#6 – HOW TECHNICAL PEOPLE BLOW INTERVIEWS – ELIZABETH LIONS – CAREERS@RISK

Elizabeth Lions PixIt’s a shame when a technical person blows an interview.  It makes me uncomfortable because I get concerned we may have missed something in our hiring process.  What if our process caused some great engineer to not get the job?  What if all the skills were there, but we failed to ask the right questions.

Interviews are by and large difficult – for anyone.  The potential employee feels pressure and unnatural.  Technical people may have the most difficulty if their communication isn’t strong or clear.

Here are the five common things that go wrong in a technical interview:

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#5 – SOCIAL MEDIA BAFFLES MOST ENGINEERS – ELIZABETH LIONS – CAREERS@RISK

Elizabeth Lions PixSocial Media baffles most engineers.  Like eating vegetables, we all know we need to be online and have a professional presence, but it gets confusing when it come to content, frequency and engagement. The most popular presentation I gave this year was on social media – how it works and why we should even bother.

Mostly, I get a lot of questions on LinkedIn. Questions such as:

  • What should be on my LinkedIn?
  • Do I have it filled out enough?
  • What else should I put on there?
  • Should I have three recommendations?
  • Does my picture look ok?
  • Do I have to have a picture at all?
  • What do they look at when they read it?
  • How will a recruiter find me?

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#1 – SIX THINGS RECRUITERS WILL NEVER TELL YOU – ELIZABETH LIONS – CAREERS@ RISK™

Elizabeth Lions PixEarly in my career as a recruiter, I was treated poorly by a job seeker and couldn’t understand why.

After several conversations that felt more like a heated sparring match rather than professional dialogue, I mustered the courage to ask him why he was so curt. Clearly, he was upset and didn’t want to have the conversation.

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