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Tag Archives: IT jobs

The Most Important Part of your LinkedIn Profile When Searching for IT Jobs

When crafting your LinkedIn profile, one of the primary purposes will likely be to attract IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies.  There are a few ways to make your profile more interesting to IT recruiting agencies and IT staffing firms, but one of the best is to make sure you have a great headline.  Since technical recruiters are often sifting through a mass of profiles as they work to fill IT jobs, your best bet is to get their attention quickly, with a concise, powerful headline.

It’s important to note that your LinkedIn profile headline should mention some combination of your strengths, skills, achievements, and interests.  This means that even if you’re currently unemployed, don’t put this in your headline.  IT staffing companies will immediately want to move on to a different profile.  If they’re choosing between IT professionals who can confidently tout their abilities and ones who are unluckily (or worse– deservedly) out of work, it’s a simple decision.  If you want IT recruiting firms to contact you about jobs, make sure your headline emphasizes your strengths, not your current unemployment.

 

How To Tell Interviewers About a Time You Made a Mistake In a Previous IT Job

When you’re booking interviews with IT staffing companies and technical recruiters, there are certain questions you’re probably preparing for and practicing your answers.  If they’re supportive, you may even be working a bit with your IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies to get ready for these IT jobs interviews.  Here’s one question you should definitely prepare for: Tell me about a time you failed or made a mistake at work.

To answer this question in a way that’s advantageous to you and reflects well on you IT recruiting agencies and IT staffing firms, start by making sure you identify a few situations you can talk about.  Check with your IT recruiting companies to make sure these aren’t the kinds of mistakes that would be a big deal in the roles you’re interviewing for.  Particularly when it comes to IT, you don’t want to make yourself look like you’re missing a skill that is needed to support your users, clients, or company’s hardware.

Next, find a way to talk about the mistake in a concise, quick way.  This is the part you want to mention as briefly as possible.  Don’t stop at this point, though.  You want to have most of this answer be about what you learned from the mistake and, if you got to, how you fixed it.  IT recruiting firms place IT professionals who make mistakes all the time.  They’re employable because they learn from these mistakes and can fix them (or mitigate their damage).

 

What to Keep (and Delete) on Your IT Resume

If you’re working on your resume for IT staffing companies and IT recruiters, you may have a hard time deciding what information you should and shouldn’t include on your resume.  While your technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies will be checking over your final resume that they send out for IT jobs, it’s in your best interest to start by sending them your most polished version possible. This means knowing what things to delete and what things to keep.

Something a lot of IT professionals struggle with is whether they should keep or delete their college extracurricular activities—especially fraternities and sororities.  The rule of thumb that IT recruiting firms and IT staffing firms prefer you follow is to only keep things on if you’re a recent college graduate.  If you’ve been out in the IT field (or just the workforce) for more than few years and you’ve had at least one real, professional job, it’s time to take your college extracurriculars off.  Use the space on your resume for professional accomplishments or duties instead.

 

You Need to Prep an Answer to This IT Job Interview Question!

There are a fair amount of standard questions that you can expect to encounter at interviews for IT jobs.  Perhaps your technical recruiters and IT staffing firms will help prepare you for them, or perhaps they’ll simply assume you’re ready to answer them.  Your best bet is to prepare for all standard questions—whether your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies know if they’ll be asked or not.  Here’s one crucial question your IT recruiting agencies will appreciate you preparing for: Why would you succeed in this role?

This might seem like an easy question to answer: just say you have all the skills and experience they require, right?  Not quite.  To prep your answer for this question (or forms of it) start by asking your IT recruiting firms what qualities they think the hiring managers would value most in this position.  Take the time to figure out which ones you can genuinely say you have.  Then, think of stories or achievements that illustrate how you’ve used these qualities.

When you go to answer the question, start by outlining the qualities that will be imperative to success in this role.  Then highlight the qualities you feel you’re especially strong in and quickly provide anecdotes to demonstrate it.  Lastly, if the position covers any work or subject matter you’re particularly passionate about, consider mentioning it to your interviewer.  It will be especially helpful if you have proof of this—perhaps you have been blogging about the topic for a while or volunteer in a relevant capacity.  Combined, these steps will really impress your hiring managers.

 

How to Describe Yourself in IT Job Interviews

Sometimes in interviews for IT jobs, you’ll be asked to describe yourself.  Even if you don’t prepare for this question with your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies, you can have a basic idea of how to respond.  Here are some guidelines for how to formulate this answer so that you do you technical recruiters and IT recruiting firms proud.

1. Don’t use words to describe yourself that are very obviously matters of opinion.  For instance, don’t call yourself bright, smart, well-liked, likable, successful, etc.  This only tells your interviewer that you think you’re smart.  Since most IT professionals probably believe this about themselves, that doesn’t really set you apart.  Use this question to give concrete achievements, anecdotes, or to demonstrate that you’ve got a great process for problem-solving, troubleshooting, etc.  This is the kind of thing that impresses hiring managers and IT staffing agencies.

2. Don’t call yourself obsessive, a perfectionist, or some other false “flaw”. Now is the time to be honest and straightforward.  Coyly praising yourself will just waste time and frustrate the interviewer. It’s also a much overused strategy, which will just feel meaningless to a hiring manager. Use your interview time wisely and IT recruiting companies will be happy to set you up for interviews.

3. Do try to incorporate a quality or two that you know the interviewing company values.  If you know a company values efficiency and you can legitimately say that you’re great at getting things done quickly, it will help to note that.  Try to have a quick story or two to back up these statements, too!

 

What to Do If You Don’t Understand A Question in an IT Job Interview

So you’ve put in the preparation with IT recruiters and practice for an interview for IT jobs.  But maybe there’s a question you just don’t understand.  Maybe it’s a on a technology your technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies didn’t know you’d be asked about.  Or maybe you just don’t know what kind of answer the hiring manager is looking for.  Take a deep breath and don’t worry.  You can use these tips to help yourself answer the question and avoid embarrassing yourself and your IT recruiting companies and IT staffing firms.

  1. Don’t be afraid to take a beat.  If you’re thrown off by the question, feel free to ask for a moment to think.  It’s not going to hurt you, and it may help you relax and answer the question better.
  2. Ask for a little clarification if you’re unsure what the hiring manager is asking you about or for.  They won’t mind, and they may appreciate seeing that you’re thoughtful and thorough.  These are good qualities in IT professionals.
  3. Lastly, don’t try to fake an answer.  If you don’t think you can answer the question at all, be honest.  If you do think you can start to outline how you’d get to the answer, and then do that for your interviewer.  Sometimes, just demonstrating your thought process and resourcefulness will help.

Try these tips the next time you’re asked a stumper in a job interview.  Your IT recruiting firms and IT staffing companies will appreciate it—and it might just land you the job.

 

Why You Need to Ask Good Questions in IT Job Interviews

Most IT recruiters and IT staffing companies will tell you that you need to come to your interviews ready to ask a few questions.  The candidates IT staffing companies and technical recruiters have an easy time placing in IT jobs are the ones who come to interviews with plenty of relevant questions. Ever wonder why?

The reason IT staffing agencies and IT recruiting firms need people to have questions on hand for interviews is because it demonstrates that they are trying to find the best job for them.  No hiring manager wants to hire somebody who is just looking for the first job they get offered.  This usually results in a poor fit—either in terms of skill or culture.  When IT professionals ask well thought out questions that are clearly relevant to them, hiring managers know they’re seriously considering how much they’d succeed and enjoy the job.  So for your next interview, prepare a few questions, possibly with the help of your IT recruiting agencies. It may win you the job.

 

Use This Helpful Tip in Your Next IT Job Interview

If you’re in the process of interviewing for IT jobs, your IT recruiters and IT staffing firms are probably helping you prepare.  There are some things IT staffing agencies and IT recruiting companies are taking for granted that you’ll know about going into job interviews.  One of these things your IT recruiting agencies may not even mention in your prep conversations is to avoid clichés. Why avoid clichés?  Business is full of easy clichés that seem like the most efficient, satisfactory way to answer interview questions.  The problem is that clichés don’t mean much to hiring managers anymore.  When everybody uses the same phrases, like ‘nose to the grindstone,’ or ‘work hard, play hard,’ to describe themselves, hiring managers begin to have a hard time believing them.  So what can you do in an interview instead of using clichés? Try to think about what you’ll be saying ahead of time.  Your IT recruiting firms are likely going to give you at least a few of the questions or potential questions you’ll be asked. Practice answering them honestly and without using any buzzwords or clichés.  If you find that you can’t avoid using a cliché, take a moment to admit it.  Then suggest what this means about you.  For instance, if you say you’re a ‘hard worker’ then find a unique anecdote that illustrates your work ethic.  Don’t panic if you do find that you have to use a cliché in a job interview.  However, if you do your best to avoid them, you’ll make an excellent impression on your IT staffing companies and hiring managers.

How IT Professionals Should Answer ‘Why Should We Hire You?’

Sometimes in interviews for IT jobs, candidates are given a tough question: Why should we hire you?  The question is very broad and that can be intimidating to IT professionals, but it doesn’t have to be.  If you take a little time to prepare with your IT recruiters and IT staffing firms, you can turn this question into a great opportunity to sell your candidacy.  Here’s how you and your IT staffing agencies can prepare an excellent answer to this kind of question.

Firstly, take a few minutes to talk with your technical recruiters about what’s important to this company—broadly and in this particular role.  Take note if they list a quality or skill that you have and can really demonstrate, especially with a concrete achievement. Practice talking about this skill or quality and giving an anecdote that illustrates it.

Secondly, run through the rest of your accomplishments.   If you want, you can ask your IT recruiting firms for feedback on this part, but this isn’t necessary if you’re a seasoned interviewer.  Pick a few accomplishments that are concretely quantifiable and practice speaking about them.  Think about ways you can connect them to the company you’re interviewing for, and suggesting how these accomplishments are things you might be able to do in this new role.

Lastly, in IT roles, soft skills are actually at a premium.  IT staffing companies are often asked to provide candidates who aren’t just good at the required skills, but also easy and pleasant to work with.  Again, it’s best to be able to illustrate your people skills with (brief) stories or anecdotes.  Find a soft skill or two, illustrate that you have it/them, and you’ve driven home your point.  After hearing these three talking points, Hiring managers will be considering you very seriously and your IT recruiting agencies will be very happy with you!

 

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Tips for IT Job Seekers Over 50

As the economy continues to improve, technical recruiters are finding that the people who still struggle a bit finding IT jobs are those over 50.  What do IT staffing firms suggest that IT professionals over 50 do to help make themselves more marketable to both hiring managers and IT staffing agencies? Here are a few tips.

  1. Clean up your resume—don’t leave every job on there.  The longer your resume, the more it suggests to hiring managers, IT recruiting companies, and IT recruiters, that you’re older.  If you want to avoid making this obvious, as most people do in the IT field, it’s time to take a few jobs off your resume.
  2. Make sure your resume highlights the technologies you’re proficient in, especially current and new ones.  Fair or not, companies sometimes hesitate to hire older IT candidates because they’re concerned about whether their technical knowledge is up to date.  If you can demonstrate that you’re well-versed in current and new technology to IT recruiting agencies, you can make yourself a much more attractive candidate.
  3. If IT recruiting firms call you about jobs, take the time to explain why you’re qualified, but not overqualified, for them.  When you’re older than 50, sometimes this is a concern.  Take a little time to assuage it.