Tag Archives: IT jobs

2 Questions That Will Knock Your Interviewer’s Socks Off

One of the most popular questions candidates have before an interview is what questions they should be asking their interviewer.  The main rule of thumb is to make sure that all of your questions are about things you’re genuinely interested in and will help you decide if the job is a good fit for you.  Asking questions just to impress an interviewer or to try to show off an achievement, research, etc, will never look good.  In fact, it could suggest that you just don’t understand professional norms or you have terrible communication skills.  Both conclusions could certainly sink your chances of landing IT jobs.  Here are 2 questions IT recruiting firms suggest you tweak according to your own needs and ask in your next interview.

1. What makes a successful employee at that this company?   How do they succeed both within the corporate culture and in their work?  These questions show that you’re interesting in setting high standards for yourself.  It also shows that you understand success is greatly influenced by a company’s unique corporate culture.  IT recruiters find that employers really appreciate it when a candidate shows some genuine curiosity about what they value in their workplace and how team members can significantly contribute.  

2. What will be the goals in this role in the first month, the first quarter? Especially because of the fast-paced, deadline-oriented nature of tech work, IT staffing firms find that employers love to see candidates who are ready to hit the ground running.  (This is even more important in contract roles!) Asking about upcoming, short term and longer term goals will help an employer see that you’re interested in coming in and making an impact ASAP.

 

Interview questions for IT jobs
Great questions can make a big impression on your interviewer. Photo credit: bykst via Pixabay.

 

Talk About This Topic and You’ll Bomb Your Job Interview

There are plenty of ways to bomb a job interview.  Not prepping enough, not brushing up enough on the relevant technologies, or arriving late.  However, one of the most common ways technical recruiters have seen people bomb interviews this year is by discussing politics. In such a politically charged year, IT recruiters have seen a lot of candidates bomb interviews because they thought it was ok to talk about politics with their interviewers.  Here’s why you need to avoid this at all costs—and how to gracefully sidestep it.

Why can’t you discuss politics in an interview for IT jobs?  There are a few reasons.  Firstly, you never know if you’ll be offending your interviewer.  Political views can be very touchy and personal.  The last thing you want to do is offend your interviewer.  The point of the interview is to make a connection with them and help them see you as somebody who’d be an asset to their team.

The second reason IT recruiting firms suggest you don’t talk about politics in your job interview is because it suggests you don’t understand professional norms.  Staying away from politics in the office is probably one of the most agreed-upon professional norms.  When you break that in your interview, you let your interviewer assume that you probably aren’t professional in other ways, too.

The last reason IT staffing firms tell candidates not to talk about politics in job interviews is because you’re putting interviewers in an awkward spot.  Learning about a candidate’s political views can be a slippery slope into areas an interviewer can’t legally ask you about.  Most interviewers are working hard to make sure they only ask you questions about topics they’re legally allowed to discuss and evaluate you with as a candidate for their job.  So when you bring up topics that might lead into these areas, you will make the interviewer very uncomfortable–  if not make them reject you outright.

So now that you know why you can’t discuss politics in an interview, here’s one way to avoid it: come up with some other legitimate small talk topics you can reach for instead.  Talk with your interviewer about the weather, sports, movies, etc.  When you have a go-to list of small talk topics, you’re less likely to bring up topics that will hurt you, like politics!

 

job interview tips
Don’t talk about this and ruin your chances of landing the job. Photo credit: RachealMarie via Pixabay.

 

Reasons Candidates Are Late to Job Interviews

One of the worst reasons to be rejected for IT jobs is because you showed up late to the interview. After all the prepping you did, all the studying and time spent editing your portfolio, you don’t want to blow an interview just because you didn’t leave early enough.  Here are a few reasons why IT staffing companies find that people are late.

You didn’t leave enough time for security checks.  IT recruiting companies do find that candidates will sometimes have to go through security checks before interviews. These may not take long, but if you’ve planned on arriving just in time (which you probably should not) then a surprise security check will make you late.  To avoid this issue, try asking your IT recruiters before the interview if they anticipate any security checks.  If they say yes, ask for an estimate of how much time you should build in for it.  If your technical recruiters aren’t sure about this (which is unlikely) build in an extra 15 minutes for yourself.  If you’re more than 10 minutes early when you arrive, you can go take a walk, grab coffee, or simply wait in your car.

You didn’t leave enough time for traffic.  IT recruiting firms usually recommend that you leave enough time for yourself to get to your interview, even if there is severe traffic.  You never know when there may be an accident or construction on your route.   Even if you’re leaving outside of rush hours, there’s still a risk of something slowing down your trip and making you late to the interview.  Give yourself a buffer of time that’s generous enough to handle the most severe traffic and still get you to the interview 5-10 minutes early.  As mentioned before, if you arrive too early, no problem.  Simply find a way to wait so that you’re out of your interviewer’s hair.

You replied on public transportation—and it took longer than you expected.  As anybody who rides public transportation knows, there are a lot of factors that can make a trip take longer than you anticipated.  Even if you go by the estimate on a public transportation website, you may still wind up late to an interview.  Truthfully, most IT staffing companies suggest that you take a taxi, Uber, or get a ride to an interview.  It will likely be much faster and more reliable for this kind of situation (where lateness is so problematic).  If you do decide to use public transportation, give yourself a large buffer of time.  Consider practicing the trip if you can, as well.  If you can’t, make sure you’re familiar with the buses or trains you’ll be taking and buy your ticket in advance online if possible. Remember that if you need to take a few minutes to find the correct train, that could be the few minutes you’re late by!

 

Late to job interviews
Give yourself a big buffer of time if you’re taking public transportation to your job interview. Photo credit: Pexels via Pixabay.

 

 

What Makes IT Resumes Different?

If you’re looking for new IT jobs, your first step should be to update your resume for IT recruiters and employers.  As an IT professional, your resume will be a bit different from resumes in other industries.  Here are some key elements of IT resumes.

The technical skills section. This is one of the most important features of a resume for IT staffing companies.  It helps them decide quickly if you have the skills to be a possible fit for an open job.  Make sure to put this section right at the top of your resume and keep it thorough, organized, and updated. The best technical skills section is a snapshot of the technologies and skills you’ll be talking about in your employment history below.  It’s important to make sure you only add skills to this section that you are 100% confident you actually have.  Technical interviews will often quickly reveal it if you lack something you’ve mentioned in the technical skills section.  If an interviewer finds you ‘fudged it’ and included something you can’t actually back up, you won’t get the job (and your technical recruiters probably won’t want to work with you anymore, either).

You have more leeway to go beyond 1 page. IT recruiting companies find that employers in the tech field are a bit more lenient with the length of resumes.  While you don’t want to write a novel, if you have a great arsenal of technical skills and experience, it’s ok if you need a bit of extra room to elaborate.  Technical resumes have some extra sections (like the one mentioned above).Another reason you can write a longer technical resume is that hiring managers do want to see details about the projects you’ve worked on.  IT staffing agencies find that when you give better detail on the technical projects you’ve done, employers have an easier time picturing you performing the role they’re hiring for.

Contract work is more accepted and more common. Many IT professionals use contracting as a legitimate way to gain skills and exposure to new technologies.  Since technology is always changing so quickly, it can become necessary to move faster from company to company to get exposure to new technologies at a more compatible rate.  Contracting is also just a more common way for managers to hire in the tech field.  IT recruiting firms find that sometimes employers only need contractors to finish a particular project. Perhaps a company can’t afford to hire somebody with a rare skill-set permanently. Just make sure to mark when a position is contract on your resume, so people know you didn’t leave early or were fired.

 

Tech resumes different
Tech resumes have some key differences. Photo credit: 3dman_eu via Pixabay

 

Land IT Jobs You Don’t Have the Experience For (Yet)

If you’re seeking a new role in an area of the tech field you don’t have much experience in, there are ways to make you a more appealing candidate to IT recruiters anyway.  Whether you’re looking to land your first Helpdesk role, or you want to move from Desktop support to a Network Engineer role, here are 3 ways to beef up your application materials and impress technical recruiters.

1. Seek out opportunities within your current employer to get hands-on learning experience relevant to the IT jobs you want to work in.  You might be able to do this in your current company in 2 ways.  Firstly, your bosses may allow you to get some hands-on experience in a formal way (like a side project for a different department).  This is probably the most preferable.  If you do well, you can demonstrate that you met the expectations of a manager in this area.   If your company can’t help you out with any formal learning opportunities, you might still be able to informally shadow the people who hold the roles you’d like to hold one day.  While this isn’t something you can put on a resume, it will help you to better direct your own study of relevant skills and technologies.

2. Seek out opportunities outside your current employer to get relevant hands-on learning.  You can volunteer, take freelance jobs, or perhaps create your own project on your own time.  IT recruiting firms have an easier time placing somebody who can point to demonstrable experience, even if the candidate made that experience happen.  Consider offering your services for free or reduced charge to local nonprofits, checking websites with volunteer opportunities, or reaching out to people within your network to seek out hands-on learning opportunities for the skills and technologies you’re interested.  If you’re learning how to code, create your own website, etc.  Having a portfolio of examples of your work will certainly make you more marketable to IT staffing companies.

3. Consider getting a certification if there are any relevant ones.  Employers generally put a lot of trust in certifications, so these can be a great way to help IT recruiting agencies visualize you in the roles you want.  IT recruiting companies always find that that candidates with certifications can get at least a bit of  an edge over those who don’t have them.  Certifications can also be a way to gain more hands-on experience with technologies or skills.  (Some certifications actually require hands-on experience.)

 

IT Job search
Want to move into a new kind of role? Get some hands-on experience in your off-time. Photo credit: StartupStockPhotos via Pixabay.

 

How to Avoid Fake Recruiter Scams

If you’re a job seeker, you’ve probably been contacted by or come across fake recruiter scams before.  Scammers will often find your information on job boards or LinkedIn.  When you’re looking for IT jobs, you don’t have to be vulnerable to these scammers, though.  Here are 3 tips for how to weed out fake IT staffing companies from the scammers.

1. Google them.  Real IT staffing agencies always have a website and usually a social media presence.  They often have online reviews, as well.  It’s also often a red flag if the IT recruiters who contact you are using an email address that seems more like a personal one than business.  (For instance, at AVID, our technical recruiters all have email addresses that end in avidtr.com, rather than gmail.com or Hotmail.com.)

2. Think twice if they ask you to pay for background checks, drug testing, or CORI’s.  Most reputable IT recruiting firms will never ask you to pay for these.  It’s a cost of doing business for the IT recruiting firm. Fake recruiters will often ask you to pay for these tests as a way to steal your money. There usually isn’t a real job or background check—just somebody making money off of your vulnerability as a job seeker.

3. Don’t trust a job offer that comes too easily.  Especially in tech, it’s important to hire people with the right skills and experience.  This means that you’ll rarely land a job without at least doing a phone interview and in-person interview.  If IT recruiting agencies contact you with a job offer and no need to do any interviewing to be hired, that’s a huge red flag.  An employer needs to do more than simply glance at your resume or LinkedIn profile to determine what your technical skills are like.  Real IT jobs require real technical interviews.  If IT staffing companies say you don’t need to do any, they’re probably scamming you.

 

Recruiter scams
Don’t miss the warning signs of a recruiter scam! Photo credit: Geralt via Pixabay.

 

Why Consider Contracting Roles?

Many IT professionals are resistant to contracting.  However, when you’re looking for new roles, IT recruiters would strongly suggest that you consider contracting roles.  Especially in the tech field, contracting can have a lot of benefits that permanent roles don’t.  Here are 3 reasons why IT staffing firms suggest you seriously consider contracting in your next role.

1. You can expand your technical skills and experience. Contracting means moving around more, but it also means getting exposed to new technologies and skills as you move.  As opposed to a permanent job that you may spend years at, contacting lets you move on to work with new software, programming languages, etc, sooner.  This translates to faster growth in your career and a resume that is more enticing to employers and IT recruiting companies.

2. You might make more money. IT staffing companies often find their contractors have a higher income when they can go on their partners’ benefits. The biggest differences between contracting and permanent roles are usually the benefits (most contracting roles don’t provide benefits).  However, this isn’t actually much of a problem for some people.  If you have a spouse or long term domestic partner, you can often get benefits through their job.  (It’s worth noting that the cost per partner may actually be cheaper this way.)  Most contracting jobs pay more money to help you buy benefits completely on your own (often expensive).  You’ll be making more money, but spending less of it on healthcare, dental etc.  Thus you’ll find yourself with a fatter paycheck.

3. You can get hired faster. IT recruiting firms find that the hiring process for contractors is often less time-consuming and stringent.  If you need to move on from your current role quickly, contracting is a better way to do this.  Perhaps you need to move to a new area of the country, your current role is at a toxic workplace, or you need to make more money soon.  Being open to contracting will help you land IT jobs much faster to solve these problems.

 

Contracting for IT jobs
Contracting can have big benefits for IT professionals. Photo credit: qimono via Pixabay.

 

 

Good Signs in a Job Interview

Candidates often try to analyze interviews for good or bad signs. This is a pretty natural thing to do, especially if you’re interested in the IT jobs you’ve interviewed for. While there are some things that might indicate that your interviewer liked you, you can never assume you got the job based on any particular signs. Unless your technical recruiters call you with a job offer, there are no ‘signs’ that will definitively indicate that you landed the job.

Taking that into account, there are signs an interview went well. This is worth knowing whether you landed the job or not. If you know you did well in an interview, you can continue performing well in other interviews. Here are three things that IT staffing companies find usually indicate a job interview went well (though not that you definitely landed the job).

1. Your interviewer discusses next steps with you in a non-generic way. This means hearing more than the usual ‘we’ll be in touch with your IT recruiter soon’. While interviewers will often discuss the nitty gritty of the process with your IT recruiting firms, they may share their timeline so you don’t take another offer before it’s done. Things move fast in the tech field and good candidates are often interviewing for multiple opportunities at once. If an employer likes you, they will often share info about next steps with you so they mitigate their risk of losing you to another job offer.

2. Your interview feels more like an interesting technical discussion. Great technical interviews can sometimes be less of a back and forth than just a good conversation about technologies that are relevant to the position. If you find the interviewer seems engaged and you’re both really delving into technical scenarios, hypotheticals, or problems, you may have just had a good interview.

3. Your interviewer is trying to sell you on the work you’ll do in the position, their team, or the company. Because the tech field is such a job seeker’s market, interviewers will often start selling the opportunity if they like the candidate. As mentioned before, good candidates are usually pursuing several opportunities at once. Keeping this in mind, if employers like a candidate they’ll often try to highlight things like the interesting projects their team handles, office perks, or the exciting new technologies they put at employees’ disposal.

 

IT job interviews signs
Knowing an interview went well helps you perform better in future interviews. Photo credit: PDPics via Pixabay.

 

The Best Certification to Get in 2017

Is one of your new year’s resolutions to invest in your career with a new certification?  The most valuable one to get in 2017 will be an AWS certification.  Here are a few reasons why IT recruiters suggest you consider going after one this year.

1.    You’ll make more money.  AWS certified professionals often make around $100,000 a year or more.  AWS certifications consistently topped income-oriented lists last year and there’s no reason they’ll fall this year.  There are still far too few AWS certified tech professionals out there for the number of open IT jobs that require it.  Even if you’re not looking for a new job, IT staffing companies find that many employers are happy to give raises or promotions to staff that get AWS certifications. Since the process for getting AWS certifications is so rigorous, employees nearly always become more valuable to their companies after attaining them.

2.    You want to work remotely.  IT recruiting firms find that many of the jobs that require AWS certifications also allow for partial or complete remote work.  This is true for a few reasons.  Firstly (and most obviously) cloud technology makes it easy to do this kind of work remotely.  Secondly, as mentioned before, AWS certified professionals are rare.  This means that employers need to woo them with excellent perks, which of course includes options for remote work.

3.    An AWS certification opens doors in many industries.  More and more companies are going to the cloud for their storage needs.  No matter what industry you’d like to work in, there are probably companies that use cloud technologies and are seeking IT professionals with AWS certifications.

4.    You want to invest in your future.  An AWS certification will continue to be valuable for many years to come.  The cloud will only become more popular and AWS seems to be the reigning provider.  The only certification that seems somewhat comparable is Azure (and for many reasons, some people argue that this certification is less valuable on a resume).  Amazon is dominating the web services market with a constant stream of new products and competitive pricing.  If you get an AWS certification now, IT staffing agencies will likely have no problem finding you IT jobs for years to come.

 

best IT certifications
AWS certifications will help you earn more in 2017. Photo credit: Kaboompics via Pixabay.

 

2 Ways Being Over-Prepared Ruins Your Job Interviews

Here’s one surprising mistake IT staffing companies see too often in job interviews: over-preparing.  While it’s certainly important not to underprepare for you job interview, IT recruiting firms definitely see some candidates rejected for the opposite reason.  Here are 2 ways being over-prepared can hurt your chances of landing IT jobs.

1. The interviewer doesn’t feel like they’re having a genuine conversation with you.  IT staffing firms want you to practice some of your answers or questions, but only to the point where you are familiar with them.  Employers really want to see who you are when they interview you—your personality as well as your technical skills and experience.  When you’re so over-prepared it sounds like you’re delivering a monologue, you’ll probably turn off your interviewer.  Making a good connection with your interviewer and showing off great communication skills goes a long way in the tech field these days.

2. You don’t answer the interviewer’s questions or provide the info they want.  Sometimes being over-prepared can make you come across as inflexible or unresponsive to your interviewer.  Technical recruiters find that being over-prepared can lead you to inadvertently neglect to provide all the information the interviewer wants.  You don’t want to be so busy making the points you practiced that you can’t answer an interviewer’s questions or respond warmly and genuinely to their small talk.  IT recruiting companies suggest you make a conscious effort to let the interviewer lead the interview.  Do this even if it means you may wind up leaving some of the material you prepared or studied by the wayside.   Don’t worry, you can always mention it your thank you note!

 

IT job interview mistakes
Delivering monologues won’t impress your interviewers. Photo credit: Concord90 via Pixabay.