iT Recruitment interview tips & expectations for IT candidates
IT Recruitment consultants are there to help find you a job & give you advice on the IT market and some hints & tips a long the way. They’re often extremely well connected and can make a process seem very smooth while they work hard in the background and use years of IT market knowledge to save you time & get you a great outcome.
It is key to remember that first impressions & reputation are as important as the actual job interview. Conveying a good impression that you’ll be someone who is professional & easy to work with is key to have a recruiter work on your behalf & find you that well-matched job & dream career move.
The Christchurch & NZ IT job market has become competitive with a lot of candidates from the US, Britain, South Africa, Asia and many other countries seeking the work / life balance & fair professional environment NZ has to offer - so you want to gain the recruiters trust for them to spend time & effort on your behalf.
So how do you go about this?
Pre-interview
Documentation: Have a good CV & cover letter or write a short punchy, polite email explaining your situation and reasons for looking. Have a copy or email through your work visa / proof of ID etc. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date and any public facing websites or social channels.
Be on time: Whether it’s a face-to-face meeting or video interview ensure you’re ready in advance, familiarise yourself with the platform whether it’s Zoom, GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts or Skype etc. If the unexpected occurs send a message or call the recruiter before you’re late.
At the Interview:
Dress Standard: First impressions are important. Wear appropriate dress, if you’re not sure err on the side of smarter - for IT in New Zealand a smart shirt, jeans & good shoes…or your best t-shirt, ironed of course hahaha ;-).
Be Professional, Positive & Confident: Make good eye contact, avoid swearing, or negative comments on past roles, companies or colleagues. Like my mother said if it’s not a nice thing to say then don’t bother saying it :-)
CV: Be familiar with your CV as yep you guessed it we’ll be asking questions based on the document you sent us. Be aware that a recruiter may not know about particular IT projects, companies or the significance of roles so give some context but keep it succinct. For software development the conversation will focus around the projects you’ve worked on - both commercial & personal so think about: Length of project, technologies used, good things / bad things, collaboration, problems solved & solutions found.
Keep Focused: Make sure you sell yourself & not the companies you worked for: using ‘I’ rather than ‘We’. It’s your personal skills & what you did on that cutting edge AI project that we’re interested in :-)
Be Flexible: The NZ IT job market is competitive with local, national and global candidates competing for roles. If you are flexible about the role, industry sector and remuneration you are more likely to be considered for a broader range of roles and find a job more quickly, otherwise be patient. Note: don’t undersell yourself (ie low salary) as this can cause confusion & come across as desperate so do your research & work out a rough market rate then talk through this with your recruiter.
Post Interview:
Follow up: After your interview follow up with your consultant and thank them for their time.
Keep in touch: When you’ve had an interview check in with feedback / call them to debrief and always make them aware if you have another offer on the table - this can lead to some action from other opportunities and you may find you have 2 or 3 offers on the table, being able to select the best one for you. You need to be proactive and keep an eye on new roles coming live to ensure you’re in the mix.
‘The Job Call’; Recruiters are extremely busy people and will not call you unless they think you can do the job…so pick up the phone, get interviewing and the next thing you know you’ll have some hard decisions to make on which offer you’ll accept.
I'm Paul, I Iove coffee and I’m Founder & Principal Consultant of Sunstone, an IT Recruitment & HR company specialising in recruiting IT roles within software, web, mobile, blockchain, big data, infrastructure, security & networks in Christchurch, South Island of New Zealand.