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Tag Archives: IT staffing agencies

Are You Wasting Space on Your IT Resume?

Does your IT resume say that you’re a fast learner, a great team player, or that you have an exemplary work ethic?  You may think you’re attracting IT recruiters and IT staffing firms, but you’re really just wasting space on your resume. Why?

Particularly when it comes to attracting IT recruiting agencies and IT staffing companies, you want to make sure everything you list on your resume is strong evidence of your value as an employee.  When you list soft skills or call yourself something subjective like “creative” or a “perfectionist”, you’re not giving concrete evidence of your candidacy.  You’re just listing how you perceive yourself, which is pretty irrelevant to hiring managers and technical recruiters trying to fill IT jobs. Focus on listing your technical skills and your accomplishments.  These are what IT recruiting firms and IT staffing agencies love to see.  You can elaborate on more subjective traits once you get your new IT recruiting companies on the phone!

 

Don’t Make these Mistakes on Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is an inevitable part of searching for IT jobs these days.  While you’ll still need copies of your resume to send to IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies, you’ll also need a great LinkedIn profile to attract those technical recruiters and IT staffing companies.  Here are some LinkedIn profile mistakes that will drive IT recruiting agencies and IT staffing firms away.

1. Giving too much irrelevant info: As on your resume, don’t list your college courses, IT jobs from 20 years ago, or give staggering details in descriptions of your past jobs.   A LinkedIn profile isn’t necessarily limited to one page, but it should still be as brief and concise as you can make it.

2. Unprofessional pictures: It may seem tempting to just add any picture into your LinkedIn  profile.   Your picture doesn’t have to be stiff and boring, but a bad picture (or one depicting you doing something, well, bad) will really damage your reputation with IT recruiting firms and hiring managers.

3. Unnecessary endorsements: People may endorse you for a lot of silly or irrelevant skills.  Take these out of your profile.  They take up too much of the brief time IT recruiting companies will look at your profile.  Don’t waste their time or yours—make sure every part of your profile strengthens your candidacy.

How to Answer This IT Job Interview Question

Your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies probably let you know what technologies to study up on before you interview for IT jobs. If they’re good technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies, they probably even let you know what soft skills would be important to emphasize.  However, there’s one question they’ll leave to you to answer: Why should we hire you?

How can you answer this question so the hiring manager wants to immediately contact your IT recruiting firms and IT staffing agencies to talk about hiring you?  The key is not only to answer the question comprehensively, but also uniquely.  Most candidates will be able to explain why they have the experience and skills to excel at the job.  You and your IT recruiting companies will benefit if you can explain why you are not only qualified to do the job, but that you have some unique experiences, accomplishments, or skills that will be an asset in the role.   While you don’t want to give any unprofessional answers, something a bit offbeat will be effective here.  Maybe you have work experience in a unique organization, like Outward Bound.  Perhaps you have achieved something interesting in your IT career.  Whatever the case, if you can talk about it as an illustration of your candidacy for the job, it will make you stand out all the more in your interviewer’s mind!

Unlimited Parental Leave and Other Work-Life Balance Benefits at IT Jobs

IT recruiters and IT staffing firms are starting to see a lot more discussion among employers and IT professionals about benefits like parental leave.  More and more companies are telling technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies that their IT jobs now come with benefit meant to provide work-life balance.  The newest company to jump on this bandwagon is Netflix, who is now offering unlimited parental leave.

This policy might seem too good to be true—and the reality is that it could be. As with unlimited vacation time policies, IT staffing companies and IT recruiting firms are likely to find that their candidates simply don’t use this benefit.  In companies where the workload is intense, company culture can make it hard to actually take vacation time or parental leave, let alone unlimited time.  This is for a lot of reasons: perhaps IT professionals are worried about letting down their managers or their teammates.  Perhaps they are simply surrounded by a lot of workaholics and find it hard not to act similarly.  Whatever the reasons, these work-life balances are a good first step, but IT recruiting agencies aren’t likely to see them used just yet.  It will definitely require an adjustment!

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

 

Don’t Make This Major Mistake in IT Job Interviews

There are plenty of things that your IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies will remind you to do on IT job interviews (maybe study up on a particular technology, for instance).  There’s also plenty of things technical recruiters and IT staffing firms expect that you know to do (like wearing a suit).  However, even if you do all these things, you could still hurt your chances of winning IT jobs by doing something so subtle you don’t even recognize you’re doing it: by being a ‘What’s in it For Me’ candidate.

What does this mean?  Your IT staffing companies and IT recruiting firms might not explicitly be warning you against this, but it’s important not to make your interest in benefits and compensation more obvious than your interest in the job itself.  Of course everyone does IT jobs to make money.  However, if you seem interested in a job mainly for the money and benefits, a hiring manager will never hire you.  They want people who are interested in the work, the company, and the corporate culture as well.  An employee who is deeply engaged in their work and team will go the extra mile and contribute a lot.  An employee who is merely interested in a paycheck will do the bare minimum.  So let your IT recruiting agencies handle the conversations about compensation for you—you can focus on building your candidacy that way!

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

2 Tips for Your Thank You Notes For IT Job Interviews

After interviews for IT jobs, most IT professionals know they need to send a thank you note to their technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies to pass along to their interviewers.  Your IT recruiters and IT staffing firms may even give you some tips on what to include in these notes.  It’s imperative not to just scribble off a quick note, though!

Keep these 2 things in mind as you write your note. Firstly, make sure it doesn’t sound like a generic form letter.  Add in details that make the note stand out and really remind the interviewer of your time together.  A generic thank you note might be as useless as not giving any to your IT recruiting companies to present on your behalf.  Secondly, don’t forget to finish your thank you note with a strong reminder of why you’d be great for the job.  This is your final impression—your IT staffing companies and IT recruiting agencies probably won’t be able to say much more for you at this point.  So finish strong and leave a great final impression in your interviewer’s mind.

Wanting it Too Badly Can Kill Your IT Job Interviews

Interviews for IT jobs tend to be about two things: whether you have the technical skills and experience to do the job well and whether you have the personality to succeed well in the employer’s corporate culture.  Your IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies can give you insight into both of these categories.  In fact, your technical recruiters and IT staffing firms want you to know exactly what kind of candidate the employer is looking for.  However, even if you do your best to prep for both these categories, you can still hurt your chances by coming across as too needy.

Most IT recruiting firms and IT staffing companies would agree that it’s hard not to sound needy if you really want a job. There are some things that you can do, though to help yourself avoid giving this impression.  Firstly, keep in mind that your IT recruiting companies are likely keeping you in mind for other positions as well.  Secondly, to keep things in perspective, remember that if you don’t get hired for a position, it’s because a manager thinks you aren’t equipped to succeed in it.  Being in a job you’re failing at is much worse than being (temporarily) unemployed.  Lastly, take deep breaths, lay off the caffeine before the interview, and take good care of yourself the night before.  Be as relaxed as you can, because it’s only to your benefit.

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

This Mistake Can Ruin Your IT Job Interviews

There are plenty of things you can do to prepare for interviews for IT jobs.  You can be ready to answer any questions that you or your IT recruiters and IT staffing firms can anticipate.  However, your IT staffing agencies and technical recruiters can’t help you fix basic behavioral issues for interviews.  Here’s one mistake you must make sure you’re not making: interrupting your interviewer.

Most IT recruiting companies and IT staffing companies would agree that it’s understandable if you mistakenly interrupted your interviewer once.  However, if you interrupt people a lot as a nervous habit, or just out of sheer impatience, this will make a very bad impression.  The best candidates, the kind that IT recruiting firms have no problem placing in jobs, are great listeners and communicators.  If you interrupt your interviewer, you’ll not only irritate them, but probably show that you aren’t likely able to communicate well with colleagues, managers, clients, etc.  Do yourself a favor and break this habit immediately—it probably has cost you IT jobs already!

 

Facial Piercings and IT Job Interviews

More and more IT professionals are facing an odd dilemma as they interview for IT jobs: what should they do about unconventional facial piercings.  As the millennial population rises in the IT field, IT recruiters and IT staffing firms are encountering more and more candidates with nose rings, eyebrow piercings, or ear piercings beyond the usual 2 at the bottom of the lobes.  What should technical recruiters and IT staffing companies tell candidates to do about these piercings when they go to interviews?  Is it better to hide them or take them out?

Candidates should make sure they check with their IT recruiting companies and IT staffing agencies before they go on interviews if they do have unconventional piercings.  Usually IT recruiting agencies will have a good idea about whether these companies are ok with piercings on a daily basis.  For most interviews, it’s best to hide the piercings.  Even if they’re accepted on a daily basis, it’s better not to stand out for something like a piercing.  If the company doesn’t accept piercings on a daily basis, it’s important for the candidate to really think hard about this before being submitted to the job.  While it may seem like a small thing, this may be indicative of a larger culture fit issue.  The candidate and their IT recruiting firms may want to re-visit how well they might fit into the corporate culture overall.

 

 

A New Way To Prep for IT Job Interviews

If you’re preparing for interviews for IT jobs, you’ve probably practiced answering questions with a friend or family member.  This is a good start, but there’s another way to practice for your interviews so that you impress your interviewer (and your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies!).  Try switching roles for a bit and play the interviewer. 

How do you do this?  Your technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies can give you a basic idea of what questions your interviewer will ask.  It’s also worth it to think about you’d want to know if you were hiring for this position.  As you practice from the interviewer role, you’ll force yourself to think about what kind of experience, skills, and personality traits your interviewer (and your IT recruiting agencies and IT staffing firms) want you to highlight.  You can think about what the ideal candidate would sound like.  Take that perspective with you to the interview—even if you don’t get the job, you’re bound to leave a lasting impression on your interviewers (and make your IT recruiting companies eager to continue to work with you!).