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Tag Archives: IT recruiting agencies

What Makes an IT Recruiter Trustworthy?

If you’ve just started your search for new IT jobs, you’re probably a little confused about what IT staffing firms and technical recruiters you should work with.  To some extent, you’ll wind up picking your IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies based on location.  If you want to work in a certain area, you need to work with the IT recruiting companies that have clients there.

Beyond location, however, there are other reasons why IT staffing companies are good or bad to work with.  Firstly, you want to know that the IT recruiting agencies you pick are reputable.  You can do a quick search online, both on Google and LinkedIn.  If you ask well-established IT recruiting firms directly, they will also be more than happy to provide you with references or links to their reviews online.  Besides being vetted, you also want to know that the IT recruiters you’re working with are interested in creating a good relationship with you.  A recruiter who wants to build a good relationship with you truly listens to (or better yet, asks for) your preferences for your next role.  They also contact you somewhat regularly while you’re searching for jobs and might even ask to meet you in person.  The best recruiters want to place you in a job you’re happy with, and they spend time getting to know you so they can do this.

 

 

Ask This Question to Impress Your IT Interviewer

If you’re interviewing for IT jobs that you really want, it’s not enough to just go through the motions of basic preparation with your IT recruiters and IT staffing firms.  Your best bet to really wow your interviewers (and by extension, your technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies) is to work on a few ‘secret weapons’ that will really elevate your performance in the interview.  Here’s one ‘secret weapon’ you should really try to cultivate: Ask the interviewer how your work will impact and aid the company in reaching its major goals.

Why would you ask this question?  It will show that you’re interested in not just the role, but how you can be a stellar employee that contributes to the company as a whole.  IT staffing companies and IT recruiting agencies have no problem placing candidates who can see the big picture.  Hiring managers don’t just want somebody who wants to complete their own tasks. They’d love to get somebody who will contribute to their team and the company as a whole.  This kind of employee understands bigger priorities and requires less management and puts out better results.

 

Don’t Do This in Your IT Cover Letter

Sometimes, your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies ask you to write up a cover letter for IT jobs they’ll be submitting you for.  If your IT recruiting firms and IT staffing agencies ask you to write a cover letter, try to avoid this major mistake: don’t gush on and on about the company—particularly if it’s not genuine.

IT recruiting agencies do want you to mention what you like about a company in a cover letter.  However, you should only do this if you can genuinely and succinctly do it.  Taking up more than a few sentences to go on and on about a company that probably don’t know much about will come across as insincere.  Hiring managers may think that you’re working with a form letter (especially if you give pretty generic praise to the company) or that you’re focusing on the wrong things—possibly even trying to distract from, or covering up, your weak candidacy.   Your IT staffing firms and technical recruiters want you to write cover letters that focus on why you’d be a great fit for the job.  If you take up too much time saying things that don’t feel genuine about the employer, it’s a red flag to them and they’ll lose interest in you.

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A ‘Hook’ for Your IT Job Interviews

If you’ve got interviews for IT jobs coming up soon, you’re probably preparing the usual things with your IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies.  These things are important, and you should certainly focus on them.  But once you’ve covered all the bases your IT staffing firms and technical recruiters tell you too, you may want to consider developing a “hook” that will make you stand out.  What exactly would that be?

A good hook is something that will make you stand out to your interviewers in a good way.  They’ll remember you for more than just the skills your IT recruiting companies have vetted you for—something quirky like an unconventional hobby or an interesting story you can tell about yourself (that’s still relevant to the topics discussed in the interview).  For instance, if you have done some IT- centered volunteer work for an interesting nonprofit, this is a good hook that your interviewer can remember you by.  If you’re unsure if your hook is appropriate or just a good idea, you can always run it by your IT recruiting agencies. Even if you don’t get this particular job, your hook might impress your IT staffing companies and they might make sure they can place you at another job!

 

 

Nail your Skype IT Job Interviews

More and more IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies these days are able to offer their job candidates skype (or similar technologies) interviews.  If your technical recruiters or IT recruiting firms set up a skype interview for you, here are some tips to make sure you get offered the IT jobs.

  1. Start by scheduling the interview a day and time when you can be fully prepared.  Your IT staffing companies and IT recruiting agencies want you to succeed in your interviews.  So they’ll understand when you ask them to help you schedule the interview for a day and time when you’ll be able to do the interview with a secure internet connection, have a clean, quiet, and appropriate location to do it in, and be able to wear interview-appropriate clothing.
  2. Make sure you practice interviewing with the technology you’ll be using ahead of time.  It’s not enough to simply practice interviewing.  You want to know how you come across and what it feels like to use this technology.  You also want to know how to use it so you can easily set it up the day of the interview.
  3. Lastly, it may seem obviously, but remember that this interview is just as serious as an in-person interview.  It could be easy to forget this because you’re at home, but don’t!  Stay professional and keep your head in the game—your IT recruiting companies will really appreciate it and so will your interviewers!

 

 

Help IT Recruiters Find You

Are you looking to connect with some IT recruiters and IT staffing firms to get started on a job search? Are you having a tough time creating good relationships with technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies?  It might have to do with your online presence.  Here are some ways to make sure you’re more visible to IT staffing agencies and IT recruiting firms online—and in most flattering way possible.

Firstly, you’ll want to clean up your online presence.  If you have a Facebook page or are on any other social media, try to take down any inappropriate, unprofessional, or embarrassing pictures or posts.  You don’t want IT recruiting agencies to come across these, nor do you want a hiring manager to see them!

After making your unprofessional aspects of your life invisible, it’s time to make sure your professional achievements are visible.  IT staffing companies will be more likely to contact you if you make sure to have a great profile on LinkedIn and post your resume on major websites for job seekers.  Once you’re on LinkedIn, it’s important to start using your profile to make connections.  It will be even easier for recruiters to find you if you wind up being connected to people already in their network.

 

 

Are Tests Necessary in IT Job Interviews?

Sometimes your IT recruiters and IT staffing firms will tell you to prepare to take a test at your interview.  An employer may want to test your abilities with particular technologies or methodologies, even if your resume and IT staffing companies and IT recruiting firms already suggest you’re good at something.  Sometimes this can frustrate job candidates—they don’t want to have to take a test because it’s stressful or time-consuming.  However, your technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies can tell you that there are reasons why these tests are helpful to you and the potential employer.

The main reason these tests are worth taking, is that they will likely show you whether you’d be able to succeed in a job.  You don’t want to take a job that you’ll flounder in, and neither does the interviewing company or your IT recruiting companies.  The best IT jobs for you are the ones that you already have the skills to succeed in—and a test can help determine this.

Perhaps the other main reason these tests are worth taking is that putting in the time and effort just to take the test distinguishes you as a candidate.  There are plenty of other candidates who won’t want to take the test.  This will weed them out as competition for you.  So bit the bullet and take the test—even if you don’t get 100%, you may still get the job!

 

Tips for Long IT Job Interviews

If your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies are booking you for long job interviews (ie half a day or longer) then congratulations.  You’re probably very close to a job offer, since IT recruiting agencies, technical recruiters, and interviewers often don’t want to waste their time or a candidate’s time if they don’t have some real interest.  If your IT staffing firms and IT recruiting companies have set you up for a long interview, here are two tips to help you nail it.

Firstly, dress comfortably and professionally.  While this may seem obvious, sometimes your interview clothes aren’t your most comfortable.  It’s really important to wear something that will give off a good impression but won’t leave you feeling too hot, your feet hurting, etc.  You won’t be able to give a good impression to your interviewers if your clothes that normally work for a 1 hour interview start bothering you—with 4 or 5 or 6 hours left to go.

Secondly, try to think about ways you can use the same stories or answers to questions in different ways.  If you’re going on a long interview, you’re likely to have several mini-interviews with a few people.  You may have to answer a few questions twice.  Or you may run out of answers to questions.  Think about how to re-use answers and stories in advantageous ways.  Sometimes, a story about the way you handled a disgruntled customer can also demonstrate your attention to detail.  Or a story about the way you fixed a bug in some code can demonstrate both your ability to be a team player and your excellent coding skills.  Come to the interview with a few anecdotes like this in mind.  It will help and might just win you the IT jobs of your dreams!

 

Delete These Things from Your IT Resume

When you’re working with IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies, they’re likely to help you edit your resume.  To really impress your technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies, you can hand them something that won’t take much editing.  Here are three things you can clean off your resume before giving it to IT staffing firms and IT recruiting agencies.

Start by deleting irrelevant personal information.  Take out hobbies that don’t pertain to the kinds of jobs your IT staffing companies will likely be submitting you to.  For instance, hobbies and interests like ‘spending time with family’ are most likely just taking up unnecessary space on your resume.

Next, if you graduated college or high school more than 5 years ago, consider taking off the year you graduated.  Unfortunately, employers may still discriminate against older job candidates.  If you take off signifiers of your age, you maybe be increasing your chances of getting a job interview later.  Age discrimination may still occur, but it’s harder to dismiss a candidate who makes a stellar impression in an interview—especially if it’s only for being older.

Lastly, make sure to delete your references and their information if you’ve listed them on your resume.  Your IT recruiting firms may want to contact those references for the hiring company.  In any case, references don’t belong on resumes, they belong on their own separate document.

Leave the Photo Off Your IT Resume

Recently, IT staffing agencies and technical recruiters have been seeing a lot of resumes with photos of candidates included.  This trend is certainly puzzling to IT recruiting companies and it doesn’t do much to impress hiring managers.  Here’s why it’s better to give IT recruiters your resume without adding in your photo.

Firstly, IT recruiting firms will usually want you to remove your photo from your resume because your LinkedIn profile will already provide a picture of you.  It’s actually best to have a LinkedIn profile in addition to your resume, since both are tools that hiring managers and IT recruiting agencies appreciate.  So don’t create unnecessary overlap between these two—leave the photo off the resume.

Secondly, IT staffing companies prefer you leave your photo off your resume because it takes up valuable space on a document that hiring managers will usually just briefly skim.  Even though most IT candidates don’t have to limit themselves to 1 page resumes, it should be noted that hiring managers still don’t spend hours poring over your resume.  It’s best to keep it as concise as possible.  This would mean that beyond simply editing your resume, take out all unnecessary elements—especially photos.

Lastly, IT staffing firms would rather you left a photo off your resume because it detracts from your actual skills and experience.  The best resumes are the ones that just honestly lay out the kind experience and skills a hiring manager wants.  If you add flashy things, like an unconventional design or a photo, that might deter a hiring manager’s attention from the true content of the resume.  In a worst case scenario, they even assume you’re trying to deter attention from a lackluster resume with flashy elements.  So leave the picture off and let your experience and skills speak for themselves!