Tag Archives: IT jobs

Polish Your Resume to Land Remote IT Jobs in the New Year

If you plan on working with IT recruiting firms next year to search for new IT jobs, you’re probably already polishing your resume.  If you want your technical recruiters to be able to submit you to remote jobs, there are a few things you should add to your resume.

1. Prove that you are self-motivated and have taken initiative before.  IT recruiters see plenty of resumes that list the skills employers want remote workers to have.  However, that’s not what will land the job.  What IT recruiting agencies find really works is to demonstrate you have these important skills.  Were you able to complete elements of a project on your own, with no supervision?  Did you debug code without being asked?  Concrete instances of things you’ve done that make you a great remote employee (or things that show you will be a great remote employee) make it easier for employers to picture you doing the same things as a part of their team.

2. Give links to your best work and relevant web presence.  IT staffing companies find that having a great web presence and excellent work product to show off is especially imperative when you’re applying to remote jobs.  Do you have a digital portfolio?  Do you have a LinkedIn profile?  A website?  Make sure it’s easy for employers and IT staffing agencies to see all of them by adding links into your resume.  Part of landing remote jobs is making it easy for employers and IT recruiting companies to see how you’d be a great fit for their role.  Listing relevant links is one way to do that.

3. If you’ve worked remotely before, articulate how you still adhere to workplace standards and keep in communication with your team or managers.  Again, giving concrete examples of your ability to be a great remote worker will go a long way in helping employers picture you in their open IT jobs.  For instance, if you’re a developer, have you still participated in stand-up meetings via conference call?   Do you use an internal messaging service?  Helping employers and IT staffing firms see that you’ve thought about how to still be an effective member of a team, even when remote, will help you land the jobs you want.

 

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Want to land remote IT jobs? You have to demonstrate that you have the skills. Photo credit: Life-of-Pix via Pixabay.

 

 

Why You Should Make Job Offers Faster

If you’re working with IT recruiting firms to fill open jobs on your team, you know it’s hard to find great talent.  The tech field has really been a job seeker’s market for a while now.  Recent unemployment rates for IT professionals illustrate this well.  As of last April, the unemployment rate in IT went as low as 2%.  This is less than half the national unemployment rate for all other fields combined (around 4.9%).  One thing IT staffing firms suggest to increase your chance of landing great tech talent is to make your job offers faster.

Why would making a job offer quicker help you hire more and better IT professionals?  There are two main reasons. Firstly, making a quicker job offer, especially one in the first 24-48 hours since an interview, makes a candidate feel really valued.  Especially in this field, IT recruiting agencies find that candidates are expecting quicker responses from potential employers.  To ensure the candidate feels desired, you need to extend job offers faster than in other industries.  The more interest a candidate perceives from an employer, the more likely they are to take your offer.  IT staffing companies see that candidates often respond well to job offers where they feel like the employer is excited about their skills and experience.  Never underestimate the power of making a candidate feel valued.

The second reason IT recruiting firms suggest you make your job offers faster is to make sure you don’t miss out on your second or third choice candidates.  If your first choice candidate declines, making a slower job offer to them means you’ll make an even slower offer to your second or third choice candidates.  As mentioned above, it’s definitely more of a job seeker’s market.  Technical recruiters usually find that their candidates are often high in demand and receive more job offers than candidates do in other fields.  So losing out on your first choice candidate after a slow job offer could also mean losing out on your second and third choice candidates!

 

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Faster job offers will help you land the tech talent you need. Photo credit: tookapic via Pixabay.

 

Tips for Conducting Technical Interviews

Finding great tech talent for the right price is hard.  Even with IT recruiting companies to help you find a candidate pool, it can still be hard to find the best people to fill open IT jobs in your company.  Here are a few tips IT staffing firms suggest using as you conduct technical interviews.

1. Consider ditching any tests or exercises.  IT recruiting firms find that many candidates who are great employees don’t always do well in a timed, pressure-filled exercise or multiple-choice test.  Some candidates will even be less likely to want to continue the process if there’s a coding test or exercise as part of the interview.  With such a limited market, you don’t want to limit your candidate pool further.

2. Aim to have an interesting technical conversation.  The less a technical interview feels like an interview, the more you’ll get a real understanding for what the candidate is like.  One way IT staffing companies suggest doing this is by asking the candidate to talk about a project they loved working on.  Letting them pick the project they discuss will allow the candidate to show you their passion and their strengths in an authentic way.

3. Don’t forget to sell the position to the right candidates.  While your IT recruiting agencies will certainly help you sell the position to the candidates you like, it’s also important they catch your enthusiasm.  They will be sold if you can share what you like about working on your team, your project, etc.  If you have members of your team sit in on the interview, make sure they’re all people who can genuinely convey why it’s great to work at your company or organization.  Nothing sells an IT job better to a candidate than seeing current employees who enjoy the work and culture of a company.

 

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You may limit your candidate pool with a difficult coding test. Photo credit: PIXI1861 via Pixabay.

 

Tips for Exit Interviews

If you’ve been working with your IT recruiters to find a new position, the last step of your transition won’t be giving your notice.  Employers often want to conduct an exit interview before you leave.  These may seem like a time to vent with impunity, but the truth is that you could do some serious damage to your reputation if you handle one badly.  Here are a few tips that IT staffing firms suggest following as you go through exit interviews.

1. Approach an exit interview as seriously as you do a job interview.  Just like you would in a job interview, IT recruiting companies suggest you be professional, keep things positive, and be cooperative.  Especially with all the back-door references that LinkedIn enables, it’s important to perform exit interviews as the kind of IT professional you to be known as.  Check your emotions at the door, even if it’s tempting not to.  You never know if your words will make it back to other’s ears and burn bridges for you. (Some technical recruiters suggest venting to a trusted friend or family member before the exit interview so you get it out of your system.)

2. This isn’t a time to improve the company or give much feedback.  Even if exit interviews are sometimes presented this way, it’s often pretty ineffective to share criticism about an employer.  In fact, IT staffing agencies find that doing this will usually just hurt you.  If you’re leaving to seek out IT jobs that pay more, have a better work culture, let you do more interesting work, etc, now isn’t the time to say it.  The best time to ask for a raise, to give feedback about the workplace, or to ask for more interesting projects, was when you were actually an employee.  It’s often just going to be viewed as a slight if you detail all the reasons why you worked with IT recruiting agencies to get out of your current employer.  And as mentioned above, it’s always a bad idea to slight people.  You might unwittingly be burning an important bridge you need in the future.

3. Leave your future employer out of it.  Your IT staffing companies wouldn’t suggest you spend much time talking about how excited you are to join your new employer.  Even if you don’t mean to, people may assume you’re belittling your soon-to-be employer by comparison.

4. Lastly, try to say a few positive things about your soon-to-be ex employer before you go.  While it’s not helpful to say something that feels fake or forced, you can probably find one or two positive things to genuinely note.  Perhaps you had the opportunity to learn more about a new technology, or got to work on an interesting project.  Taking a moment to mention these things you’re grateful for will make you look professional and gracious.

 

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Take the exit interview as seriously as the job interview. Photo credit: multifacetedgirl via Pixabay.

 

Write Technical Job Descriptions that Attract Candidates

One of the things IT staffing firms find that employers often struggle with is writing the descriptions for the IT jobs they need to fill.  Here are 3 tips IT recruiters suggest for writing the kinds of job descriptions that will help you attract great tech talent.

1. Write a job title that’s functional, rather than creative. Titles with ‘Rock Star’ or similar words may sound fun, but IT recruiting firms find these often don’t attract top-tier candidates.  What candidates respond to most is a title that clearly states what kind of work the role handles.  These titles help candidates picture themselves in the role.  They also appreciate these roles because they have currency in their next job search.  It’s easier to tell future employers that you’re a UX Director (versus a UX Rock Star).

2. Make a clear list of technologies you’ll require a candidate to have and a one for technologies you’d prefer a candidate to have. IT staffing companies find that when required technical skills and experience are lumped with preferred, it creates a job description that is too intimidating for candidates.  Especially with a shortage of tech talent in the US, it’s important to write a description that IT professionals will see and be able to picture themselves succeeding at.  Attracting great talent starts with helping them see a job that is actually do-able.

3. Lastly, try to sell your corporate culture and any projects the candidate will get to work on. IT recruiting companies find that great candidates are looking for projects that will further their career and companies that are fun, engaging, and stimulating to work at.  If you can offer them either, it’s important to emphasize this in the job description.  Since it’s a job seeker’s market, you want to write a job description that doesn’t just accurately portray what you need.  IT staffing agencies suggest appealing to tech professionals in these job descriptions, especially in terms of the kinds of work they’ll get to do and who/where they’ll get to do it with.

 

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Make a clear list of required technical skills and preferred technical skills. Photo credit: webandi via Pixabay.

 

How to Pick a Good Coding Boot Camp

If you’re thinking about a coding boot camp, you’re not alone.  IT staffing companies have seen an explosion in boot camp popularity in the last few years.   IT recruiters certainly find that many candidates seeking new IT jobs (especially their first programming roles) have a boot camp on their resumes.  The questions is, are they worth it?  The tuition for many of these boot camps is often in the thousands, so it’s imperative you make back that money with some great IT jobs.  Here’s how to make sure you pick the best boot camp for you.

1. Do research on the job market in the area you live in. What are the most in-demand programming languages?  Just as importantly, what are the most in-demand programming languages for the kinds of roles you want?  IT staffing firms would advise you to make sure you understand not only what skills are marketable, but what skills are marketable and will land you a job you will at least moderately enjoy.  You don’t want to realize that you hate the kinds of roles you paid thousands of dollars to be able to land.  IT recruiters find that people who hate their jobs rarely succeed at them, or at least succeed at them long-term.

2. Seek out recommendations. Ask people in your network if they have gone to, or know of, boot camps that are effective.  Check online at sites like Course Report.  You might also reach out to your IT staffing agencies to see if they can recommend any great local boot camps for the kinds of roles and skills you’d like in the future.

3. Once you find some programs that look good, IT recruiting agencies suggest that you step back and look them over one last time. Ask questions about them, including these:

  • What is the rate at which grads land their ideal roles?
  • What is the rate at which students graduate?
  • Do these boot camps offer connections to internships, projects or potential employers?
  • Can you handle the final cost of this boot camp, or will it be too expensive of a risk?

4. Based on all these steps, make a choice.  IT recruiting companies would urge you to consider the fact that sometimes, your best choice may be to skip the coding boot camp (at least for now).  Sometimes there truly aren’t any coding boot camps that would be a good investment in your career.  Though boot camps are being hailed as the new gold rush, there are many that won’t help you land the IT jobs you want. The wise IT professional sees this– and saves their time and money.

 

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Coding boot camps  are always intense, but they aren’t always worth the money. Photo credit: skeeze via Pixabay.

 

3 Reasons Cyber Security Jobs Will Increase

IT recruiters are seeing an increased demand for IT jobs in cyber security.  While this area has been hot for IT staffing firms for at least the last few years, it will likely grow at an even faster pace in the near future for 3 reasons.

Firstly, IT recruiting companies will see more job openings in cyber security because there will likely be more attacks.  The recent Dyn attacks are a good indicator of an increase in the kinds of all-out attacks that will become more frequent– and vicious.  Cyber attacks will also increase because they’re a new frontier for terrorists.  Cyber attacks that affect community sources of electricity, water, power, etc are likely to become a new method for terrorists.

The second reason IT staffing agencies will see more job openings in cyber security is because there will be more regulations and laws created for protection against cyber attacks.  Recent events have shown cyber security to be a top concern—one that people will be forced to deal with for their own good.  Businesses, governments, and other organizations that have pushed cyber security to the bottom of their to-do lists will be required by insurance carriers and laws to start paying more attention.  This means IT recruiting firms will be searching for more tech professionals with the skills to help employers meet these laws and regulations.

The last reason that IT staffing companies will see an uptick in cyber security jobs in the near future is because it makes good business sense.  Some businesses won’t need laws or regulations to take these threats seriously—it’s already affecting their business.  These employers will look to IT recruiting agencies to help them make an investment in an important, somewhat new, business practice: protecting their data.

 

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Companies that haven’t taken cyber security seriously will soon be forced to by laws and regulations. Photo credit: TheDigitalWay via Pixabay.

 

Graduating in May or June? Recruiters Can Help You Now

If you’ll be graduating from college this spring, you could benefit from calling IT staffing agencies this month.  While it may seem too early, there are a few things that good IT recruiting firms can do for you so you’re even more prepared to land great IT jobs when you graduate.

Help with your resume. If you’re graduating from college or grad school, you may be creating your resume for the very first time.  While your career center can advise you on basic resume templates, IT staffing firms can tell you exactly what the employers in your field are looking for.  Because they have close contact with employers, technical recruiters can help you build exactly the resume they want to see— the first time you create your resume.

Guidance building a portfolio, LinkedIn profile, website for job searching, etc. Since you have about 6 months before graduation, you’ll have plenty of time to start creating things like a digital portfolio, a website, or any other materials to show off your technical skills.  As mentioned before, IT recruiters have plenty of contact with employers, so they can help you create materials that will make you all the more employable.

Guidance on what to study.  With 6 months to graduation, you may have enough time to focus your studies on particular technologies, programming languages, certifications, etc.  Even if your classes have already been decided on, you might want to consider learning these things in your spare time or refreshing your familiarity with them.  Whatever the case may be, IT recruiting agencies know what technologies are in demand with employers.  They can help you prepare to meet these demands so you’re a hot commodity on the job market when you graduate.

 

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You may still have 6 months of college or grad school left, but you can be prepping for your job search now. Photo credit: Pexels via Pixabay.

 

Rescheduling and Cancelling Job Interviews

IT recruiters find that a surprising number of candidates ask to cancel or reschedule interviews for IT jobs last minute.  This might not seem like a big deal, but IT staffing firms see that it has some big repercussions for job seekers.   Here’s why technical recruiters suggest you never try to cancel or reschedule an interview last minute.

Cancelling the interview with very little notice (less than a few days) will definitely burn some bridges for you with potential employers and IT recruiting firms.  It’s almost always viewed as evidence that you’re possibly untrustworthy, disorganized, unreliable, or just plain rude.  (There are some exceptions to this rule, like medical or family emergencies, but these are obviously very rare.) Employers and IT staffing agencies often put a note in their system that you’ve done this.  They’ll usually blacklist you for it.  While you may not want to work for this employer right now, you never know about the future.

Asking your IT recruiting companies to reschedule an interview at the last minute may not totally burn bridges, but it won’t help you land jobs.  When you ask to reschedule an interview with less notice than a few days, employers will wonder if the job is a high priority for you.  (Again, there are exceptions to this rule, including family or medical emergencies, but these are rare.)  No companies want to hire people who aren’t excited about the opportunities they offer.  Depending on the reason you offer and how last minute you’re asking for a rescheduled interview, your IT staffing companies may also respond by submitting you to less jobs or sending you on less interviews.

So what should you do instead of cancelling or rescheduling last minute?  Start by making sure to really consider a job before letting your IT recruiting agencies submit you for it.  Is the commute ok with you?  Do you think you have the skills and experience to handle the work?  You don’t want to cancel the interview at the last minute because you’ve decided you don’t like something about the job or employer after all.  Next, when you give availability, make sure it’s not something that will change.  If you’re not positive you’re free on a certain day, it’s better not to take that risk.  Lastly, don’t lie about it if you do cancel last minute.  Some candidates do lie to their IT recruiters and fake a family or medical emergency.  If people find out you’ve lied, you’ll definitely burn a bridge with them and/or potential employers.

 

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Don’t try to reschedule an interview on short notice. Photo credit: Basti93 via Pixabay.

 

Java Developers: Your Value is Rising in 2017

It may seem like Java is long overdue to be a less imperative skill for IT recruiting firms and employers.  There are newer, more exciting languages out there.  IT staffing companies find that many developers tend to prefer languages like Python or C++ for the projects they work on outside of their formal IT jobs.  Perhaps most tellingly, Java is also no longer the first language many programmers clamber to get under their belts.  But Java will continue to be high on IT recruiting agencies’ and employers’ lists in 2017 for 2 main reasons:

1. Java makes good sense for businesses. Even if other languages like Ruby, PHP, or Node are faster to develop with, Java has some assets that IT recruiters find businesses value more.  For one thing, Java is often more compatible with older applications.  While many businesses would like to be on the cutting edge, they can’t always get there– or get there with every tool they use.  Being cutting edge can be costly, and Java is a great language to use if a company needs to continue to use older tools, software etc.  Speaking of cost, Java is free.  To a business owner, there is no sweeter word.  IT staffing firms find that controlling costs with a programming language that is very reliable and free is undeniably appealing to the client companies they work with.  (It’s also a better value because it makes for faster, easier updates to software because it’s an open source language.)

2. Android Apps will drive a need for Java. It’s obvious mobile is the place for businesses to focus their energy.  It’s also obvious that Android phones are overtaking Apple.  Actually, this may be debatable.  But that fact that it’s debatable at all is telling.  To even be able to threaten Apple means something good about Android’s strength.  To follow the money, technical recruiters would suggest learning or brushing up on your Java.  Plenty of employers will be very excited to see it on your resume in 2017 and beyond.

 

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Java isn’t losing popularity with employers any time soon. Photo credit: Meditations via Pixabay.