidate is a better match.

What can you do if you don’t get the role?

You can start by politely asking your IT recruiters for feedback. If they have it, they’ll often be happy to share. It could be that you can get actionable feedback, like a suggestion to get more experience with a particular technology, or that you came across as rude in your interview. On the other hand, sometimes there is no feedback.
It’s important not to try to argue your candidacy with the recruiter, and especially not the hiring manager. This strategy never lands somebody the job. In fact, often it burns a bridge and blacklists you at that company in the future. Hiring managers don’t appreciate being told that they don’t know how to make good decisions for their teams. They also don’t want to hire people who look arrogant. You will likely accomplish one or both of those if you push back when a hiring manager rejects you.
Try to remember that if you don’t land a job, it’s like dodging a bullet. Whether you’re rejected by IT staffing companies at the application stage or later after an interview, what you’re essentially hearing is that the employer doesn’t have confidence you’d be successful in the role. Even if you could do the role just fine, who wants to work in a job where their boss isn’t sure they can hack it? A rejection is just saving your from pain down the road and opening you up for a job that you can succeed and be happy in.

Programmers: Are You Holding Your Own Career Back With This Mistake?

December 11, 2017

JavaScript frameworks like React and Angular are trendy skills for Programmers to have right now. This is true for a few reasons. Firstly, both are the latest shiny new technologies. Secondly, one of the main reasons React is popular is because it’s great for mobile application development. One of the biggest reasons Angular is popular is because it’s simple and easy to use since it’s built with HTML. No matter how many reasons you can list for Angular or React’s popularity, though, it’s not going to help you to focus solely on them. It won’t even help you to focus on the next hot JavaScript framework. If you just try to chase the latest JavaScript framework, you’re probably doing yourself a disservice. Here’s why it’s imperative to focus on the fundamentals of JavaScript if you want to further your career or widen your tech job search.

Avoid falling victim to obsolescence

While it’s always helpful to have the newest, hottest technologies on your resume, IT recruiters would suggest that you also don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. JavaScript frameworks will come and go, but the fundamentals of JavaScript will always be useful to you. Don’t focus on flashy new frameworks like React to the exclusion of JavaScript basics. You’ll be glad when React becomes dated and you’ve got the base knowledge to master the new, trendy famework!

Ensure your success once you land the job

You might find yourself up the creek without a paddle if you don’t have a good enough base of JavaScript fundamentals. Knowing the latest and greatest framework might get you in the door, but IT staffing companies see people land in hot water when they’re missing a solid base of JavaScript knowledge. Perhaps you need to do something more complicated than what React will help you achieve. Perhaps the company has not changed all their code over to the new framework because of security concerns, lack of funds, or lack of staff. You may still need a solid understanding of JavaScript to complete your work, even if Angular was talked up as more important in the interview. It’s also worth noting that because of the speed of technology, projects and job descriptions can change all the time. A Node project today could become a Node and JavaScript project tomorrow to meet new business requirements. The job your technical recruiters helped you land today may not be the one you need to do next week. If your employer needs more from you, it’s important not to get caught without a strong base of JavaScript!

Programming careers — Are you just chasing the next hot framework? Photo credit: Markusspiske via Pixabay.

Use This Tip in Your Next Tech Job Search

October 4, 2017

IT staffing companies hear about plenty of secret weapons candidates can pull out when searching for new IT jobs. Sometimes it’s a great interview question. Sometimes it’s a suit that makes you feel confident. Here’s another to add to your arsenal: take the time to show a deep interest in everything about the role that really matters to tech employers. It’s not just about saying you love the job description. Hiring managers in tech want to see an interest in 2 particular areas: The corporate culture and the company’s work. Here’s how to effectively demonstrate interest in both.

Corporate Culture: Other industries may be catching up to tech in this respect, but corporate culture has been nearly imperative to tech employers for a long time. With the popularization of Scrum and Agile, it has been even more important. If you don’t fit into a team on a social level, then collaboration, and thus real success, will be difficult. So how do you make it apparent that you’re interested in a company’s corporate culture? Start with research. Check out their Glassdoor reviews. Talk to your technical recruiters. Check out their website. Be able to discuss their corporate culture and come up with questions of your own about it. Try asking questions like these: It seems like [fill in the blank with relevant soft skills] are necessary for being successful at this company. Is this true? Are there other soft skills they prize more? What do you love about working at this company?

The company and its products: As an IT professional, it’s obvious you’ll be asking about things like the tech stack, the projects the role is assigned to, etc. IT recruiting firms find that the candidates who land jobs go a little further, though. Hiring managers in tech love when candidates are interested in the way the technical workload supports the business. Demonstrate, for instance, that you’re thinking beyond what you’ll be coding. You’re thinking about what you’ll be coding and how it can serve the client better. To show an interest in the business-side of the company, not just its tech side, do some deeper research than just a quick Google search of the company. Look at their website, but also look at recent news articles. Ask your IT recruiters if they have any recommended materials to check out. A good test of the depth of your knowledge is if you can talk about the company in terms of what others say about them, not just what they say about themselves.

How to Be Ready for Personality Tests in the Tech Hiring Process

August 17, 2017

Most IT professionals are familiar and ready for every element of the job search. Phone screens, technical interviews, coding tests, whiteboarding sessions, and interview thank you notes are all par for the course and most candidates are ready to handle them. But one element of the tech job search that does surprise a lot of candidates is a personality test. IT recruiting firms find that time and again, candidates are unprepared for personality tests or feel uncomfortable taking them. Some even try avoiding them (which really isn’t possible. You may as well just opt out of the running for the job if you refuse to take the test.). Here’s a little more info about personality tests so you’re not caught unawares the next time you have to take one.

Why do employers give these tests, especially in tech? It might seem counter-intuitive that employers base hiring for IT jobs off of personality tests. These jobs are all about very specific (often hard-to-find skills), aren’t they? In the past decade or so, employers in the tech space have become more concerned with culture. This has happened for a few reasons, but the increased use of Scrum and Agile as development methodologies probably plays a big part. The days of Waterfall and heads-down coders are largely gone. This means that personality has become exponentially important to hiring managers. Thus, a small but strong minority is very invested in using personality tests as part of their hiring process.

Can I cheat on personality tests? No. It’s not even worth trying. IT staffing firms find that the ‘right’ answer on these tests often isn’t very clear anyways. The questions are usually pretty abstract ones or hypothetical ones that don’t even seem applicable to the job.

What if I want to try to ‘cheat’ anyway? It’s important to note that you wouldn’t want to cheat on these tests, even if you could. Like cheating on a coding test, this will just land you a job that you won’t be likely to succeed in. If an employer is offering a personality test, it’s likely that hiring somebody who fits into their corporate culture is paramount. If you ‘cheat’ your way into a job where you’re not a culture fit, it will become apparent pretty quickly. Your status at the company will suffer, or worse, you’ll be fired. IT recruiting agencies suggest you be honest on personality tests. If you fail it, this can still be a good thing. Your test result will ensure that you avoid taking a job you’d be miserable in, anyway!

tech hiring tips and personality tests — Don’t lie on a personality test. It won’t help you land an IT job you love. Photo credit: Monoar via Pixabay.

2 Tips for Hiring Tech Talent

July 21, 2017

It can be tough to fill open tech positions at your company. The US still has a shortage of qualified professionals to fill the new IT jobs which open up or are created daily. IT recruiting firms find that the tech field is still very much a job seeker’s market. How can you make sure your company stays competitive in attracting and hiring the best talent? Here are 2 tips from IT staffing companies on best practices for hiring tech talent.

1. Focus on building a great corporate culture. Tech employers used to compete for great talent with their perks. In the beginning of the Dotcom boom, stocked kitchens, catered lunches, subsidized commuting costs, etc used to be a huge draw. Now it seems that many other industries have jumped on this bandwagon. Exciting perks are much more available at many employers, and thus aren’t really as a big of a draw to IT professionals.

The new commodity that’s harder to come by, and thus a bigger draw, is great culture. Glassdoor and its anonymous, unfiltered reviews has probably played a big hand in making job searchers more aware of this. IT recruiters find that candidates often ask about the management and corporate culture at a potential job right after they hear about the work. Having an open, innovative culture that allows employees some agency in shaping their life at work is a huge draw. If you want to attract technical talent, IT staffing firms suggest building a management team with great communication skills, an interest in helping their employees grow and build their skill base, and who prioritize their employees’ happiness.

Building great corporate culture might be one of the hardest ways to attract employees, but technical recruiters suggest it because it’s effective and it also helps retain employees down the road. Instead of investing in gimmicky perks, take time to make your company a workplace where people are generally happy. It will pay off now, and in the future.

2. Move faster in your hiring process. IT recruiting agencies caution employers against moving at too slowly for hiring all tech positions. As mentioned before, the tech field is a job seeker’s market. The unemployment rate for IT professionals is notoriously low—often as low as half the national average. If a candidate comes on the market, they could be gone in as little as 2 weeks. (Highly sought after IT professionals like DevOps and Big Data Engineers, as well as Full-Stack or CRM Developers might be off the market even faster than that!) IT staffing agencies find that many candidates aren’t even ever unemployed or looking. They’re passive candidates who are lured away from their current job with a pay raise, better commute, etc. So if you want to hire the best tech talent, you’ll have to move fast. Respond to applications and submittals by IT recruiting companies as soon as you can. Make offers in days, not weeks. IT recruiters see employers lose out on the candidates they really want all to frequently because they just took too long.

Hiring tech talent can be tough in such a job seeker’s market. Photo credit: Pexels via Pixabay.

Questions and Answers About Vacation and IT Jobs

July 12, 2017

Summer is the season when most people think about vacation. Even if you’re searching for new IT jobs, your focus might still be at least a little diverted by thoughts of a beach getaway, visiting family, or a trip to Europe. Here are some common questions you might have about vacation time if you’re working with IT recruiting firms to find your next role.

If I get a new role, can I still take a vacation this summer? The short answer is yes and no. If you’ve already planned a trip, booked flights, hotels, etc, then you probably can. If you’ve planned a few vacation days that revolve around an important event like a family reunion or wedding, you probably can. All you have to do is mention these trips when you receive a job offer (not before). Your hiring manager may suggest pushing your start date out til after your trip, or plan to have you out for those days. If you want to spontaneously take a few days off within the first 90 days of your employment, this is less likely to be ok. IT staffing firms find that between the onboarding process, training, and the need for creating a good impression with the new boss and team, this is almost never a good call. Spend your first 3 months being focused, impressing your boss and team, and being present in the office. You can take a spontaneous vacation after that, when you’ve earned trust and respect from your new employer!

I have a vacation planned. Do I talk about it with my interviewer? Wait until you get a job offer. In the tech field, it’s really important to establish for your interviewer that you’re passionate about some combination of the work, the role, the team and the company. When you bring up things like vacation, this can take away from that impression. Hiring managers get that you have a life outside of work, but the interview is such a short process that you should focus on talking about yourself as a professional, not your vacation plans.

Can I ask about the vacation part of a benefits package in an interview? The same principle applies here. Steer clear of talking to your interviewer about vacation time until you have an offer on the table. Focus on figuring out if the job is a good fit for you and for the company. If you really want to know, you can talk to your IT recruiters, check out the company’s info on Glassdoor, or do some Googling. You’ll probably find it somewhere online and you won’t have to risk making yourself seem like anything less than a very dedicated employee.

What about this ‘Unlimited PTO’ trend? Technical recruiters are finding this trend is becoming more and more popular in the tech field. It’s important to note that this benefit is meant to be used in some moderation, though. Companies usually offer unlimited PTO to employees with the caveat that they need to get through their work. Getting that software released on time, debugging that code, or finishing that big project should all happen before you go on an extended vacation. Your team needs to be able to count on you— not count on you to be out of the office again. IT recruiting firms also find that this benefit usually comes with a role that has a high workload. Unlimited PTO is a reward for the hard work that’s expected. So take a minute to really consider the role. Don’t just take a job for this benefit alone!

Vacations and IT jobs — Planned a beach getaway? You can still take it, even if you’re staring a new role soon! Photo credit: skitterphoto via Pixabay

Use This Checklist Before Posting Your Technical Resume

April 28, 2017

Most IT professionals don’t enjoy writing or updating resumes. Besides the fact that writing resumes is an inherently unpleasant activity, technical resumes can be even more difficult. IT recruiters find that many candidates struggle with the balance between providing enough detail for technically-savvy readers and so much detail that managers and technical recruiters feel like they’re looking an unreadable novel of technical jargon. But in the end, creating a great resume is always worth it because it lands you great IT jobs. Here’s a checklist that IT staffing companies suggest you use before posting your resume.

1. Do you have a ‘Technical Proficiencies’ section at the top of your resume? Pull out all of your technical skills and put them in one well-organized section at the very top of your resume. This section is one of the best ways to catch the eyes of hiring managers and IT recruiting firms who are sifting through hundreds or thousands of resumes. Don’t forget to constantly update this section, too. As you learn a new programming language, master Scrum, or get new certifications, add them in. (IT recruiters would suggest that you only list technologies you have professional experience or certification in here. Listing hobbies won’t help you here. You don’t want to suggest you have a skill that you actually don’t. You’ll either be found out in an interview, or worse, on the job!) You could be missing out on IT jobs if you don’t!

2. Are your bullets effective? Do the bullets under each job just list the basic responsibilities of your roles? Time to fix that. Entice IT staffing agencies with bullets that list your achievements in these roles. Help them see the value you added to your team. You might have some technical details in here, but the point isn’t to be as thorough as possible. Focus on adding bullets that help an employer picture you, making a difference at their company from day one!

3. Did you list more than 15 years of experience on your resume? Time to cut back. There are a few reasons IT recruiting companies would suggest you do this. Firstly, you want to protect yourself from age discrimination. Unfortunately, most IT recruiters would agree that the tech field can be especially unforgiving when it comes to age discrimination. Since you don’t have to give more than 10-15 years of experience on your resume, just protect yourself and stop there. Another reason that technical recruiters would suggest you delete experience after the 10-15 year mark is because the resume isn’t really helpful after that point anyways. You want to highlight the kinds of technologies and projects that employers are working on now. Since the field is changing so quickly, the experience after 10-15 years may not even be relevant! The last reason to delete experience after 10-15 years is for length. IT professionals can have longer resumes, but you don’t want to post a resume that’s as long as War and Peace. Nobody really wants to read it and it might even turn off hiring managers. So take the old experience off your resume, it’s not helping and it may even actually hurt you!

IT resumes — Don’t post your resume before using this checklist. Photo credit: TeroVesalainen via Pixabay.

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Tips for May and June Tech Grads

April 13, 2017

If you’re part of the class of 2017, you may be planning to push that job search off until later in the summer. The tech field is a job seeker’s market, right? Why not kick back and take a little break before entering the workforce? Don’t be tempted to do this. Unfortunately, the tech field is a bit less of a job seeker’s market for entry-level grads. IT staffing companies find that there are absolutely less open IT jobs out there for recent grads. You also don’t want to limit your options. If you wait until later in the summer or fall, IT recruiters will have filled plenty of the jobs with coveted employers. Starting your job search doesn’t have to be so arduous, though. Here are 4 simple things you can do to start searching for IT jobs now.

1. Make your resume visible to employers and technical recruiters. Post your resume on Monster, Dice, LinkedIn, etc. Make a public, professional LinkedIn profile. Don’t just rely on your school’s internal job portals. If you’re a programming student, get on Github or similar sites. IT staffing agencies will be looking for great candidates there, too.

2. While you’re at it, reach out to IT staffing firms. Find some trusted IT recruiting companies in your area and reach out to and pass along your resume. Even if you’re working on your final exams, they can begin your job search for you now!

3. Do your research on the kinds of roles you prefer your salary expectations. Make sure to take your location into consideration here. IT recruiting firms find that sometimes new grads will price themselves out of great jobs because they don’t have realistic salary expectations. Your IT recruiters can help you out a bit, but it’s also important for you to do your own research prior to conversations with them.

4. Get a real email address and clean up your social media. You don’t want to keep your school email address anymore—you’re going to be a professional soon! Get an email address that you won’t be embarrassed to share with potential employers and IT recruiting firms. Make sure you clean out all pictures, quotes, comments etc on your social media that you wouldn’t want a future boss to see. IT recruiting agencies definitely see candidates with terrible social media profiles miss out on roles.

Graduate IT jobs — Graduating in May or June? Time to get a new email address! Photo credit: vloveland via Pixabay.

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