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Tag Archives: IT recruiting agencies

Can Your Parents or Spouse Call Employers for You During Your Tech Job Search?

Occasionally IT recruiters and hiring managers get calls or emails about jobs from a strange place: a job seeker’s spouse or parents.  IT recruiting agencies and employers will get everything from initial inquiries, follow up calls or emails, actual job applications from an IT professional’s wife, mother, boyfriend, etc.  While it may seem like this is a just a supportive gesture from a loved one, it can actually hamper one’s job search, if not a candidate’s reputation.  Here’s why you need to make sure you are the point of contact for your own job search—as well as what your family members can do to help with your job search effectively.

Having your parents, spouse, etc reach out to employers and IT staffing firms on your behalf makes you look less professional and/or unmotivated.  As with most other elements of the job search, there are basic expectations about who speaks for you.  Professional norms dictate that either you or your technical recruiters submit your applications, follow-ups, inquiries, etc.  Anything else will be confusing and make it look like you aren’t aware of this (and thus probably other) professional norms.  Hiring managers might assume that if you have your parent or spouse call on your behalf, then you aren’t ready to participate in the workforce because you just don’t understand how to interact with employers.

Besides making you look unprofessional, a call or email from your parent or spouse will make you seem unmotivated.  IT recruiting companies and hiring managers want you to make these calls and emails because you’re ultimately invested in landing new IT jobs.  If somebody else is calling for you, it could look like you’re not interested enough to do it yourself.  Especially in tech, where a passion for the work, the company, the team, or some combination of all of these is so imperative, you don’t want to present yourself as possibly disinterested in your own candidacy.  Show you care about the jobs you’re applying to (or discussing with your recruiters) by making all calls and emails yourself.  Don’t ask your spouse, parents, etc to do it for you.

Having your spouse or parents reach out to employers and IT recruiters on your behalf could ruin your reputation.  The tech field can be a small place.  Between the popularity of LinkedIn (which can help connect all hiring managers to each other) and the small number of qualified IT professionals who move around to similar jobs and companies, your reputation can be paramount. It’s very easy for a manager to do a back-door reference on you or for IT staffing companies to blackball you.  Thus if you continually make a mistake, like having your parents call on your behalf about your job application, many people might hear about it.  Even if you find a job now, you’ll likely be looking for one in the future.  Don’t hurt your chances of finding IT jobs by becoming known as the unprofessional candidate who outsources their job search to the wife, husband, parents, etc.

What can a spouse, parent, or family member do to successfully help you with your job search?  IT staffing agencies suggest that you tell well-meaning loved ones to help by doing a few things behind the scenes.  A parent or spouse can find and send you jobs to apply to (while not completing the application themselves!), suggest companies you may want to apply to, or find IT recruiting firms you might want to work with.  They can also help write  your resumes and cover letters or practice for interviewers.  Of course, as the candidate, you will have to be your own advocate. Employers and recruiters should speak with you and only you.  But that doesn’t mean that your loved ones can’t help prepare you to interact with employers and recruiters.  In fact, it’s often encouraged, especially when it comes to interview preparation!

IT job search tips
Tell your spouse to hold off on calling that recruiter for you! Photo credit: JESHOOTS via Pixabay.

How to Be Ready for Personality Tests in the Tech Hiring Process

Most IT professionals are familiar and ready for every element of the job search.  Phone screens, technical interviews, coding tests, whiteboarding sessions, and interview thank you notes are all par for the course and most candidates are ready to handle them.  But one element of the tech job search that does surprise a lot of candidates is a personality test.  IT recruiting firms find that time and again, candidates are unprepared for personality tests or feel uncomfortable taking them.  Some even try avoiding them (which really isn’t possible.  You may as well just opt out of the running for the job if you refuse to take the test.).  Here’s a little more info about personality tests so you’re not caught unawares the next time you have to take one.

Why do employers give these tests, especially in tech?  It might seem counter-intuitive that employers base hiring for IT jobs off of personality tests.  These jobs are all about very specific (often hard-to-find skills), aren’t they?  In the past decade or so, employers in the tech space have become more concerned with culture.  This has happened for a few reasons, but the increased use of Scrum and Agile as development methodologies probably plays a big part.   The days of Waterfall and heads-down coders are largely gone.  This means that personality has become exponentially important to hiring managers. Thus, a small but strong minority is very invested in using personality tests as part of their hiring process.

Can I cheat on personality tests?  No.  It’s not even worth trying.  IT staffing firms find that the ‘right’ answer on these tests often isn’t very clear anyways.  The questions are usually pretty abstract ones or hypothetical ones that don’t even seem applicable to the job.

What if I want to try to ‘cheat’ anyway?  It’s important to note that you wouldn’t want to cheat on these tests, even if you could.  Like cheating on a coding test, this will just land you a job that you won’t be likely to succeed in.  If an employer is offering a personality test, it’s likely that hiring somebody who fits into their corporate culture is paramount.  If you ‘cheat’ your way into a job where you’re not a culture fit, it will become apparent pretty quickly. Your status at the company will suffer, or worse, you’ll be fired.  IT recruiting agencies suggest you be honest on personality tests.  If you fail it, this can still be a good thing.  Your test result will ensure that you avoid taking a job you’d be miserable in, anyway!

tech hiring tips and personality tests
Don’t lie on a personality test. It won’t help you land an IT job you love. Photo credit: Monoar via Pixabay.

Q and A about Jumpiness in Tech Resumes

When you’re working in the tech field, there’s a lot of temptation to jump around from job to job.  Between IT recruiters who reach out to passive candidates, new roles that offer hands-on experience with hot new technologies, and employers who offer roles with big pay raises, it can be hard to stay loyal and stick with your IT jobs for the expected 1, 2, or more years.  As a general rule, It’s important to avoid all of this temptation, though and try to maintain some decently long stints at each employer you work at. Here are some common questions and answers that IT staffing firms often get asked about about jumpiness in a tech career.

Is there ever a time when jumpiness is ok for IT professionals?   Especially in tech there are times when some jumpiness is completely acceptable.  Contracting is the most obvious example.  IT recruiting agencies find that hiring managers don’t mind a couple of years of contracting in a resume.  This can be pretty normal for the field and can certainly help as you begin your career or seek out experience with new technologies.  Additionally, it’s also fine to have shorter stints at jobs for the usual reasons: a company is acquired or you must move to a different part of the country.

Why is jumpiness a problem on a tech resume, then? Employers in the tech field have a few reasons why they prefer to hire candidates with long, solid stays at most (if not all) their jobs.  Firstly, many tech roles are well-paid.  This means that a company needs to make a good investment and hire a candidate who’s reliable, prepared, and ready to make some big contributions.  Losing candidates every six months, even sometimes every year, can be a bad investment for an employer.  It’s hard to contribute a lot to the company when you’re not around long enough!  It’s also hard to rely on a candidate when employers are constantly concerned they’ll be leaving for new opportunity with a higher salary, fresher technologies, etc.

Another reason employers don’t want to hire people with excessively jumpy resumes is related to training.  Many tech roles require in-depth training for candidates to really contribute to the workload.  There’s a ramp-up period that can’t be avoided.  Due to this ramp-up period, employers don’t want to hire IT professionals who won’t stick around for a long time.  They don’t want to be training a new person, and thus losing time and productivity, every six months, year, etc.

The last reason tech employers want to see less jumpiness in a resume is that long stays at a company can indicate more experience with long-term projects.  Long-term, organizational projects can take years.  If you’ve never been any place longer than a few months, you haven’t been able to participate in one of these kinds of projects from start to finish (or even close to it).

How do you polish jumpiness in your own resume so it’s appealing to technical recruiters and hiring managers? If you have the kind of jumpiness that’s acceptable, make sure to indicate the reasons why you left jobs. Did you leave a job after 3 months because the company was acquired?  Write that as your last bullet.  Keep it brief and professional.  A long bullet with a sob story won’t help market you to employers.  In fact, it will likely hurt you.

If you have a rash of contracting jobs in your career, make the bullets in each of them great.  Show off your contributions and professional achievements. You want employers to see that even though you weren’t at a company long, you added value while you were there. 

IT resume tips
Jumpiness in a tech resume won’t always land you the job. Photo credit: Pexels via Pixabay.

 

A Checklist for Writing Your Best IT Resume

Job hunting in the tech industry can differ from any industry.  As an IT job seeker, your search is affected by things like technical jargon, the tools hiring managers use, and the speed at which technologies change and projects become irrelevant.  If you’re serious about looking for new IT jobs, you want a resume tailored to this industry and the needs of the hiring managers in it.  Here’s a quick checklist that IT recruiters suggest using as you complete your resume.  This list will make sure your resume is especially appealing to hiring managers in the tech space and technical recruiters.

1. Does your resume match up with your LinkedIn profile? Especially within the tech space, IT staffing companies and hiring managers use LinkedIn as part of their hiring process.  If your resume doesn’t basically match up with your LinkedIn profile, it’s time to fix that.  You especially want to avoid making it seem like you’re hiding anything or lying about anything in your career history or skill-set.  Appearing dishonest is the fastest way to be blacklisted with IT recruiting firms and employers.

2. Is your resume full of quantifiable, concrete, professional achievements?  The bullets under each job should be taken up with statements like ‘Improved network downtime by 25%.’  Or ‘Increased web traffic by 50%.’  Hiring managers are more likely to pick people who they can picture working with their team and contributing to their company’s goals.  This is especially true in tech, where the salaries are higher and a bad hire can cost a lot.  Nobody wants to be the manager who hires a programmer who can’t code fast enough or the network architect who designed a faulty network.  Make it easier for hiring managers to picture you succeeding in their open roles.  List the concrete contributions you made at previous employers, using numbers and percentages whenever you can.

4. Is your resume easy to read?  Did you focus on your last 10-15 years of experience?  Did you use a simple font with basic, even spacing?  Did you use a conventional resume format, or a ‘creative one’ that might require some extra time to figure out?  Did you forgo giving every single technical detail of your work at every previous job?  Keep in mind that IT recruiting agencies and hiring managers don’t have much time to pore over every line of your resume.  In fact, if you apply with a resume that’s crammed to the gills with lots of technical details for 7 pages, or provide a resume that’s in a ‘creative format’, you might just be taking yourself out of the running for a job right off the bat. Make your resume easy to read and keep it brief and efficient.  If your experience is a good fit, you can give more detail in a phone or in-person interview.

 

IT resumes
You’ll land more IT jobs if your resume ticks off every box. Photo credit: TeroVesalainen via Pixabay.

 

2 Tips for Hiring Tech Talent

It can be tough to fill open tech positions at your company.  The US still has a shortage of qualified professionals to fill the new IT jobs which open up or are created daily.  IT recruiting firms find that the tech field is still very much a job seeker’s market.  How can you make sure your company stays competitive in attracting and hiring the best talent?  Here are 2 tips from IT staffing companies on best practices for hiring tech talent.

1. Focus on building a great corporate culture.  Tech employers used to compete for great talent with their perks.  In the beginning of the Dotcom boom, stocked kitchens, catered lunches, subsidized commuting costs, etc used to be a huge draw.  Now it seems that many other industries have jumped on this bandwagon.  Exciting perks are much more available at many employers, and thus aren’t really as a big of a draw to IT professionals.

The new commodity that’s harder to come by, and thus a bigger draw, is great culture.  Glassdoor and its anonymous, unfiltered reviews has probably played a big hand in making job searchers more aware of this.  IT recruiters find that candidates often ask about the management and corporate culture at a potential job right after they hear about the work.  Having an open, innovative culture that allows employees some agency in shaping their life at work is a huge draw.  If you want to attract technical talent, IT staffing firms suggest building a management team with great communication skills, an interest in helping their employees grow and build their skill base, and who prioritize their employees’ happiness.

Building great corporate culture might be one of the hardest ways to attract employees, but technical recruiters suggest it because it’s effective and it also helps retain employees down the road.  Instead of investing in gimmicky perks, take time to make your company a workplace where people are generally happy.  It will pay off now, and in the future.

2. Move faster in your hiring process.  IT recruiting agencies caution employers against moving at too slowly for hiring all  tech positions.  As mentioned before, the tech field is a job seeker’s market.  The unemployment rate for IT professionals is notoriously low—often as low as half the national average.  If a candidate comes on the market, they could be gone in as little as 2 weeks.  (Highly sought after IT professionals like DevOps and Big Data Engineers, as well as Full-Stack or CRM Developers might be off the market even faster than that!)  IT staffing agencies find that many candidates aren’t even ever unemployed or looking.  They’re passive candidates who are lured away from their current job with a pay raise, better commute, etc. So if you want to hire the best tech talent, you’ll have to move fast.  Respond to applications and submittals by IT recruiting companies as soon as you can.  Make offers in days, not weeks.  IT recruiters see employers lose out on the candidates they really want all to frequently because they just took too long.

 

Hiring tech talent
Hiring tech talent can be tough in such a job seeker’s market. Photo credit: Pexels via Pixabay.

 

Tips for Your Summer IT Job Hunt

Unlike some fields like Education or Retail, hiring trends in the Tech sector usually stay steady in the Summer.  Because technology is vital to most business operations, and because innovation is necessary to a competitive business, Tech employees are indispensable.  Replacing them or adding new ones often cannot wait until after Labor Day.  Your job search in the summer may be a different beast than the rest of the year, though.  Here are two tips for tailoring your search for IT jobs when the weather gets hot and everyone is on vacation.

Take advantage of the strong market for passive job seekers.  If you’re in the Tech field, you have the option to be more of a passive job seeker than in other fields.  Even if you don’t apply to jobs directly, you probably still get contacted by IT recruiters.  Between LinkedIn, Monster, and other similar web sites, it’s very easy for IT staffing firms to find you.  If you’re looking for a new job in the summer, but want to spend more time outside than on your job search, take advantage of this passive job seeker market.  Reach out to IT recruiting agencies with your updated resume.  Turn on the ‘interested in other opportunities’ switch on your LinkedIn profile.  Post your resume on Indeed and Monster. Add a line to your LinkedIn profile about being open to new opportunities.  One caveat: don’t do any of these things if you think your boss or coworkers will see and respond negatively!  You don’t want to endanger your current employment.

Ask for timelines when you’re interviewing, waiting for feedback, etc.  You’ll need to walk a fine line with this, but having better expectations will make the process easier.  Hiring for permanent jobs in the tech sector can be extra slow in the summer.  Companies may be forced to wait on managers and their vacation schedules to set up interviews, make hiring decisions, get feedback, etc.  If you’re working with IT recruiting companies, this is exactly the kind of advantage they’ll provide.  You can ask them when they think managers will make a decision and what the next steps in the process are with impunity.  There’s no risk that you’ll look desperate or bother a hiring manager.  If you’re not working with IT staffing agencies, you can still ask for timelines on hiring decisions, scheduling interviews, etc.  The key is to do so judiciously. Ask once.  Don’t ask somebody like the CEO of the company, or a very high up manager.  Try asking somebody like HR or the internal recruiter, who won’t mind answering questions like this at all.

 

IT jobs summer
Your summer IT job search could have some sweet results if you work with an IT recruiting firm. Photo credit: Fruitnmore via Pixabay.

 

 

Don’t Say This in Your Next Tech Job Interview

IT recruiters find there’s a lot of bad interview advice out there.  Here’s one piece that seems particularly popular—and particularly unhelpful: tell the interviewer you are the most qualified candidate for the job.

Why is this terrible advice?  It’s good to be confident and express interest in the job, isn’t it?  The truth is, this statement doesn’t really accomplish either task well.  Great candidates, especially in the tech space, are looking for a job that is a good fit on both ends.  This means they’ve got all the technical and personality/work style requirements.  It also means the work, the team, and the company fit their own requirements.  An interview is all about sussing out whether both these things are true.  Good candidates don’t know if they’re the ‘best candidate for the job’ for many reasons, including the fact that they don’t know if the job meets their own needs!

Another reason IT staffing companies suggest that you never say something like this in a job interview is that it can come across as arrogant and make you seem difficult to work with.  As a tech professional, these are the last things you want to convey to an interviewer.  These days, communicating and working well with teams is an imperative skill.  As companies are pressured to constantly innovate and improve their products or services, brainstorming and teamwork are becoming necessities.  (Plus, Scrum and Agile are really the trendiest development methods.  The day of the heads-down coder who excels in a Waterfall method have passed.)  Remember, nobody wants to work with somebody who is arrogant.  Arrogant coworkers aren’t open to collaboration, are hard to train, and are just plain unpleasant to deal with on a regular basis.  People wouldn’t hire them for open IT jobs if they can help it!

So what can you say instead of this phrase?  IT recruiting agencies suggest focusing on concrete ways to illustrate your value to the interviewer.  Did you reduce your previous employer’s server downtime significantly?  Did you increase web traffic to your company’s website by 25%?  Being able to share things like this will help potential employers see that you are the most qualified candidate for their open job.

When employers decide you’re the most qualified candidate for the job, it’s much more powerful than you, as the candidate, trying to lead them to this conclusion.  People often value the conclusions they come to themselves.  This is especially true in the hiring process. Technical recruiters find that employers need to feel like they have control of the hiring process, since it’s such a big risk to possibly hire somebody that can’t do the job.

So respect your interviewer and their hiring process.  You can’t decide for them that you’re the most qualified candidate.  You can only illustrate to them all the reasons why you’re a good catch as an employee.  Your patience and subtle confidence may just win you the job!

 

Want to see our open IT jobs?  Follow us on LinkedIn.  We post new jobs daily!

IT Job Interview Tips
Don’t tell your interviewer you’re the best candidate for the job. It won’t help your candidacy! Photo credit: 3dman_eu

 

Are You Ready for Your Technical Job Interview?

If you have some interviews for IT jobs coming up, try using this checklist to make sure that you’re ready.

1. Did you lay out, wash, and iron, a professional outfit? Even in the tech sphere, where many companies allow jeans and a t-shirt, IT recruiters still recommend wearing a suit to your interviews. Make things easy for yourself and make sure it’s ready to go right when you need it.

2. Did you talk to your technical recruiters about the commute? Did you look at your best routes on Google? Are you leaving yourself enough time for traffic, train trouble, bad weather, etc? Are you leaving early enough to meet your recruiter first (if they request it) or to do a security check if necessary? It’s also worth noting that if you’re unsure about doing this commute regularly, consider trying it out during a day and time with comparable traffic patterns. IT staffing firms see people quit jobs all the time because their commute is miserable.

3. Did you study up on relevant technologies? Sometimes IT recruiting firms find that candidates will just assume their ‘rusty’ skills are enough to get them through an interview. Be honest with yourself and study up on a technology if you need to before you go to your job interview.

4. Did you practice some basic interview questions? You’re going for a technical interview, but you’ll still be asked things like, ‘What’s your greatest weakness?’ Or ‘What’s your greatest strength?’ IT staffing companies suggest that you role play with a family member or friend just to be ready for these questions. If you put time into sharpening your technical skills, you should put time into sharpening your general interviewing skills, too! Don’t assume answering these questions is something you can do off the cuff.

5. Did you print out copies of your resume, or will your recruiters bring them for you? Figure this out so you can be prepared in case a hiring manager needs them. If you don’t have access to a printer before your interview, most IT recruiting agencies will bring you a few copies with no issue.

6. Did you prepare a few questions to ask the interviewer? IT staffing agencies find that the candidates who really impress interviewers are the ones who have a few great questions in their back pockets. If you don’t have any to ask, you’ll look disinterested or unprepared. Questions like ‘What would success look like in this role?’ aren’t just for you—they help the interviewer see what kind of employee you’re ready to be!

Want to see our open IT jobs?  Follow us on LinkedIn.  We post new jobs daily!

 

job interview tips
Wear a suit to your interview, even if the daily dress code is casual. Photo credit: TeroVesalainen via Pixabay

 

Are You Missing this Key Quality as an IT Job Seeker?

When you’re applying for new IT jobs, your first consideration is making sure you have the right technical skills.  In addition to their technical skills, there’s something else that IT recruiters find is key to landing new roles: the ability to work in a team.  This soft skill might seem irrelevant, but it’s actually imperative because of 3 major trends in the tech field.

Constant innovation.  Since companies must now keep up with the ever-faster speed of technology, constant innovation is important. In an effort to consistently improve their products and processes, companies are now turning to large brainstorming sessions, hackathons, and other group activities.  IT recruiters find that this type of activity requires an increased emphasis on teamwork and the ability to work well with others.  If you’re not willing to jump into a team brainstorming session, your IT staffing firms may be less willing to submit you to jobs.

Scrum and Agile. Scrum and Agile are some of the more coveted project management methodologies out there. This means that technical recruiters are on the hunt for candidates that want to be a part of stand-up meetings.  If you prefer Waterfall because you like to work independently, your options will ultimately be limited. If you’re serious about your job search, tap into your extroverted side and let your IT recruiting agencies submit you to Scrum and Agile teams.

Open plan offices. Fun, collaborative team culture has been a staple in the tech field since the dot com boom.  But this trend has been amplified by the open plan offices that more and more companies are turning to.  This isn’t just about where your desk is.  Open plan offices are discouraging employees from simply putting their heads down and working straight through from 9-5.  Social interaction is considered part of the job.  Building relationships with coworkers has become an imperative skill.  So if your IT recruiting firms ask you to bring energy and a positive, upbeat, outgoing personality to your interview, you should do it.  It could be the difference between landing the job and losing it!

 

Want to see our open IT jobs?  Follow us on LinkedIn.  We post new jobs daily!

 

IT job search
The ability to work with a team is a crucial piece of the puzzle. Photo credit: wilhei via Pixabay.

 

 

Tips for Asking ‘Creative’ Questions in a Job Interview

‘Wacky’ questions have been a trend for a while in job interviews—especially in the tech field.  IT recruiting firms find that many candidates have had at least an interview or two where they’ve been asked what color crayon they would be, or how many light bulbs there are in Disney World.  While these questions can certainly be helpful to hiring managers, IT staffing companies find that there are more times when they hurt an interview than help it.  Here’s how to make sure you’re using these kinds of questions effectively when you interview candidates.

1. Don’t ask the question if you don’t know what you’re looking for or if there is no direct relevance to the role.  Technical recruiters find that candidates can tell pretty quickly when a manager is asking a question just because they think they should.  Don’t ask questions just because they showed up on a Googled list of interview questions.  It makes the candidate feel like you’re just making them uncomfortable with an unexpected question for no reason.  Think about what your ideal answers would be.  What should the candidate demonstrate when they answer this question? Take time to consider this before you ask.

2. Don’t ask these questions to purposefully make the candidate squirm or to throw them off.  IT staffing agencies find that some employers will give questions like this just to see how a candidate does under pressure or handles discomfort.  These kinds of questions certainly do, but they will also probably make the candidate want to turn down the job offer.  Good managers don’t intentionally make their employees uncomfortable.  In fact, their job is to support them as they handle difficulty.  If a candidate can tell you’re trying to purposefully throw them off, they’ll see it as a big red flag about your management style. Since it’s much more of a job seeker’s market in the tech field, keep in mind that you’re courting the candidate as much as (if not more than) they’re courting you. Asking them a lot of questions that feel silly or weird can leave a bad taste in their mouth.  If a candidate has the technical experience you need, you don’t want to lose them because you asked them what kind of animal they’d be at the zoo.

3. Don’t assume asking these questions makes you seem like a ‘cooler’ employer.  Many employers ask these kinds of questions because they think it will give candidates the impression that they’re cool, like Google, Uber, and other cool tech employers  who are known for asking some ‘wacky’ interview questions.  If you want to let candidates know you have a cool company culture, there are better ways to do it.  IT recruiting agencies suggest you take time to talk about why your company culture is great.  Share your Glassdoor reviews or have current employees meet with the candidate to share what it’s like working at your company.  These things are all much more enticing to a candidate than answering weird, unexpected interview questions.

4. Look for process, not a right or wrong answer.  The point of many of these questions isn’t to focus on whether the candidate answered exactly what you were expecting.  The point is to get a window into their thought process.  If they can think about solving problems in a way that’s advantageous, or can provide an interesting justification for their answer, take note.  Remember that these kinds of questions can be hard on candidates because they’re so unexpected.  Their answer may not be polished or perfect, but it could still tell you much about how they think.

Want to see our open IT jobs?  Follow us on LinkedIn.  We post new jobs daily!

 

weird questions in IT job interviews
What color crayon would your candidate be? It may not matter! Photo credit: Stux via Pixabay.