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Tag Archives: IT jobs

A Quick Way to Dramatically Improve Your IT Job Interviews

Most IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies will tell you to make sure you do research on the companies that you’re interviewing with.  Your technical recruiters and IT staffing companies may even give you a bit of background information on the companies.  But having a familiarity with the company won’t impress your interviewers and win you IT jobs.  If you want to really stand out and impress your IT recruiting firms with your interview performance, you should try to find one or two things that you really like or admire about the IT companies you’re interviewing for.

The key to doing this is two-pronged.  Firstly, try to make sure you can speak about these items that you really like about the company for at least a few minutes.  If you merely state that you like that the company is doing things to be more environmentally friendly, that’s not enough.  Be able give a few examples and/or to tie this to your own career trajectory.  Secondly, it will really impress your interviewer and IT recruiting companies if you can talk about these one or two things in an authentic way.  To return to the environmentalism example, don’t mention it if you aren’t actually interested in this topic.  If you try to fake an interest, it will likely show through to your interviewer.

 

Why is Passion Important in IT Job Interviews?

Working with IT recruiters and IT staffing firms, you’re probably talking a lot about how to sell yourself to future employers.  Your IT staffing agencies and technical recruiters have probably covered the bases you already know—being on time, dressing appropriately, and practicing answering basic questions.  To give yourself an edge in winning your dream IT jobs and impressing IT recruiting companies and hiring managers, you need to find a way to show your passion for important elements of jobs.

How do you show passion in an effective way in a job interview?  To start, it has to be authentic.  If you tell your interviewer that you’re passionate about a particular programming language, it won’t mean much to them.  If you’re actually passionate about a particular programming language, you’ll be able to tell stories that demonstrate that. Beyond authenticity, it’s important to be able to keep your professionalism as you describe your passion for customer service or elegant code.  IT staffing companies have an easy time finding jobs for people who can strike that balance between being easy to work with and having passion for their work.  For instance, it might be easy to speak condescendingly to an interviewer if you think you know more about a technology than they do.  However, that will make you seem like a terrible potential employee.  Lastly, make sure you can draw the connection between what you’re passionate about and how it’s key to the job.  Sometimes this will be obvious, but sometimes you may have to draw that connection for the interviewer.  Show a little bit of relevant, well-demonstrated passion to your interviewer and you’ll really impress them and your IT recruiting firms.  You may just land the job!

 

One Easy Way to Improve Your IT Resume

Perhaps you’re trying to create a resume that attracts IT recruiters and IT staffing firms.  Or maybe you’re already working with technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies, but your resume needs a little oomph.  Here’s one tactic to make that resume more powerful and alluring for both IT staffing agencies and hiring managers alike.

Arguably the most important part of your resume, the part IT recruiting firms and interviewers spend the most time considering, is the bullets you have beneath previous IT jobs.  One of the most efficient ways to make your resume more impactful, then, is to polish these bullets.  How can you do this?

Ask yourself this question about each job: ‘What did I do to increase this employer’s revenue, make their workplace better, or make my team or boss’s workload easier?  Now go back and try to work some of these answers into your bullets for each job.  You’ll want to keep a brief reference to your main job duties, but your achievements are most important.  If you can help IT staffing companies and interviewers see what value you bring to employers in a very concrete way, you will immediately increase your chances of landing a job.

 

Why You Should Be Open and Honest With Your Technical Recruiter

If you’re working with IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies for your IT job search, you’ve probably talked to them at least once on the phone or in person.  Sometimes, IT candidates are concerned about what they tell IT staffing firms and technical recruiters.  They apply the same polite, guarded etiquette you’d use with a hiring manager or interviewer.  However, it’s actually in your best interest to be as open and honest with your IT recruiting companies as possible.

Why should you be an open book with IT staffing companies and not with hiring managers? Because you want your IT recruiting firms to know everything you can relay about your ideal next IT jobs.  If you hide your preferences for particular work environments or embellish your actual certifications, skills, or experience, it will only hurt you.  You want your IT recruiting agencies to know what kind of job you can be successful and happy in.  If you hide any of this information or omit it, you’ll be preventing IT recruiting firms from getting you that kind of job.  You may even be guiding them to place you in a job that makes you unhappy, stressed, or potentially a job you even fired from.  Nobody wins in this scenario– not you, your IT recruiting companies, or the employer.  So don’t hold back.  Tell your recruiter everything that you think will help them find your dream job.

What Is Working With an IT Recruiter Like?

Why do so many IT candidates work with technical recruiters to help them find their next IT jobs?  It makes their search faster, easier, and more effective.  Good IT recruiters and IT staffing firms will work with you to make sure they understand exactly what you’re looking for in your next role.  This doesn’t just include the work, but also the kind of work environment, team, and bosses you thrive with.  If you’re honest with your IT recruiting companies and give them a full picture of the kind of jobs you really succeed in, they will present these kinds of opportunities to you.

Once IT staffing agencies find opportunities that match what you’ve described, they’ll start setting you up for interviews.  These will differ a little from job interviews you’ve done without IT recruiting agencies for a few reasons.  Firstly, your IT recruiting companies will really be the ones to handle compensation negotiations for you.  You’ll communicate with them about your preferred rates, benefits, etc, and they’ll go to bat for you.  Secondly, your IT recruiting firms may even walk you into the interview and make sure you have a good start to the experience.  This leads to the last difference.  Your IT staffing companies will be advocating for you as well.  Since they probably have a good relationship with the hiring company, their word will be trusted and add an extra oomph to your candidacy.  If all of these differences sound good to you, think about contacting an IT staffing firm like AVID Technical Resources.  You have nothing to lose.

 

Is Job Experience Important for IT Job Seekers?

If you’re a recent grad working with IT recruiters and IT staffing firms to find your next IT jobs, you’re probably wondering if it’s best to add job experience to your resume, or use up that space with information about your studies and certifications.  While both are certainly important to IT staffing agencies and hiring managers, it’s important to know what exactly is valued in the IT industry.

The truth is that while IT recruiting firms and hiring managers need you to list the relevant skills for jobs, job experience, even if it’s not particularly relevant, should still be listed.  Recent studies show that without work experience, your chances of getting a job are severely diminished. The experience is actually just as important as your degree.  This holds true even in fields like IT, where degrees in things like computer science are highly regarded by IT staffing companies and technical recruiters.  So don’t let your work experience drop off your resume—it may just be what gets you the job!

Don’t Say This in IT Job Interviews

For most interviewees for IT jobs, no matter how much you prepare with your IT staffing firms and technical recruiters, questions about your greatest weakness are still intimidating.  The most common answer that hiring managers and IT recruiting agencies tend to hear seems like a good idea: “my weakness is that I’m a perfectionist.” Don’t be tempted to actually give this answer, though!

Because it’s such a cliché answer, telling your interviewer that you’re a perfectionist will mean that you’ve totally wasted that moment in your interview.  Even if you are indeed a perfectionist, you won’t impress your interviewer or your IT recruiting firms by saying it’s your biggest weakness.  Since it’s heard so often, it’s hard for anybody to take that answer seriously.  In fact, you may be letting your IT staffing agencies down by giving such an unimpressive answer.  Your interviewer may ding you a few points for giving such a meaningless response to their question.

So what should you say?  Work on a real, honest answer with your IT recruiters. Name a skill that’s not essential to the jobs you’re interviewing for and give an action plan for how you’re addressing it.  Something like this will actually impress an interviewer, especially if your action plan is thorough.

Don’t Make This Mistake When Going to IT Job Interviews

You’ve probably spent quite a bit of time prepping for IT job interviews—both on your own and with your IT staffing companies and IT recruiters.  Maybe you’ve laid out your suit and mapped out how to get to the interview.  Here’s one last tip: don’t bring more than a single, small bag with you.  Why?

It’s not something your technical recruiters are likely to discuss with you (mostly because they’re probably assuming you already know about it). However, your IT staffing firms and IT recruiting agencies want you to make sure you edit what you take with you to a job interview because it reflects poorly on you and on them if you bring too much with you.

If you bring much more with you to a job interview than a small bag, you’re likely saying one of two things.  Firstly, you could be suggesting that the interview isn’t that important to you—it’s just one thing in a long list of errands.  You give off this impression in particular if you come in with things like shopping bags.  Secondly, you’ll make a bad impression for yourself and your IT staffing agencies if you bring a lot of stuff with you because it looks disorganized.  Fair or not, your interviewer may assume that you’re not organized if you need to bring a ton of stuff with you to an interview. They have very little to go on (besides what your IT recruiting firms tell them) and they may just go off of gut feelings from your brief meeting with them.  Having to shuffle around a couple bags or jackets won’t give them the impression that you’re cool, calm, collected, and in control.  So leave everything home but a small bag when you go to your next IT job interview.  It may be the difference between losing and winning your dream IT jobs.

 

Subtle IT Job Interview Do’s and Don’ts

If you’ve gone on interviews for IT jobs, you probably already have at least a general idea of what you should be doing.  Maybe you learned these job interview do’s from your IT staffing firms and technical recruiters, or maybe you learned them from some of your own online research.  No matter where you learned these do’s from, there are some nuances you may not know about.  Here are some subtleties of interview do’s that your IT staffing agencies and IT recruiters want you to know.

Firstly, you know the general rule is to dress well for job interviews.  However, it’s also important to dress well for the company’s culture.  Particularly in IT, dress codes can wildly differ.  Talk to your IT recruiting firms about exactly what you should wear to your interview.  You don’t want to just assume you should come in a suit.  It may cost you the job.

Secondly, you probably already know no to badmouth a boss or former company to your interviewer.  What you may not know is to extend the same rule to your colleagues and coworkers.  If you trash talk your current or previous coworkers, hiring managers may wonder if you’re actually a team player or able to work well with others.  Do yourself and your IT recruiting agencies a favor: don’t lie, but do avoid saying anything unfavorable about your former or current coworkers, employers, or bosses.  By keeping their reputations pristine, you do the same for your own.

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Don’t Forget to Do This in IT Job Interviews!

If you’re interviewing for new IT jobs, you’ll benefit from watching your interviewer for signs of how well or poorly the interview is going.  You can prep ahead of time with your IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies.  But you’ll do yourself (and your technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies) a disservice if you don’t watch for these possible signs your interviewer is disinterested.

Their body language and tone of voice show disinterest.  You don’t need your IT staffing firms to tell you that if your interviewer seems uninterested during your interview and their body language gives the impression they’re closed off and not engaging with you, the interview is going poorly.

They mention other qualified candidates.  If your interviewer makes a pointed mention of other candidates, they may be attempting to lower your expectations. It’s not a sure sign, but it’s something to take into account.

They don’t make any mention of the next steps you or your IT staffing companies should take.  Again, this isn’t a sure sign, but it’s something to take into account.  Your interviewers may just directly contact your IT recruiting firms with the next steps, but if they’re very interested in you, it’s possible they make some mention of the rest of their hiring process to let you know they’re interested in you.