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Tag Archives: IT staffing companies

What Is Working With an IT Recruiter Like?

Why do so many IT candidates work with technical recruiters to help them find their next IT jobs?  It makes their search faster, easier, and more effective.  Good IT recruiters and IT staffing firms will work with you to make sure they understand exactly what you’re looking for in your next role.  This doesn’t just include the work, but also the kind of work environment, team, and bosses you thrive with.  If you’re honest with your IT recruiting companies and give them a full picture of the kind of jobs you really succeed in, they will present these kinds of opportunities to you.

Once IT staffing agencies find opportunities that match what you’ve described, they’ll start setting you up for interviews.  These will differ a little from job interviews you’ve done without IT recruiting agencies for a few reasons.  Firstly, your IT recruiting companies will really be the ones to handle compensation negotiations for you.  You’ll communicate with them about your preferred rates, benefits, etc, and they’ll go to bat for you.  Secondly, your IT recruiting firms may even walk you into the interview and make sure you have a good start to the experience.  This leads to the last difference.  Your IT staffing companies will be advocating for you as well.  Since they probably have a good relationship with the hiring company, their word will be trusted and add an extra oomph to your candidacy.  If all of these differences sound good to you, think about contacting an IT staffing firm like AVID Technical Resources.  You have nothing to lose.

 

Is Job Experience Important for IT Job Seekers?

If you’re a recent grad working with IT recruiters and IT staffing firms to find your next IT jobs, you’re probably wondering if it’s best to add job experience to your resume, or use up that space with information about your studies and certifications.  While both are certainly important to IT staffing agencies and hiring managers, it’s important to know what exactly is valued in the IT industry.

The truth is that while IT recruiting firms and hiring managers need you to list the relevant skills for jobs, job experience, even if it’s not particularly relevant, should still be listed.  Recent studies show that without work experience, your chances of getting a job are severely diminished. The experience is actually just as important as your degree.  This holds true even in fields like IT, where degrees in things like computer science are highly regarded by IT staffing companies and technical recruiters.  So don’t let your work experience drop off your resume—it may just be what gets you the job!

Don’t Make This Mistake When Going to IT Job Interviews

You’ve probably spent quite a bit of time prepping for IT job interviews—both on your own and with your IT staffing companies and IT recruiters.  Maybe you’ve laid out your suit and mapped out how to get to the interview.  Here’s one last tip: don’t bring more than a single, small bag with you.  Why?

It’s not something your technical recruiters are likely to discuss with you (mostly because they’re probably assuming you already know about it). However, your IT staffing firms and IT recruiting agencies want you to make sure you edit what you take with you to a job interview because it reflects poorly on you and on them if you bring too much with you.

If you bring much more with you to a job interview than a small bag, you’re likely saying one of two things.  Firstly, you could be suggesting that the interview isn’t that important to you—it’s just one thing in a long list of errands.  You give off this impression in particular if you come in with things like shopping bags.  Secondly, you’ll make a bad impression for yourself and your IT staffing agencies if you bring a lot of stuff with you because it looks disorganized.  Fair or not, your interviewer may assume that you’re not organized if you need to bring a ton of stuff with you to an interview. They have very little to go on (besides what your IT recruiting firms tell them) and they may just go off of gut feelings from your brief meeting with them.  Having to shuffle around a couple bags or jackets won’t give them the impression that you’re cool, calm, collected, and in control.  So leave everything home but a small bag when you go to your next IT job interview.  It may be the difference between losing and winning your dream IT jobs.

 

Questions NOT to Ask in Your IT Job Interviews

IT recruiters and IT staffing firms will usually help you prepare questions to bring to your IT job interviews.  Your technical recruiters can talk to you about what will interest and impress your interviewers. However, most IT recruiting companies will assume that you know what questions not to ask.  Check out this list to make sure you aren’t making a misstep and embarrassing yourself and your IT recruiting firms in the question part of your interviews.

Don’t ask any basic questions about the company.  If your IT staffing agencies don’t tell you directly, assume that you should research more about the company online yourself. It’s your job to know about the company—at least the basic info you could get from a quick Google search.  So don’t embarrass yourself and your IT staffing companies by making it obvious you haven’t done this research.

Don’t ask any questions that make you look like a clock watcher. Companies want somebody who is committed to and interested in their job.  If you appear to be interested in spending as little time as possible on the job at the interview, you’re definitely not going to impress your interviewer (or your IT recruiting agencies).

Lastly, don’t ask any questions about raises or promotions.  As mentioned above, hiring managers are looking for somebody who is interested in the job they’re trying to fill.  If you start asking questions that suggest you only see that job as a stepping stone, they’ll quickly want to end the interview.

 

Don’t Forget to Do This in IT Job Interviews!

If you’re interviewing for new IT jobs, you’ll benefit from watching your interviewer for signs of how well or poorly the interview is going.  You can prep ahead of time with your IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies.  But you’ll do yourself (and your technical recruiters and IT recruiting agencies) a disservice if you don’t watch for these possible signs your interviewer is disinterested.

Their body language and tone of voice show disinterest.  You don’t need your IT staffing firms to tell you that if your interviewer seems uninterested during your interview and their body language gives the impression they’re closed off and not engaging with you, the interview is going poorly.

They mention other qualified candidates.  If your interviewer makes a pointed mention of other candidates, they may be attempting to lower your expectations. It’s not a sure sign, but it’s something to take into account.

They don’t make any mention of the next steps you or your IT staffing companies should take.  Again, this isn’t a sure sign, but it’s something to take into account.  Your interviewers may just directly contact your IT recruiting firms with the next steps, but if they’re very interested in you, it’s possible they make some mention of the rest of their hiring process to let you know they’re interested in you.

How to Get Your Dream IT Jobs: After the Interview

If you’ve worked with your IT recruiters and IT staffing firms to get some great job interviews, what do you do next?  How can you make sure you really wow your IT recruiting companies, hiring managers, and get the IT jobs?  Technical recruiters would all recommend one step: writing an excellent thank you note for your interviewers and sending it to your IT staffing companies to pass on to them.

It’s important to note that the faster you send your IT recruiting firms for your interviewers, the better an impression you’ll make.  Thank you notes sent within a few hours are ideal.  If you can’t do it that quickly, 24 hours is the latest you should send a thank you note.  It doesn’t have to be long (in fact it shouldn’t) and it shouldn’t take you an exorbitant time to write it.  So hustle and get those thank you notes out—your IT recruiting agencies will love you for it and so will your future employers!

 

 

Have an IT Job Interview? Prep At Least 2 of These Anecdotes

If your IT recruiters and IT staffing firms have helped you land some interviews for IT jobs, you’re probably already deep into the preparation process.  Here’s one thing your technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies may not have suggested for you to do though: Gather at least 2 anecdotes about how you solved or contributed to solving a problem.

To really prepare for the interview, your best bet is to practice telling these anecdotes to a friend, family member, or perhaps even a recruiter from your IT staffing agencies.  Focus on making the story short, and effective.  The story should relay how you added value to your team.  IT staffing companies can often land candidates IT jobs when it’s obvious that they can bring a lot to a new role.  If you can tell a couple stories that illustrate this well, you’ll really impress your IT recruiting firms and interviewers.

 

Why You May NOT Want Remote IT Jobs

Most IT recruiters and IT staffing firms are noticing a distinct uptick in preference for IT jobs that allow part or full-time remote work.  There are plenty of reasons whey IT recruiting companies aren’t surprised by this.  Remote work has plenty of benefits, IT staffing companies find pretty consistently.  Technical recruiters find parents of young children to be particularly interested in this kind of work because sometimes it’s compatible with child rearing and saves costs on daycare.  However, there are some reasons it’s worth reconsidering asking your IT recruiting agencies exclusively for remote work.

  1. Blurring the lines between work and home can be stressful. If your personal phone, your favorite couch, or your kitchen table become part of your new office, it becomes difficult to leave a bad day of work behind.  You may find it hard to disengage from work—either because of your own desire to just finish that last item or because a client can reach you at home all the time.  Either way, you can find yourself with a surprising lack of work-life balance.
  2. Your workspace can be distracting.  A home office has plenty of its own potential distractions, whether it’s noisy neighbors, kids who need attention, or a dirty kitchen you can’t stand not to clean.  You may find that the peace and quiet you expected when you jettisoned the office isn’t there at home.
  3. You may really miss connecting with your coworkers.  Not being at the office to chat with coworkers could have a few potential pitfalls.  You may simply be lonely, or it could actually be harder to work with your team.  Sometimes teambuilding is actually more necessary than you expect, and working remotely can reveal that.

 

Polishing your IT Resume and LinkedIn Profile– Language, Part 2

Last time we talked about how cleaning up the language in your Resume and LinkedIn profile will help to attract IT staffing firms and IT recruiters. In particular, we looked at avoiding using clichés to describe yourself (because they usually mean nothing to IT staffing agencies and waste valuable space on your resume or profile).  This time, we’ll focus on another way you can waste space with language and bore technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies: telling stories.

The best resumes, the ones IT recruiting firms are excited to submit to their clients, are the ones that succinctly display excellent skills and experience.  Resumes or LinkedIn profiles that ramble on, include long first person sentences, and contain full, detailed paragraphs, are the last thing IT staffing companies want to submit to their clients.

If your resume or LinkedIn profile looks like this, how can you fix it?  Start by breaking up your paragraphs into bullets.  Each bullet should contain a single idea, like “I’m skilled at these programming languages: C# and Java.” Now remove the any first person references and any excessive words.  Boil each bullet down to the simplest phrase you can.  For instance, “Skilled programmer in Java and C#.”  Repeat this process throughout your whole resume or profile until you have the sleekest, shortest version you can present to IT recruiting agencies.  This will win you far more attention from technical recruiters—and IT jobs!

 

 

 

Polishing your IT Resume and LinkedIn Profile – Language, Part 1

If you’re currently updating your resume and/or LinkedIn profile, you’re probably trying to find ways to make it more attractive to IT recruiters and IT staffing firms.  While IT staffing agencies are usually drawn to the content of a resume or LinkedIn profile, it’s worth it to try to make sure it’s the most polished version that you can present.  There’s a lot you can do to make your LinkedIn profile more attractive to IT recruiting companies, but today we’ll focus on the words you use to describe yourself.

Probably the trickiest part of making a resume or LinkedIn profile that really garners interest from IT staffing companies is making it stand out.  It’s easy to write a resume that technical recruiters feel like they’ve seen a hundred times already. A powerful way to differentiate yourself to IT recruiting agencies is to make sure you skip using all the buzz words and phrases that everyone else uses – particularly in describing yourself.  You probably already have an idea of what some of these words and phrases are, but we’ll post a list below.  It may seem like a great idea to call yourself ‘passionate’ or a ‘team player’—you may actually even be these things!  The problem is that these words are so overused, they’re useless.  If you list yourself as ‘creative’ all you’re doing is wasting precious space on your resume or LinkedIn profile and boring IT recruiting firms.  Focus on listing your skills and accomplishments.  This is what they care about most.

Avoid these words on your resume or LinkedIn Profile:

Creative
Motivated
Passionate
Expert
Team-Player
Quick Learner
Collaborative
Hard-working
Driven