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IT staffing firms and technical recruiters will almost always prep you for the technical questions you’ll face in interviews for IT jobs or what you should wear.  However, the best IT recruiters can’t prepare you for how to milk every question in an interview.  The good news is this is a skill you can learn on your own, without the help of IT staffing agencies or IT recruiting firms.  Here are some tips on how to use every question of a job interview to highlight your own skill-set and experience, wow your interviewer, and make sure you’re the kind of IT contractor that IT staffing companies can place over and over again.

Ever had a question about experience or skills you don’t exactly have?  Don’t just answer no in these instances.  Take that moment to do a few things.  Firstly, suss out what the interviewer is asking about.  Do they want to know about a more general skill you do have or a kind of on-the-job experience (like ‘dealing with difficult coworkers or clients’) that you could easily suggest is similar to something you already do or have done?  You don’t have to go overboard, but really examining the questions they ask you and thinking about what they’re looking for in a candidate will make you look very hirable.  The best candidates for a job don’t just take its description at face value.  They also try to parse all the nuances of a job and figure out what success at that job looks like.

Once you know exactly what the interviewer is looking for, try to make a (graceful) connection here to showcase skills and experience that you have.  You may not have exactly the experience or skill the interviewer is seeking, but you might have something similar.  Highlight this for your interviewer.  Doing this will ensure they really see your full value as a candidate.