Tag Archives: IT staffing firms

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!

 

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!

Do This at Your Next IT Job Interviews

IT professionals who are working with technical recruiters and IT staffing companies are probably well-versed in making sure hiring managers can see they’re a fit for IT jobs.  Most IT recruiters and IT staffing firms help their candidates prepare to show they fit the basic needs for a role.  What can really impress your interviewers (and in turn your IT recruiting agencies) is if you can make it obvious that you’re a unique fit for this role.

What does this mean exactly? Sometimes it’s obvious: you’ve got 4 years of experience using a technology when they only ask for 2.  Sometimes you need to be a bit more creative.  Perhaps you have some background in a tangentially-related subject.  (For example, you majored in Biology and you’re interviewing at a Biotech company.)  Maybe you’ve created a kind of database or program that this company doesn’t currently use, but could be useful to them.

The point isn’t to reach–  this will just come across as desperate, disingenuous, and a waste of time.  If you think your IT staffing agencies can help, run some ideas by them.  If you can find some way to show that you’re not just a fit, but an especially good fit for this job, then you’re all the more likely to land it.

Common IT Resume Mistakes

As you polish your resume for IT recruiters and IT staffing firms, you may want to stop and make sure you’re not making any mistakes that will make technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies take your candidacy less seriously.  Here are some mistakes that are especially common in resumes from IT professionals:

1.    Your resume is full of clichés.  IT staffing companies and IT recruiting companies don’t want to see that you’re wasting precious space on your resume with phrases like “hard worker” or “fast learner”.  These phrases are too hard to quantify and don’t mean much anyways.  Focus on listing actual technical skills and accomplishments.

2.    You wrote your resume all in the third person.  IT recruiting firms see this far too often from both US and international resumes.  The problem with talking about yourself in the third person, especially on your resume, is that you’ll come across as egocentric and out of touch with professional norms. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot this way.

3.    Lastly, your resume shouldn’t be on a creative template or format.  Graphic designers are often guilty of this because they’re trying to show off their skills.  However, when you work with IT staffing agencies, they’ll want you to keep your resume in a simple, conventional format.  Your skills and experience should speak for themselves.  Don’t obfuscate them with a nonconventional format, border, etc.

IT Salaries Are Rising in 2015

IT professionals have done well, even through the past recessions, but surveys are showing that 2015 has been very good to those in IT jobs.  Until recently, most IT recruiters and IT staffing companies have seen that only a slight majority of programmers, BA’s, project managers, etc received yearly raises.  As 2015 starts rounding up, technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies can now see a whopping 67% of the candidates they work with receiving raises in compensation.

IT staffing firms and IT recruiting agencies have not only seen an increase in those who received raises, but also a marked decrease in IT professionals who have received pay cuts.  If this wasn’t enough good news, bonuses have also increased on average nationwide.  All of this is a good sign for the IT jobs market, so keep your IT recruiting companies close and your resume polished.

 

IT Job Interviews for Introverts

Interviewing for IT jobs is pretty intimidating to most IT professionals.  Many will consult with their IT recruiters and IT staffing firms at length about what IT skills to highlight, what interpersonal skills to highlight, etc.  If you’re an introvert, interviewing for jobs can be even more nerve-wracking.  While you can prep with your technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies for any obvious questions your interviewer might ask, there is one aspect that you’ll have to prepare for on your own: small talk.

While this might literally seem like small thing, for some IT jobs it’s not.  IT staffing companies and IT recruiting agencies regularly are given jobs that require excellent customer service skills or the ability to work well with clients or a team.  If you can’t show some ability to do small talk, it could kill your candidacy.  Try to make sure you push yourself to do a bit of small talk (with energy and enthusiasm!) at the beginning and end of the interview.  These are the points you’ll make the biggest impression.  If you’re nervous, think about a few questions or topics that could be relevant: neighborhood restaurants near the office, seasonal activities, etc.  Keep it light and positive.  Your IT recruiting firms will be hearing great feedback in no time if you take these tips to your next interview!

 

An IT Job Interview Mistake You May Not Know You’re Making!

Great IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies help their candidates fully prepare for interviews.  And great IT professionals put a lot of work into prepping for interviews on their own.  But you can still miss landing the IT jobs, even if you prepare well.  One surprising reason that your IT staffing companies and technical recruiters might relay to you that you didn’t get the job: your answers sounded more like you were focused on saying what they wanted to hear than giving a truthful, genuine answer.

Why would this be a problem?  While taking your preparation and tips from IT recruiting firms seriously is important, interviewers really want to get a good sense of your technical proficiencies, experience, and personality.  If your answers sound like something your IT staffing firms and IT recruiting agencies helped you carefully construct to meet expectations, they will just frustrate the interviewer. You’ll be obstructing their hiring process, which will guarantee some bad feedback to your IT recruiting companies! To avoid this issue, focus on making sure your answers are honest and helpful, not just finessed and polished.

How to Impress Interviewers for IT Jobs

IT staffing companies and IT recruiters can usually help you prepare for your job interviews.  They can tell you what technologies to study up on, what experience the role requires, and probably what kind of personality would do well at the company.  But your technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies can’t do one thing for you that is key in landing IT jobs: showing enthusiasm.

Why is showing enthusiasm so necessary in the interview process?  As most IT recruiting firms can attest, technical experience and skills are important, but so is interest in the position.  Motivated IT professionals achieve far more than unmotivated ones.  So even if your IT staffing firms don’t talk to you about it, make sure to show some obvious enthusiasm for the company and the role—it could be the difference between landing and losing the job.

Don’t Leave Your IT Job Interviews Before You Make These Points!

As you wrap up your IT jobs interview, you want to make sure you’ve left the best impression with your interviewer that you can.  Maybe you practiced answering a few questions with your IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies.  Perhaps there are certain technologies your technical recruiters and IT staffing firms told you to make sure you demonstrated proficiency and experience in. Here are a few more points you want to get across to your interviewer to really seal the deal (and impress your IT staffing companies and IT recruiting agencies).

1.    Make sure to show your interest in the role and the work itself.  Don’t be desperate, but don’t assume the interviewer will just pick up on it.  Explicitly state that you’re interested in the kind of work the role requires and that you think you could succeed in that team.

2.    You’re ready to make a measurable impact quickly.  Try to prep some ideas of how you’d start succeeding in the role ASAP.  Make sure the interviewer can see that you’ve really thought about the role and what you can bring to it.