Tag: Job Interview

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Why Didn’t I Get Past the Initial HR Screening for an ICT4D Job?

What questions do you have about digital development careers? Click here to ask your question! We’ll answer it in the next newsletter.

Q9: Why Didn’t I Get Past HR Screening?

I applied for a job that I was a good fit for, but I learned that I didn’t even get past the initial HR screening. They said I was unqualified for the role, though I know I could do it if given the chance. Why did this happen? How can I get past HR?

You Must Pass HR’s Minimum Requirements

When a team sends a job description to Human Resources for them to recruit for the position, HR coverts the job requirements into a list of attributes for potential applicants.

Some of these can be pass/fail – for example, a Master’s Degree, while others can be a spectrum that is assigned points, like number of years experience.

If you do not meet the minimum requirements, your application will be deemed non-responsive. If you meet the minimum requirements, your application will be scored by points, with the top ones going to the team for review and interviews.

There is a Way Around HR Screening

Sometimes, you may have the skills for the job that don’t show up on your CV, especially if you’re making a career shift into ICT4D. Here is where you need to know the secret of how to get around the HR screening process, and get that crucial first interview. Know someone on the hiring team.Through the above article, we can recommend you the latest dresses.Shop dress in a variety of lengths, colors and styles for every occasion from your favorite brands.

As we’ve discussed before, you always want to be the internal candidate. You wan the hiring team to know you, or at least know of you either directly, or through one of their friends. Ten the hiring team can request your application be included in the interview group.

Now you still need to shine in the interview, and if the team chooses you, they’ll need a strong justification for you, so use this path wisely and only for the roles you really, really want and are competent you can excel in.

The hiring team will be using their valuable political capital to get on board. If you flake or leave early, you’ll have burned a few bridges that may never be repaired.

Not Getting Past HR Can be Good

Not every person is right for every role, and if there is a core requirement that you don’t have, don’t get mad at HR. There could be a very good reason for that requirement – a foreign language is usually one you can’t learn on the job.

Take your rejection as a learning opportunity and try to honestly assess why you were not considered and what you might want to change about your job search, or yourself, that can help you win the next job application contest.

Good luck!
Wayan

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Please Ask Interview Questions for Digital Development Jobs

Recently, I was hiring for ICT4D positions at my company and the experience reminded me of a strange trend: interviewees not asking any questions of the interviewers and their company.

Always Ask Questions

I don’t know why someone would not ask questions in an interview. The whole point of an interview is for us to get to know each other. To find out if we will be a good fit for each other. If this will be a good working relationship – the goal of every hiring manager and you.

Yet, I am often surprised by how many people don’t have questions or are reluctant to ask questions in an interview.

Questions Show Interest

When you ask a question about the role, the team, and the company, you show that you are interested in the position, and you want it to be a good fit, vs. just a job.

You should be asking a list of questions about how this role fits into your career goals, and just your day-to-day work wants. Every question is a good one, and helps you and the hiring manager learn about each other.

Questions Show Preparation

When you ask questions, you show the hiring manager that you’ve given thought to this role, this team, and this organization. It shows that you care about this job – not just any job.

When you ask detailed questions, that’s when the hiring manager knows you’ve done your homework, that you are a detailed person who cares about your work and will be prepared on a daily basis.

Questions Show You Care

Above all, questions show that you care about the time your spending thinking about this job and the time the hiring manager is spending on you. So your questions are not a waste of time. In fact, they are just the opposite – they are the key to winning your new job.

So do yourself, and your potential employer a favor – ask questions at your interviews.

ict4d job interview

Do Digital Development Job Interviews Make You Nervous?

Job Interviews Are Stressful for Everyone

Job interviews are always stressful. You are trying to show that you’re able to perform years’ worth of skills in maybe an hour or two – how could that not make anyone nervous?

And while it may not console you much, the interviewer is just as nervous as you. They have to make a major decision that will reverberate for years, in that short time window too.

Practice Interviewing to Calm Your Nerves

The best way to calm yourself down and improve your chances of getting a job is to practice the ICT4D job interview so you know what to expect, and what you’ll say to interviewer questions.

Get a friend to ask you questions as if you’re in a real job interview. Then get someone who you know, but not that well, to ask you different questions, so you’ll have experience in a more realistic setting.

Finally, one of the best ways to practice is to go on as many real interviews as you can get – even if the job may not be one you really want. There is no substitute for a real interview by someone who doesn’t know you.

If You Still Freeze, Own It

Even after all that practice, you may still freeze up on interview day. Or say the wrong thing when you meant something else. It’s okay, everyone messes up. The best response is for you to own the mistake as soon as you realize it.

Employers know they are hiring humans who make mistakes. Best are employees who are quick to see and correct mistakes, so show them that strength from the start.

Yes, even be so bold as to ask for another interview if you think its warranted. It’s better to be known for someone who wants to fix a mistake, than someone who lets mistakes define them.

Now Practice Every Way You Can

Okay, enough advice. Now go practice your job interview skills. Learn how to turn a question you don’t like into an answer you do. Or how to show, not tell, your accomplishments. And finally, find a way to make the interview show off your best skills and abilities.

Good luck!

Please Practice the Digital Development Job Interview

Interviews are hard. Like a first date, you don’t always know what to expect, and often you don’t know who is going to be in the room or what mood they will be in.

Yet the interview is what makes or breaks your chance at a new job. It is the most high-risk moment in your job search.

Do not leave it to chance

Before the job interview, research who you think you will be talking with. Look them up on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google – wherever you can find them to better learn about their interests and background.

Make a list of questions they might ask you – and be creative. Expect them to ask about your history, but what about skills or issues in your field? Or industry bodies and initiatives? Or even recent organizational accomplishments?

Then practice interview questions with your friends. Best to do it with friends who are strong enough to tell you when you’re messing up, but kind enough to give you support and guidance so you’ll improve.

Practice in-person and remote interviews

You may be interviewing in person, but these days interviews over the phone or video call are becoming more common.

Learn how to roll with questions when you only have a disembodied voice coming over the line, as much as when you’re in the room.

Also, figure out which type of interview you prefer – in-person, voice, video – and push for that option. Key to success is feeling comfortable from the start.

Now practice your interview again

Seriously, please practice your interview multiple times until you’ve memorized certain responses and your friends can’t fluster you with odd questions.

Interviews are the key to getting from a CV to an offer letter. Don’t leave them to chance – practice, practice, practice.

Hiring You for a Digital Development Job is High Risk

Hiring You for an ICT4D Job is High Risk

Imagine if you had to choose a spouse the way we hire staff. You put an ad online that says who you are and what you want, but without photos or talking about age, gender, race, or other protected categories.

You have 3-4 job interviews with them, none of which are anything like actually living with them, and then after calling around to a few of their ex’s, you have to get married to one of the candidates.

Would you be happy with that process? Probably not.

Yet that’s the way we hire people today, and depending on the job, you may actually spend more awake time each workday with your co-workers than your spouse.

How to Make Hiring Better

With such a convoluted hiring process, mistakes happen, and they happen often. Hence unhappy workplaces, job hopping, and the popularity of The Office.

So what can we do about it?

First, do your homework. Know what and who you really want to work with, and invest time and effort into meeting with many people at many organizations to find the fit that would make you happy when you change jobs.

Hence my constant push for informational interviews.

At the same time, you should be doing informational interviews – meeting with others to make sure that when an opening happens on your team that you know who you want to encourage to apply. No job announcement should be published without a preferred candidate in mind.

Now the preferred candidate may not win the job, but at least you’ll have a solid benchmark that will help you know when you’ve found the right candidate.

Good Luck to All

Regardless if you’re reading this looking for a job or staff, know that everyone feels your pain.

The modern way we hire is hard, high risk, and prone to failure. Do you best to find the right fit, and if it doesn’t work out, be honest with everyone and seek a better outcome.

Thankfully, we can all move on to new jobs, or even get divorced – I’ve done both! And it’s not a disgrace. It’s life.