Tag Archives: IT jobs

2 Reasons IT Professionals Fail Phone Interviews

IT recruiters set IT professionals up for phone interviews for IT jobs a lot. IT staffing companies also spend plenty of time trying to prep people for these phone interviews. Here are two of the top reasons technical recruiters and IT staffing firms find that people flub phone interviews.

1.    You weren’t enthusiastic enough.  IT recruiting agencies hear this a lot.  Candidates don’t advance beyond the phone interview because they sounded flat and uninterested in the job.  This is so easy to avoid. Bring a little more energy to your phone interviews because the interviewer only gets to hear your voice.  While in person your facial expressions and posture can give more of an impression, you don’t have that on the phone. Compensate by being just a little bit more energetic and enthused and your IT staffing agencies will probably hear some good news for you.

2.    Your communication skills were bad.  Especially in client-facing roles or roles where you communicate often with your team or end users, this is really important.  Your IT recruiting firms won’t hear positive feedback if you can’t establish rapport with your phone interviewer—no matter how good your technical proficiencies are!

 

How Honest Should You Be in IT Job Interviews?

Interviews for IT jobs can be intimidating, even if you’ve prepped with your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies ahead of time. One of the things that can be very confusing to IT professionals is where to find the balance between saying something that will reflect well on them and their IT staffing companies and technical recruiters and saying something that is honest.  Here are some tips that IT recruiting firms would recommend so you are more likely to land the job.

Firstly, know what your deal-breakers are.  Do you hate customer service roles?  Do you despise being locked away to code by yourself for hours?  You need to be honest about these things so your IT staffing agencies don’t wind up getting you hired in a job that makes you miserable.  If the job won’t be a good fit, definitely be honest.

Second, try asking some clarifying questions to see if you know what the interviewer wants to hear.  Don’t just assume off the bat you know what kind of qualities are needed to succeed in the role.  A clarifying question helps you tailor your responses so they’re both honest and get your IT recruiting companies some excellent feedback on you!

Lastly, keep things positive.  If you’re going to be honest about some negative experiences you’ve had, times you made mistakes, dislikes, etc, always look for the positive way to spin it.  Your IT recruiting agencies want you to be honest, but they don’t want you to be a sourpuss who’s difficult to work with.  Mistakes can be learning opportunities.  Bad experiences may have taught you new coping skills.  These are the things that make you seem like a competent, capable human.  And that’s what your interviewer really wants!

 

Go Beyond Just Polishing your IT Resume for your IT Job Hunt

When you’re searching for new IT jobs, you already know to do the basics: polish your resume, update your LinkedIn profile, and get back in touch with your technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies.  There are a few more steps your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies would recommend you do, though.  The most important is to clean up your social media accounts.

Why do IT recruiting companies recommend you clean up your social media trail?  While it’s still important not to do things like bashing your boss, team, or employers on your Facebook account or Twitter, this all becomes magnified when you’re working with IT recruiting firms to get a new job.  You want to sanitize any social media accounts you have so they are free from excessive party and alcohol-centered pictures, jokes in poor taste, and anything that indicates extreme religious or political beliefs.

The last one might seem less intuitive, but it’s basically meant to protect you from the chance that you could inadvertently offend a potential employer or hiring manager.  While IT recruiting agencies might know that you are more than your political or religious beliefs, your potential employers don’t know much about you at all.  They’re forced to draw quick conclusions from anything they learn about you.  So play it very safe until you land an IT job: delete any posts that could offend on your social media accounts.

 

1 Easy Way to Make Your IT Resume More Effective

There is plenty of advice out there on how to polish your resume to attract IT recruiters and IT staffing companies.  While some advice is mediocre, here is one tip that will definitely get you a lot more attention from technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies: Break up and cut down any big blocks of text in your IT resumes.

Why will this make a difference to IT recruiting companies?  It’s all about making it easier for IT staffing firms to see that you’re a great fit for a job.  When IT recruiting firms are trying to find the best IT professional for a job, they’re looking at hundreds of resumes. It really slows readers down when your resume is full of dense blocks of text—and time is of the essence for IT recruiters.  So make it more likely that IT recruiting agencies will be able to quickly scan your resume and see how accomplished and experienced you are.  Use bullet points that are concise and cut out extra info that’s too technical or unnecessary.  It might just help you win your next IT jobs!

Do This at Your Next IT Job Interviews

IT professionals who are working with technical recruiters and IT staffing companies are probably well-versed in making sure hiring managers can see they’re a fit for IT jobs.  Most IT recruiters and IT staffing firms help their candidates prepare to show they fit the basic needs for a role.  What can really impress your interviewers (and in turn your IT recruiting agencies) is if you can make it obvious that you’re a unique fit for this role.

What does this mean exactly? Sometimes it’s obvious: you’ve got 4 years of experience using a technology when they only ask for 2.  Sometimes you need to be a bit more creative.  Perhaps you have some background in a tangentially-related subject.  (For example, you majored in Biology and you’re interviewing at a Biotech company.)  Maybe you’ve created a kind of database or program that this company doesn’t currently use, but could be useful to them.

The point isn’t to reach–  this will just come across as desperate, disingenuous, and a waste of time.  If you think your IT staffing agencies can help, run some ideas by them.  If you can find some way to show that you’re not just a fit, but an especially good fit for this job, then you’re all the more likely to land it.

Answering “Why Are You Interested in this IT Role?”

Most IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies will prepare you to answer a few basic questions in interviews.  One of the most common ones that your technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies will tell you to be ready to answer is “What interests you about this role?” Here are a few tips to make sure you give the kind of answer that will make your IT recruiting firms and IT staffing companies proud to represent you.

1.    Don’t talk about why you need to leave your current job or field.  You’ll be wasting time you could be strengthening your candidacy if you vent.  You’ll also create a negative image of yourself.

2.    Make sure you talk about what excites you about this role and company.  Give some concrete specifics to make your answer stronger.  Help your interviewers picture you succeeding on their team.

3.    Keep your answer organized and focused.  This answer will be important, so don’t go off on any tangents, repeat yourself, or ramble.  Try to think about the main points you want to make, then stick to them.  This is the kind of interview behavior that lands IT jobs.

IT Salaries Are Rising in 2015

IT professionals have done well, even through the past recessions, but surveys are showing that 2015 has been very good to those in IT jobs.  Until recently, most IT recruiters and IT staffing companies have seen that only a slight majority of programmers, BA’s, project managers, etc received yearly raises.  As 2015 starts rounding up, technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies can now see a whopping 67% of the candidates they work with receiving raises in compensation.

IT staffing firms and IT recruiting agencies have not only seen an increase in those who received raises, but also a marked decrease in IT professionals who have received pay cuts.  If this wasn’t enough good news, bonuses have also increased on average nationwide.  All of this is a good sign for the IT jobs market, so keep your IT recruiting companies close and your resume polished.

 

IT Job Interviews for Introverts

Interviewing for IT jobs is pretty intimidating to most IT professionals.  Many will consult with their IT recruiters and IT staffing firms at length about what IT skills to highlight, what interpersonal skills to highlight, etc.  If you’re an introvert, interviewing for jobs can be even more nerve-wracking.  While you can prep with your technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies for any obvious questions your interviewer might ask, there is one aspect that you’ll have to prepare for on your own: small talk.

While this might literally seem like small thing, for some IT jobs it’s not.  IT staffing companies and IT recruiting agencies regularly are given jobs that require excellent customer service skills or the ability to work well with clients or a team.  If you can’t show some ability to do small talk, it could kill your candidacy.  Try to make sure you push yourself to do a bit of small talk (with energy and enthusiasm!) at the beginning and end of the interview.  These are the points you’ll make the biggest impression.  If you’re nervous, think about a few questions or topics that could be relevant: neighborhood restaurants near the office, seasonal activities, etc.  Keep it light and positive.  Your IT recruiting firms will be hearing great feedback in no time if you take these tips to your next interview!

 

An IT Job Interview Mistake You May Not Know You’re Making!

Great IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies help their candidates fully prepare for interviews.  And great IT professionals put a lot of work into prepping for interviews on their own.  But you can still miss landing the IT jobs, even if you prepare well.  One surprising reason that your IT staffing companies and technical recruiters might relay to you that you didn’t get the job: your answers sounded more like you were focused on saying what they wanted to hear than giving a truthful, genuine answer.

Why would this be a problem?  While taking your preparation and tips from IT recruiting firms seriously is important, interviewers really want to get a good sense of your technical proficiencies, experience, and personality.  If your answers sound like something your IT staffing firms and IT recruiting agencies helped you carefully construct to meet expectations, they will just frustrate the interviewer. You’ll be obstructing their hiring process, which will guarantee some bad feedback to your IT recruiting companies! To avoid this issue, focus on making sure your answers are honest and helpful, not just finessed and polished.

How to Impress Interviewers for IT Jobs

IT staffing companies and IT recruiters can usually help you prepare for your job interviews.  They can tell you what technologies to study up on, what experience the role requires, and probably what kind of personality would do well at the company.  But your technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies can’t do one thing for you that is key in landing IT jobs: showing enthusiasm.

Why is showing enthusiasm so necessary in the interview process?  As most IT recruiting firms can attest, technical experience and skills are important, but so is interest in the position.  Motivated IT professionals achieve far more than unmotivated ones.  So even if your IT staffing firms don’t talk to you about it, make sure to show some obvious enthusiasm for the company and the role—it could be the difference between landing and losing the job.