IT recruiting

Ask This Question at the End of Your IT Job Interviews

The questions you’ll ask your interviewers at the end of interviews need them to accomplish a couple things.  Obviously they should inform you.  IT staffing agencies would never recommend you ask a question you don’t really care about the answer to.  It will always come across as fake and make a bad impression on your interviewer.   Yet while you don’t want your interviewer to feel like you’re working hard to impress them, you do want your questions to impress your interviewer and IT recruiting companies.  This question will achieve both of these goals: What do you think will be the biggest challenges in this role and why?

Why will this question impress your interviewer and IT recruiters? Your IT staffing companies will be glad you asked this question is because it shows that you’re really considering what it will be like to take on this role.  Technical recruiters see plenty of candidates who spend interviews focusing on selling themselves.  This is only part of what you need to do to succeed. To impress hiring managers, you need to show them that you’d be a great fit for the role, but also that this role would be a good fit for you.  When you ask questions like this one, you show potential employers and IT recruiting firms that you’re really trying to suss out if this role will be a great fit for you, too!

 

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IT recruiters wouldn’t recommend you ask questions that you aren’t actually interested in the answers to.

 

Don’t Forget to Do This Before Your IT Job Interviews

If your IT recruiters set you up for IT job interviews, you’ve probably spent plenty of time preparing.  You probably studied relevant technologies and practiced answering the questions your technical recruiters told you to be prepared for.  You probably got background info on the company, both via your own research and from your IT staffing agencies.  But there’s one thing you may not have done that can really make a difference: practice getting yourself to the office you’ll be interviewing at.

Why would IT recruiting firms suggest that you do this, especially if you already know where that office is?  Firstly, you want to do everything you can to ensure you’re on time for your interview—not too early, not too late.  IT staffing firms would suggest you practice making your way to the interview site around the same time you’d do the interview, if you can.  (A commute that takes 30 minutes in the middle of the morning may take an hour in rush hour traffic!)  If you practice getting to the interview site, you’ll have a better idea of how much time it will take.  This means you can be able to guarantee that you show up just on time– and make a good first impression on your interviewer!

Secondly, IT recruiting agencies would suggest you practicing getting to the interview site in order to make it easier for you to relax the day of the interview.  If you’ve practiced, you can be confident and familiar in your route to get there. This will leave you free to mentally prepare to ace your interview.  If you don’t practice, you may have unforeseen issues (perhaps a certain road has construction, the train is never on time etc).  You could wind up feeling stressed and panicked before you even start interviewing.  Your IT recruiting companies want you to be ready to do your best in your interviews for IT jobs.  Don’t let your journey to the interview site get in the way of that!

 

IT Job Interview Preparation
What if the train is always late? Make sure you practice getting to your IT job interviews before you actually need to go! Photo credit: Unsplash via Pixabay.

 

Is Your Email Address Hurting Your IT Job Search?

If you’re ready to start working with IT recruiters to find a new IT role, you’ve probably already started doing the usual things in preparation.  You’ve polished your IT resume, you’ve updated your LinkedIn profile with any new IT jobs, and you’ve started reaching out to IT staffing firms.  There might be one step you’re skipping though: Creating an email address to use for your job search.

Of course, not everybody needs to create a new email address before reaching out to IT recruiting agencies to start their job search.  Plenty of people have email addresses that are unique and professional enough that technical recruiters wouldn’t bat an eye at them.  How do you know if you need a new email address for your job search? Ask yourself these questions.

Would your email address be better on a dating site?  If it’s too flirty or gives information that belongs in a dating profile (you love dogs, you’re an avid skier, a single woman, etc) don’t use it.  This is too distracting for IT staffing agencies and hiring managers.  It’s also not the most professional way to present yourself, especially when you are presenting so little about yourself.  Little things like this make a big impact.

Is your email address entirely yours?  Don’t give an email address you share with your spouse or partner.  You also shouldn’t give an email address that has your work domain.  If you don’t have an email address that is entirely yours, create one!  Your IT recruiting firms need to be able to easily communicate with you alone about your search.  Your don’t want anybody else involved in the conversation, even if you think your spouse or company wouldn’t read these emails.

Make sure your email address doesn’t trigger spam filters.  Extra punctuation or characters and certain words will make it more likely that IT recruiting companies never see your emails.  Don’t derail your job search for a few characters.  Create a new email address and get cracking on your job search with your IT staffing companies.

 

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What does your email address say about you as an IT professional? Photo credit: Geralt via Pixabay.

 

2 Insider Tips About IT Job Hunting

Sometimes it helps to get a bit of a hiring manager’s perspective as you work with IT recruiters to land your next role.    Here are two things that IT staffing firms see that are more ‘behind the scenes’ (but will still be very relevant to IT professionals).

  1. Even if your technical skills are perfect, you may not be the right fit for IT jobs. Technical recruiters see this all the time: hiring managers don’t just want somebody with the perfect arsenal of technical proficiencies.  Having a professional demeanor or certain soft skills are often just as important.  As you prepare for your interviews, ask your IT staffing companies for a full picture of what the ideal candidate is.  This might help you perform a bit better in your interviews.
  2. Your interviewer may not know exactly what they need yet. Especially in IT, the hiring process can be very dynamic.  IT recruiting agencies find that companies can sometimes change the requirements of an IT job even after interviews have begun or resumes have been reviewed.  Companies need to keep up with the speed of technologies.  Sometimes the effect of that is that the IT jobs your IT staffing agencies submitted you for this week will be a little different next week. Or perhaps you may be helping out on different projects than you (or the hiring managers)  initially anticipated.

 

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A perfect list of technical skills doesn’t guarantee you the IT job. Photo credit: geralt via Pixabay.

 

 

Why It’s Important to Be Pleasant in IT Job Interviews

When your IT recruiters help you prepare for job interviews, they’ll usually go over things like what technologies you should brush up on or the main responsibilities of the role.  What your IT staffing companies probably assume (and hope) you already know about are the soft skills necessary for interviewing for IT jobs.  Probably one of the most important things you must do in IT job interviews is be pleasant.

Why is this important?  There are two main reasons.  Firstly, you need to make sure your interviewer can see that you’ll be pleasant to work with.  Your IT recruiting firms will already have made a case for you as a strong candidate because of your technical skills and experience.  When you go into the interview, your job is to build on that impression, then show that you’ve got the necessary soft skills for the job.  On a very basic level, this means having great communication skills and a positive attitude.  If you’re not pleasant at your interview, you’re failing on this very important part.

The second reason you need to be pleasant at your IT job interviews is because you want to make the interview process easier on your interviewer.  Just as interviewing is hard for you, it may be difficult for your interviewer.  They may be taking time away from an already full plate to interview candidates.  They may get nervous, just as you do.  Bringing the right demeanor and attitude to your interview will make the process much better for your interviewer.  The better you make this process for your interviewer, the more likely it is that your IT staffing agencies will hear that you got the job!

 

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Don’t leave your smile at home. Being pleasant is imperative in IT job interviews. Photo credit: dilsileimonteiro via Pixabay.

 

Don’t Do This in IT Job Interviews

Here’s one way to guarantee that your IT recruiters hear that you aren’t getting the role: badmouth any of your bosses, coworkers, or end-users/clients.  While most technical recruiters mention this at some point to candidates, there are still a staggering number of IT professionals who forget this advice in interviews.

Why is this a terrible mistake to make?  There are a few reasons why IT staffing firms would recommend you never, ever say negative things about your employers, cowokers, etc. It might seem like you’re making the people you badmouth look bad, but you’re really making yourself look bad.  Your interviewers might wonder if you have hard time getting along with people.  Particularly in a lot of IT jobs, being agreeable and easy to work with is important.  Sometimes you might be supporting a wide range of coworkers, end-users, or bosses.  Perhaps you have to work closely in a team; or even code with a partner.  Whatever the case, you want to look like you’re very easy to work with. Another reason you should never badmouth coworkers, bosses, etc is that you want to look like a positive person overall.  Sometimes jobs will be difficult.  Whether it’s a difficult coworker or a tough program to debug, your hiring manager needs to know that you’ll be emotionally resilient and work hard.

How do you avoid doing this mistake in the future?  Let’s say you genuinely want a new job because your boss is abusive or your coworkers are truly difficult to deal with.  If you’re asked why you’re working with IT recruiting firms to find a new job, you can go with a different (but still valid) reason.  Perhaps you can mention your IT staffing companies are helping you find a job with new challenges, or you want to gain experience working with a specific technology. If you’re not asked at all about this, simply don’t mention it.  Your IT recruiting agencies and IT staffing firms set the stage to make you look great for the job— use your time with an interviewer to continue this work.  Don’t waste it saying negative things about other people.

 

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Showing anger and frustration in an IT job interview is a big no-no. Photo credit: PublicDomainImages via Pixabay.

 

Did You Make This Mistake in Your IT Job Interview?

You might have done everything right as you prepared with your IT recruiters for your interviews.  You might have done the research, practiced answering questions your technical recruiters suggested, and prepared some good questions to ask the interviewer.  Maybe your IT staffing firms got some bad feedback anyways and you didn’t land the role.  What went wrong?  Unless your IT recruiting companies got very specific feedback (which they often don’t), you’ll have to guess what went wrong.  Here’s one reason you may have messed up: You came across as too desperate.

How can it be bad for the interviewer to know that you really, really want the role?  IT recruiting firms do want you to show interest in the role.  But especially in IT, where the unemployment rate is so low, coming across as desperate might make it seem like you’re having a hard time landing IT jobs (in a great market).  Another problem with wanting the job too much is that you probably miss expressing how much you can do for the company or team.  A good match is one in which both the IT professional and the company think they’d benefit.  A good hire is balanced– which it cannot be if you are too desperate for the role! Your IT staffing agencies will have a much easier time placing you in a job if you come across as interested in a role, but also confident that the company will be interested in you.

 

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Desperation is sure to end your role to IT job interview success. Photocredit: Geralt via Pixabay.

 

How To Describe Yourself in IT Job Interviews

One question that IT recruiting firms will want you to be ready for in IT job interviews is something along the lines of ‘How would you describe yourself ?’  (A common variation on this is ‘How would your colleagues describe you?’).  There are a lot of ways to answer this question, of course.  It’s worth knowing, though, that there are a couple things you need to avoid saying so that your IT staffing agencies and IT recruiters don’t get bad feedback.

Firstly, IT staffing companies would advise that you don’t give an answer that is too subjective.  It will be hard to say something completely objective.  However, especially in IT, where things are constantly backed up with numbers, percentages, and hard data, the best answer will be something you can back up with a story, accomplishment, or example.  For instance, don’t say that your coworkers think you’re funny.  This doesn’t really advance your candidacy, nor is it something you can back up well.  Instead you might say that you’ve got good communication or relationship-building skills.  Then back it up by saying that you’ve made great relationships throughout your previous companies (which of course helped you succeed in these IT jobs).

Secondly, technical recruiters would advise you to avoid answering this question with things that will make you sound arrogant or difficult to work with. You do want to highlight skills and achievements that would make you a great candidate.  But there are ways to describe yourself as competent without sounding full of yourself.  For example, there’s certainly a difference between calling yourself brilliant and saying that you are confident in your abilities in particular technologies or programming languages.  IT staffing firms have a much easier time placing people in jobs when they’re both competent and pleasant people to work with.

 

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You might be funny, but IT job interviews aren’t really the time to talk about it. Photo credit: 1095178 via Pixabay.

 

Don’t Be Thrown Off by This Tricky IT Job Interview Question

It’s very common for IT recruiters to hear that the candidates they work with get a little thrown off by questions in interviews. Sometimes even if you’ve prepared with your technical recruiters and on your own, you get asked a question you weren’t expecting.  Here’s one question (and the answer) that IT staffing companies find often trips IT professionals up: Is there anything I should know that’s not on your resume?

It’s easy to see why this trips candidates up: you spend a lot of time polishing your resume with your technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies—shouldn’t it encompass everything interviewers need to know?  Sure, your IT staffing firms definitely will help you send out your best version of your resume.  However, this question is meant to give you a chance to talk about things that are relevant to the job, but wouldn’t make the cut for your resume because they might be harder to quantify or are more related to your personal life.

What are some good ways to answer this question? One strategy that IT recruiting companies often recommend is that you take this opportunity to talk about hobbies that might be very relevant to the role or just your work style.  Perhaps you run marathons, build intricate models, or are a Boy Scout leader.  These probably don’t apply directly to IT jobs you’re interviewing for, but they probably help you hone soft skills that are necessary for the job.  Does your running teach you endurance in difficult circumstances?  Does building models help you practice patient tenacity in problem-solving?  Does working with Boy Scouts give you great communication and leadership skills?  Tell the interviewer about it now and strengthen your candidacy just a little more before you finish that interview!

 

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Do you have a hobby that helps you develop a relevant soft skill? Photocredit: kgolfpro via Pixabay.

 

 

2 Questions You Should Never Ask in IT Job Interviews

Most IT professionals hear from their IT recruiters and IT staffing companies that it’s really important to be prepared to ask questions at the end of IT job interviews.  While technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies would rather you ask pretty much any question rather than none, there are some questions that are truly detrimental.  Here are two questions that would severely hurt your chance of getting IT jobs.

  1. Don’t ask any questions about the company that you could have found the answers to on their website, via Google, or by asking your IT staffing agencies. Make sure you take time to do your own research and get some quick background info from your IT recruiting firms. You don’t want to look like you’re unprofessional, lazy, or unprepared.
  2. Don’t ask if they’ll want to run drug tests and/or background or credit checks. Your IT recruiting companies will let you know if these steps are necessary.  These questions also might make it look like you have something to hide. Especially if you don’t have anything to hide, this is an unnecessary risk to your candidacy.

 

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Don’t ask any questions you could find from some basic online research. Photo credit: ChristianHoppe via Pixabay.