Cv for Interviews

Posts Tagged ‘Job Candidate’

We all get stuck in ruts from time to time, and that happens on the job as well. You’ve thought about doing something different with your information technology career, but just haven’t quite gotten around to it yet. Sound familiar?

You can make 2006 the best year yet for your IT career. There are several simple steps you can take to accelerate your career – but you have to take the step, not just think about it!

Learn something new. One of the biggest reasons you get tired of a job is that you’re doing the same thing every day. If you happen to love what you do, that’s great, but if not it’s time to break out of the box. Besides, learning a new skill adds value to your career. If you’ve been doing server work for a long time, take the time to learn some Cisco skills. If you’re an Exchange specialist, learn some Linux skills.

Get certified. Not very many of us get to work for the same company for the rest of our IT careers. The only job security is the security you give yourself, and one of the ways to get that security is to add professional certifications to your resume. Certifications such as the MCSE and CCNA get you noticed and help you stand out from the crowd. Ask yourself what your resume would look like if you were laid off today, and then take steps to improve yourself and your professional standing.

Be prepared to take one step backwards in order to take multiple steps forward. You may be in a situation I was in a while back when my employer saw me as strictly a server guy. I wanted to get on the Cisco side of things, but there was this perception that I was “only a LAN guy”. I had to leave that company to get my shot. There was some short-term financial pain, but in the long run it was the best career move I’ve ever made.

People get typecast in every field. In his book “Often Wrong, Never In Doubt”, Donny Deutsch writes about a job candidate who wanted to become a junior ad executive, but couldn’t break in with his current employer – which was an ad agency! He was typecast in a support role, so he applied to other ad firms and was quickly hired.

Sometimes you have to look outside your current situation in order to create a new situation for yourself. Don’t be afraid to take a step backwards in order to open up new possibilities for yourself. There’s an amazing career out there, waiting for you – if you have the courage to make it and take it.

Ah, the technical interview. Nothing like it. Not only does it cause anxiety, but it causes anxiety for several different reasons.

How many people will be asking questions? From experience I can tell you theres nothing like walking into a room and seeing nine people on the other side of the table.

Second, what will you be asked? Youll sometimes hear people say the questions they were asked in a technical interview were easy, which translated means they asked me stuff I happened to know. Sometimes youll hear people say the questions were hard, which translated means they asked me stuff I didnt know, or they asked me about stuff Ive never even heard of.

Having been on both sides of the technical interview table, Id like to share some tips for those being interviewed. In doing so, Ill share some of the more memorable interviews Ive been involved in.

No good interviewer expects you to know everything. The problem is, youre not always going to be interviewed by someone whos good at it.

Sometimes, the person whos giving you a technical interview was asked to do it about ten minutes before you showed up. Maybe theyve never interviewed anyone before, or maybe theyre just in a bad mood. Ive heard of technical interviewers where the interviewer derided an answer, and thats totally unprofessional. Ive had many a job candidate give a bad answer to a question, and my only response was silence followed by moving on to the next question. If your interviewer mocks any of your answers, you didnt want to work there anyway.

None of us know everything. If youre asked a question you just dont know the answer to, dont try to BS your way past it. This is a good opportunity to tell the interviewer how you would research that particular question. Its not about knowing everything, its about being able to find out anything.

If your interviewer acts like heshe already dislikes you, thats because they do. I once worked with a technician who felt threatened by anyone who applied for a job there, but especially if the applicant had a professional certification and then had the nerve to know what they were doing.

This technician participated in a group technical interview where the applicant was an incredibly bright guy, and had a particular skill that the department really needed. Problem was, the technician considered himself the man when it came to that skill. Recipe for disaster, right?

The applicant fielded four questions from the rest of us flawlessly, then faced this particular tech for a question. The threatened tech had a list of questions for the interview, but decided to ad lib. Big mistake. He asked a convoluted question that Rube Goldberg would have been proud of. When he was done, the applicant answered:

You cant do what you just described.

The tech started defending his question, and it became obvious that he hadnt been able to follow his own question! The interview went into a bit of a meltdown from there.

Realize right now that there are some unprofessional people out there giving technical interviews. Be prepared for it, but remain professional yourself.

Be prepared for a practical technical interview. The best technical interviewers find a way to get you in front of the technology youll be working with. A great way to quickly find out whether you know what youre talking about is to ask you to actually perform common and perhaps some not-so-common tasks. We can talk about technology and take all the computer-based exams we want, but it all comes down to performance. Be prepared to prove you belong on your interview day.

Be professional. This covers a lot of ground, so let me make a quick list for you.

Show up 15 minutes early. Nothing makes a technical interviewer more surly than waiting for the applicant.

Dress for success. The way you look when you walk into a room leads to your interviewers first impression of you.

Dont chew gum during the interview.

Dont be arrogant. Look, theres nothing wrong with having an ego and acting confident. I do, and you should. But dont come into the interview room acting like youre too good to be there.

Finally, relax. Easy to say, hard to do? Not really. Realize that the majority of interviewers youll ever meet are going to be professional about the entire thing. The worlds not going to end if you miss a question. If you were not qualified on paper for the job, you wouldnt be in there.

Do not look upon the interview as something negative. Rather, look at it as an opportunity to prove you know what youre talking about. With the proper mental attitude, your technical interview will be a springboard to the next step in your career!

Chris Bryant

CCIE #12933

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