Become A Leader-Get The Job You Want!

Become a Leader And Get The Job You Want!

Getting a job by sending out resumes to employers is known as the push method because it depends on you pushing the employer to hire you!

The problem with the traditional method of getting a job is that everyone who is out-of-a-job is probably doing the same thing … pushing their resumes to hiring managers or employers!

Getting hired in a competitive job market doesn’t mean … “do what other job applicants are doing” … it means “do more than your competition!“

Stand-Out and Be Noticed!

You need to raise the bar higher by getting employers to notice you or call you with job offers! This is also known as the pull method.

It’s an enviable position to be in … to have jobs referred to you instead of you chasing after them.

I’ve had that happen to me, it’s happening for others and it can happen for you too!

Are you Getting Noticed?

You need to attract the attention of employers by taking actions that get you noticed or make you stand-out in comparison to others!

You may be thinking: “Why can’t I just send-out lots of resumes and get hired using the tried and proven push technique?”

If your resume is 2 or 3 times better than your competition and your skills and experience are head and shoulders over everyone else’s then you are okay to depend solely on your resume.

In the “dot-com bubble” or “I.T. bubble bust a lot of smart and talented IT professionals couldn’t get jobs by sending out their resumes.

Employers were receiving an unheard of 500+ resumes from doctoral, post graduate and well certified IT professionals!

Some employers stopped hiring, some stopped checking their mailboxes and others resorted to more discreet hiring methods!

Because so many resumes were being pushed to employers, the value of a resume sent by e-mail was next to nil!

That was when I learnt the value of becoming a leader. So, I started my first leadership project and ended up with invitations to interview and work for two major organizations because I was noticed!

Any Lessons Learned?

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket by depending solely on your resume and online job postings!

The value of becoming a leader in your industry, is that you get hired through the back-door! That door that is left open for exceptional, talented or highly qualified job applicants only

When you become an industry leader, employers are apt to call you with job offers and you’re guaranteed to stand out in comparison to other job seekers!

How Do You Become An Industry Leader?

The pull method depends on you working on projects, activities and problems that are important to employers even though you may not have a job.

You commit to solving problems specific to an industry or domain in a visible way!

Because you commit to solving business problems important to employers, you’re likely to get noticed or get more consulting, coaching or employment requests.

Lead Your Industry By Becoming a Domain Specialist

If all you’ve been doing is “sending out resumes” and that hasn’t worked too well for you … then it’s time to “change your approach” by demonstrating that you care!

Becoming a Leader means that you engage your down-time time in-between jobs more productively.

You work on getting hired by making yourself wanted, instead of mass mailing the same resume or a cosmetically improved version to employers!

Click here to get in touch with us and we will help you select the best leadership projects based on your background, skills, education, training, job history and interests

Specializing in a domain or industry raises your profile to that of an expert or highly-skilled resource. That’s how you get more consulting, coaching or full-time employment offers.

So, what are you waiting for? Click here to request more information on how to become a leader and get the recognition or type of employment (coaching, consulting or full-time) you deserve!

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• Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training


• SQL Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, SQL + RDBMS Video Training


• Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training


• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

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Do You Want To Become A Contract Business Analyst?

I am writing this post to answer a question posted by a business analyst on “How To Become A Contract Business Analyst”.

If you have a question or challenge about your business analyst career, post it as comment at the end of this article and I will answer it for you as well

Here is the question on how to become a contract business analyst.

Having recently started in my first permanent position as a Business Analyst, I find the toughest challenge for me currently, is getting up to speed with the systems I have to analyse and develop (Risk Management and Finance Systems).

Now, 5 months later, I am thoroughly enjoying my BA role and tasks.

However, I am considering moving into a contracting position. The primary reason would be for the money.

My fear however is that I would be moving into a contracting position prematurely and having read some of the posts in this string above, it seems that BA contractors have to be highly skilled.

Perhaps I should firstly ensure that my general BA skills are a lot more refined before putting myself into a position where I am required to be a specialist …

Any ideas?

The big question is, how does a hiring manager determine the skill level of a contract business analyst?

Is that determination based on the experience, number of years in the industry, certifications, educational qualifications, recommendations on LinkedIn or perhaps the quality of work the business analyst can perform?

How To Become A Contract Business Analyst

It may shock you to find out that contract business analysts can earn up to 50% more than full-time business analysts with the same skills, experience and training.

The specifics of how much more you can earn as a contract business analyst depends on the company that hires you and how good you are at negotiation.

Some companies pay at the bottom of the pay range for full-time business analyst careers while others are at the higher end of the pay range based on a business analyst salary survey.

However, even though contract business analysts are paid much more, they are required to be highly skilled, competent or expert business analysts at what they do!

That is fair, isn’t it, when you look at it from the Manager’s perspective.

The Hiring Manager who pays a contract business analyst’s salary has to pay an additional premium or bonus to a staffing or recruiting firm for hiring that additional skill level.

With this in mind, the total cost of hiring one contract business analyst may end up being up to two (2) times the salary paid for one full-time business analyst.

The manager who hires a contract business analysts has to have a good justification for paying those additional costs.

• Business Analysis Skills

  The contract business analyst has to be highly skilled at what they do.

  If they are not that skilled, then they wouldn’t last long on a contracting gig, because hiring managers would not want to keep them on the project without getting a quick and immediate return on their investment.

  And really the surest way to justify the skill level and salary of a contract business analyst is by producing a high quality and amount of work every time.

  In other words, contract business analysts have to wow clients by solving business problems quickly and by demonstrating strong competency at routine business analysis tasks like Use Case or Requirements Documentation.

• Business Analysis Experience

  The contract business analyst has to be highly experienced at what they do.

  This does not necessarily mean that a contract business analyst must have 10 years of experience or anything like that, but that when it comes to specific skills like Use Case Documentation or Requirements Elicitation, the contract business analyst is expected to have a breadth of experience that can only be gained by exercising those skills in several business situations in the past.

  In other words, clients don’t want their contract business analysts to use them for learning since they are expected to be experts or highly skilled professionals!

  Hiring managers think that they have already paid for a high expertise level so they want to start reaping dividends, the moment you work in through their door as a contract business analyst.

• Business Analysis Education

  The contract business analyst has to be highly informed, trained or educated in business analysis because managers don’t expect to find gaps in the knowledge areas of their contract business analysts.

  Gaps may be tolerated in their full-time business analyst employees but not in contract business analyst jobs.

  So, you need to be at the top of your game and that includes having the requisite knowledge to get your job done quickly, excellently and without any issues.

In the end, only you can tell you whether you can make the jump to becoming a contract business analyst.

The rewards to being a contract business analyst can be really good.

You get paid a lot more ($45 to $55/hr. or even more) and you get to work on a lot of fast-paced projects where your leadership skills can be fully utilized.

However, you will also have to be highly skilled, knowledgeable and experienced to succeed as a contract business analyst.

And you must be able to perform, produce results quickly or prove to everyone that you are worth your hire!

Finally, note that becoming a contract business analyst does not depend on how many years of business analysis experience you have but on how sharp your skills are!

If you have any question or challenge facing your business analysis career, go ahead and post it as a comment at the end of this article and I will address it for you.

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• Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training


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• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

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Because highly skilled software developers (master programmers) are highly paid (read previous post on software developers), the question is how do you become a master contract programmer if you aren’t?

Here is what I consider to be a common sense guide to becoming a master software developer:

1. Certify now! Use certifications and test preparation material like transcender to sharpen your overall grasp of your technology
2. Read books. Read a lot of technical books on your skill set (for example .NET development). You should own a number of these books yourself
3. Find online mentors. Read and follow-up the online discussions or blogs made by people much more skilled and experienced than you. For example, if you are a C# .NET developer, find the folks who seem to be the most active in speaking and writing on C# .NET development. Choose one or two people whose books you like reading. Read every book and article they publish.
4. Make sure your skills are well rounded as much as possible (database development, business logic development, user interface development).
5. Do not dumb yourself down! The corollary to rule #4 is: avoid work that makes you more incompetent. If you know that you hate JavaScript development or your UI design skills suck, do not spend your whole life time working on it, find your strengths and sharpen them
6. Read articles. Read a lot of technical online articles (am I repeating rule #2?). Well written articles can tell you in 1 hour what it will take you 1 day to learn from a book
7. Become a Google expert. A good deal of the questions you need to answer or problems you need to solve have been answered, solved and posted online. Become confident in using Google to either solve a problem or narrow down your effort to a few specific areas
8. Ask for help. Learn how to ask for help on the job no matter how good your technical skills are. It is better to ask for help and save 20 hours than to invest 20 hours of your company’s time trying to prove how smart you are
9. Know when to quit. Not every problem requires a technical solution now! A few problems need to be left alone for a few days, a few need a workaround and the majority need to be solved.
10. Deliver results. Learn to deliver results often, early and consistently. Businesses love results. If it takes you 1 month before you deliver 1 result which your boss appreciates, either find a new engagement or fire yourself.

There are more street smart rules for becoming highly skilled and competent at work. If you keep your eyes open for what makes you better and what doesn’t, you will see more of them.

To learn more about fast tracking your computer programmer career, visit this resource.

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here

ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES

• Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training


• SQL Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, SQL + RDBMS Video Training


• Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training


• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

Visit our Shopping Cart