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Tag Archives: IT jobs

Don’t Leave Your IT Job Interviews Before You Make These Points!

As you wrap up your IT jobs interview, you want to make sure you’ve left the best impression with your interviewer that you can.  Maybe you practiced answering a few questions with your IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies.  Perhaps there are certain technologies your technical recruiters and IT staffing firms told you to make sure you demonstrated proficiency and experience in. Here are a few more points you want to get across to your interviewer to really seal the deal (and impress your IT staffing companies and IT recruiting agencies).

1.    Make sure to show your interest in the role and the work itself.  Don’t be desperate, but don’t assume the interviewer will just pick up on it.  Explicitly state that you’re interested in the kind of work the role requires and that you think you could succeed in that team.

2.    You’re ready to make a measurable impact quickly.  Try to prep some ideas of how you’d start succeeding in the role ASAP.  Make sure the interviewer can see that you’ve really thought about the role and what you can bring to it.

 

 

Don’t Say This in IT Job Interviews!

Most IT recruiters and IT staffing firms would agree that it’s good to appear flexible in interviews for IT jobs.  If you’re too rigid on anything – timing, the kind of work culture you want, compensation, etc, it will pretty much guarantee that hiring managers will tell your technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies that you’re a bad fit.  You want to appear easy to work with and being too rigid definitely destroys that impression.  There is one thing you don’t want to be too flexible on either, though: the kind of work you’ll do.

It won’t reflect well on you (and thus frustrate your IT staffing agencies and IT recruiting firms) if you seem like you’re willing to do pretty much anything.  This makes you seem not only desperate, but probably not passionate or experienced enough as an IT professional.  The best IT professionals, the ones IT recruiting agencies have no problem placing, know what technologies they like to work with and don’t like to work with.  They have enough experience to know what they can do well—and what they can’t.  Good IT professionals also have a passion for the work they are really interested in.  They care about their work and the quality of it.  If you are too flexible, it will be hard for interviewers to assume any of this about you—never mind hire you!

Questions About Culture for IT Job Interviews

Sometimes you might be excited to interview for IT jobs, but unsure how you’d like their corporate culture.  While you can (and should) talk to your IT recruiting companies and technical recruiters about a potential employers’ culture, there are some questions you can ask the interviewer. The trick is to be very judicious about what you ask so that you don’t put your interviewer on the defensive (and embarrass yourself and your IT staffing firms and IT recruiting agencies).  Here are some questions that you can ask in your interviews (that won’t make your IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies cringe!).

  1. What do you love about work here?
  2. How long have you worked here? How long has most of your team worked here?
  3. What can be challenging about working here?

How To Talk About Mistakes in IT Job Interviews

Most IT staffing companies and IT recruiters will suggest you prepare to tell interviewers about a mistake you’ve made in past IT jobs.  You don’t need your technical recruiters and IT staffing firms to tell you that you need to be strategic about answering this kind of question.  What may surprise you, however, is that you also need to be honest and take responsibility for the mistake when you describe it.

How can you do this gracefully and impress your interviewers and IT staffing agencies and IT recruiting companies?   Firstly, pick a mistake you truly learned from.  If you just made of mess of things, but don’t know how you can avoid it in the future, it’s not a good mistake to talk about.  Next, take full responsibility for the mistake.  It looks worse to suggest it was anybody’s fault but your own.  You’ll seem like less of a team player, which no hiring manager wants to deal with.  Lastly, be prepared to answer some follow-up questions about this mistake.  You can continue to emphasize what you’ve learned from the mistake and how you’ve grown, but don’t skirt any questions.  Honesty is key here! Use these tips and you’ll do well and impress your IT recruiting firms—maybe even land the job!

 

IT Job Interviews: They’re All About Timing!

When you’re prepping for interviews with your IT recruiters and IT staffing firms, you probably focus on what you’ll want to highlight for your interviewer.  Maybe your technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies have told you to emphasize your experience with certain technologies or experience serving particular kinds of clients.  However, the successful candidates don’t just get IT jobs based on what they say. It’s also how long they take to say it.

Most IT staffing companies and IT recruiting firms that help their candidates prepare for interviews might not think to mention that keeping your answers succinct is important.  However, if you don’t budget your time well, or your take far too long to answer questions, you’ll definitely make a poor impression on your interviewer (and IT recruiting companies by extension).  Check with your IT staffing agencies about how long the interview is likely to be before you go.  If you know the hiring manager budgeted about an hour to meet with you, pace yourself accordingly.  Taking their time into consideration will make a very good impression!

 

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Ask Your IT Recruiters This Question, Not Your Interviewers

When you’re interviewing for IT jobs, there are questions you should be asking your IT recruiters and IT staffing firms and questions you can ask your interviewers.  Most of the time this difference is pretty obvious—or technical recruiters and IT staffing companies are quick to explain it to IT candidates.  However, there’s one question most IT professionals unfortunately ask their interviewers instead of their IT recruiting agencies: What are typical hours for this role?

This question seems harmless enough to ask interviewers.  It’s certainly something most candidates want to know.  However, IT recruiting firms and IT staffing agencies would much rather you ask them this question.  When you ask an interviewer what the hours are for a role, you may make them wonder if you’re not interested in working hard to succeed.  If you come across as too focused on hours, you could seem as though you’re interested in doing the bare minimum.  It could well make you lose out on the job— and frustrate your IT staffing companies!

 

Focus On The IT Job You’re Interviewing For

Sometimes your IT staffing firms and IT recruiting agencies might submit you for IT jobs that are a stepping stone towards what you actually want to do.  Maybe you need more experience with a certain kind of technology, or perhaps you need to get your foot in the door to great company.  Whatever the reason, there are times it certainly makes sense  to let your IT recruiting companies and IT staffing agencies set you up to interview for jobs a step below what you’d like.  It’s important to remember that while your IT recruiting firms might know that this job is a stepping stone for you, you don’t want to underscore this to your interviewer.

Sometimes interviewers are aware a job will be a stepping stone, and sometimes they’re not.  Even if you’re in the former situation, your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies will still want you to focus on the job you’re actually interviewing for.  A job may be a stepping stone for you, but you’re still being hired for a position the company needs you to excel in.  If you spend the interview focusing on the next role you’d rather occupy, you’ll definitely ruin your chances of getting hired.  Make sure your interviewer knows you are interested in this job and would want to succeed in it.  This will win you the job– whether you’re overqualified for it or not!

 

 

Don’t Ask This Question in IT Job Interviews

Most IT recruiters and IT staffing firms remind their candidates to ask questions in interviews for IT jobs.  As technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies will explain, you’ll quickly lose out on a job if you have no questions to ask.  There are quite a few questions that will leave a great impression on your interviewer and IT recruiting companies.  There are also plenty of questions that will be almost as damaging as not asking any questions at all.  One question your IT staffing companies and IT recruiting firms would never want you to ask in an interview is “What’s your turnover rate?”

Why is this question so problematic? While it’s perfectly legitimate to want to know if a company has a high turnover rate, it’s the kind of question you should be asking your IT recruiting agencies.  They will be able to get this answer for you without putting your potential new employer on the defensive.  Questions like this can come off as hostile and accusatory when you ask your interviewer directly.  Come up with a different question to ask your interviewer, one that won’t make them feel uncomfortable!

 

Leave This Information Off Your IT Resume!

There are some countries where it’s normal to add personal information to IT resumes.  IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies want to know things like your birthday, marital status, religion, whether you have kids, etc.  Or sometimes IT professionals will list this kind of information not because it’s a cultural norm, but simply because IT recruiting companies have never told them not to.

It’s important for IT professionals seeking new jobs to know that in the US, technical recruiters and IT staffing firms are actually pretty uncomfortable getting personal information on a resume.  A hiring manager may actually find somebody to be unprofessional for including it.  It could cost you IT jobs to leave all this personal information on your resume.  While most IT recruiting firms and IT staffing companies might see past this mistake and help you clean up your resume, it’s best to leave it off in the first place.  You’ll save your IT recruiting agencies some time and solidify your impression on them as more professional.

A Surprising IT Job Interview Mistake

Most IT professionals dread being asked about their weaknesses in interviews for IT jobs.  It’s often far more difficult to answer these questions, even if your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies have helped you prep for it.  Many technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies have seen people give a lot of bad answers to this question because there’s some bad advice about it.  Specifically, if you want to really make your IT recruiting firms, IT staffing agencies and interviewers cringe, list a thinly veiled strength as a weakness (ie say your biggest weakness is that you’re a perfectionist, a workaholic, etc).

Why shouldn’t you answer weakness questions this way in interviews?  Firstly, giving an answer like this makes you seem unprofessional and ill prepared.  Many IT professionals have heard this bad advice before.  However, the well-prepared, experienced ones know enough not to answer weakness questions with a strength.  Secondly, giving a strength and trying to disguise it as a weakness doesn’t help your interviewer.  They genuinely want to know about you as an employee.  If you obstruct that process, you’re probably going to turn them off, if not completely ruin your chances of getting the job.  Lastly, you’ll miss a chance to add effectively to your candidacy.  Answer the weakness question with a real weakness that you can demonstrate you’re working on, one that wouldn’t impair your ability to do the job well.  Through your perseverance and problem-solving strategies, you could really impress your interviewers, IT recruiting companies and IT staffing firms!