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Advice from IT Recruiters

How to Keep your Tech Job Search Discreet

With such a hot IT job market right now, it’s a great time to be looking for a new one.  With so many open IT jobs, the hardest part may not be finding one.  The hardest part will be be conducting your job search without tipping off your boss.  Here are some tips from IT staffing companies for discreetly going about your next search. 

Location, Location, Location.  Utilize local coffee shops for calls with recruiters and phone screens when you have to take a call during work hours.  You can also take a call in your car during a break or while driving to or from work.  The key is to pick a quiet location where you have good service on your phone.  You don’t want to spend a call with a hiring manager fervently whispering or worrying a coworker will overhear you.  The most ideal circumstance, if you can achieve it, is to set up any calls before work or after and take them at your house, on a landline, in a room by yourself.

Keep your resume posted as confidential and don’t make your LinkedIn updates public.  Your job search will be conducted almost entirely online, but you don’t have to make it obvious.  IT recruiters suggest posting your resume as confidential on job boards and choosing the right settings on your LinkedIn.  (Obviously, you don’t want to make your tagline ‘Seeking new opportunities,’ either.)  Even if you think your boss would never look online or go on LinkedIn, you don’t know who else may see evidence of your job search.  People may gossip about your search or even tell your boss directly.

Don’t discuss your job search with coworkers.  While it can be tempting, this is a mistake that might really sink you.  As tempting as it is to talk about your search, it can be even more tempting for your coworker to talk about it with somebody else.  Even the coworker who’s your best friend might accidentally let news of your job search slip.  IT staffing agencies suggest you only talk about your search with people outside of work, like family and non-coworker friends.  It’s your safest bet.

Change for interviews outside of the office.  If you need to change into a suit for an interview (and IT staffing firms always suggest wearing a suit), don’t change in your office or come into work wearing a suit.  Stop off at a coffee shop, a local mall, etc.  Wearing a suit when you normally don’t will certainly spark curiosity.  Worse, you may have to answer questions about it and be forced to lie.  It’s worth it to just change elsewhere to avoid any of this!

Take enough PTO when you schedule an interview.  Technical recruiters suggest taking ample time for an interview.  You may have to do things like coding tests or whiteboarding sessions.  You might also get the chance to meet more team members, hiring managers, etc.  So take enough time off work to do whatever you need for your interview.  You don’t want to miss out on the job because you had to rush back to the office!

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

it job search discreet
Don’t discuss your search with your coworkers, no matter how much you want to! Photo credit: philm1310 via Pixabay.

 

 

Are You Losing Tech Talent with this Mistake?

It’s no secret that it’s a job seeker’s market out there.  The national unemployment rate is dropping to levels so low that we haven’t seen them since 1969!  Employers are getting so desperate to fill open roles they’re relaxing their standards.  Some employers are no longer requiring formal higher education like a Bachelor’s degree, no longer requiring certain drug testing, and considering candidates with a criminal record.  In a tight labor market like this, tech employers need to be especially effective at recruiting talent for their notoriously hard-to-fill roles.  There’s one mistake that IT staffing agencies find employers often make that loses them talent.  Worse, it’s a mistake they unwittingly make, so they don’t even know to correct it!  This hiring mistake that’s so easy to make?  Moving too slowly in the hiring process.

Why is moving too slowly (and honestly, from most companies’ perspectives, it’s not that slow) such a mistake?  The problem is that Tech field moves fast and so do its job candidates.  Expectations have changed with the advent of LinkedIn, Indeed, and online job searching.  With the technical tools to expedite the hiring process, IT recruiters find that candidates have no patience for companies that move at a slow (or even sometimes an average pace) in their hiring process.  Other companies will accommodate this need for a speedy transition—so don’t be the one they leave behind.

Another reason technical recruiters find that a slow hiring process is such a mistake is because most IT professionals are pretty sought-after.  They’re likely entertaining several interview processes, IT recruiters, or even offers!  Moving slowly, requiring multiple interviews and phone screens, and/or requiring a lot of deliberation time means that candidates will probably just go with one of the other options they have on the table.  Particularly in the tech field, where there’s already a dearth of talent, this tight labor market has increased the amount of activity a candidate can pursue in their job search. To compete with everything else your ideal candidate probably has on the table, you’ll have to move fast.

The last reason it’s imperative to move quickly when hiring for IT jobs is because it helps the candidate to feel valued.  As discussed above, candidates are used to companies hiring quickly.  When a company asks them to come back in for interview after interview, or takes weeks to deliberate, candidates assume the company has a lot of hesitations about them.  Since it’s such a job seeker’s market, tech candidates have the option to go with companies that try to snap them up quickly and make them feel like a precious commodity.  Don’t move too slowly, or you’ll wind up losing out on your top choices– because they feel like your last choices!

 

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

IT hiring mistakes
Don’t make a 404 in your hiring process! Photo credit: aitoff via Pixabay.

 

Tips for Tech Professionals on Writing Killer Interview Thank You Notes

Late winter and early spring are a great time to search for IT jobs.  Budgets have recently been approved to hire more people, and the tech economy is booming.  Addtionally, new development life cycles are often scheduled to start about now, and it’s the time of year when companies are often revisiting their products, services, and technologies, working on adding new features to applications and general improvements to keep competitive.  If you’re ready to job search, or perhaps you’ve already started, here’s one skill you can sharpen to really enhance your tech job search:  writing thank you notes.  Here are some tips from IT recruiters on how to write the kind of thank you note that impresses tech hiring managers.

  1. Take notes in your interview. This tactic isn’t just about looking and being more engaged in the interview (though that certainly wins you points).  It’s also about writing a better thank you note later.  Mark down important points you discuss in the interview.  What are imperative job functions do they bring up?  Are there any problems they’re facing as a company that you could help with?  Do they pose any questions that you might be more able to answer after a bit more thought?  These are the kinds of things to add into your thank you note later.  Time and again, IT staffing companies find that a generic thank you note (one that feels like it’s all from a template) will never impress hiring managers like a thank you note that makes reference to specifics from the interview.  In fact, some IT recruiters believe that a generic thank you note will hurt your candidacy more than help it!
  2. Be prompt. A thorough, detailed thank you note that’s beautifully-written will never make much of a splash if it’s too late.  Especially in the fast-paced tech industry, IT recruiting firms find that time is of the essence.  When you finish your interview, head home as soon as you can to write your thank you note.  Sending it the day of the interview (if possible) or within 24 hours is ideal.  Sending the note 48 hours later can be acceptable if you get really tied up.  If you send the note late, you might even find that the hiring manager has already assumed you’re not sending it and thus dinged your candidacy—or even rejected you for it.
  3. Send individual thank you notes. If you interview with multiple people, try to get their individual contact info from your technical recruiters.  Writing each of them a note will show a level of care that goes above and beyond what most candidates demonstrate.  If you can add a detail into each note that really personalizes it, that’s even better.  Especially today, where best practices for innovation involve so much teamwork, and Scrum and Agile have replaced the need for heads-down Waterfall-type tech professionals, showing off extra effort in your interpersonal skills can be key.  Individual, personalized thank you notes could make you seem like the kind of team player that hiring managers will love working with.
  4. Use your thank you note to address your weaknesses or concerns with your candidacy. This may not always be necessary, but if you felt there were concerns or weaknesses brought up in your interview, a thank you note can be a great place to address that.  The key is to keep things positive and, if possible, focus on how you’re already working to remedy these potential issues.  IT staffing agencies find that if you can handle this right, your thank you note can certainly strengthen your candidacy, as it’s your last impression on a hiring manager before they make their decision!

 

Interview thank you notes
Great thank you notes don’t feel like templates. Photo credit: 6689062 via Pixabay.

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

Graduating in May? Jump Start Your Tech Job Search Now!

It’s only late February, but if you’re a college senior or finishing up your grad school program, you can get going on your search for your first (or next) IT jobs right now.  If you take the right steps, you can land yourself a job to start after graduation.  Here’s what IT recruiters would suggest you do now.

1. Create (or polish, if you’ve already started) your resume.  This is the first and most important step.  You can’t do anything else until you have a resume to give to hiring managers and technical recruiters.  IT staffing firms suggest you do 2 things in particular to create a strong resume for a recent grad.  Firstly, you typically want to put your education section at the top.  You can keep your GPA in there if it’s high enough for up to 3 years past graduation. (How do you know your GPA is high enough?  Put it on there if it’s anywhere between 2.8 and 4.0.  However, it’s worth noting that anything lower than 3.0 may put off companies that are particularly picky).

The second thing to make sure you do on a recent grad resume is to create a strong, thorough ‘Technical Proficiencies’ section.  Then detail out in the bullets under your experience how you used the technologies you gave in that Technical Proficiencies section.  If you don’t have much professional experience yet, detail out how you’ve used the technologies in your Technical Proficiencies section in bullets under projects or internships you’ve done for school.  Employers need to be able to see how you’ve used a technology, not just that you claim you’ve learned it.

2. Build your LinkedIn profile.  If you don’t have one yet, you need one now.  Most recent grads don’t think they need a LinkedIn profile until after they land their first job, but this is a rookie mistake.  Take the time to build yourself a profile, because especially in the tech field, there are plenty of hiring managers that won’t hire a candidate who doesn’t have one.  IT recruiting agencies suggest that you build a profile that isn’t too long or detailed.  Your resume should be elaborate and give deep technical detail on your experience.  Your LinkedIn profile should give a rough outline of your experience and skills.  That’s it!

3. Reach out to your local IT recruiting firms.  The time to build relationships with recruiters is now.  Plenty of companies are already working with IT staffing agencies to start the process of hiring May graduates.  In fact, some of the best jobs are going to be less available as the Spring goes on.  You’ll actually give yourself an advantage to land some of the best-paying IT jobs at the coolest employers if you start searching now (rather than after graduation).

4. Start networking.  Go to networking events in the cities you’d like to live in.  Start reaching out to people you have connections to in the tech field.  Let your family and friends know that you’re ready to start your job hunt.  You never know who might have great connections and the ability to open the right doors.  Now is the time to let everyone know you’d accept help in your job search!

IT job search
It’s time to start your tech job search, even if you’re graduating months from now! Photo credit: geralt via Pixabay.

What’s the Difference between Your Resume, LinkedIn Profile, and Job Application?

Hunting for new IT jobs means you’ll find yourself submitting some of the same information over and over again. Between interactions with hiring managers, IT recruiters, and interviewers, you may be answering the same question repeatedly. Some of this repetition is necessary, though. This is particularly true within your job search materials. Below are the similarities and differences between these three items. Knowing them can help you create better job search materials—and will probably help you land the tech jobs you want.  Here are some tips from IT staffing agencies for your resume, your LinkedIn profile and your job application.

Your LinkedIn Profile – This is the most recent addition to the job search process, but it doesn’t mean it’s optional.  Especially in the tech field, not having a LinkedIn profile will be deeply detrimental to your job search.  Technical recruiters find that some hiring managers will even automatically reject a candidate for having no LinkedIn profile.  As you write your LinkedIn profile, keep a few things in mind. Firstly, condense your profile.  Your LinkedIn profile is meant to be an abbreviated version of your resume.  Since most tech resumes can be a few pages (or more) it’s all the more important for IT professionals to abide by this rule.  Secondly, your LinkedIn profile should include 2 or 3 bullets (more if you have fewer jobs to list) that discuss what you did at each job.  Some recruiters find that candidates will simply give a job title or a description of what the company does.  This is not enough.  Leave the description of the company off your profile (hiring managers can look up what the company does).  Give enough information for a hiring manager or recruiter to understand your technical experience on a basic level.

Your Resume – Your resume is arguably the most important part of your IT job search, so don’t be haphazard about it.  The best case scenario is that you constantly update your resume, even when you’re not job searching.  If you pick up a new technology or language, add it.  If you achieve something important at your current job, add it to your resume.  Then, when you’re ready to search for a new job, all you’ll need to do is polish it up.

When you are ready to polish up your resume, there are 2 important things to pay attention to.  First, the length.  Resumes are different from LinkedIn profiles because they’re usually much longer.  Tech professionals are not held to the 1 page (or 2 pages for more experienced professionals) resume rule that most fields are.  Brevity takes a back seat to making sure you give adequate descriptions of how you used the technologies you specialize in.  It’s not enough to list the technologies in your ‘Technical Proficiencies’ section at the top of your resume.  You need to include demonstrations of the work you used these technologies for within the bullet points.  While you only give 2 or 3 bullets in your LinkedIn profile under each job, you want to give at least double that on your resume.  (And don’t waste these bullets with descriptions of what the company does because again, hiring managers can look this up themselves).

The second thing to pay attention to when building your resume is to make sure it is similar to your LinkedIn profile when it comes to dates and employers.  There should be no discrepancies on the basic history of your career.  If there are, hiring managers will likely reject you immediately.  Being trustworthy is imperative, no matter how many advanced programming languages you’re an expert at.

 Your Job Application – This is the part of the job search process that candidates find the most repetitive.  You can often skip it when you’re applying with IT staffing companies for contracting positions.  When you’re applying for direct hire and permanent jobs, though, you’ll often have to complete a job application in addition to submitting a resume.  This is usually necessary for HR departments and their own hiring processes.  The good news is, more and more frequently, you’re allowed to parse your resume into job applications.  The most important thing to note with job applications is that your dates and employment history must line up with your LinkedIn profile and resume.  As noted above, a discrepancy will make you look untrustworthy to employers and potentially result in rejection.  Be patient, fill out the job application accurately, and check it over before you submit it.  Landing a job you love in the end will be worth it.

 

Job applications may seem repetitive and unnecessary but don’t rush through them! Photo credit: Free-Photos via Pixabay.

 

What Technologies Will Get You a Job in 2018?

What will be the hot skill sets for tech job seekers in 2018? IT staffing firms are finding that technologies that pertain to mobile development and UX are highly in demand right now and will likely continue to increase in popularity.  If you’re thinking about ways to expand your options for IT jobs in 2018, here are 2 reasons why you should pick up mobile development and UX skills.

  1. User experience is becoming imperative for a business’s success. Having a stellar website has become key to attracting and keeping  Whatever the business, customers want to be able to do more online—from deciding whether to purchase the product or service, to using or maintaining it.  Consumers are demanding online tools where they once accepted in-person and phone options.  But it’s not just about providing those tools online.  It’s also about making sure those tools are attractive, easy to use, and even enjoyable.  Having a website with tools like that gives a company the edge over competitors in world where consumers do all their buying (and arguably, much of their living) online.  As one high level executive says, “In a global, internet-saturated market, anyone from anywhere in the world can compete in any time zone. Competition is fierce and many “contemporary” UI elements come out of pre-canned toolkits. The piece that cannot be canned, the key market differentiator, is the delightful experience that can only be captured via a deep contextual understanding of the user and what they are trying to do.”  In light of all of this, IT recruiting firms are finding that more and more companies are investing in their UX teams.  This means more open UX roles for people with the right skills.
  1. Mobile development is key because mobile devices are rapidly overtaking desktop ones. When it comes to consumer behavior, mobile is becoming key.  On Black Friday of 2017, stores estimate that 40% of sales came from mobile devices, not in-store sales.  Companies that want to engage with customers online (which really should be every business, as mentioned above), must make sure their website translates well to mobile devices like cell phones, tablets and laptops.  There’s also the element of SEO.  Companies that want to be ranked higher in Google searches must have a decent mobile presence.  In fact, websites that don’t translate well to mobile get dinged by Google and presented further down in search results.  Considering how frequently most consumers look to Google to find their next vendor, companies can’t afford to ignore this information.  Between consumer behavior and SEO rules, businesses are changing their priorities to be competitive.  Technical recruiters are finding that employers are putting significant resources into expanding their mobile development team.  If you have mobile development skills, you’ll likely enjoy a short, easy job search!

So if you’re ready to consider diving into mobile development and UX jobs, what technologies do you need to focus on learning or sharpening?  For mobile development, IT recruiters suggest that candidates learn Swift, Object-C, Cocoa Touch,  Kotlin, C, C++, Python, Java, Phone Gap, Xamarin and Xcode.  If you want to get a UX job, you’ll want to buff up on javascript frameworks (especially Angular) and HTML5.  (Of course, UX also includes plenty of other skills that are less technical and more artistic/design-oriented.)  Whichever direction you go in, you can be sure you’ll become a much more attractive candidate to employers and recruiters.

 

IT job search tips
Are you ready to look for a new job? Swift, Object-C, and Cocoa Touch might help! Photo credit: StockSnap via Pixabay.

 

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

Why Tech Employers Should Still Consider Candidates with Big Gaps on their Resumes

When you’re hiring for tech positions, it can be tempting to toss out any resumes with a gap of 6 months or more.  IT recruiters see this all the time, especially because the tech job market is so hot these days.  (To put that in perspective, the unemployment rate for IT professionals in the first quarter of 2017 was 2.5% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The overall unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2017 was almost double that! It was 4.5%.)  IT staffing companies find that employers often think if somebody is unemployed for long, there’s something wrong with them.  The truth is, there are some legitimate reasons candidates might have big gaps on their resumes.  Here’s why you may want to consider a candidate, even if they have a long gap on their resume.

1.    Their reasons for a gap are solid.  It’s becoming more and more common for people to leave the workforce temporarily to care for a relative.  This will only continue as the Baby Boomer generation continues to age.  Taking time off to care for a new baby or sick relative doesn’t tell a hiring manager anything about a candidate’s skills, performance, or dedication to work.  The truth is, many people may face caregiving dilemmas over their lifetimes.  Sharp, efficient, talented IT professionals and unskilled ones alike take time off for caregiving.   So the next time you see a resume with a large gap taken for caregiving, remember that you could just as easily be in the same boat one day!  It’s also important to remember that there’s a very real dearth of IT professionals in the US right now.  You don’t want to limit your talent pool any further than it’s already been limited.

2.    Their technical skills may not be impacted by a gap.  With all the options for independent study, online classes, certifications, and more, it’s possible that a candidate has taken time off from a formal job but they haven’t taken time off from keeping up their technical expertise.  If you see a resume with a sizable gap and it concerns you, check out their technical proficiencies section.  Some people might even have a better arsenal of technical skills after taking time off from the workforce.  They may have used the time off to learn more than they would if they were working.

3.    Their base of technical skills might be enough, even if they don’t have the hottest new technologies under their belts.  Especially recently, IT staffing firms notice that companies will hire candidates with strong, basic foundations of technical skills.  Then they’ll just teach them the technologies they lack.  This works because there are many languages a candidate can learn that will prep them to quickly and easily acquire more languages.  Even if a candidate was out of work for a period of time and isn’t up to date with Python, for example, they might still have Ruby on Rails.  Knowing Ruby on Rails will make it easy for the candidate to pick up Python and perform a role that requires it.

4.    Their technical skills might not be up to date due to time taken off work, but they could have more vital skills.  As mentioned before, candidates can be (and are!) often caught up with technical knowledge on the job.  IT recruiting companies find that for some roles that require soft skills, companies will hire people with those skills.  They’ll then catch them up on the technical skills they need.  For some roles, like Helpdesk or Sales Engineer, having soft skills is imperative.  It’s arguably more important that having the right technical skills or experience.  For instance, a Sales Engineer who is charming and engaging with clients but needs to learn SAP on the job is a better hire than a candidate who knows SAP but is rude and off-putting to clients.

Tech resumes
Is a big gap always a problem on a resume? Photo credit: rawpixel via Pixabay.

 

Why Were You Rejected from that Tech Job?

So you polished up your resume, you built a stellar list of references, and you got yourself submitted to some IT jobs that look perfect for you.  But lo and behold, your IT staffing firms called you to let you know you didn’t land the job (or maybe even the interview).  What happened?  What should you do?  Here’s a little insider info from IT recruiting firms.

Why didn’t you get the job?  There are a lot of factors why people are rejected from the hiring process.  You may never know which reasons apply to you, but it can be a comfort to know them, because many of them are completely out of your control and have nothing to do with your marketability as an IT professional.  Here are the main reasons IT recruiters see people rejected from a job.

  • The project or the role changed.  This happens all the time, especially with more technical roles.  The kinds of projects that IT professionals work on are subject to change for all the usual reasons a company’s project changes, but also because technologies themselves change so quickly.  Perhaps a company plans to use Angular for a project, but decides they’d like to move on to a hotter new technology and use Angular 2.  That means the roles they’re hiring for drastically change, just like that!  Roles will also change if they’ve been open for a long time.  If a company is having a hard time finding the perfect software developer, the life cycle development of a project still won’t stop.  A team could need a software developer with different skills as the project progresses.
  • You weren’t a culture fit.  This may seem like a small thing compared to technical acumen, but IT staffing agencies find that it’s not.  In fact, one of our own technical recruiters estimates that culture fit issues account for 50-60% of the candidate rejections he sees!  The days of heads-down coders are over and Scrum and Agile are all the rage.  Companies usually want a team that gels well, because they’ll be working together closely.  For roles that are client-facing or customer service oriented, this becomes all the more imperative.  If, for instance, you’re applying for a Helpdesk role or Sales Engineer role, having a warm, engaging personality is one of the explicitly stated job requirements.
  • Maybe other candidates really were just better.  It’s natural to feel like you’re the best candidate for the job. The truth is, though, you’ll almost always be competing against other candidates.  You never know if your completion has more experience, a better arsenal of technologies at their disposal, or is just more pleasant to work with.  You may always feel like you’re the best fit for the job, but statistically speaking, you can’t always be the best fit for the job.  Sometimes another candidate is a better match.

What can you do if you don’t get the role?

  • You can start by politely asking your IT recruiters for feedback.  If they have it, they’ll often be happy to share.  It could be that you can get actionable feedback, like a suggestion to get more experience with a particular technology, or that you came across as rude in your interview.  On the other hand, sometimes there is no feedback.
  • It’s important not to try to argue your candidacy with the recruiter, and especially not the hiring manager.  This strategy never lands somebody the job.  In fact, often it burns a bridge and blacklists you at that company in the future.  Hiring managers don’t appreciate being told that they don’t know how to make good decisions for their teams.  They also don’t want to hire people who look arrogant.  You will likely accomplish one or both of those if you push back when a hiring manager rejects you.
  • Try to remember that if you don’t land a job, it’s like dodging a bullet.  Whether you’re rejected by IT staffing companies at the application stage or later after an interview, what you’re essentially hearing is that the employer doesn’t have confidence you’d be successful in the role.  Even if you could do the role just fine, who wants to work in a job where their boss isn’t sure they can hack it?  A rejection is just saving your from pain down the road and opening you up for a job that you can succeed and be happy in.

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

 

Tech job rejection
Photo credit: Clcker-Free-Vector-Images via Pixabay.

A Checklist for Your Tech Job Search

While the tech job market always seems to be hot, January is an especially good time to be searching.  Many companies begin their fiscal year in January and have the budget to hire new IT professionals.  IT recruiters also find that companies often start development life cycles in January.  With new applications to develop, companies will have their technical recruiters looking for new software programmers, web developers, UX/UI developers, etc to hire.  It’s also worth noting that it’s very advantageous to get hired at the beginning of a development life cycle.  Having experience with a project from beginning to end (or beginning to maintenance) looks excellent on a resume.  IT staffing firms love to see that kind of experience on your resume.  So if you’re ready to look for new IT jobs, January is the time to do it! Here’s a checklist to prep yourself.

  • Your Resume: Get it updated and clean out old/irrelevant experience (probably anything older than the last 10 years or anything that’s in a totally different, irrelevant field).  Remember to use your bullets to show off your contributions and achievements at the companies you’ve worked with.  Help hiring managers and IT recruiting agencies see the value you bring as an employee.  Post your updated resume on the job boards, especially if it’s been a while since you last searched.
  • Your LinkedIn Profile:  This is almost as important as your resume.  Since the vast majority of people in tech use LinkedIn, it can sometimes be considered a red flag if you don’t have a profile there.  Make sure you update your LinkedIn profile more concisely than your resume.  You can use your resume to elaborate on your technical skills and experience.
  • Your References: Check in with them and let them know you’re job searching.  Give them an idea of the kinds of roles you’re looking for.  Thank them for their help with your job search. (And don’t forget to thank them again when you land your new job!)
  • Your Portfolio: If you’re a Graphic Designer, Web Developer, UX/UI Developer, or have a skill-set in a similar vein, you may want to get your portfolio ready.  Make sure you have your latest and best samples of your work added in.  Be aware of copyright issues and don’t openly break them if your company won’t allow you to share examples of your work for them.  No employer wants to hire somebody who seems untrustworthy.
  • Call IT Recruiters: If you’ve already developed a relationship with recruiters, give them a call and send along your latest resume.  If you haven’t worked with IT staffing companies before, now’s a great time to do it!  Find an IT recruiting firm that has a great reputation and reach out with your job search materials.  A good technical recruiter will help you find a job that you love and can succeed in.

 

Tech job search checklist
Get ready to land a great new IT job. Photo credit: TeroVeslainen via Pixabay.

Programmers: Are You Holding Your Own Career Back With This Mistake?

JavaScript frameworks like React and Angular are trendy skills for Programmers to have right now.  This is true for a few reasons.  Firstly, both are the latest shiny new technologies.  Secondly, one of the main reasons React is popular is because it’s great for mobile application development.  One of the biggest reasons Angular is popular is because it’s simple and easy to use since it’s built with HTML.  No matter how many reasons you can list for Angular or React’s popularity, though, it’s not going to help you to focus solely on them.  It won’t even help you to focus on the next hot JavaScript framework.  If you just try to chase the latest JavaScript framework, you’re probably doing yourself a disservice.  Here’s why it’s imperative to focus on the fundamentals of JavaScript if you want to further your career or widen your tech job search.

Avoid falling victim to obsolescence

While it’s always helpful to have the newest, hottest technologies on your resume, IT recruiters would suggest that you also don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket.  JavaScript frameworks will come and go, but the fundamentals of JavaScript will always be useful to you.  Don’t focus on flashy new frameworks like React to the exclusion of JavaScript basics.  You’ll be glad when React becomes dated and you’ve got the base knowledge to master the new, trendy famework!

Ensure your success once you land the job

You might find yourself up the creek without a paddle if you don’t have a good enough base of JavaScript fundamentals.  Knowing the latest and greatest framework might get you in the door, but IT staffing companies see people land in hot water when they’re missing a solid base of JavaScript knowledge.  Perhaps you need to do something more complicated than what React will help you achieve.  Perhaps the company has not changed all their code over to the new framework because of security concerns, lack of funds, or lack of staff.  You may still need a solid understanding of JavaScript to complete your work, even if Angular was talked up as more important in the interview.  It’s also worth noting that because of the speed of technology, projects and job descriptions can change all the time.  A Node project today could become a Node and JavaScript project tomorrow to meet new business requirements.  The job your technical recruiters helped you land today may not be the one you need to do next week.  If your employer needs more from you, it’s important not to get caught without a strong base of JavaScript!

Programming careers
Are you just chasing the next hot framework? Photo credit: Markusspiske via Pixabay.