At Experis, our expert Cloud Infrastructure recruiters understand the market landscape, they know what employers are looking for in recruits, and they can identify opportunities for candidates seeking a competitive edge. We’ve curated their top tips to differentiate yourself from the competition, helping you to remain relevant in 2021.Developing your personal brandBeing active and vocal on social media will help you to stand out among the competition and be more visible within your area of specialism. LinkedIn is a great tool to help develop your personal brand; your profile should showcase a short bio, job summaries, your skills and certifications you’ve achieved, activities like volunteering, as well as recommendations from former colleagues or superiors. Simply put, your profile should convey the value you can offer an employer.Building connectionsSearch for dedicated pages or groups on LinkedIn and Facebook to network with professionals in more niche areas, like DevOps. While in-person events are off the table for now, you can still find opportunities to connect with people in your field, for example at online contractor meet-ups. While the word ‘networking’ might make you squirm, all it means is helping people. Your unique blend of contacts, skills and experience make you well-placed to help other people out, whether that’s making an introduction or sharing what you learnt from a recent project. Others will be able to help you in return, be that tipping you off about a new tech development, or connecting you to someone working at a company of interest.Investing time in the GitHub platformA golden rule is to keep your GitHub account up-to-date with examples of your work, or if you haven’t yet created one, now’s your chance to do so. It’s a great way to record your experience or share projects you’ve worked on with potential employers, who’ll often want to see what you’ve produced before they take you on, particularly in the case of contractors. If you invest the time to build up your account now, you won’t have to worry about a last minute scramble pulling something together at short notice ahead of an interview. Be sure to include the link to your GitHub on your LinkedIn profile and CV.Interview insights for perm professionalsFor permanent roles, employers still lean towards competency-based questions in interviews. These questions often sound like, “Tell me about a time when…” or “Give me an example of a time…”. Be prepared to discuss examples from your catalogue of experience and structure your answers into three parts:

1. What was the context / what problem did you face
2. What solution did you deliver
3. Why did this make a difference / what value did you add

Our experienced consultants will work with you on the interview preparation and support you throughout the recruitment process, whether you’re looking for a perm or contract role.

At Experis, we’re the global leader in professional IT resourcing and solutions, operating in more than 50 countries worldwide. Thanks to our expert industry knowledge, history of success and strong relationships with organisations large and small, we’re well-equipped to share market insights like these and match specialist IT professionals into permanent and contract assignments. To find out more and view all our job opportunities, visit our website: experis.co.uk