Tag Archives: IT recruiting firms

2 LinkedIn Post Mistakes That Hurt Your IT Job Search

These days, IT recruiters find that most of the candidates they work with are on LinkedIn.  Most IT professionals are on LinkedIn to either actively seek IT jobs or for networking or professional purposes.  IT staffing firms also see plenty of candidates publishing posts on LinkedIn.  Some of these posts are great, but some are really detrimental to the candidates who post them.  They might offend technical recruiters, hiring managers, colleagues, or even make the author seem unprofessional or unemployable.  Here’s a basic set of guidelines IT recruiting agencies would suggest using as you decide what to post on LinkedIn.

1. Stay away from politics, religion, money, or other hot button topics.  If what you’re writing would feel inflammatory or risky to say in an office setting, it’s not going to go over well in a LinkedIn post.  Even if it’s not the main topic of your post, references to religion or politics probably won’t help your professional reputation.  Remember that the point of a LinkedIn post is boosting your reputation as an IT professional with your network, potential employers, and IT staffing companies.  Don’t publish a post that could negatively impact the way IT recruiting firms, hiring managers, coworkers, etc see you.

2. Use anecdotes and info from your personal life judiciously.  Sometimes using stories from your personal life can make a post more interesting and make it easier for people to relate to you.  Say you’re writing a post about learning a new programming language.  It could resonate with people if you talk about seeing similarities in your learning process and the way your child is learning to talk.  On the flip side, your network, IT staffing agencies, and potential employers don’t want to read a post that is all about your personal life.  They may get the impression that you don’t understand professional norms — which is never attractive to IT recruiting companies or hiring managers.

 

IT job search LinkedIn posts
Posting about your political views on LinkedIn? Don’t do it. Photo credit: Life-of-Pix via Pixabay.

 

 

Fix Your Elevator Pitch for IT Job Interviews

IT recruiters find that some candidates like to use an elevator pitch in interviews or when first meeting technical recruiters.  While elevator pitches are a good tool to have in your back pocket, IT staffing companies would suggest you make one important tweak to yours: make sure it speaks to what you can offer a hiring manager, rather than what you want from your next role.

How do you achieve this?  Focus your elevator pitch around your professional achievements, rather than the ‘objective’ section of your resume (which, by the way, IT recruiting firms would suggest you also delete).  When a hiring manager or IT staffing firms ask you about yourself, what they want to know is why you should be hired for their IT jobs.  For instance, did you provide excellent customer service?  Did you help your team deliver a program on time for your users?  These are the kinds of highlights IT recruiting agencies want to hear.  You want a job where you can grow or be appreciated by your managers and end users?  Not worth mentioning in your elevator pitch.  When they start looking for roles for you, IT staffing agencies will ask you directly what you’re looking for in your next role.  Keep your elevator pitch about what you can offer a future employer—and they may just actually become your employer.

 

ITJobSearchElevatorPitch
Make your elevator pitch for IT job interviews more powerful by focusing on your value as a potential employee. Photo credit: Nakataza02 via Pixabay.

 

2 Reasons Not to Slow Down Your IT Job Search This Summer

With Memorial Day approaching, you may wonder if you should put your search for IT jobs on hold.  Sometimes IT recruiters find that candidates are concerned that hiring will be slow, there won’t be many jobs, or they may just feel more tempted to spend the summer having fun outdoors.  Here are two reasons IT staffing firms suggest that summer is a great time to job search at full speed.

  1. You may have less competition. IT recruiting companies do find that there are are less candidates searching in the summer.  Take advantage of this and put your all into working with your technical recruiters to find a great new IT job.  Even if you sacrifice a little vacation time now, you’ll be much happier later when you go to a job you enjoy every day.
  2. It may be easier to take time off to interview. There are 2 reasons for this.  Firstly, IT recruiting firms often find that taking time off for interviews can be a struggle for candidates.  The summer tends to offer IT professionals a bit more ease in their work schedule.  Perhaps your company has summer hours or extended holidays during the summer.  Perhaps your workload is simply a bit lighter and that makes taking a day off easier.  The second reason it may be easier to take time off to interview in the summer is that it will be less obvious. IT staffing agencies find that people feel nervous about coworkers or managers finding out that days off were used for interviewing.  In the summer, this anxiety may be a little less. It’s more natural to take days off in the summer and absences in the office are noticed far less.

 

Summer IT job searching
Don’t pack those bags just yet! You could get a great IT job this summer. Photo credit: tookapic via Pixabay.

 

 

Get References That Will Land You IT Jobs

IT recruiters usually find that candidates have their resumes ready when they first start their job search.  What many candidates don’t have ready to give their technical recruiters is a good list of references.  Here are 2 tips for compiling a good list of references to share with your IT staffing firms.

  1. Make sure the references you provide your IT recruiting companies are all people you’ve kept in touch with and are happy to act as your references. If it’s been a while since you worked with IT staffing agencies to find IT jobs, you shouldn’t assume you can simply use all your old references.  Call them up, catch up with them briefly, and make sure they’re still willing to speak well of you to potential employers. If you don’t want to call them, an email or message on LinkedIn is also a fine option.  It’s better to find out a reference is too busy or doesn’t feel comfortable speaking for you before sending them to your IT recruiting firms.
  2. Aim to build your list out of previous managers who can talk about your technical skills. The most ideal reference would be previous managers who can speak to technical skills you have that are relevant to the kinds of positions your IT staffing companies will be submitting you to.  Coworkers can be ok references, but managers will impress hiring managers and IT recruiting agencies far more.  Managers have the best view of the value you can add to a company.

 

IT Job Search References
Don’t wonder if that reference will still talk about your programming skills. Call them and check in! Photo credit: niekverlaan via Pixabay.

 

 

1 Way to Improve Your IT Resume

Here’s one straightforward way you can improve your resume to attract more IT recruiters and hiring managers: replace every bullet that starts with ‘responsible for’ with a professional achievement.

Why aren’t ‘responsible for’ statements on your resume as attractive to IT staffing firms?  Because these statements simply tell IT recruiting companies what the description is/was for your IT jobs.  While this is somewhat useful, it doesn’t really bolster your candidacy.  The best bullet points, the ones that IT staffing agencies love, demonstrate the value that you can bring to a new employer.  These kinds of bullet points may give some information that overlaps with a job description, but they’re very different to a hiring manager or technical recruiters.

How do you write bullet points that IT staffing companies and hiring managers want to see?  Think about times you’ve improved a process, gotten a tangible or measurable result, or been commended.  If you don’t have any examples like this, think about you responsibilities in various jobs.  Try to identify who benefited from these responsibilities and how.  You can use this information to create results-oriented statements about what you did.  These are the kinds of things you want added into your resume under each job.  They help employers picture what value you might be able to add to their company, team, etc.

So try taking some time to improve all these ‘responsible for’ statements on your IT resume.  It will help you attract a lot more IT recruiting firms and hiring managers.

 

Fix IT resumes
‘Responsible for’ statements don’t help your candidacy for IT jobs. Photo credit: picjumbo via Pixabay.

 

 

Avoid This Topic During IT Job Interviews

It’s rare for IT recruiters to work with candidates who aren’t at least a little nervous to interview for IT jobs. Even for candidates who have been interviewing for years, the process can still be uncomfortable.  IT staffing firms certainly see nervous candidates come through and land the job anyways.  The key is to appear calm and stay focused on performing well.  A big part of this is not talking about being nervous with your interviewer.

Why would IT recruiting firms strongly suggest that you not tell your interviewer you’re nervous? For some IT jobs, working under pressure at least occasionally is part of the job.  A job interview is a great time to demonstrate your ability to do this.  Even if it’s not an explicit part of the job description, IT staffing companies still suggest that appearing calm and giving your best performance in a job interview, a fairly high pressure situation, will still strengthen your candidacy.

Secondly, IT recruiting agencies would suggest you not talk to your interviewer about being nervous because it won’t look professional.  Professionals are able to focus on what’s important and put their feelings aside, even in uncomfortable situations.  Additionally, plenty of IT jobs also require good communication skills, whether with coworkers, end users, or managers.  Derailing an interview with a conversation about your nervousness might give your interviewer a bad impression of your communication skills.

So the next time you’re tempted to tell your interviewer about how you nervous you are, remember this advice from IT staffing agencies suggest and hold off.  Use your precious interview time to show your interviewer you’re a great candidate.

 

FocusITJobInterviews
Don’t let your nervousness derail your performance in IT job interviews. Photo credit: Lindsay_Jayne via Pixabay.

 

Leave This Off Your IT Resume!

When you polish up your resume to attract IT staffing firms, you may be tempted to create fancy tables or graphs to show your technical proficiencies or achievements.  Perhaps you’ve even heard that these kinds of elements might make you stand out to IT recruiting firms and hiring managers.  This is terrible advice, though.  Here’s why IT staffing agencies will respond better if leave fancy tables graphs, pie charts, etc off your IT resume.

Firstly, while it may take skills to create a pie chart or graph on your resume, this isn’t the impression that elements like this often give to IT recruiting companies and hiring managers.  If you have a strong resume with good experience and a great arsenal of technical proficiencies, you don’t need any special gimmicks to make your resume stand out to IT recruiting agencies.  If you do use these elements, you’re distracting from the strength of your candidacy and suggesting you may not understand professional norms.

Another reason IT staffing companies wouldn’t suggest you use any graphs, pie charts, etc on your resume is that these may make your resume more difficult for hiring managers or technical recruiters to read.  Since IT recruiters and interviewers are often pressed for time, they won’t usually appreciate a graph that will require them to slow down and decipher it.  Even if it’s simple, an element like this will still require more time to read than a simple, well-formatted resume.  At best, you’ll simply irritate interviewers or technical recruiters.  At worst, they may actually abandon your resume altogether in favor of one that is easier to look over (and thus establishes great candidacy faster).

So use a simple, clean format for your IT resume.  Fancy charts won’t win you IT jobs.

 

Pie Chart IT Resumes
Don’t put one any pie charts on your IT resume, no matter how beautiful you can make them. Photo credit: OpenClipartVectors via Pixabay.

 

 

Don’t Let Tough Questions Sink You in IT Job Interviews

If you’re working with IT recruiting companies to find your next IT job, your IT recruiters will likely give you some idea of questions to prepare for before interviews.  Even with plenty of practice and research, most IT professionals do encounter some questions that are just uncomfortable to answer.  For instance, IT recruiting agencies often find that candidates who have been fired don’t enjoy answering ‘Have you ever been fired before?’  Here’s how IT staffing firms would suggest you deal with it if you get asked a question that you don’t feel good about answering.

  1. Don’t be vague or try to hide anything. Your technical recruiters don’t want you to spill your guts about every gory detail of a firing, unpleasant situation, weakness, etc.  However, they also want you to make your interviewer feel like you’re untrustworthy.  Interviewers can usually tell when you want to hide something, and they don’t give your IT staffing companies good feedback when that happens.
  2. Try to stay calm. You can guide how your interviewer feels about your answers to a question by appearing comfortable yourself.  If you are visibly nervous, ashamed, or upset by something, your interviewer is all the more likely to feel like it’s a bad thing.  IT staffing agencies want you to remember that everyone has flaws.  Seeing those flaws clearly and having a plan for how to work on them is what sets you apart.

Don’t assume your IT recruiting firms will always tell you that you lost IT jobs because you’ve had to divulge less than flattering info about yourself.  Whatever the question, there’s usually a way to respond to it honestly, but without reflecting poorly on you.  (For example, if you’ve been fired before, you can state that simply– and mention what you learned from it.)  It’s even possible to turn uncomfortable questions into an opportunity to show something positive about yourself as an IT professional.

 

Tough Questions IT Job Interviews
Don’t be afraid. If you’re calm and open, you can answer tough questions at your IT job interviews. Photo credit: SEVENHEADS via Pixabay.

 

Make Time To Practice This Before IT Job Interviews

As you prep for job interviews, here’s one way to give yourself an advantage: practice speaking about a professional achievement in a brief, but comprehensive way.  Here’s how IT staffing firms would recommend you do this.

  1. IT recruiting agencies would suggest you start by identifying some of your major professional achievements. These might be obvious, but they could be things that seem smaller, like putting in extra work to make sure a project was delivered on time for end users.  Make a list for yourself.
  2. Go over the descriptions your IT recruiters gave you for the IT jobs you’ll be interviewing for. Try to pinpoint if any of the achievements on your list will be especially pertinent to these jobs.
  3. Once you’ve selected the best achievements, think about them in terms of three things. Figure out what exactly you did, what the impact was, and if there were any particular groups that benefited (like end users, clients, your team, etc).
  4. Now practice talking about each achievement in these terms. IT recruiting firms would suggest you practice speaking with a friend, family member, or in front of the mirror.  Use a timer and try limiting yourself to 2-4 minutes at most.  The reason IT staffing companies would suggest you limit your time here is that it will keep you from making a few mistakes.  You won’t be able to get too technical (something that technical recruiters have certainly seen ruin interviews), nor will you be able to sound too arrogant or take the interview off track.
  5. When you find an opportune moment in an interview, don’t be afraid to pull this ace out of your pocket. You don’t want to sound rehearsed, but practicing and thinking about how to talk about your professional achievements ahead of time will make you much more succinct and effective!

 

IT Job Interview Prep
Use a timer as you practice speaking about your professional achievements in past IT jobs. Photo credit: Nile via Pixabay.

 

4 Steps to Landing an IT Job that Makes You Happy

As you interview for IT jobs, your top concern is likely whether you are prepared for and/or can succeed at the kind of programming, debugging, troubleshooting, etc that the role requires. While IT recruiters would definitely advise asking questions about the scope of the work the role will require, it’s also important to think about the corporate culture.  Why would IT staffing companies suggest you make this a priority in your decision-making process?  Because if you aren’t happy or don’t fit into the team and company culture, IT recruiting firms can almost guarantee it will be hard for you to really succeed in your role.  IT staffing firms see plenty of talented IT professionals fail at jobs because they can’t get along well with their teams, bosses, or end users and clients.  Here’s how to make sure you land a job where you’re not just a great fit for the work, but also the culture!

  1. Think about what kind of workplaces you’ve succeeded in previously. What made them comfortable for you?  The pace of work?  The communication styles of team members?  Did you have standup meetings?  Did you communicate directly with clients or end users? Take some notes for yourself.
  2. Talk to your technical recruiters. Ask them if the roles you’re interviewing for have these elements to their corporate culture.  Make sure they’re clear on what will and won’t work for you.  Good IT recruiting agencies don’t want to place you in jobs where you’ll have a hard time fitting into the culture.
  3. Research online.  Check out Glassdoor reviews and see what the company says about its own corporate culture on its website or social media accounts.
  4. Come to the interview with questions. If you have specific questions about the corporate culture, you’ll make an even better impression on your interviewer.  If you don’t have any specific questions, more general questions will still help you make a better decision.  Try asking what people enjoy about working at the company.  Ask what people don’t like about working at the company.  Ask about what personal qualities make people successful (or not!) at the company.

 

Happy IT Job
You can make sure you land an IT job you’re not only good at, but also happy at! Photo credit: melissajuarez0 via Pixabay.