Submit Resume
Submit Job Order
Locations
Submit Resume
Submit Job Order

Tag Archives: IT recruiting agencies

Be More Open With Your IT Recruiters Than Your Interviewers

If you haven’t worked much with IT recruiters and IT staffing firms, it’s easy to get confused about how to interact with them.  Should you treat technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies with the same deference and professionalism as a hiring manager?  More? Less?

The good news is that IT recruiting firms and IT staffing companies are actually more of your allies in your search for IT jobs.   Unlike hiring managers and interviewers, you can be a lot more unfiltered and open with your IT recruiting agencies.  Your IT recruiters want to know what kind of job you want, what kind of coworkers or corporate culture you need to succeed, how much you’re willing to commute, etc.  If they know exactly what you want—and what you don’t want—they can help you find a job you’ll like and do well in.  Good IT staffing firms don’t want to place you in IT jobs that you hate or can’t succeed in.  This will only damage their relationships with employers.  So be professional with your IT recruiters, but be slightly more open, too.  The more they know about what you want, the better!

Be Stronger in Your IT Job Interviews

On your resume and in interviews for IT jobs, you’ll have to sell yourself to hiring managers, IT recruiters, and IT staffing companies.  There are certain qualities and phrases that hiring managers, IT recruiting firms and technical recruiters all agree are desirable.  However, you need to demonstrate to interviewers and IT staffing firms that you have these qualities, not just say you have them.  Here’s how to do this.

Firstly, stay away from just using adjectives.  Calling yourself “dedicated”, “motivated”, or “diligent” for example, won’t do you much good.  An interviewer can’t go on your own assessment of yourself.  What will work is if you can tell stories that show that other people see you as having the kinds of qualities that make a strong, effective team member.  For instance, talking about the time you spent hours de-bugging code until it was perfect will make a big impact on an interviewer and the IT recruiting agencies and IT staffing agencies you’re working with.  Simply saying that you’re “detail-oriented” and “tenacious” will not impress your interviewers.  Try thinking about this as you prep for your next IT job interview.  It will probably make all the difference.

Don’t Say This Phrase in IT Job Interviews

IT recruiters and IT staffing companies will tell you a lot about what you should be saying in interviews for IT jobs.  However, it’s best if you don’t need your technical recruiters and IT recruiting firms to tell you what you shouldn’t be saying.  Here’s one phrase that you need to banish from your interviewing vocabulary: “hard-working”

If you already spend time selling yourself to hiring managers, IT recruiting firms, and IT staffing firms as “hard-working,” you’re not alone.  It seems like a good quality for success in any job—especially IT jobs that require perseverance to solve tough problems.  However, the problem is that this phrase is overused to the point of being meaningless.

It won’t impress your interviewers or the IT recruiting companies you’re represented by if you say that you’re hard-working because so many other candidates say this about themselves.  It’s better to use the time you would have spent talking about this to speak to some other asset.  Maybe you have experience using a few rare technologies or programming languages.  Maybe you have great customer service skills and can tell a few stories about satisfied end users.  These kinds of things will strengthen your candidacy much more than calling yourself “hard-working.”

 

Questions NOT to ask in IT Job Interviews

Any IT recruiters and IT staffing firms will tell you it’s imperative to ask questions in the interview.  Not asking any questions makes it seem like you’re disinterested in the IT jobs you’re being interviewed for– or worse, you’re willing to just take any job.  IT recruiting agencies and IT staffing companies can easily place IT professionals who ask smart questions that reveal that they know what they want and how to contribute to an employer.

It’s important to your success in job interviews to avoid asking questions that make you and your technical recruiters and IT recruiting firms look bad.  Here are 2 kinds of questions to avoid.  Firstly, some questions will make you look more like a clock-watcher who wants to give minimum effort.  Secondly, you also want to avoid asking questions about benefits and compensation.  The focus of the interview for you should be the job, its duties, the company, and the company culture.  Your IT staffing agencies and IT recruiting companies will help you with negotiation compensation.  Harping on these topics will hurt your chances, if not entirely kill them, of getting the job.

Make Your Social Media Help – Not Hurt – Your IT Job Search

Most IT professionals know what kind of behavior is a problem in interviews for IT jobs.  IT recruiters and IT staffing companies are quick to prepare you so you don’t make any missteps and accidentally offend hiring managers.  It becomes a lot harder for technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies to help you clean up your presence online, though.  Fortunately or unfortunately, hiring managers now may take your presence on social media and online just as seriously as they take your interviews.  Here are some tips to make sure you don’t embarrass yourself or your IT recruiting firms and IT staffing firms.

  1. Delete all pictures, jokes, or statements that could be offensive.  Keeping them just isn’t worth it—no matter how intense your privacy settings are.
  2. Speaking of privacy settings: add them.  Better safe than sorry.  It’s also worth noting that you can’t always control the messages, posts, etc that your friends and family may send your way.  Adding privacy means you don’t have to worry as much about IT recruiting agencies or hiring managers coming across them.
  3. Consider creating a separate account or two for your professional life.  You don’t have to create a whole slew of social media accounts for your professional persona, but having one or two isn’t a bad idea.  They demonstrate both your proficiency with the technologies and your ability to create interesting, thoughtful content.  You can even use these platforms to demonstrate your skills and knowledge in your field.

 

Ace Your Phone Interviews for IT Jobs

When your IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies set up phone interviews for you, here are a few tips to keep in mind.  These will not only help leave a great impression on your interviewer, but also cement your reputation with your technical recruiters and IT recruiting firms.  If you do well in phone interviews, even if you don’t get the IT jobs, IT staffing firms and IT recruiting companies will want to keep working with you until they can place you.

  1. Be prepared.  Don’t wing it.  Don’t hope you’ll find a good place to take the call.  Prep for the call and have a place in mind that you can go to take the call in private with an uninterrupted connection.
  2. Don’t sit- stand.  Or better yet, pace a bit.  Walking around will keep your voice strong and probably help you think better.  Instead of relaxing, as you might when you sit, you’ll keep your blood flowing to your brain and stay more alert.
  3. Lastly, this is the time to show your interest in the role and company.  Ask thoughtful questions about the company, team, and role you’re interviewing for.  If you don’t, your interviewer will feel unsure of your interest level.  They may even relay a bad impression to your IT staffing companies and IT recruiting agencies.

 

 

Mobile Developer Jobs Get a Huge Boost

If you’re looking to go in a new direction with your IT career, you’re guaranteed to become very popular among IT recruiters, IT staffing firms, and IT recruiting agencies if you move towards becoming a Mobile Developer.  IT staffing companies and technical recruiters were already seeking Mobile Developers frequently in the past few years, but Google’s latest move has really increased the need for them.

Since Google will now be penalizing websites that aren’t mobile-friendly in their search results, the race is on for sites to keep up.  Google officially implemented this policy back in late April, but IT recruiting companies and IT staffing agencies will only continue to be on the lookout for Mobile Developers.  Even as companies make their sites mobile friendly to match Google’s request, they’ll also be working to satiate the needs of consumers.  At a recent conference, serious discussion revolved around how prevalent mobile commerce will continue to become.  Smartphones are likely to become a strong competitor for brick and mortar businesses—if not completely replace them one day.

 

 

IT Job Market Faces Unexpected New Ethical Questions

IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies have been working to place candidates in IT jobs for decades.  They’ve seen a lot of surprising ethical questions come up as the field changes in new and unexpected ways.  Some of the more recent ethical questions and challenges that technical recruiters, IT staffing companies, and IT professionals have been dealing with are centered around security.

White hat hacking and security jobs have become more and more imperative as IT recruiting companies and IT staffing firms have seen major institutions like The New York Times and the White House fall victim to hackers.  This profusion of hacking—and the blurriness of what separates white-hat hacking from black hat has only increased on a more individual level.  One of the most fascinating topics of conversation amongst IT professionals is the site Hacker’s List.  Is the work this site facilitates ethical?  Legal?  When does hacking cross the line between white hat and black hat?  Does it matter whom the hacking is done for?  What should consequences be for black hat hacking?  This site is bringing urgency to these questions and more as IT professionals, IT recruiting agencies, and the rest of the world alike are forced to ponder the ethics of hacking.

 

Don’t Underestimate Soft Skills in IT

Andrew Bosworth, a VP and one of the original employees at Facebook recently wrote an article about how working on his interpersonal skills at work was crucial to his career.  IT professionals should take note that this isn’t an isolated anecdote, either.  IT recruiters and IT staffing firms are certainly already encountering a dearth of good, qualified candidates for IT jobs.  But in addition to this, technical recruiters and IT staffing companies are seeking something even rarer- IT professionals who put a lot of effort into their people skills.  The best candidates, the ones IT recruiting firms have no trouble getting placed in IT roles, are the ones who are easy to work with.

There are obviously many, many different kinds of roles in IT, and thus many reasons why good social skills are important for them.  Here are just a few examples.  Service-oriented roles and client facing roles are probably some of the most important for IT staffing agencies and IT recruiting companies to fill with sociable IT professionals with excellent people skills.  Without good people skills, you could only do half—or less! – of these jobs.  Even jobs that aren’t client-facing or service-oriented still require good people skills because of the demands of the corporate culture.  Particularly in a startup environment, IT recruiting agencies need candidates who can work well with others.  Since a team must grow and stretch together, it’s crucial that they are able to respect, and even like each other.  It’s becoming more and more clear that soft skills aren’t just a plus in IT—they’re absolutely crucial for real success!

 

 

Creating Your LinkedIn Profile Picture to Attract IT Recruiters

If you’re looking for IT jobs, of the best ways to attract IT recruiters and IT staffing companies is to really polish and update your LinkedIn profile.  Your profile picture may seem like an afterthought, but it’s actually pretty important in making a good impression on IT staffing firms and IT recruiting companies.  A bad profile photo can give the wrong impression or worse – make technical recruiters bypass your profile completely.  Here are some key things to keep in mind when you’re adding your profile.

Firstly, make sure your face is visible in the picture.  This is what people will connect with and remember the most.  Secondly, make sure that recruiters can see your face—and everything else in the picture—well.  A blurry picture looks sloppy and suggests your IT skills might be subpar.  Take the time to add a well-taken and cropped photo.

Third, the composition of the photo doesn’t have to be fancy, but it shouldn’t be confusing.  Make sure you’re clearly the subject of the photo and nothing distracting is going on in the background.  You don’t want it to be hard for IT recruiting agencies to identify you in your own profile picture.  Lastly, your facial expression should be positive.  A simple smile is perfect here.  Especially in IT, where sometimes soft skills are at a premium, you want to look easy and pleasant to work with!