John Cline, SHRM-SCP

The biggest differentiator I see while looking at candidates is real world experience. An Internship, CoOp or even Externship will really help you stand apart from the competition. I would additionally recommend you to research what specific area/job you are targeting and take notice of the skillsets that job postings list for those types of roles. Work to get exposure to them and list them on your resume; even if only in the fashion of home related projects. Side Note: If you list it on your resume make sure you can talk about it in an interview!

This is critical for entry level talent. You are going up against 100's of other folks with internships and CoOps. To compete with them you need to show the experience you have from schooling. Is it cheating to list school projects on your resume? Absolutely not, just be open that it's a project not corporate experience. As a corporate recruiter, with rare exceptions, this is what I prioritize for junior level talent: 1) Internship or CoOp, 2) Project based experience and 3) Certifications - unless the certification is vendor specific and directly relevant to the position, then it moves to number 2.

All too often people are told to keep their resume to 1 page... forcing them to remove some potentially very relevant content from their resume! Don't short change yourself! IT is different than the rest of the world. With AI matching and Ctrl+F to search keywords it's critical you have all of your experience in your resume or you may not even get a chance to get your resume reviewed!

The key to building interview questions is to do so around the position (based off the Kick Off Call!) and to ask the same questions to all candidates. This ensures you are comparing apples to apples. Asking open ended, behavior-based questions, is key. Let them do the talking. To be a real partner to your leader, do some research and actually seek to understand the skills you are looking to measure. This will allow you to ask that extra question and bring only top quality candidates to your organization... Not to mention build your own brand as an expert with your leadership team.

Your initial contact with any candidate is going to directly impact their view of you, the process and wholistically the organization you represent. I always try to be as clear as possible with every contact. Think about yourself being on the other side of the phone. What would you want to know? Salary, onsite requirements, on call, benefits, culture and interview process are all examples of areas where by disclosing proactively you can save a lot of stress for both parties throughout the process.

This is especially true for junior level analysts who only have intern and/or scholastic project experience. True it's not on the worksite, but take credit for what you have done! It's a competitive market out there so make sure you highlight what you bring to the table!