Tag Archives: resumes

Don’t Fake it in IT Interviews

IT staffing companies and technical recruiters give plenty of advice to IT consultants about interviews: what to wear, when to get there, what kinds of questions to be ready to respond to or ask.  There is a subtle underlying rule that IT headhunters hope that IT contractors are already aware of, though.  It’s best to be genuine throughout an interview. 

While IT staffing firms aren’t looking for people who flaunt the rules of office and interview etiquette, they are looking for people who provide more genuine, personable responses to questions than their resumes might provide.  IT professionals who give the perfect, cookie-cutter response to questions are pretty questionable in their own right.  IT managers know nothing about them at the end of the interview because the answers they’ve given don’t say much about them as employees.

IT professionals who are getting ready to interview can easily avoid the trap of looking too perfect.  Preparing for interviews should be done in a way that doesn’t rob you of your personality or work style.  If you find suggested answers to questions online or elsewhere, make sure they are still answers you could honestly give.   Perhaps doing this kind of preparation might take a bit longer, but it’s worth it.  The price of not doing it will likely result in not getting the job.

When to Stay in Your IT Job…and When to Leave

IT consultants must ask themselves a tough question from time to time: Should I start looking to leave my current job?  IT professionals who are considering polishing their resumes should consider a few major factors before trying to move on to new IT jobs.

The first major fact is the state of the economy and the information technology.  Currently, IT contractors will find that the economy is not in the best shape.  However, the IT field is booming.  Making a move wouldn’t be prohibitively risky at the moment.

The next factor to consider is motivation.  IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies tend to shy away from people who only want to leave their jobs for more money, because they’re bored, or because they’re overworked.  A combination of factors is acceptable, but on their own, each of these factors can be addressed and probably improved at least somewhat.

The last factor to consider is time.  If you’ve only been with your current employer for less than a year (and it’s not a contract), it’s best to try to wait it out.  Technical recruiters do have more tolerance for what might be called ‘job hopping’ in other fields, but if you can avoid having less than a year at any location, you should wait.

 

Avoiding Conflict in IT

IT jobs tend to require that IT contractors have either teamwork skills or customer service skills.  With requirements like these, IT staffing firms find it imperative to ensure that the IT consultants they work with not only have flawless resumes, but can also avoid and defuse conflicts.

The best case scenario for IT recruiting agencies is to find IT job candidates who are capable not only of avoiding their own conflict, but also knowing when to defuse other people’s conflicts.  Technical recruiters prefer to work with candidates who recognize that the first step to avoiding any conflict is to emotionally detach from a situation.  Secondly, keeping the opposite perspective in mind is key to easily detangling a disagreement. Empathy never hurts on this front, either.

When it comes to positively impacting work conflicts with co-workers, IT staffing companies want candidates who are aware of when they are needed.  Instances with IT managers and superiors should be avoided.  These people don’t want inferiors attempting to resolve their issues.  Issues between peers are better grounds to interfere on, but only minimally.  IT headhunters don’t want busybodies.  The only scenario that absolutely requires intervention every single time is when a disagreement is about to occur in front of or with a client or potential client.  Keeping the client happy and confident in the company is of the utmost importance– and disagreements never help with those goals.

 

Major Resume Mistakes to Avoid in IT

Creating perfect resumes in the information technology field isn’t hard.  IT professionals often have the benefit of IT recruiters and their praise accompanying their resumes to IT managers.  Even if IT consultants have this added benefit, though, they certainly won’t get anywhere in their job search (with hiring managers or IT staffing firms) if they make big mistakes in their job hunting materials.  These are some of the biggest mistakes IT contractors should avoid in their resumes:

1.   Not listing skills: In IT, skills are everything.  Giving a concise run-down of skills and certifications provides a distinct advantage in the job hunt because it makes it so much easier for technical recruiters to identify if you match a job’s requirements.

2. Listing an unprofessional email address for contact purposes:  This error is particularly egregious because your email address can be considered a reflection of your personality.  Either make it too bland to actually reflect anything about you, or make it reflect something positive.

3. Copying extensively from job postings on resumes: Not being able to reflect upon your own job experience and communicate it in your own words is a terrible sign for IT staffing agencies.  If you really got something out of a job, you’d be able to at least write about what you did in your own way.

4. Including photos: Information technology is different than acting.  Headshots are not required and it may puzzle people if you provide them.  Better to just save them for your grandma. 

 

IT Certifications and Degrees: Coming Soon from Pepsi?

IT recruiters Boston to IT recruiters CA have been seeing some surprises on IT contractors’ resumes: corporate schools.  Brands like Red Bull have been creating programs that provide traditionally more academic type training.  With new technologies coming out all the time, the information technology field is particularly fertile for such “corporate schools.”  The ability to hire splashy speakers on hot topics is practically second nature to a lot of big brands.  Selling seats for the lecture is only a problem when they are just that: seats that are sold.  The educational value is still debatable when these schools have to weigh their desire for consumers with things like testing, student evaluations, and grades.

For now, these collaborations are a little controversial.  IT headhunters are less than thrilled to find IT consultants with credentials they so obviously paid for and have far less reputable names.  However, IT professionals are pointing out that many credentials already fit these bills (no pun intended).  Additionally, charter schools and online education long ago starting paving the way for these corporate schools.  IT certifications seem more likely to start coming from corporate schools more and more frequently in the future.  It’s only a matter of time.

The Time to Prepare for Your Next IT Layoff is Now

It might seem completely counterintuitive, but because information technology is a generally robust field at the moment, it would behoove IT professionals to take time now to prep themselves for layoffs.  This is not a doomsday prediction for IT staffing firms or IT contractors.  Hopefully the next recession is many years off.  However, it’s best for IT recruiters and IT consultants to prepare for layoffs and hard times on the job market far in advance of when they hit.

The first thing people can do to prepare themselves is to polish their resumes and other job hunting materials.  Making sure to have ideas of great references in mind, if not actually asking IT managers if they are willing to act as a reference should you need it, is just as important as having a spotless resume.  When these materials are perfect, it’s not a bad idea to find IT staffing firms that you want to establish relationships with for when times are hard. Having IT headhunters who already have your materials and needs in mind, even if they’re not actively marketing you, is not a bad thing

Beyond prepping job hunting materials, there is also the very important matter of prepping a financial cushion for emergencies.  Having 3 months of living expenses in savings is great.  Having 6 months of living expenses in savings is better.  No matter what field you’re in, or how well it’s doing, you can never be too careful.

How to Safely Take Extended Leaves in IT

The New York Times Magazine ran a long article this week about the regret that many women in the opt-out generation seem to be feeling 10 years out.  IT consultants, IT recruiters, and IT managers can all learn a thing or two from their experiences—both their successes and missteps.  While maternity or paternity leave and longer, unpaid absences from work might be less common in information technology due to the vast array of telecommuting options, it is still a choice for IT professionals and technical recruiters.  Is it ok to opt out for a while—and will you still be eligible for IT jobs when you are ready to return?  Here are some tips to make your time out of the IT workforce less risky.

A key to the successful return to work of some of the women in the Times piece was to keep their network alive if they did leave the workforce for a bit.  Whether or a woman or man leaving IT to take care of children for a bit, keeping connections in the field is just as important as having resumes polished and ready to go when you begin job hunting again.

Another important way to lessen risk when leaving the IT field for a longer period of time is to keep skills sharp with classes and relevant volunteering.  Taking classes to keep certifications fresh and stay abreast of new technologies will make you more marketable even if you’ve stayed out of the workforce for a long time.  Volunteering your IT skills will make you even more marketable.  A recent survey noted that field-specific philanthropic work can make candidates particularly tempting to hire and doing this as a less time-consuming alternative to work does the double duty of adding to your appeal while demonstrating your continued ability to contribute in an IT capacity.

Salaries are No Longer King in IT

In a field like information technology, where salaries are buoyant no matter what the state of the economy, IT recruiters are noticing that salaries are not the main factor in determining how long IT contractors stay at IT jobs. Even when technical recruiters find IT consultants jobs that perfectly match their salary requirements, the things that make a job tenable long term have more to do with IT managers and how well the skill requirements match their resumes.  Having positive, open communication with managers is always going to make IT professionals enjoy the jobs.  IT staffing firms can also better predict if a placement is a good if their job candidate finds their work meaningful.  IT headhunters that can make the best matches between IT job candidates and the workplace culture and the quality of the work will always be more successful.  If IT staffing companies can make matches that work both in terms of workplace culture and the quality of the work, they will have hit a homerun for sure.

Progress Emails in IT: Powerful Tools for Remote Employees

Because information technology allows for it, IT recruiters Boston to IT recruiters CA are seeing more and more IT jobs that require IT contractors to work remotely.  This means that IT headhunters are placing IT consultants in jobs where they must figure out how to communicate in very efficient, cheap ways with their IT managers despite the distance between them.  Technical recruiters tend to suggest that progress emails are the best tools IT professionals can use to prove they’re living up to the potential of their resumes.  If an IT contractor sends an email at the end of every week briefly listing what they’ve accomplished, they will quickly ingratiate themselves with their bosses and their IT staffing agencies.  Performing well and making sure their bosses know about it makes any IT professional very desirable to IT recruiters.

 

Salaries Won’t Remain Secret for Long in IT

IT recruiters, IT consultants, and IT managers may soon know all about each other’s salaries. Information technology is particularly full of millennial IT professionals who have few qualms about sharing personal information, including how much they get paid for their IT jobs.  In a culture built around sharing everything online, from resumes to vacation photos, IT staffing firms are noticing that IT contractors are becoming more and more likely to share their salaries with co-workers.  While there are plenty of pros and cons to this trend, it’s not really one that IT headhunters or anybody else should waste time debating.  Soon enough, particularly in IT, IT recruiters Boston to IT recruiters CA are likely to see that salaries are no longer secret.  What is actually far more important than debating the merits of the trend is for IT recruiting agencies and the clients they staff for to prepare for salary openness as a new reality.