IT Job Interviews

How to Keep your Tech Job Search Discreet

May 4, 2018

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.

Why Were You Rejected from that Tech Job?

January 9, 2018

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.

Don’t Forget This Step in Your Tech Job Search

November 20, 2017

Are you hunting for new IT jobs? If so, you probably know that one of the best ‘tools’ in your job search toolbox is your references. A good reference can help you land the job, just like a bad reference can ensure you lose it! IT recruiters have certainly seen candidates ace the interview, but lose the job because their references weren’t good. While most people know how important references are to their IT job search, they often skip a crucial step: writing thank you notes to their references. Here’s why you need to write a thank you note to your references, as well as how to do it effectively with little effort.

Why

Why should you write your references thank you notes? Thank you notes are a way to make sure your references continue to see you as gracious professionals that they want to help. Taking the time to share a quick thank you note always makes a big impact on the recipient. Remember that references are taking time out of their (probably busy) days to aid in your job search. Don’t let them imagine you’re anything but very grateful for that.

Thank you notes to references can be especially important in IT. In a field where thank you notes are becoming largely forgotten (as technical recruiters we often have to remind candidates to write them for interviewers), they can really make you stand out. They can also make you stand out in a field that is awfully small sometimes. Especially within certain sectors, or when it comes to people who use certain technologies, the circle of people can be very small. It becomes even smaller when you factor in LinkedIn. Since much of the tech community is on LinkedIn, people can easily conduct ‘backdoor references’ on you. They simply need to reach out to people you’re mutually connected to. Taking all of this into consideration, why wouldn’t you want to polish your reputation and be known as the person who thoughtfully sends thank you notes to their references?

How

The best way to handle this task is to wait until you land a new IT job. Take the time to write hand-written notes to each reference. Your notes don’t have to be long. Simply thank them for taking the time to act as a reference. Let them know that, thanks in part to their words, you landed a new job. If it’s true or appropriate, finish the note with a mention that you’d be happy to return the favor and act as a reference. If it’s not, you can end the note by letting them know you’re always happy to reciprocate if they need a favor from you. IT recruiting firms suggest hand-written notes over emails because they clearly require a little more effort than a quick email. While you could do these notes as email, recipients will appreciate the extra effort! If you don’t know your references’ home addresses, you can simply send them to their work addresses. Unless you speak to your references frequently and know them well, asking for their home addresses isn’t preferable. You may want to maintain boundaries (some people like to keep their home addresses private). You also don’t want to bother them with another email or call.

IT job search tips — Don’t leave thank you notes to your references off the checklist! Photo credit: Tero Vesalainen via Pixabay.

Don’t Decide It’s Your ‘Dream IT Job’ Until You Interview

September 13, 2017

Sometimes job seekers will come across postings for IT jobs that seem perfect. The employer might offer ideal tech stacks, amazing perks, or remote work options. Candidates will fall in love, declare it’s their dream job, pin their hopes on it, and sometimes focus solely on applying to that job. It’s ok to know what you want, but don’t fall into the ‘Dream Job’ trap. IT recruiters would caution against deciding any tech job is your dream job, just based on a job posting. Here’s why:

1. The job may become different than what is posted. There are a few reasons why IT staffing firms see this happen. A company may change its tech stack, the projects it’s hiring for, or the job description of the role itself. Sometimes these changes occur as a company is interviewing candidates. This means the job you interview for might require different skills than the one you applied to or asked your IT recruiters to submit you to. If you have decided a job is your ‘dream job’ before the interview, you’d be sorely disappointed by this change; you may have even put your job search on hold to focus on this job. Be open to new opportunities, let your technical recruiters submit you for roles, but don’t label any of them your ‘dream job’ until after the interview!

2. You don’t know what the culture of the company and team is like until you interview. While this wasn’t always the case, fitting into the corporate culture is becoming very important in tech roles. With the increasing emphasis on innovation and teamwork, Scrum and Agile are becoming the development methodologies that most tech teams operate on. If you don’t fit into the culture, you won’t be able to do your job well, especially on a Scrum or Agile team. So wait to decide if a job is your ‘dream job’ until after you interview and meet the team. You have to like them as much as the work—if not more!

3. The job description may be the same currently, but technologies or job descriptions could change in the near future. Companies go through development changes all the time, and IT recruiting agencies find that sometimes they’re helping a company hire somebody who must have two sets of skills: one for the current projects, and one for projects the company will be pursuing in the future. Your interviewer may be upfront about this, or you may want to ask some questions yourself. You can ask in the interview if the company plans to adopt any new programming languages, development methods, etc. It’s important that before you decide an IT job is your dream job, you get a sense of what the job is now, and what it will be in the future.

How to Be Ready for Personality Tests in the Tech Hiring Process

August 17, 2017

Most IT professionals are familiar and ready for every element of the job search. Phone screens, technical interviews, coding tests, whiteboarding sessions, and interview thank you notes are all par for the course and most candidates are ready to handle them. But one element of the tech job search that does surprise a lot of candidates is a personality test. IT recruiting firms find that time and again, candidates are unprepared for personality tests or feel uncomfortable taking them. Some even try avoiding them (which really isn’t possible. You may as well just opt out of the running for the job if you refuse to take the test.). Here’s a little more info about personality tests so you’re not caught unawares the next time you have to take one.

Why do employers give these tests, especially in tech? It might seem counter-intuitive that employers base hiring for IT jobs off of personality tests. These jobs are all about very specific (often hard-to-find skills), aren’t they? In the past decade or so, employers in the tech space have become more concerned with culture. This has happened for a few reasons, but the increased use of Scrum and Agile as development methodologies probably plays a big part. The days of Waterfall and heads-down coders are largely gone. This means that personality has become exponentially important to hiring managers. Thus, a small but strong minority is very invested in using personality tests as part of their hiring process.

Can I cheat on personality tests? No. It’s not even worth trying. IT staffing firms find that the ‘right’ answer on these tests often isn’t very clear anyways. The questions are usually pretty abstract ones or hypothetical ones that don’t even seem applicable to the job.

What if I want to try to ‘cheat’ anyway? It’s important to note that you wouldn’t want to cheat on these tests, even if you could. Like cheating on a coding test, this will just land you a job that you won’t be likely to succeed in. If an employer is offering a personality test, it’s likely that hiring somebody who fits into their corporate culture is paramount. If you ‘cheat’ your way into a job where you’re not a culture fit, it will become apparent pretty quickly. Your status at the company will suffer, or worse, you’ll be fired. IT recruiting agencies suggest you be honest on personality tests. If you fail it, this can still be a good thing. Your test result will ensure that you avoid taking a job you’d be miserable in, anyway!

tech hiring tips and personality tests — Don’t lie on a personality test. It won’t help you land an IT job you love. Photo credit: Monoar via Pixabay.

Why Did You Get Rejected from that IT Job?

July 26, 2017

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.

How to Deal With Negative Interview Feedback

June 27, 2017

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

June 21, 2017

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

Tips for Second Job Interviews

June 14, 2017

When you’re working with IT staffing firms to find a new role, sometimes you’ll have to do a second in-person interview. Since second job interviews aren’t as common, candidates often feel unsure about how to approach them. Here are some tips from IT recruiting companies on handling second in-person job interviews.

How to dress: Dress in a suit or other business professional attire. Even though dress codes in many companies are becoming more relaxed, the suit is still king for interviews. Sometimes, candidates will go to a first in-person interview and find that everyone is wearing jeans. Don’t let this throw you off. Technical recruiters find that candidates make a better impression when they dress professionally at all stages of the interview. You want to show respect to the company and their hiring process. Following the dress code is part of that. If you get the job, you can dress down when you start the job.

How to prepare: Do two things in particular this time. Firstly, research the company a bit more deeply. Secondly, prepare new questions. Your second interview will likely differ from the first. First interviews are often more about establishing your technical skills and experience. You might do white-boarding or coding tests. The second in-person interview is much more about how well you fit into the team and/or company. Start your preparation by doing a deeper dive into researching the company, product, and corporate culture. Your IT recruiting firms might have some thoughts on web sites to visit, as you do this. They may also be able to tell you who your interviewers will be. If so, it’s a good idea to do a little research on your interviewers, too. The more you know about the company, its products or services, and your interviewers, the more you can show an interest in them. In the tech field, a deep passion for the work, the company, and the products or services will go far!

The second thing you should do in your preparations for your interview is to come up with new questions. You can use some of your research about the company to come up with these questions. You can also just come up with other questions about the role, management styles, etc. It will be important for you to have different questions than you asked in your first interview. For more ideas about interview questions to ask, check out this blog post.

How to answer questions: Focus on bringing something new to the table and really let your personality shine in this interview. Even if you’re asked the same questions again, there are many ways you can tweak your answers to be different. Be patient if you’re asked a question twice or asked something similar. You may be meeting with a mix of new and old people who will unwittingly repeat each other. You want to answer questions so people who have already interviewed you hear something new that strengthens your candidacy. You also want to try to be understanding of this if they repeat questions or discussions. If you are impatient about it, you won’t land the job. Nobody wants to work with somebody who is rude or difficult. IT staffing agencies advise you to remember that your personality and your ability to fit into the culture of the team and company are what hiring managers are focusing on in this second interview. Make sure you present your best self here.

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

IT job interviews — Your second job interview is all about culture fit. Photo credit: miranijenish via Pixabay.

Is This the Reason You aren’t Landing Tech Jobs?

May 12, 2017

Have you ever not landed the tech jobs that you interviewed for? Did you have all the relevant skills and experience, but your IT recruiters said the manager decided to pass on you? Here’s one big reason you might be missing out on jobs: You’re not showing enough passion. IT staffing firms hear all the time that managers are passing on candidates because they don’t seem excited enough about the role, the company, etc. Here are two ways you can avoid this in the future:

Show your passion for the work and technologies the role will use. Do you take classes? Do you go to conferences? Do you have side projects? Talk about them. Technical recruiters find that if candidates can’t demonstrate a deep interest in the work or the relevant technologies, then hiring managers get concerned. Hiring managers want to make sure they hire somebody who won’t leave in the middle of a project because they get an opportunity to work with a different technology. They also want to hire somebody who will continue to improve and grow their knowledge so they can help the company continue to improve their products, platforms, work processes, etc. If you want the IT jobs you’re interviewing for, make sure they know that’s you!
Show your passion for the company. There are a few reasons this will help you land the job. Firstly, because there is so much poaching in the tech field, managers want to know that you are interested in working for their company. This is especially true if they have to train you for their environment and invest a time, effort, and money to onboard you. Managers want to know that you’ll stay for a while. Even if you’re a contractor, managers still want to know that you’ll stay for the duration of your contract or the project you’re hired to work on. IT staffing agencies find that if you express a real interest in the company, this will give hiring managers some confidence that you’ll stick around for at least a reasonable amount of time. That makes you a much more marketable candidate .

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

IT job interview mistakes — Are you not showing enough passion in your job interviews? Photo credit: Maklay62 via Pixabay.