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Why is Passion Important in IT Job Interviews?

Working with IT recruiters and IT staffing firms, you’re probably talking a lot about how to sell yourself to future employers.  Your IT staffing agencies and technical recruiters have probably covered the bases you already know—being on time, dressing appropriately, and practicing answering basic questions.  To give yourself an edge in winning your dream IT jobs and impressing IT recruiting companies and hiring managers, you need to find a way to show your passion for important elements of jobs.

How do you show passion in an effective way in a job interview?  To start, it has to be authentic.  If you tell your interviewer that you’re passionate about a particular programming language, it won’t mean much to them.  If you’re actually passionate about a particular programming language, you’ll be able to tell stories that demonstrate that. Beyond authenticity, it’s important to be able to keep your professionalism as you describe your passion for customer service or elegant code.  IT staffing companies have an easy time finding jobs for people who can strike that balance between being easy to work with and having passion for their work.  For instance, it might be easy to speak condescendingly to an interviewer if you think you know more about a technology than they do.  However, that will make you seem like a terrible potential employee.  Lastly, make sure you can draw the connection between what you’re passionate about and how it’s key to the job.  Sometimes this will be obvious, but sometimes you may have to draw that connection for the interviewer.  Show a little bit of relevant, well-demonstrated passion to your interviewer and you’ll really impress them and your IT recruiting firms.  You may just land the job!

 

Is Job Experience Important for IT Job Seekers?

If you’re a recent grad working with IT recruiters and IT staffing firms to find your next IT jobs, you’re probably wondering if it’s best to add job experience to your resume, or use up that space with information about your studies and certifications.  While both are certainly important to IT staffing agencies and hiring managers, it’s important to know what exactly is valued in the IT industry.

The truth is that while IT recruiting firms and hiring managers need you to list the relevant skills for jobs, job experience, even if it’s not particularly relevant, should still be listed.  Recent studies show that without work experience, your chances of getting a job are severely diminished. The experience is actually just as important as your degree.  This holds true even in fields like IT, where degrees in things like computer science are highly regarded by IT staffing companies and technical recruiters.  So don’t let your work experience drop off your resume—it may just be what gets you the job!

Don’t Say This in IT Job Interviews

For most interviewees for IT jobs, no matter how much you prepare with your IT staffing firms and technical recruiters, questions about your greatest weakness are still intimidating.  The most common answer that hiring managers and IT recruiting agencies tend to hear seems like a good idea: “my weakness is that I’m a perfectionist.” Don’t be tempted to actually give this answer, though!

Because it’s such a cliché answer, telling your interviewer that you’re a perfectionist will mean that you’ve totally wasted that moment in your interview.  Even if you are indeed a perfectionist, you won’t impress your interviewer or your IT recruiting firms by saying it’s your biggest weakness.  Since it’s heard so often, it’s hard for anybody to take that answer seriously.  In fact, you may be letting your IT staffing agencies down by giving such an unimpressive answer.  Your interviewer may ding you a few points for giving such a meaningless response to their question.

So what should you say?  Work on a real, honest answer with your IT recruiters. Name a skill that’s not essential to the jobs you’re interviewing for and give an action plan for how you’re addressing it.  Something like this will actually impress an interviewer, especially if your action plan is thorough.

Questions NOT to Ask in Your IT Job Interviews

IT recruiters and IT staffing firms will usually help you prepare questions to bring to your IT job interviews.  Your technical recruiters can talk to you about what will interest and impress your interviewers. However, most IT recruiting companies will assume that you know what questions not to ask.  Check out this list to make sure you aren’t making a misstep and embarrassing yourself and your IT recruiting firms in the question part of your interviews.

Don’t ask any basic questions about the company.  If your IT staffing agencies don’t tell you directly, assume that you should research more about the company online yourself. It’s your job to know about the company—at least the basic info you could get from a quick Google search.  So don’t embarrass yourself and your IT staffing companies by making it obvious you haven’t done this research.

Don’t ask any questions that make you look like a clock watcher. Companies want somebody who is committed to and interested in their job.  If you appear to be interested in spending as little time as possible on the job at the interview, you’re definitely not going to impress your interviewer (or your IT recruiting agencies).

Lastly, don’t ask any questions about raises or promotions.  As mentioned above, hiring managers are looking for somebody who is interested in the job they’re trying to fill.  If you start asking questions that suggest you only see that job as a stepping stone, they’ll quickly want to end the interview.

 

Don’t Forget to Do This in IT Job Interviews!

If you’re interviewing for new IT jobs, you’ll benefit from watching your interviewer for signs of how well or poorly the interview is going.  You can prep ahead of time with your IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies.  But you’ll do yourself (and your technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies) a disservice if you don’t watch for these possible signs your interviewer is disinterested.

Their body language and tone of voice show disinterest.  You don’t need your IT staffing firms to tell you that if your interviewer seems uninterested during your interview and their body language gives the impression they’re closed off and not engaging with you, the interview is going poorly.

They mention other qualified candidates.  If your interviewer makes a pointed mention of other candidates, they may be attempting to lower your expectations. It’s not a sure sign, but it’s something to take into account.

They don’t make any mention of the next steps you or your IT staffing companies should take.  Again, this isn’t a sure sign, but it’s something to take into account.  Your interviewers may just directly contact your IT recruiting firms with the next steps, but if they’re very interested in you, it’s possible they make some mention of the rest of their hiring process to let you know they’re interested in you.

Why You May NOT Want Remote IT Jobs

Most IT recruiters and IT staffing firms are noticing a distinct uptick in preference for IT jobs that allow part or full-time remote work.  There are plenty of reasons whey IT recruiting companies aren’t surprised by this.  Remote work has plenty of benefits, IT staffing companies find pretty consistently.  Technical recruiters find parents of young children to be particularly interested in this kind of work because sometimes it’s compatible with child rearing and saves costs on daycare.  However, there are some reasons it’s worth reconsidering asking your IT recruiting agencies exclusively for remote work.

  1. Blurring the lines between work and home can be stressful. If your personal phone, your favorite couch, or your kitchen table become part of your new office, it becomes difficult to leave a bad day of work behind.  You may find it hard to disengage from work—either because of your own desire to just finish that last item or because a client can reach you at home all the time.  Either way, you can find yourself with a surprising lack of work-life balance.
  2. Your workspace can be distracting.  A home office has plenty of its own potential distractions, whether it’s noisy neighbors, kids who need attention, or a dirty kitchen you can’t stand not to clean.  You may find that the peace and quiet you expected when you jettisoned the office isn’t there at home.
  3. You may really miss connecting with your coworkers.  Not being at the office to chat with coworkers could have a few potential pitfalls.  You may simply be lonely, or it could actually be harder to work with your team.  Sometimes teambuilding is actually more necessary than you expect, and working remotely can reveal that.

 

Polishing your IT Resume and LinkedIn Profile– Language, Part 2

Last time we talked about how cleaning up the language in your Resume and LinkedIn profile will help to attract IT staffing firms and IT recruiters. In particular, we looked at avoiding using clichés to describe yourself (because they usually mean nothing to IT staffing agencies and waste valuable space on your resume or profile).  This time, we’ll focus on another way you can waste space with language and bore technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies: telling stories.

The best resumes, the ones IT recruiting firms are excited to submit to their clients, are the ones that succinctly display excellent skills and experience.  Resumes or LinkedIn profiles that ramble on, include long first person sentences, and contain full, detailed paragraphs, are the last thing IT staffing companies want to submit to their clients.

If your resume or LinkedIn profile looks like this, how can you fix it?  Start by breaking up your paragraphs into bullets.  Each bullet should contain a single idea, like “I’m skilled at these programming languages: C# and Java.” Now remove the any first person references and any excessive words.  Boil each bullet down to the simplest phrase you can.  For instance, “Skilled programmer in Java and C#.”  Repeat this process throughout your whole resume or profile until you have the sleekest, shortest version you can present to IT recruiting agencies.  This will win you far more attention from technical recruiters—and IT jobs!

 

 

 

Why You Should Cut the Flashy Things From Your IT Resume

If you’re posting your resume on boards like Monster, it’s easy to add flashy things to your resume like a special format or your photo. It might even seem like a way to attract IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies.  But the truth is, even if you’re a graphic designer, using flashy features on your resume isn’t going to appeal to IT recruiting companies and technical recruiters.  Why?

IT staffing companies and hiring managers want resumes with the right skills and experience.  When you spend more time creating a snazzy format or adding in your photo, you’re potentially taking way from your time to really craft and polish the content of your resume.  The worst case scenario is that even if you do take time to perfect and tweak the content of your resume and add flashy features, IT staffing companies might not know it.  They may skip right over your resume because often these kinds of gimmicks are used to hide poor experience and skills.  You may be running the risk of IT recruiting firms assume that your resume is actually worse because you’ve added a photo or unconventional format.  So don’t take the risk: save the time you would have spent picking and cropping a photo or creating a bright color scheme.  Use that time instead to focus on really editing your resume.  This is what will get you your dream IT jobs.

Do you Need IT Certifications to Land a Job?

If you’re currently searching for IT jobs, you may be wondering if IT recruiters, IT staffing companies, and hiring managers want you to have IT certifications.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a direct yes or no answer to this question.  You may not necessarily impress technical recruiters or IT recruiting firms if you have some IT certifications, while others could be a big factor in landing a job.  It’s easy to get confused with the 1900 plus certifications out there, so here are some tips for obtaining the right certifications to get IT recruiting companies and hiring managers to notice you.

Firstly, start by looking at job descriptions for jobs you’d like to hold one day.  Some of them will list the kinds of certifications they require or prefer.  Take note of them and how often they’re required or preferred.

Secondly, head over to LinkedIn and check out some groups that might be specifically catered to the jobs you’d like to hold one day.  Ask people about the certifications they have—or have chosen not to get.  Both are important to know.  If you don’t want to reach out to people directly, consider just checking out people’s profiles or the group discussions.  Both will probably show you a little bit about what certifications are useful and which ones are not.

Lastly, feel free to compare these notes with your IT staffing agencies.  Recruiters are likely to be happy to share their experience and what they’ve seen.  They can confirm if they’ve seen some of the same trends you think you’ve noticed in certifications.  It’s also a great idea to start a relationship with some IT staffing firms now, even if you’re not ready to search yet.  They’ll remember you when you are.

Finish Your IT Job Interviews Like a Pro

After preparing with your IT recruiters for IT job interviews, you’ll need to do some preparation on your own. Your best bet is not to just prepare to answer the questions your IT staffing companies tell you to expect.  You should also plan to be able to ask some questions of your own at the end of interview.  The answers to these questions can be important for you, of course.  But potentially more importantly, your technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies will be impressed if you can ask questions that leave a great lasting impression on the interviewers.  How do you ask a question that will land you the respect of your IT recruiting firms and possibly the IT jobs you’re interviewing for?  Here are some tips:

  1. Start your question by stating something that shows off your expertise in the field.  This will only work if you truly know of information that will impress your interviewers. For instance, you could say something along the lines of, ‘Since we’re seeing a trend in X, then how will it affect this role?’ You might try asking your IT recruiting companies if they think your question will be a good one to ask if you’re not sure.
  2. Use your question to show that you’ve done research on the company.  The trick is not to make the question feel like you already know the answer—or worse, don’t care about it.  Your interviewers will feel like you’re wasting time if your question feels like a hollow attempt to show off.  And your IT staffing firms won’t be too pleased with you either.
  3. Use your question to show that you’re excited about the job.  Again, the trick is to make sure your interviewers do feel like you’re interested in the answer.  Showing enthusiasm is important and so is asking good question that don’t seem like a waste of the interviewer’s time.