Tag Archives: IT recruiting firms

How to Talk About Weaknesses in IT Job Interviews

Lots of IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies come across IT professionals who aren’t sure how to answer this tough interview question: What is/are your weakness(es)?  Worse, some technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies work with candidates who think they know how to answer this question, but do it poorly.  Here’s how to talk about weaknesses so you impress your interviewer and get some positive feedback for your IT staffing firms and IT recruiting companies.

  1. Don’t give a fake weakness. Give one that is real.  If you say something like ‘perfectionism’ it will make it harder for the interviewer to feel like you’re being honest and genuine with them.
  2. Give a weakness that isn’t prohibitive to doing the IT jobs you’re interviewing for. If you’re interviewing for a Software Developer job, you wouldn’t want to say you’re not very attentive to detail.
  3. Lastly, make sure your weakness is something you can actually improve upon. It’s best if you can give a brief summary of how you are currently working on this weakness, too.  This will ensure that your IT staffing companies and IT recruiting firms get some great feedback after your interview!
IT job interviews weakness
Don’t give fake weaknesses, like ‘perfectionism.’ They guarantee that your IT recruiters will get bad feedback after your interview.

Do This to Wow Your IT Job Interviewer

Most IT professionals are looking to differentiate themselves in interviews for IT jobs.  Your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies will certainly advocate for you, but you also will want to really stand out in your interview.  Here is one way that you can really impress your interviewer (and by extension your technical recruiters and IT recruiting firms).

Before you interview, get a good, thorough idea of what the job will entail from your IT staffing agencies and IT recruiting companies.  Then think through any potential challenges you’ll face if you get the IT job.  Make a list for yourself, and then work on some basic strategies you’d apply to these challenges.  If you’ve faced similar challenges, think about what strategies did work in these instances.  Now practice going through these.  When you go to the interview, you can use these challenges and solutions if the interviewer seems open to hearing them.  If your examples are good, your IT recruiting agencies and IT staffing firms will likely hear some great feedback about you!

IT job interveiws
Make a list of challenges you anticipate the IT jobs you’re interviewing for. Then try coming up with potential solutions.

Don’t Quit Your IT Job Yet!

When your IT job is unpleasant or stressful, it can be tempting to simply quit and focus solely on finding new IT  jobs with your IT staffing companies and IT recruiters.  Technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies will tell you that this isn’t a good idea, though.  Here’s why you need to tough it out in your current job until your IT recruiting companies and IT staffing firms find you a new job.

  1. If you work as an IT contractor, your resume is already probably full of shorter stints at a lot of companies. This isn’t a problem on its own.  However, if you quit a job without having another to move into, these things combined can create a red flag.  Hiring managers want to be able to trust that you’re reliable and resilient, even if you’re faced with a tough project, team, end-user, etc.
  2. Quitting a job without having another lined up will make it easier for hiring managers to assume you were fired or about to be fired. While your IT recruiting firms can try to explain these things, it’s better to have nothing for your IT recruiting agencies to explain for you. Do your best to keep your resume as pristine as possible, because you never know what other candidates you might be up against.
IT job search
Don’t quit before lining up a new job. It could really hurt your IT career.

2 Reasons You Didn’t Get Called For That IT Job Interview

Sometimes during the search for IT jobs, it can be surprising when your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies say you weren’t called in for an interview.  You and your technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies may have thought you were a perfect fit.  Here are two things that could have gone wrong:

  1. Your resume didn’t show you were a good fit quickly enough.  While your IT recruiting firms will usually help you update your resume, some of this is your responsibility, too.  The resumes that IT staffing firms find most successful are the ones that have a strong professional summary and list of technical proficiencies.  Time is of the essence for busy interviewers and hiring managers.  If you can get these two top sections polished and tailored to the role, you make it more likely a busy hiring manager asks your IT recruiting agencies to get you in for an interview.
  2. You list duties, not achievements for your jobs.  Again, while your IT recruiting companies will help you edit your resume a bit, some of this is your responsibility—especially since you are the expert on your own career.  When you are writing your resume, make sure you make it easy for hiring managers to see how you’ve been impactful at your previous jobs.  Don’t just list what you did, list the impact of what you did.  Giving them a picture of your achievements will make it easier for them to picture you achieving more at their company!

 

Try This For Your Next IT Phone Interview

Technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies see candidates approach phone interviews for IT jobs too casually all the time.  The truth that IT recruiters and IT staffing firms wish all their candidates knew: phone interviews are just as important, if not more so than in person interviews.  These interviews are the gate to getting further in the process.  So for your next interview, here’s a tip to really knock it out of the park and impress your interviewer and IT recruiting companies: take notes before and during.

What does this mean exactly? Start by taking notes for your interview when you prep with your IT recruiting firms and IT staffing companies.  Keep these on hand for your interview so you have a plan for what you want to emphasize to your interviewer.   Use them to guide yourself during the interview so you stay focused, concise and articulate.

Why and how should you take notes during the interview?  Firstly the why.  Take notes so you’re prepared if you get a second interview.  Especially if your IT recruiting agencies are sending you on multiple interviews, it can be hard to remember details from a phone interview.  Now the how.  Take notes in a way that doesn’t interrupt the conversation.  Keep the flow of it. But take important notes when you can.  If you can’t at all, take them immediately after.  Your interviewer at the next interview will be impressed, but you should make it look effortless!

 

2 Reasons IT Professionals Fail Phone Interviews

IT recruiters set IT professionals up for phone interviews for IT jobs a lot. IT staffing companies also spend plenty of time trying to prep people for these phone interviews. Here are two of the top reasons technical recruiters and IT staffing firms find that people flub phone interviews.

1.    You weren’t enthusiastic enough.  IT recruiting agencies hear this a lot.  Candidates don’t advance beyond the phone interview because they sounded flat and uninterested in the job.  This is so easy to avoid. Bring a little more energy to your phone interviews because the interviewer only gets to hear your voice.  While in person your facial expressions and posture can give more of an impression, you don’t have that on the phone. Compensate by being just a little bit more energetic and enthused and your IT staffing agencies will probably hear some good news for you.

2.    Your communication skills were bad.  Especially in client-facing roles or roles where you communicate often with your team or end users, this is really important.  Your IT recruiting firms won’t hear positive feedback if you can’t establish rapport with your phone interviewer—no matter how good your technical proficiencies are!

 

How Honest Should You Be in IT Job Interviews?

Interviews for IT jobs can be intimidating, even if you’ve prepped with your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies ahead of time. One of the things that can be very confusing to IT professionals is where to find the balance between saying something that will reflect well on them and their IT staffing companies and technical recruiters and saying something that is honest.  Here are some tips that IT recruiting firms would recommend so you are more likely to land the job.

Firstly, know what your deal-breakers are.  Do you hate customer service roles?  Do you despise being locked away to code by yourself for hours?  You need to be honest about these things so your IT staffing agencies don’t wind up getting you hired in a job that makes you miserable.  If the job won’t be a good fit, definitely be honest.

Second, try asking some clarifying questions to see if you know what the interviewer wants to hear.  Don’t just assume off the bat you know what kind of qualities are needed to succeed in the role.  A clarifying question helps you tailor your responses so they’re both honest and get your IT recruiting companies some excellent feedback on you!

Lastly, keep things positive.  If you’re going to be honest about some negative experiences you’ve had, times you made mistakes, dislikes, etc, always look for the positive way to spin it.  Your IT recruiting agencies want you to be honest, but they don’t want you to be a sourpuss who’s difficult to work with.  Mistakes can be learning opportunities.  Bad experiences may have taught you new coping skills.  These are the things that make you seem like a competent, capable human.  And that’s what your interviewer really wants!

 

Go Beyond Just Polishing your IT Resume for your IT Job Hunt

When you’re searching for new IT jobs, you already know to do the basics: polish your resume, update your LinkedIn profile, and get back in touch with your technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies.  There are a few more steps your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies would recommend you do, though.  The most important is to clean up your social media accounts.

Why do IT recruiting companies recommend you clean up your social media trail?  While it’s still important not to do things like bashing your boss, team, or employers on your Facebook account or Twitter, this all becomes magnified when you’re working with IT recruiting firms to get a new job.  You want to sanitize any social media accounts you have so they are free from excessive party and alcohol-centered pictures, jokes in poor taste, and anything that indicates extreme religious or political beliefs.

The last one might seem less intuitive, but it’s basically meant to protect you from the chance that you could inadvertently offend a potential employer or hiring manager.  While IT recruiting agencies might know that you are more than your political or religious beliefs, your potential employers don’t know much about you at all.  They’re forced to draw quick conclusions from anything they learn about you.  So play it very safe until you land an IT job: delete any posts that could offend on your social media accounts.

 

1 Easy Way to Make Your IT Resume More Effective

There is plenty of advice out there on how to polish your resume to attract IT recruiters and IT staffing companies.  While some advice is mediocre, here is one tip that will definitely get you a lot more attention from technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies: Break up and cut down any big blocks of text in your IT resumes.

Why will this make a difference to IT recruiting companies?  It’s all about making it easier for IT staffing firms to see that you’re a great fit for a job.  When IT recruiting firms are trying to find the best IT professional for a job, they’re looking at hundreds of resumes. It really slows readers down when your resume is full of dense blocks of text—and time is of the essence for IT recruiters.  So make it more likely that IT recruiting agencies will be able to quickly scan your resume and see how accomplished and experienced you are.  Use bullet points that are concise and cut out extra info that’s too technical or unnecessary.  It might just help you win your next IT jobs!

Answering “Why Are You Interested in this IT Role?”

Most IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies will prepare you to answer a few basic questions in interviews.  One of the most common ones that your technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies will tell you to be ready to answer is “What interests you about this role?” Here are a few tips to make sure you give the kind of answer that will make your IT recruiting firms and IT staffing companies proud to represent you.

1.    Don’t talk about why you need to leave your current job or field.  You’ll be wasting time you could be strengthening your candidacy if you vent.  You’ll also create a negative image of yourself.

2.    Make sure you talk about what excites you about this role and company.  Give some concrete specifics to make your answer stronger.  Help your interviewers picture you succeeding on their team.

3.    Keep your answer organized and focused.  This answer will be important, so don’t go off on any tangents, repeat yourself, or ramble.  Try to think about the main points you want to make, then stick to them.  This is the kind of interview behavior that lands IT jobs.