Don’t Let Tough Questions Sink You in IT Job Interviews
If you’re working with IT recruiting companies to find your next IT job, your IT recruiters will likely give you some idea of questions to prepare for before interviews. Even with plenty of practice and research, most IT professionals do encounter some questions that are just uncomfortable to answer. For instance, IT recruiting agencies often find that candidates who have been fired don’t enjoy answering ‘Have you ever been fired before?’ Here’s how IT staffing firms would suggest you deal with it if you get asked a question that you don’t feel good about answering.
- Don’t be vague or try to hide anything. Your technical recruiters don’t want you to spill your guts about every gory detail of a firing, unpleasant situation, weakness, etc. However, they also want you to make your interviewer feel like you’re untrustworthy. Interviewers can usually tell when you want to hide something, and they don’t give your IT staffing companies good feedback when that happens.
- Try to stay calm. You can guide how your interviewer feels about your answers to a question by appearing comfortable yourself. If you are visibly nervous, ashamed, or upset by something, your interviewer is all the more likely to feel like it’s a bad thing. IT staffing agencies want you to remember that everyone has flaws. Seeing those flaws clearly and having a plan for how to work on them is what sets you apart.
Don’t assume your IT recruiting firms will always tell you that you lost IT jobs because you’ve had to divulge less than flattering info about yourself. Whatever the question, there’s usually a way to respond to it honestly, but without reflecting poorly on you. (For example, if you’ve been fired before, you can state that simply– and mention what you learned from it.) It’s even possible to turn uncomfortable questions into an opportunity to show something positive about yourself as an IT professional.
Don’t Say This Phrase in Your IT Job Interviews
When you’re interviewing for IT jobs, there are plenty of clichés you may be temped to reach for. IT recruiters can understand this. Saying you’re a ‘team player’ or that you’ll ‘be the first one in and the last one out’ may actually be true. The problem is that these clichés have become pretty meaningless. IT staffing firms can guarantee it won’t help you at all in job interviews to reach for any of these common phrases. Here is one particularly harmful one that IT staffing companies would suggest you avoid: ‘I’m a quick learner!’
Why will your IT recruiting companies want you to avoid saying this in your interviews? As discussed above, the phrase has been rendered pretty meaningless. You may make yourself look a bit unprepared for the interview or even damage your candidacy by using such a meaningless phrase. Good candidates can speak about their assets in specifics and are often prepared with concrete examples of professional achievements.
If you’re tempted to say you’re a ‘quick learner’ or something along these lines, here’s what IT staffing agencies would suggest instead. Take a breath and reach for an anecdote about a time you actually did this. Was there a time you needed to learn a new programming language in a short time? Was there a time you needed to assimilate quickly to a team’s processes? By telling these stories, you’re demonstrating your value to your interviewer. Not only that, but you’re doing so in a way that helps them imagine you in the role you’re interviewing for. So at your next interview, remember that your IT recruiting agencies will be more likely to give you good news about your interview if you stay away from saying you’re a quick learner!
Make Time To Practice This Before IT Job Interviews
As you prep for job interviews, here’s one way to give yourself an advantage: practice speaking about a professional achievement in a brief, but comprehensive way. Here’s how IT staffing firms would recommend you do this.
- IT recruiting agencies would suggest you start by identifying some of your major professional achievements. These might be obvious, but they could be things that seem smaller, like putting in extra work to make sure a project was delivered on time for end users. Make a list for yourself.
- Go over the descriptions your IT recruiters gave you for the IT jobs you’ll be interviewing for. Try to pinpoint if any of the achievements on your list will be especially pertinent to these jobs.
- Once you’ve selected the best achievements, think about them in terms of three things. Figure out what exactly you did, what the impact was, and if there were any particular groups that benefited (like end users, clients, your team, etc).
- Now practice talking about each achievement in these terms. IT recruiting firms would suggest you practice speaking with a friend, family member, or in front of the mirror. Use a timer and try limiting yourself to 2-4 minutes at most. The reason IT staffing companies would suggest you limit your time here is that it will keep you from making a few mistakes. You won’t be able to get too technical (something that technical recruiters have certainly seen ruin interviews), nor will you be able to sound too arrogant or take the interview off track.
- When you find an opportune moment in an interview, don’t be afraid to pull this ace out of your pocket. You don’t want to sound rehearsed, but practicing and thinking about how to talk about your professional achievements ahead of time will make you much more succinct and effective!
4 Steps to Landing an IT Job that Makes You Happy
As you interview for IT jobs, your top concern is likely whether you are prepared for and/or can succeed at the kind of programming, debugging, troubleshooting, etc that the role requires. While IT recruiters would definitely advise asking questions about the scope of the work the role will require, it’s also important to think about the corporate culture. Why would IT staffing companies suggest you make this a priority in your decision-making process? Because if you aren’t happy or don’t fit into the team and company culture, IT recruiting firms can almost guarantee it will be hard for you to really succeed in your role. IT staffing firms see plenty of talented IT professionals fail at jobs because they can’t get along well with their teams, bosses, or end users and clients. Here’s how to make sure you land a job where you’re not just a great fit for the work, but also the culture!
- Think about what kind of workplaces you’ve succeeded in previously. What made them comfortable for you? The pace of work? The communication styles of team members? Did you have standup meetings? Did you communicate directly with clients or end users? Take some notes for yourself.
- Talk to your technical recruiters. Ask them if the roles you’re interviewing for have these elements to their corporate culture. Make sure they’re clear on what will and won’t work for you. Good IT recruiting agencies don’t want to place you in jobs where you’ll have a hard time fitting into the culture.
- Research online. Check out Glassdoor reviews and see what the company says about its own corporate culture on its website or social media accounts.
- Come to the interview with questions. If you have specific questions about the corporate culture, you’ll make an even better impression on your interviewer. If you don’t have any specific questions, more general questions will still help you make a better decision. Try asking what people enjoy about working at the company. Ask what people don’t like about working at the company. Ask about what personal qualities make people successful (or not!) at the company.
This May Be the Most Important Part of Your IT Resume to Update
Often, when IT recruiters and hiring managers are looking over resumes to fill IT jobs, they don’t have the time to really scrutinize them in detail. If you’re an IT professional who may want to attract technical recruiters to help in your job search, this means you need to make it easy for IT staffing agencies to quickly confirm you’re a great fit for positions. One surefire way to do this? Create a thorough, well-formatted ‘Technical Skills’ section at the top of your resume.
IT recruiting firms often see that candidates will update their experience, but may not create– or just as bad, update– a section that solely lists their technical skills and certifications. If you leave skills off this section, you might just be losing IT staffing companies’ interest. Often this is the first part of the resume that IT recruiters will scan. It will also help to keep and maintain IT staffing agencies’and hiring managers’ interest if you format your technical skills section in a neat, easy-to-read manner. Complicated or messy diagrams may lead IT recruiting companies to pass on your resume or to miss an important skill. The last and most important thing to keep in mind is that you should put your technical skills section right at the top of your resume. By making this section the first thing people read, it will help IT recruiting agencies to be able to quickly decide you’re a good fit for a position.
Tips For Better Research Before Your IT Job Interviews
You’ve probably already heard from your IT recruiters that you need to research a company before going to interview for IT jobs there. Besides brushing up on relevant technologies and skills for the role, any IT staffing firms will tell you that knowing about the company is the most imperative part of interview prep. If you really want to stand out, though, you need to direct your research in a more targeted way than simply Googling the company. Here are 2 ways that IT recruiting companies would suggest you approach your research.
1. Look for what the company is proud of. Your first step here may be just asking your technical recruiters if they can list anything for you, as they know the client best. Next, check the company’s website for a press or awards page. If they don’t have anything like this, be sure to Google the company to see if they’ve been honored or achieved anything impressive. Being able to rattle off some of the company’s recent achievements or awards will help build a nice rapport with your interviewer because it gives them a moment to feel positive—and perhaps direct some of the positivity towards you! Additionally, knowing this information shows that you’re knowledgeable about the company. If you think it will sound natural, try to note some of these points in speaking about why you want to work with the company.
2. Look for information about the company’s competitors or industry. Plenty of IT staffing agencies work with candidates who research the company itself. You can set yourself apart by extending beyond this view to a bigger picture. Are there major issues in this company’s industry? Interesting new technologies that competitors are using? If you can find a way to briefly mention this kind of information in your interview, your IT recruiting firms are likely to hear some great feedback about you.
Don’t Let This ‘Surprise’ Mess Up Your IT Job Interview
IT recruiters hear about a lot of things that throw IT professionals off in an interview. No matter how diligently candidates prepare, surprises can still pop up that your IT staffing agencies couldn’t have predicted for you. Here’s one potential surprise that you can prepare yourself for: a grumpy or disinterested interviewer. It’s easy to see why IT recruiting companies hear that a grumpy or disinterested interviewer really throws candidates off. At best, it’s uncomfortable. At worst, it’s a sign of a difficult boss or work environment. If you encounter an interviewer who isn’t very friendly or enthusiastic, here’s how to deal with it gracefully.
Firstly, try not to take this personally or as a definite sign of a bad work environment. IT staffing firms work with plenty of employers who have good reasons why they’re unenthused about an interview. Perhaps they’re already slammed at work and don’t have time to do interviews on top of that. Maybe they’re dealing with personal issues outside of work. Your interviewer may just be having a terrible day. Keep in mind that interviewers are people and they deal with the same issues as the rest of us.
Secondly, IT recruiting firms would suggest that you complete the interview cheerfully and to the best of your ability. Try to pretend the interviewer isn’t in a bad mood. This also means not showing concern or asking what’s wrong. In any other circumstance, a little sympathy would go a long way. In an interview, you don’t want to be cold, but you do need to stay on track. Trying to cater to your interviewer’s emotions could distract you, your interviewer, or just make things awkward.
The last thing IT staffing companies would suggest is to reach out to your technical recruiters after your interview. Let them know how it went. Ask them if they think this is a sign of other issues for the team or if it’s more of a temporary thing that you can just disregard. Your IT recruiting agencies want you to land in a job that you’re happy– it’s hard to be successful otherwise!
Why Do IT Recruiters Need Your Most Updated Resume?
When you’re searching for new IT jobs, polishing up your resume is important whether you’re working with IT recruiting firms or not. While it’s obvious that you need to update your own resume when you’re searching on your own, many candidates assume that IT staffing companies will update their resumes for them. While technical recruiters do go over your resume and lightly edit it, they can’t provide a great portrait of your career if you can’t give them something to work with.
It behooves you to give the best, most polished version of your resume to your IT recruiters because you are the person who knows your career and professional achievements best. Your IT recruiting agencies will know how to tailor what you give them to entice a hiring manager. Think about the process like cooking. Your IT recruiting companies might be the chefs, but even the best chefs can’t cook something great if they’re missing half the ingredients for the recipe.
Remember that as the candidate, you’re very invested in the outcome of this process. If your IT staffing firms can’t send over a great resume for you, you’re not going to land any IT jobs. So take the time to give them a great, general resume to work from. It may yield you a great IT job in the end!
Don’t Forget To Make This Point in Your IT Job Interviews
There are a lot of ways to prep for your IT job interviews. You probably already spend plenty of time gathering information from your IT recruiters, researching the company online, and practicing your answers with a family member or in front of the mirror. You’ve likely brushed up on technologies your technical recruiters told you to. Here’s one thing your IT staffing firms would suggest you don’t forget: Make sure to blatantly state your interest in the position for your interviewer.
Many technical recruiters find that their candidates assume that just by going to the interview they think they’re expressing interested in IT jobs. This simply isn’t true, though. The purpose of an interview is actually for both employer and candidate to explore whether the position is a good fit. You may hear something at an interview that makes you decide the job is definitely—or definitely not—a great fit for you. Unless you tell your interviewer, they won’t know for sure if you still are interested. Additionally, IT staffing companies also find that employers prefer it when candidates show enthusiasm about the role, work, company, etc. Giving a strong, deliberate statement of interest will achieve this effect.
So how do you make sure you do this well? IT recruiting firms would suggest that you simply give a direct statement, preferably near the end of the interview. You don’t need to gush (and in fact shouldn’t). Instead, being precise and even-keeled in your tone will work best here. Note that after hearing more about the role, you think it would be a great fit for a few particular reasons. Be articulate here and consider trying to name at least one reason that benefits the company, too. Later, when you write the thank you note for your IT recruiting agencies to give on your behalf, make sure to repeat your interest in the role again. Being open about this may just land you the job!
Remember This During Your IT Job Interviews
Have you ever wondered why your interviewers often ask you about your career, even if your IT staffing agencies have already given them copies of your resume? Here are a couple reasons why your interviewer may need you to walk them through information that’s already on the resumes your IT recruiting firms have provided them with.
- They simply don’t remember it. IT recruiters would suggest you not take this personally at all. Your interviewer may be talking to many candidates. They may be handling various projects at the same time—in addition to interviewing. If your interviewer asks you about something that’s already on your resume, your technical recruiters would urge you to answer it pleasantly anyways. Being rude or condescendingly pointing out that the information is on the resume definitely won’t land you any IT jobs!
- Your interviewer may have questions because your resume is full of technical details. Especially in IT, resumes can be long and full of complicated details for various projects. Don’t be upset if your interviewer needs to ask you something that is already covered on your resume. Your IT staffing companies would urge you to patiently respond to any questions, remembering that your resume might be too long and complicated for them to remember perfectly.
- Your interviewer might be less technical, and thus need you to re-word or explain things on your resume. Your IT recruiting agencies may be able to let you know this before the interview, but sometimes they may not. If your interviewer isn’t as familiar with the technologies you’ve worked with, or possibly isn’t technical at all, they may ask you questions that you’d think your resume can answer. Again, your IT staffing firms would suggest you answer them patiently and offer to clarify further if needed. The key here is to make sure you demonstrate an ability to communicate well, even with people who have less experience or understanding of certain technologies. This can be a moment where you really cement your candidacy!
