Tag Archives: IT staffing agencies

Tips for Responding to Counter-offers

From time to time, IT recruiters do work with candidates who receive counter-offers from their employers.  While counter-offers seem pretty flattering, the truth is that IT staffing agencies would suggest you proceed with caution.  The promise of more money is always exciting, but there are 2 major cons to consider.

Con 1: Accepting a counter-offer may mean that you burn a lot of bridges. Firstly, obviously the IT recruiting firms you’re working with will terminate your relationship if you take a counter-offer.  All IT staffing companies have is your word.  If you break their trust and negate all their work in searching for your new IT job, they’ll likely never work with you again.

Secondly, you’ll also ruin your reputation with your potential new employer and perhaps other companies in the same industry.  IT staffing firms never find that employers are ok with it when a candidate takes a counter-offer.  In fact, that candidate is usually blacklisted at that employer.  Sometimes, this reputation carries on to companies that are connected to this employer, too.  Social media and LinkedIn make it especially easy for word to spread when you do something like accept a counter-offer.  In the age of a quick LinkedIn check for unofficial references, taking a counter-offer could seriously damage your professional reputation and hold you back from getting top IT jobs later on.

Lastly, with your current employer, you’re likely to have seriously damaged their trust in you as a loyal, reliable employee.  They may try to replace you quickly with somebody cheaper, they may retaliate in small ways, or you might find that you’re held back from future raises, promotions, training opportunities, transfers, etc. All of this makes it hard to be happy in your current IT role long term, which leads to con number 2.

Con 2: You’re likely just be delaying the inevitable and creating more work for yourself.  You reached out to IT recruiting companies for a reason: to find new IT jobs.  Technical recruiters rarely see a candidate who wants to leave their job solely for more money.  There are usually other things at play like work environment, maybe a bad boss, or an unreasonable work load.  You might feel ok with a pay bump now, but it won’t change any of the other factors for you long term.  Nobody loves job searching and all the work that comes with it.  Accepting a counter-offer will really just mean you have to search for jobs in IT all over again later when you realize you’re still unhappy at your current job (even with the pay bump).

 

Counter offers IT jobs
A counter offer might seem like a great idea for your wallet, but there are so many drawbacks. Photo credit: Geralt via Pixabay.

 

Don’t Say This When You’re Interviewing

IT recruiters see candidates say unfortunate things in interviews for IT jobs all the time.  Mistakes happen and IT staffing companies rarely come across candidates who can give a perfect interview.  (In fact, perfect interviews are so rare that some hiring managers will tell IT recruiting agencies they’re rejecting a candidate because their interviewing felt suspiciously perfect!)  Here’s one mistake that is very easy to avoid, though: saying you’re a hard worker (especially when you say it’s one of your strengths or selling points).

Why do hiring managers and IT staffing agencies think this is a mistake in a job interview?  What if you actually are a hard worker? The problem is that this phrase isn’t easily proven.  While it’s easy for you to prove that you have experience with particular programming languages, or understand what great customer service for an end user requires, it’s not easy to prove that you are a hard worker.  It’s something that others must decide about you, particularly because it’s such a subjective thing.  So when you list being a hard worker as one of your main strengths as a candidate, you’re basically wasting your time to sell yourself in an interview.

What would IT recruiting firms suggest that you say instead of this?  As mentioned before, it’s better to point to things you can prove.  Especially in the tech field, being able to quantify your professional achievements can really go far with an interviewer.  Maybe you consistently deliver code ahead of the deadlines.  Maybe you regularly get feedback from end users that you provide excellent and efficient service.  These are the kinds of things that IT staffing firms suggest you talk about with hiring managers.  Clichés that are hard to prove (like saying you’re a hard worker) are just a waste of your time and the hiring manager’s time.  So avoid this easy mistake the next time your IT recruiting companies set you up for an interview!

 

Mistakes IT Job Interviews
Saying you’re a hard worker isn’t going to help you in IT job interviews. Photo credit: Geralt via Pixabay.

 

How to Interview for Your Dream Job

When your IT recruiters set you up for an interview for your dream job, your first instinct is to probably to tell your interviewer that.  You probably just want to gush to your interviewer about why this job is everything you told your IT staffing firms that you wanted.  Some IT professionals even say this their dream job– even if it isn’t.  Plenty of technical recruiters have had candidates say this in hopes of landing a job.  The problem is that this phrase is pretty meaningless to interviewers.  If the job you’re interviewing for is your dream job, or it just sounds good, here’s what you should do:

1.    Strike a balance.  Talk about why you’d be a great fit for the role and why the role is something you think would be ideal for your strengths, work style, technical skills, etc.  The candidates that IT recruiting firms place in IT jobs are the ones that can show how hiring them will be great for both sides.  Don’t just say the job is your dream job—show them why you’ll be a great hire too!

2.    Get specific in talking about why you’re ideally suited for a job.  When you say a job is your dream job without much elaboration, you’re just drawing on a meaningless cliché. (IT staffing agencies suggest you avoid any and all clichés in job interviews anyways!).  Give specifics that will help interviewers easily picture you in the role.  Tell your interviewer that you’ve tackled similar projects before, or you have a deep familiarity with the technologies they use.    IT recruiting companies find that the candidates who get hired can present hard evidence that they’ve had successes similar to the job description.  Can you say you’ve provided support for end users 50% faster?  Can you point to a specific project in which you successfully used a certain technology?  This is what interviewers care about.  They don’t care if you dream about the job, they care if you can prove you’re prepared to take it on and knock your goals out of the park!

 

Dream Job IT jobs
It might be your dream job, but that’s not what you should say in your job interview! Photo credit: Sipa via Pixabay.

 

How to Use Employee Reviews in Your Job Search

When you’re working with IT recruiting agencies to find your next role, they will usually tell you to do research on companies you’ll be interviewing with.  You probably are already doing basic Google searches and checking out the company’s website.  Many IT staffing companies find that candidates are also checking out reviews for potential employers on sites like Glassdoor, Indeed, Vault, Careerbliss, Google, or other sites.  If you like to peruse Glassdoor or similar sites before you interview for IT jobs, here are a few things to keep in mind.

1.       Don’t take it all at face value.  IT recruiting firms would suggest you remember that people are more often moved to write negative reviews than positive reviews.  When people are happy at their employers, they don’t always take time to leave a review with all the benefits of working at their company.  Whereas disgruntled employees are absolutely more likely to sound off on everything they’re unhappy about.

2.      Ask your technical recruiters questions first.  It’s much easier to talk to your IT staffing agencies honestly about any concerns or questions you might come up with after reading a company’s online reviews.  When you ask an employer, you have so much at stake.  You risk appearing less committed to the job, less professional or even offending your interviewer.  Your IT recruiting companies want to make sure you land in an IT job that works for you.  If you have a concern about a company after reading its employee reviews, your IT recruiters will want to make sure it’s addressed or that you don’t interview for a position that wouldn’t be a good fit for you.

3.      If there are things you love about a company’s Glassdoor company reviews, IT staffing firms suggest you take notes about it.  Bring them with you and mention them to your interviewer when you talk about why you think you’d be a good fit for a company.  Interviewers will love to hear specific examples of why you think their corporate culture is a good fit for you.  A great hire isn’t just about filling a job with somebody who has the necessary skills.  It’s also about hiring somebody who is interested in the work and happy with the team, company, and corporate culture.  Happy employees are the often most dedicated and productive assets a company has!

 

Employee reviews IT jobs
Remember that happy employees give company reviews less frequently than unhappy ones. Photo credit: kropekk_pl via Pixabay.

 

3 Tips for Writing a Good Résumé

Besides the technical skills section (which helps technical recruiters quickly decided if you might be a fit for their open IT jobs), the bullets under your jobs are the most important part of your resume to hiring managers and IT recruiters.  Cleaning them up and updating them is the best way to strengthen your resume.  Here are three tips to maximize these bullets so your resume will wow hiring managers and IT staffing companies.

1.     Make every bullet illustrate why you’re an asset to your employers.  When IT recruiting firms are scanning resumes, they’re not looking for an unedited laundry list of your duties at each job.  Especially in IT jobs that are not entry level, you may not even be able to list all your duties under each job without writing a short novel.  Focus on your major achievements and contributions in each role.  (Try quantifying these achievements or contributions with hard numbers and percentages to make even stronger bullets.) These are the pieces of information that really make you attractive to IT staffing agencies and employers.

2.    Edit your bullets down.  Keep in mind that the most powerful words in your bullets will be the first 5 or so.  Since hiring managers and IT recruiting companies are often scanning through many, many resumes, briefer bullets will be the most effective.  The first 5 or so words of each bullet will get the most attention because these are what people see as they scan.  IT staffing firms sometimes see bullets that are 4 or more lines long.  While it might feel like giving more information about your achievements gives you an advantage, you may just be turning off hiring managers and IT recruiters.  Be concise in your bullets and use strong verbs in the beginning of the statements rather than words like ‘responsible for’, which are obvious anyways.

3.    Make your bullets easier for technical and non-technical people to read.  You never know who will be seeing your resume.  Even if you’re getting hired for a programming job, you may have to pass through an HR screening with somebody who doesn’t know any programming languages.  Besides making sure your resume is appealing to whoever might be reading it, this tactic is beneficial for another reason.  You can demonstrate great communication skills by making highly technical information easier for everyone to understand.  Great communication skills are especially in demand in the tech field.  IT recruiting agencies find that many employers want people who are both well-versed in various technologies and able to communicate well with end users, clients, non technical employees, etc.  So take the time to make your bullets easy for everyone to understand—it might just help land you a new job!

 

Good Resumes
Recruiters and hiring managers may just be skimming your resume. Make it easy for them to quickly decided you’re a great candidate. Photo credit: Jarmoluk via Pixabay

An Easy Job Interview Mistake to Avoid

You probably spend valuable time prepping for your interviews.  You talk with your IT recruiters, you brush up on the relevant technologies, you prepare some questions about the job, iron a suit, etc.  When you go to all this effort to wow your interviewers, why hurt your chances by making small mistakes?  Here’s one silly mistake that IT staffing companies see candidates make far too often: arriving too early for the interview.

Arriving too early might seem pretty harmless, but there are a lot of reasons IT recruiting companies see this mistake hurt candidates.  Firstly, when candidates show up more than 10 or 15 minutes early, it can be pretty frustrating for the company.  Some companies simply don’t have the room to accommodate guests for long periods of time.  In the tech field in particular, IT staffing firms find that there are plenty of startups that don’t have much space for the reception area.

Another reason that IT recruiting agencies don’t recommend that candidates get to interviews earlier than 15 minutes is that it might suggest negative things about you.  When your IT staffing agencies give you a time to show up, you make a favorable impression if you show up on time.  Showing up 20 or 30 minutes early simply isn’t on time.  It’s obviously not as bad as showing up late, but your interviewer planned to see you at a certain time.  It’s your responsibility to be there for it.  Not being on time can make it look like you’re disorganized, can’t follow directions, are inconsiderate, don’t have reliable transportation, etc.  IT recruiting firms find that some candidates think people will only assume negative things about you if you’re late.  It’s not true.  The way to make the best impression is to show up at most 10 or 15 minutes earlier than the time your technical recruiters tell you to.

So what do you do if you are more than 10 or 15 minutes early to an interview?   If you’re meeting your IT recruiters to be walked into the interview, call them.  They may have you meet them at a nearby coffee shop or somewhere else to wait.  If you’re not meeting your recruiters, find a coffee shop yourself to wait.  Or take a walk around the area to kill time.  You might even find that the extra minutes are a good time for you to get ready, go over your notes one more time, or simply relax and ease your nerves.

 

On Time IT Job Interview
‘Too early’ isn’t the same thing as ‘on time’ to your interviewers! Photo credit: steinchen via Pixabay.

 

Don’t Ask These Questions in a Job Interview

Most IT recruiting agencies make sure their candidates are prepared with job interview questions.  If you come without any, you’ll definitely hurt your chances of landing the IT jobs you interview for.  However, it’s just as important to make sure that you have effective questions to ask.  IT staffing firms can attest to the fact that there are some questions that will hurt your candidacy.  Here are 3 types of questions that IT recruiting firms would definitely suggest you avoid asking.

1.    Questions that fish for compliments.  IT staffing companies would advise you to avoid questions like ‘Why did you like my resume?’ or ‘Why did you call me in for an interview?’  Even if you don’t mean to do so, your interviewer can assume you’re seeking some kind of compliments.  Besides seriously annoying your interviewer, you risk coming across as arrogant or insecure, as well as wasting the interviewer’s time.  Questions need to help you better understand the role, corporate culture, get to know what the manager’s style is like, etc.  These kinds of questions don’t cover these areas at all.

2.    Questions that you could have found the answer to yourself.  IT staffing firms would definitely advise that you do not ask any questions that you could find the answer to by researching the company or asking your IT recruiters.  You want to appear resourceful, competent, and prepared.  By asking a question that you could have easily found the answer to, you destroy all hopes your interviewer will see you this way.  Do your research on the company and don’t hesitate to ask your technical recruiters questions.  This is part of the advantage they provide, so use it!

3.    Questions that may feel disrespectful to the interviewer.  Don’t ask if the interviewer has seen your resume, if you’ll be speaking with their boss, or how long the interview will take.  You want to make sure the interviewer feels like you deeply appreciate their time and respect them as a professional. Be extra careful not to offend your interviewer or get too casual with them.  Your only impression on them will be what your IT recruiting companies say about you and whatever you say in this interview.  So every word, every gesture, every tone counts.  Don’t take any risks in this regard, or you may hurt your chances of landing the IT job!

 

Job interview questions
Job interview questions help you…if they’re good! Photo credit: GDJ via Pixabay.

 

 

Why Make a Resume That’s Less Technical?

When you’re getting ready to work with IT recruiting firms to find your next role, the most important part is probably polishing and updating your resume.  If you can’t hand your technical recruiters a great resume, you’ll severely limit the amount of IT jobs you can be considered for.   Your IT recruiters can help you polish your resume a bit, but the only person who can really update it the best is you.  You are the person who understands the projects you’ve completed and their impact, not the IT staffing agencies you work with.  So as you put in the time to really flesh out each major role, project, and professional achievement in your resume, remember that the best resumes are easy to read for both non-technical people and very technically adept people.

Why is it necessary for your resume to be easy for technical and non-technical people to read?  Firstly, it’s because your resume is a document for the hiring managers, HR people, and technical recruiters who will be involved in the hiring process.  Sometimes IT professionals assume that all of these people will be up to speed on the technologies they work with, but this simply isn’t the case.  In fact, it’s relatively often that IT recruiting agencies hand resumes off to a hiring manager or HR person who doesn’t have much experience with programming languages or troubleshooting, even if they’re the ones hiring for it!  If you can’t make your resume readable for these people, you may find that you lose out on jobs.  IT staffing firms can only do so much to sell you; if your resume doesn’t entice a hiring manager, it will get tossed.

Another reason you need to make sure your resume isn’t too technical for laymen to read is that doing so demonstrates great communication skills.  IT recruiting companies have a much easier time placing candidates who are not only great at C# or SQL, but can also communicate well with people who aren’t great at these things.  When you are adept with relevant technical skills, but you can also explain to non-technical people what you’re doing, you are infinitely more valuable.  One powerful way to show this skill is by making your resume easy for anybody to read.  This does more than a bullet saying that you’ve got good communication skills.  It lets IT staffing companies and hiring managers experience these great communication skills firsthand.

So when you go to make a resume for your IT recruiters, take the extra time to make it easy for everyone to read.  It may take extra time and effort on your part, but it will pay off quickly.  Your IT recruiters will have no trouble finding you your dream role if you can give them a thorough, clear, easy to read resume!

 

technical resume
Remember to make a resume that’s readable for everyone, not just people in your field! Photo credit: janeb13 via Pixabay.

 

IT Professionals Shouldn’t Write Objectives on Their Resumes

When you’re polishing your resume, you shouldn’t waste an inch of space.  IT recruiting firms and hiring managers are attracted by resumes that use every word to show why you’re an excellent candidate.  With this in mind, your IT staffing companies would suggest that you do not include an objective on your resume.

Why would IT recruiting agencies tell you to leave an objective off your resume?  Basically, an objective doesn’t accomplish the most important goal: showing technical recruiters and potential employers why you’d be an asset for them.  Objectives tell IT staffing firms and hiring managers what you want in your next IT jobs. Your resume isn’t the place to do this.  You can tell IT recruiters what you want in your next role when you speak to them (on the phone or in person).  Essentially, every word of your objective is space you could be using to better entice hiring managers and IT recruiting companies.

So what do you write instead of an objective?  Use that extra space in your resume to show off your professional achievements, technical skills and experience, and contributions that you’ve made at previous IT jobs.  Make sure you’ve got all relevant technical skills listed at the beginning of your resume.  Or put a few extra bullets below your most recent position to show how you brought value to your team.  Maybe you consistently delivered or debugged code ahead of deadline.  Perhaps you provided exemplary customer service to the end users you worked with.  These are the kinds of things you want on your resume instead of objectives.

Especially in tech, hiring managers love to rely on hard data when they make decisions.  Provide these hiring managers with some hard data about why you’re an excellent candidate by listing what you’ve done for your previous employers.  IT staffing agencies and hiring managers will be able to easily picture you in the roles you want to be submitted for.  Thus putting this info on your resume will do much more for you than any objective would!

 

Resume Objective
Stop! Don’t waste space on your resume with an objective. Photo credit: Knerri61 via Pixabay.

 

2 Ways to Make Updating Your Resume Easier

Possibly the worst part of searching for new IT jobs is having to update your resume.  Even when you’re working with IT recruiters, this is still a task that you’ll have to deal with.  Here are 2 easy ways to make the process much less painful the next time your IT staffing firms ask for the most updated version of your resume.

  1. Take notes ahead of time. On a day when you have a little free time, create a document where you will keep notes about what you achieve in your current position.  IT recruiting firms would suggest you think about achievements that cement your value to your managers, your team, end users and clients, etc.  Add these items to your document as they occur.  Even if you love your current job so much that you could never imagine working with IT staffing agencies to leave it for a new one, you should still do this.  The reality is that most people do tend to work at more than one employer; thus you’ll probably actually need to job search again in the future.  Taking notes on professional achievements and contributions at your current position now means that you’ll have better information and more details than if you just try to remember it later.
  2. Always keep your technical skills section up to date. Again, even if you aren’t even remotely close to contacting your technical recruiters to look for a new role, it’s worth taking a few minutes of free time one day to add new certifications, skills, programming languages, etc to your resume.  If you don’t have time to add them to your resume in proper formatting, simply take notes on them along with your other notes about your current position.  Updating your resume can be a stressful, overwhelming process.  You wouldn’t want to forget a key programming language or certification as you rush to get an updated version of your resume to your IT recruiting agencies.

With these steps, whenever you are ready to update your resume for IT staffing companies, you’ll have all the information you need (together in one place, too).  Updating your IT resume will take half the time and you can get on with your job search faster!

 

ITJobSearchResumes
Relying on yourself to remember everything you need to update your IT resume with is a bad strategy. Photo credit: SolGar via Pixabay.