Tag Archives: IT staffing companies

A Checklist for Writing Your Best IT Resume

Job hunting in the tech industry can differ from any industry.  As an IT job seeker, your search is affected by things like technical jargon, the tools hiring managers use, and the speed at which technologies change and projects become irrelevant.  If you’re serious about looking for new IT jobs, you want a resume tailored to this industry and the needs of the hiring managers in it.  Here’s a quick checklist that IT recruiters suggest using as you complete your resume.  This list will make sure your resume is especially appealing to hiring managers in the tech space and technical recruiters.

1. Does your resume match up with your LinkedIn profile? Especially within the tech space, IT staffing companies and hiring managers use LinkedIn as part of their hiring process.  If your resume doesn’t basically match up with your LinkedIn profile, it’s time to fix that.  You especially want to avoid making it seem like you’re hiding anything or lying about anything in your career history or skill-set.  Appearing dishonest is the fastest way to be blacklisted with IT recruiting firms and employers.

2. Is your resume full of quantifiable, concrete, professional achievements?  The bullets under each job should be taken up with statements like ‘Improved network downtime by 25%.’  Or ‘Increased web traffic by 50%.’  Hiring managers are more likely to pick people who they can picture working with their team and contributing to their company’s goals.  This is especially true in tech, where the salaries are higher and a bad hire can cost a lot.  Nobody wants to be the manager who hires a programmer who can’t code fast enough or the network architect who designed a faulty network.  Make it easier for hiring managers to picture you succeeding in their open roles.  List the concrete contributions you made at previous employers, using numbers and percentages whenever you can.

4. Is your resume easy to read?  Did you focus on your last 10-15 years of experience?  Did you use a simple font with basic, even spacing?  Did you use a conventional resume format, or a ‘creative one’ that might require some extra time to figure out?  Did you forgo giving every single technical detail of your work at every previous job?  Keep in mind that IT recruiting agencies and hiring managers don’t have much time to pore over every line of your resume.  In fact, if you apply with a resume that’s crammed to the gills with lots of technical details for 7 pages, or provide a resume that’s in a ‘creative format’, you might just be taking yourself out of the running for a job right off the bat. Make your resume easy to read and keep it brief and efficient.  If your experience is a good fit, you can give more detail in a phone or in-person interview.

 

IT resumes
You’ll land more IT jobs if your resume ticks off every box. Photo credit: TeroVesalainen via Pixabay.

 

Don’t Miss This Step When You Interview Candidates

Hiring managers are often nervous about giving feedback to job candidates.  They’re concerned about getting stuck in long, protracted arguments with candidates about why they would be a good fit for a job.  Or worse, managers afraid of getting sued by a rejected candidate.  Instead of risking any unpleasant dealings with candidates, IT staffing firms find that managers often give no feedback at all—sometimes not even an email or call rejecting them.  With the popularity of sites like Glassdoor, Indeed and LinkedIn, though, it’s becoming imperative for hiring managers to change their approach.  The best way for employers to reject candidates is to give at least a little feedback, even if it’s very vague.

Why should you give some feedback to candidates (instead of nothing)?  There are two reasons for this.

  1. Sites like Glassdoor and Indeed have all made a company’s reputation as an employer (and interviewer) very accessible. Anybody can look up your company online before they interview or even apply there.  If candidates never hear from you after an interview, they may leave an angry review (and bring down your average score). Giving some feedback, even if it’s brief and vague, is a kindness that all candidates will appreciate.  IT staffing companies suggest that you invest the extra time in doing what you can to make the hiring and application process positive for candidates.  It pays off when it comes to your online reputation.
  1. The tech field can be small, especially when it comes to the job market. There are only so many candidates who have the qualifications to do IT jobs in certain areas. LinkedIn has made it even smaller.  With all the connecting that LinkedIn encourages, it’s easy for candidates to hear what your application and hiring process is like.  Make sure people only have good things to say about you.  Don’t leave candidates hanging, waiting for a reason why they didn’t land the job—or waiting to hear they didn’t land the job at all!

So what should you do?  Try to give feedback to every candidate who applied, and definitely give feedback to candidates who have interviewed.  Here are some examples of effective ways IT staffing agencies suggest giving feedback to a candidate.

Vague responses might include:
“We decided to move forward with another candidate”

“We decided to move forward with another candidate with more experience.”

“We didn’t feel the job would be a good fit, but we wish you the best of luck in your search.”

You can also choose to give more specific feedback to a candidate.  This works as long as you focus on particular skills or experience that can’t be disputed.  You might say something like:
“We moved forward with a candidate who had more experience in Linux environments.”

“We needed a candidate who has more exposure to Cloud-based technologies.”

 

Interview mistakes
Don’t miss this step! Photo credit: jessica45 via Pixabay.

 

 

Why Did You Get Rejected from that IT Job?

We’ve all been there.  You apply for IT jobs that look perfect for you.  You work with a technical recruiter or on your own and you go through interviews.  You start picturing yourself making those commutes, finding your place on the team, and setting up a new 401k.  But then your IT recruiters call you back and say that the hiring manager went with another candidate.  You’re in shock.  How could they go with anybody but you?  You’ve got all the technical skills and experience required.  Maybe you’ve done a similar job in the past.  Here’s why this might be happening—and how to make the most of it.

You might not be a culture fit.  This seems way less important in IT jobs, where certain skills and experience are imperative for success.  The truth is, culture fit is becoming more and more imperative in tech roles in the last decade or so.  IT recruiting firms often find that communication skills, ability to work well with a team, or having the right temperament for customer service are crucial to the jobs they hire for.  You don’t want to land a job where you’re missing something like this.  Even if you’re perfectly suited for the technical workload, you’ll always have a hard time succeeding in a job that you wouldn’t have the right personality for.

You may not have all the technical skills or experience required.  Yes, even if you have everything listed on the job description, you may still be missing a certain programming language, or even not have less exposure to a technology than needed, etc.  Since projects change at the speed of technology, sometimes a job description will, too.  IT staffing companies find that it’s not uncommon for a job description to change between the time it’s posted and time the candidate is hired.  Sometimes there’s not time to change the job description as it’s posted online, too.  So even if your resume matches a job posting to T, it doesn’t mean that you’re what the hiring team needs.

You might be great, but perhaps another candidate was better.  This kind of scenario isn’t specific to the tech world at all.  Sometimes IT recruiting firms will find that the candidates who apply to a job blow the hiring managers away, exceeding all expectations.  You never know if one of these kinds of candidates did the interview before or after you.  This is something only the hiring manager can see.  So if you don’t land the job, even if you told your recruiters you felt like it was in the bag, consider this possibility.  You might have been great; you were just competing against somebody even more suited to the role.

So what do you do now?  If you didn’t land the job, even if you fully expected to, you can still gain something.  Ask your IT recruiting agencies for feedback.  Really listen and see if you can use it to improve your chances in the next job you apply for.  If you can’t get any feedback, it’s still important to be gracious.  You never want a hiring manager or IT staffing companies to consider you rude, difficult to work with, or arrogant.  Sometimes, the tech industry can be a small world.  Don’t mar your reputation in it!

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

rejected from IT jobs
Why didn’t you land the job? Maybe you just weren’t a culture fit. Photo credit: OpenClipart-Vectors via Pixabay.

 

2 Tips for Hiring Tech Talent

It can be tough to fill open tech positions at your company.  The US still has a shortage of qualified professionals to fill the new IT jobs which open up or are created daily.  IT recruiting firms find that the tech field is still very much a job seeker’s market.  How can you make sure your company stays competitive in attracting and hiring the best talent?  Here are 2 tips from IT staffing companies on best practices for hiring tech talent.

1. Focus on building a great corporate culture.  Tech employers used to compete for great talent with their perks.  In the beginning of the Dotcom boom, stocked kitchens, catered lunches, subsidized commuting costs, etc used to be a huge draw.  Now it seems that many other industries have jumped on this bandwagon.  Exciting perks are much more available at many employers, and thus aren’t really as a big of a draw to IT professionals.

The new commodity that’s harder to come by, and thus a bigger draw, is great culture.  Glassdoor and its anonymous, unfiltered reviews has probably played a big hand in making job searchers more aware of this.  IT recruiters find that candidates often ask about the management and corporate culture at a potential job right after they hear about the work.  Having an open, innovative culture that allows employees some agency in shaping their life at work is a huge draw.  If you want to attract technical talent, IT staffing firms suggest building a management team with great communication skills, an interest in helping their employees grow and build their skill base, and who prioritize their employees’ happiness.

Building great corporate culture might be one of the hardest ways to attract employees, but technical recruiters suggest it because it’s effective and it also helps retain employees down the road.  Instead of investing in gimmicky perks, take time to make your company a workplace where people are generally happy.  It will pay off now, and in the future.

2. Move faster in your hiring process.  IT recruiting agencies caution employers against moving at too slowly for hiring all  tech positions.  As mentioned before, the tech field is a job seeker’s market.  The unemployment rate for IT professionals is notoriously low—often as low as half the national average.  If a candidate comes on the market, they could be gone in as little as 2 weeks.  (Highly sought after IT professionals like DevOps and Big Data Engineers, as well as Full-Stack or CRM Developers might be off the market even faster than that!)  IT staffing agencies find that many candidates aren’t even ever unemployed or looking.  They’re passive candidates who are lured away from their current job with a pay raise, better commute, etc. So if you want to hire the best tech talent, you’ll have to move fast.  Respond to applications and submittals by IT recruiting companies as soon as you can.  Make offers in days, not weeks.  IT recruiters see employers lose out on the candidates they really want all to frequently because they just took too long.

 

Hiring tech talent
Hiring tech talent can be tough in such a job seeker’s market. Photo credit: Pexels via Pixabay.

 

How to Deal With Negative Interview Feedback

One of the advantages of working with IT recruiters is that they can sometimes pass along feedback from interviewers who don’t hire you.  Even though it can sting a little to hear you didn’t land some IT jobs, the feedback can be golden.  Here’s what to do with it.

1. Stop and really listen.  If your IT staffing companies can provide feedback on why you didn’t land the job, take every word in.  Ask questions if you don’t understand.  The point is to get as much information as possible, because this is a window into a hiring manager’s view of you.

2. Don’t take it personally.  While this feedback is helpful and should be taken seriously, it doesn’t mean you’re an inadequate candidate.  IT recruiting firms work on thousands of jobs every day.  These jobs require different skills, different kinds of personality, a different work style, etc.  If you aren’t what the hiring manager wants, that’s ok.  You want to be hired for a job where you have what the hiring manager wants because you want to be hired for a job you will succeed in. Think about children’s puzzles where you fit shapes into the corresponding holes.  You would never shove a square peg into a round hole.  It would break the peg or puzzle over time.  You want to work with your IT staffing agencies until you find the kind of job that you’re a great fit for.  Find the square hole for your square peg.

3. Don’t argue if you disagree with the feedback.  Even if you think the hiring manager is patently wrong, you shouldn’t argue with your technical recruiters.  There are a three reasons for this.

a. Firstly, you won’t be able to change a hiring manager’s mind.  Most hiring managers rely on their gut, and you simply can’t argue with this.  Even if the hiring manager is wrong, they will always think of you as having this deficiency.

b. The second reason you shouldn’t argue with the feedback is that it can provide a chance to better yourself.  Do you need to brush up on that technology?  Are your communication skills with higher level executives rusty?  Even if you didn’t initially think so, take this opportunity to do so now.  This is a chance to make yourself even more marketable to the next interviewer!

c. The third reason not to argue with feedback from a job interview is that you’ll want to continue to get this feedback!  You want IT recruiting companies to feel the feedback they give is appreciated and taken seriously.  When you argue with it, most IT recruiters will decide they never want to give you feedback again.  Why deny yourself this valuable tool in improving your candidacy?!

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

 

job interview tips
Don’t argue with interview feedback. Listen to it! Photo credit: Hans via Pixabay.

 

Don’t Say This in Your Next Tech Job Interview

IT recruiters find there’s a lot of bad interview advice out there.  Here’s one piece that seems particularly popular—and particularly unhelpful: tell the interviewer you are the most qualified candidate for the job.

Why is this terrible advice?  It’s good to be confident and express interest in the job, isn’t it?  The truth is, this statement doesn’t really accomplish either task well.  Great candidates, especially in the tech space, are looking for a job that is a good fit on both ends.  This means they’ve got all the technical and personality/work style requirements.  It also means the work, the team, and the company fit their own requirements.  An interview is all about sussing out whether both these things are true.  Good candidates don’t know if they’re the ‘best candidate for the job’ for many reasons, including the fact that they don’t know if the job meets their own needs!

Another reason IT staffing companies suggest that you never say something like this in a job interview is that it can come across as arrogant and make you seem difficult to work with.  As a tech professional, these are the last things you want to convey to an interviewer.  These days, communicating and working well with teams is an imperative skill.  As companies are pressured to constantly innovate and improve their products or services, brainstorming and teamwork are becoming necessities.  (Plus, Scrum and Agile are really the trendiest development methods.  The day of the heads-down coder who excels in a Waterfall method have passed.)  Remember, nobody wants to work with somebody who is arrogant.  Arrogant coworkers aren’t open to collaboration, are hard to train, and are just plain unpleasant to deal with on a regular basis.  People wouldn’t hire them for open IT jobs if they can help it!

So what can you say instead of this phrase?  IT recruiting agencies suggest focusing on concrete ways to illustrate your value to the interviewer.  Did you reduce your previous employer’s server downtime significantly?  Did you increase web traffic to your company’s website by 25%?  Being able to share things like this will help potential employers see that you are the most qualified candidate for their open job.

When employers decide you’re the most qualified candidate for the job, it’s much more powerful than you, as the candidate, trying to lead them to this conclusion.  People often value the conclusions they come to themselves.  This is especially true in the hiring process. Technical recruiters find that employers need to feel like they have control of the hiring process, since it’s such a big risk to possibly hire somebody that can’t do the job.

So respect your interviewer and their hiring process.  You can’t decide for them that you’re the most qualified candidate.  You can only illustrate to them all the reasons why you’re a good catch as an employee.  Your patience and subtle confidence may just win you the job!

 

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

IT Job Interview Tips
Don’t tell your interviewer you’re the best candidate for the job. It won’t help your candidacy! Photo credit: 3dman_eu

 

Don’t Make This Rookie Mistake in Your Job Interviews

If you’re a recent grad, you’re probably diving into the job market now and going on some of your first real job interviews.  Even if you’re not a recent grad and you’ve interviewed before, it’s still possible you’re making some of the same mistakes.  One of the worst mistakes that IT recruiters see too frequently is when candidates have no questions for their interviewer or ask bad ones.  Tech employers want candidates who are passionate about the technologies and the work they’re doing.  Asking good questions can help demonstrate that.  When you have no questions, it can seem like you’ll just take any IT jobs.  Asking good questions also helps demonstrate good social skills.  More and more, tech employers want candidates to have good communication skills, no matter where they are in the company.  The days of heads-down coders are fleeting, if not completely gone.  Here are some tips from IT staffing companies on how to have some good, solid questions ready for your next interview.

1. Practice some strong questions about the work or the role. Are you familiar with all the technologies they use?  Are you curious if they’ve ever used others?  Do they use a Scrum or Agile development methodologies?

2. Ask some good questions about the company, the team, or the corporate culture. How do people get feedback in this role?  How much does the team work together?  Did you notice any interesting news about the company as you did research for the interview?  Ask about it.  Show that you’re not just interested in this role, but this role for this company.

3. Don’t ask questions about things like the perks, pay, or the commute. Questions about these topics don’t let an employer know you’ve really thought hard about the role.  You could be asking these questions in any job interview.  They’re also very egocentric.  Yes, you want a job that’s good for you.  But you also want to be selling yourself, as well.  When a candidate comes across as ‘me, me, me’ then the company often tells their IT staffing firms they’ll pass.  They need candidates who will contribute, not just take a paycheck.  If you do have questions about the more basic items like compensation, commute, hours, etc. you can ask your technical recruiters.  This is what they’re there for!

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

IT job interview mistakes
Don’t come to a job interview without preparing some questions! Photo credit: OpenClipart-Vectors via Pixabay.

 

 

Are You Ready for Your Technical Job Interview?

If you have some interviews for IT jobs coming up, try using this checklist to make sure that you’re ready.

1. Did you lay out, wash, and iron, a professional outfit? Even in the tech sphere, where many companies allow jeans and a t-shirt, IT recruiters still recommend wearing a suit to your interviews. Make things easy for yourself and make sure it’s ready to go right when you need it.

2. Did you talk to your technical recruiters about the commute? Did you look at your best routes on Google? Are you leaving yourself enough time for traffic, train trouble, bad weather, etc? Are you leaving early enough to meet your recruiter first (if they request it) or to do a security check if necessary? It’s also worth noting that if you’re unsure about doing this commute regularly, consider trying it out during a day and time with comparable traffic patterns. IT staffing firms see people quit jobs all the time because their commute is miserable.

3. Did you study up on relevant technologies? Sometimes IT recruiting firms find that candidates will just assume their ‘rusty’ skills are enough to get them through an interview. Be honest with yourself and study up on a technology if you need to before you go to your job interview.

4. Did you practice some basic interview questions? You’re going for a technical interview, but you’ll still be asked things like, ‘What’s your greatest weakness?’ Or ‘What’s your greatest strength?’ IT staffing companies suggest that you role play with a family member or friend just to be ready for these questions. If you put time into sharpening your technical skills, you should put time into sharpening your general interviewing skills, too! Don’t assume answering these questions is something you can do off the cuff.

5. Did you print out copies of your resume, or will your recruiters bring them for you? Figure this out so you can be prepared in case a hiring manager needs them. If you don’t have access to a printer before your interview, most IT recruiting agencies will bring you a few copies with no issue.

6. Did you prepare a few questions to ask the interviewer? IT staffing agencies find that the candidates who really impress interviewers are the ones who have a few great questions in their back pockets. If you don’t have any to ask, you’ll look disinterested or unprepared. Questions like ‘What would success look like in this role?’ aren’t just for you—they help the interviewer see what kind of employee you’re ready to be!

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

 

job interview tips
Wear a suit to your interview, even if the daily dress code is casual. Photo credit: TeroVesalainen via Pixabay

 

Tips for Asking ‘Creative’ Questions in a Job Interview

‘Wacky’ questions have been a trend for a while in job interviews—especially in the tech field.  IT recruiting firms find that many candidates have had at least an interview or two where they’ve been asked what color crayon they would be, or how many light bulbs there are in Disney World.  While these questions can certainly be helpful to hiring managers, IT staffing companies find that there are more times when they hurt an interview than help it.  Here’s how to make sure you’re using these kinds of questions effectively when you interview candidates.

1. Don’t ask the question if you don’t know what you’re looking for or if there is no direct relevance to the role.  Technical recruiters find that candidates can tell pretty quickly when a manager is asking a question just because they think they should.  Don’t ask questions just because they showed up on a Googled list of interview questions.  It makes the candidate feel like you’re just making them uncomfortable with an unexpected question for no reason.  Think about what your ideal answers would be.  What should the candidate demonstrate when they answer this question? Take time to consider this before you ask.

2. Don’t ask these questions to purposefully make the candidate squirm or to throw them off.  IT staffing agencies find that some employers will give questions like this just to see how a candidate does under pressure or handles discomfort.  These kinds of questions certainly do, but they will also probably make the candidate want to turn down the job offer.  Good managers don’t intentionally make their employees uncomfortable.  In fact, their job is to support them as they handle difficulty.  If a candidate can tell you’re trying to purposefully throw them off, they’ll see it as a big red flag about your management style. Since it’s much more of a job seeker’s market in the tech field, keep in mind that you’re courting the candidate as much as (if not more than) they’re courting you. Asking them a lot of questions that feel silly or weird can leave a bad taste in their mouth.  If a candidate has the technical experience you need, you don’t want to lose them because you asked them what kind of animal they’d be at the zoo.

3. Don’t assume asking these questions makes you seem like a ‘cooler’ employer.  Many employers ask these kinds of questions because they think it will give candidates the impression that they’re cool, like Google, Uber, and other cool tech employers  who are known for asking some ‘wacky’ interview questions.  If you want to let candidates know you have a cool company culture, there are better ways to do it.  IT recruiting agencies suggest you take time to talk about why your company culture is great.  Share your Glassdoor reviews or have current employees meet with the candidate to share what it’s like working at your company.  These things are all much more enticing to a candidate than answering weird, unexpected interview questions.

4. Look for process, not a right or wrong answer.  The point of many of these questions isn’t to focus on whether the candidate answered exactly what you were expecting.  The point is to get a window into their thought process.  If they can think about solving problems in a way that’s advantageous, or can provide an interesting justification for their answer, take note.  Remember that these kinds of questions can be hard on candidates because they’re so unexpected.  Their answer may not be polished or perfect, but it could still tell you much about how they think.

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

 

weird questions in IT job interviews
What color crayon would your candidate be? It may not matter! Photo credit: Stux via Pixabay.

 

What Does it Mean if My Interviewer Was Disengaged? 

When you go to interviews for IT jobs, you’re likely to be engaged in the process.  You may even be anxious and hyper-focused.  Sometimes IT recruiters find that hiring managers can actually be disengaged or appear completely disinterested in the process.  Does this mean you didn’t land the job? Not necessarily.

IT staffing firms find that there are a lot of reasons that hiring managers might be disengaged during an interview—and many of them don’t have anything to with your candidacy.  One of the main reasons that IT recruiting firms hear managers are disengaged is because they’re busy handling a major issue (possibly even a crisis) that just popped up.  This can especially be the case if you’re interviewing with a high-level manager.  If a crisis pops up at the very last-minute, or even if the hiring manager is really interested in the candidate, they’ll move forward with the job interview regardless.  If you’re feeling less confident in an interview because the hiring manager seems uninterested or keeps checking email, consider this: maybe a hiring manager wants to meet with you so badly he or she will do it even if they’re in the middle of a dealing with a big production issue, a looming release date, or a massive security breach of a their company’s data.

Besides major crises or work demands, a hiring manager could be less engaged in the interview process for another reason: perhaps they’re not a key decision-maker.  Sometimes IT recruiting companies find that an employer will require certain managers to be on the hiring committee, even if they don’t have much influence (or interest) with the decision.  They might seem checked-out during the interview because they actually are. And that means nothing about your candidacy.  A disengaged manager could be simply sitting in on the interview, allowing the rest of the hiring team to drive the process.

So what should you do if your interviewer spends your whole conversation looking at email, or asking very few questions?  Technical recruiters suggest you just let it go and do your best anyways.  Don’t give up on the interview or start doubting yourself.  Focus on the questions asked and building a rapport with the other interviewers (if any).

You might talk to your IT recruiters about it afterwards, and they may have an answer for you.  Perhaps not.  The hiring process can be unpredictable, so you can’t analyze things for signs.  Put your energy towards working with your IT staffing companies until you find the right role for you.  Who knows—you might just have won over that very disengaged interview.

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

 

IT job interviews
There are a lot of reasons why your interviewer might be checking their phone. Photo credit: rawpixel via Pixabay.