Technology Expert: 3 Things Hiring Managers Want You To Know

July 27, 2020

If you are a technology expert and you you think finding a software developer job is hard?

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Try hiring one. Every day at Xperti.io, we receive more JDs and project requirements than we care to mention here. Every industry, every skill level, and for almost every major city across the United States. What’s common in all these requirements is the frustration of the hiring manager: Despite an abundance of online resources, technology jobseekers remain trapped in a vicious circle of oversights, neglect and virtual faux pas when submitting their resumes for coveted jobs.

In this post, we will tell you the three quick facts all hiring managers wished you knew when applying for technology projects and/or jobs they posted.

1. Longer Resumes Aren’t Better Resumes:

A five-page resume for someone with a net three years’ experience? How does that work out? Fresh graduates with portfolios that extend over four pages? Hiring managers understand that you need to showcase your skill set in as much detail as possible. But in order to be considered for the job, it’s important your resume be read in the first place. Hiring managers receive 250 resumes per job of which 244 go unread on average. Larger organizations receive between 50,000 to 75,000 applications per week. Filtering through a growing stack of applications means that longer resumes will either make it to the bottom of the virtual pile or not be read at all.

So, what do you do if you’re a highly-skilled technology expert in your area?

Be seen by staying relevant. One way to do this is to use Applicant Tracking Systems. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) compress recruitment-related tasks with exception filtering. In other words, resumes that don’t meet the systems’ requirements in terms of formatting, keywords, and simplicity are rejected even before they land in the hiring manager’s inbox. That’s 75% of all resumes, by the way. Customize your resume to ensure that the key responsibilities and skills listed in the JD are placed towards the top of your resume. Keep it brief. Avoid fancy formatting. (Yes, you read that right).

We should also add that most online applications provision for plenty of additional (categorized) data. In other words, the cover letter isn’t dead. Images of course certificates licenses and other credentials are welcome, provided it’s uploaded in the right area. Don’t list everything on your resume with fancy icons!

How accurate an ATS is in picking the right resume depends a lot on the data model it was trained on. The richer and cleaner that dataset is, the more accurate the solution is likely to be. The data model used by Xperti.io builds on nearly twenty years of technology recruitment data. (You’re welcome).

2. You Weren’t Rejected Because You Were A Bad Candidate:

Ten years ago, the ratio of job applications to interview calls used to be 30:1. We expect competition to be even worse now. Did your headhunter ghost on you? Did you make it to the final round of interviews, only to never hear from the employer again? It happens more often than you think.

So that’s point number one: Your resume may have been good. But there was someone better. To stay in the league of winners, it helps to constantly associate with a community of experts. You give the hiring manager a narrower, better talent pool to choose from.

There may have been other reasons:

They were looking for someone who wouldn’t have to relocate, and they found him or her. They wanted to start immediately, and you wouldn’t be available for the next month and a half.

In the past, we’d ascribe this to bad luck. But with tech-enabled solutions, this gap is getting narrower and narrower. Talent advocates can now match for location, availability between projects, type of expertise, and project interest.

3. Communication Skills Are The Secret Sauce:

How is it that some technology expert appear to move effortlessly from one project to the next without even trying? How is it that two candidates—with a near-identical skillset—land entirely different projects, with a marked difference in compensation, duration and project scope?

The talent economy is not run by supply and demand. Gaps left by degrees and placement offices are often filled by luck, good timing and simple visibility.

And this is probably the sorest pain-point hiring managers have towards seekers of technology jobs and projects: While one cannot do much about luck, there are plenty of ways to overcome the timing and visibility gap. The most obvious way is to stay in touch with your talent advocate: This person is familiar with your work history and has already assessed you for other jobs. Having your resume on his/her radar is the shortest, most efficient way to move from one software project to the next. (Yes, Java development projects too).

Decisive Thoughts for Technology Expert:

A Technology expert is a notorious for inadequate communication skills: Following up too often, or not at all, unprofessional language when inquiring about an application, or ignoring communication basics when interacting with clients—they’ve done it all.
Texting “???” to your talent advocate is not the right way to do a follow-up.

If you have chosen not to accept a job offer, the right thing to do is to refuse in writing. Keep it brief and courteous instead of being a no-show. Remember you’re not the only one applying for a job. The only way to be memorable is to be very good or very bad, and your communication skills decide entirely where you end up.