ITCareerCoach Training - Coaching » cover letters http://www.it-career-coach.net How To Take Your Career To The Next Level Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:09:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The Secret to Success in a Nutshell http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/09/27/the-secret-to-success-in-a-nutshell/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/09/27/the-secret-to-success-in-a-nutshell/#comments Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:25:33 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3299

The Secret To Success In A Nutshell

The Secret To Success In A Nutshell

As a career coach, I receive lots of emails (from business analysts, computer programmers, project managers, software testers, etc.) about how to be successful.

Here is the answer in a nutshell: Knowledge + Skills + Experience = Career Success!

Applied Knowledge

The key to getting results is deep, skill building, career-focused learning.

For example, if you read about “how twitter can help you get a job“, go to Twitter.com right away, create an account and start posting tweets on your area of interest.

Practice right away … the second you finish reading a tip, blog post, article, book, review, listening to a podcast or watching a video.

The Goal of Learning Is Action

If you gain some new information … any information at all from any study, coaching, training or educational program, the value will be lost and your time wasted if you do not put it into action.

Some people think that they can skip this hands-on step. They read, nod, and think they’ve stored away the knowledge for instant retrieval when they need it.

They’ve learned something new, they think.
And it will all come magically back to mind the next time they need it on the job, they say to themselves.

Or worse, they want to get hired for the knowledge they have stored up in their brains.

Yeah, no.

The brain doesn’t work that way. Read to learn — and make sure it sticks by reading carefully, re-reading, and immediately applying what you read to some hands-on assignment, problem, task or project.

Heck no!

Employers are of the opinion that your past performance is the best predictor of your future performance.

So, if you are not performing or doing something with what you know now … you are just playing!

Read, practice, sharpen your skills

Not just today, but for tomorrow, for the rest of this month, and for as long as it takes to master that technique.

And then do it some more …

Stick with a technique until you master it.

If someone tried to become a commercial pilot by reading books on flying without logging extensive flying hours, would you consider him / her a pilot by any measure?

Absolutely no!

You take it for granted that every commercial pilot has flown the same aircraft several times in some testing / training facility before flying a commercial airliner, right?

That’s why, fortunately for the rest of us, the folks who fly commercial planes spend extensive time in flight school, learning how to fly … until they have it down pat.

So don’t skim around your learning resources.

It’s great that you’re eager to learn. But learning without practicing and without making an extensive effort to develop a real-world skill is not going to help you!

This isn’t a game folks — this is business.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you a resume writer can somehow rewrite or put something on your resume that gets you hired.

And don’t think that heading back to college for a graduate degree or MBA will impress employers into hiring you.

My advice for you is: don’t go near that crowd!

Be one of the fortunate few and take the most direct approach. It brings the best results because it gives employers what they want.

#1: Become The Most Knowledgeable Person You Can Be

Your first job should be to learn everything that you can about your chosen career.

To start with, employers want you to be knowledgeable about your job.

They don’t want a shiny resume and they don’t want decorative college degrees. They want functional knowledge.

As a professional, the way to get functional knowledge is by doing some or all of this (the more the better):

  1. Read, follow, subscribe to blogs and leaders on your topics of interest.
  2. Buy and read books on your chosen career. You can never invest too much on textbooks.
  3. Take training or coaching to get ahead in your career. There are lots of dead-ends and you need to avoid them all!

Study using as many resources as you can afford.

This is a knowledge-based economy, so the best investment you can make is in yourself.

… it is really this simple

#2: Become Highly Skilled

Knowledge is different from skills. Skills are gained by taking lots of quizzes or practice tests.

Sharpening your skills by taking lots of practice tests achieves two (2) really powerful objectives:

  1. It gets you ready for the question & answer format of job interviews.

    In a job interview, your interviewer wants you to be factual, detailed, comprehensive or prompt in answering questions.

    The interviewer also wants you to demonstrate that you are highly knowledgeable / skilled in your subject.

  2. Practice Tests also sharpen your skills for the real-world and here is why:

    When you rehearse the answers to a question and then commit it to your memory, you arm yourself with the ability to recall the solutions easily when faced with real-world problems … and managers just love that.

And that my friend is how you bridge the gap to becoming a highly skilled, highly marketable, successful professional

The ability to recall solutions easily will make you stand out on your job and it will give you a lot of confidence

The increased self-confidence comes from taking the time to study, practice and prepare for real-world, on the job challenges.

That my friend … is how to become a superstar professional.

So many people cheat themselves and short circuit the process by focusing on certifications or educational degrees, etc!

They miss the point completely!

Today’s world is highly competitive and employers are hiring for razor sharp, finely tuned / honed skills and not general skills.

#3: Gain Hands-on Experience

The last but not least is hands-on experience.

Employers rate hands-on experience above certifications or advanced college degrees.

Why?

Because in the Information Technology Industry, the mindset of employers is: “Your Past Performance Is The Best Predictor Of Your Future Performance“.

What this means is that the more real-world experience you have, the more attractive you are to employers.

The point is not to fuss about how you gain the experience (through coaching / mentoring, volunteering, on the job, etc.) but just to get it.

That is it my friend … The Secret Recipe for Success In A Nutshell.

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/09/27/the-secret-to-success-in-a-nutshell/feed/ 0 The Secret Art of Writing Highly Effective Killer Resumes for Computer Programming Jobs http://www.it-career-coach.net/2006/08/27/the-secret-art-of-writing-highly-effective-killer-resumes-for-computer-programming-jobs/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2006/08/27/the-secret-art-of-writing-highly-effective-killer-resumes-for-computer-programming-jobs/#comments Sun, 27 Aug 2006 14:06:40 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/2006/08/27/the-secret-art-of-writing-highly-effective-killer-resumes-for-computer-programming-jobs/

Your resume drives your compensation, your marketability and the effectiveness of your job search. Without much ado, here are the rules of engagement for writing highly effective killer resumes for Information Technology jobs that gets you on the fast track to career nirvana.

One page resumes are out!

The rule of cramming your skills, experience and accomplishment on one page is dead. Include as much detail as necessary to secure an interview or a job offer. Your personal information is irrelevant!

Skip the section on your hobbies including the references to martial arts, chess, marathon, etc. Nobody really cares. Just answer the question, can you do the job?

Keywords are relevant!

Keywords are the buzzwords that describe the current skills, technologies and processes that are popular in your industry. Your resume is dead without the right keywords or buzzwords. Some hiring managers use scanners that count how often desired keywords are mentioned, so your resume is dead if you don’t employ them effectively.

Also, other recruiters who don’t use scanners look out for the jobs where you mention those keywords. Either way, your career is headed for the slow track if your resume does not use industry keywords effectively.

Beware of Cover letters

It is really a good resume that sells you if you are in contract programming. The cover letter is one more document that delays access to your resume. If you have a good relationship with your recruiter, make their jobs easier by skipping the cover letter. If you do not have a good relationship with a technical recruiter and you need a cover letter to sell you in addition to your resume, you had better not be in contract programming.

Cover letters are traditional and are necessary if you are applying for full time positions or applying directly to hiring managers, otherwise, use a a few sentences to introduce your attached resume.

Socialize your desired compensation

Have you seen those jobs where you are advised not to apply without including your desired pay? Apply without your desired pay anyway. Yes, I know you would really want a six figure income but it is much better to discuss this with the recruiter than to add it to your resume, where it really adds no value.

Besides, including your desired pay marks you as a newbie and from Negotiation 101 class we learn it puts you at a disadvantage when you finally negotiate your pay. The time to introduce your desired pay is after the recruiter or hiring manager has reviewed your resume and is all excited about interviewing or hiring you.

Keep your references to yourself

Don’t bother including your references or the ridiculous references available on demand line on your resume. Your references will be checked before or after an offer is extended to you. So, get on with your business of securing the job offer.

Include multiple ways of contacting you

The purpose of your resume is to market you, so, include as many ways of contacting you as possible. Include your email, mailing address, mobile phone, work phone, home phone and website address (tech or professional sites only) in the contact section of your resume and years from now, you will be getting calls from people who need your services.

By including multiple ways of reaching you, you increase the chance that you will be discovered by recruiters or headhunters even when one or more of your contact details become obsolete.

One resume does not fit all

Your resume is a marketing document. So, customize it for each job or position you are interested in, especially if it differs significantly from what you are doing now. Hiring managers and recruiters are only interested in exact matches or near fits between the jobs they advertise and the resumes they receive.

They literally want to see your resume mention the same skills and technologies they are advertising. So, if you want to get that interview, make sure you customize your resume for the position you are applying for.

Prove your relevance with your resume

If you are looking for a technical writing position, don’t just create a resume, showcase how relevant you are to the position you are applying for. See, recruiters and hiring managers want to hire the right person for each job, so make their jobs easier by beginning with this end in mind.

If you are applying for a business analysis position, you should know within yourself if your resume makes a good case for you or not. Your resume must prove beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt that you can get the job done!

It’s all about your experience

Recruiters and hiring managers believe that your past performance is the best predictor of your future performance. They are only interested in you, if you have successfully solved problems similar to theirs. They want to see in your resume a trail of successes, not a trial of failures or an absence of both.

So, describe not just the technology you use, but also the overall business processes, the problems you solved and the value you provided. Whatever you do, make sure you have relevant industry experience and showcase it on your resume.

Focus your resume on where you are going

Your resume should describe who you are now and who you want to be. It should make the connection between the positions you have had and the new position you want. If the credibility gap between what you have been doing and what you want is big, you will most likely be passed over.

For example, if you have been a HTML developer and you are applying for a Java or C# job, the skills gap between HTML development and Java or C# development may kill your job search, however, if you position yourself as a web developer, you stand a better chance of getting hired. Likewise if your resume only highlights HTML web development and you show up at the interview talking about C# .NET development, your interviewing managers will ask you why you don’t already have C# .NET on your resume.

Focus on your accomplishments not your responsibilities

Your accomplishments describe what you do with you’re given. Accomplishments present you as results and goal oriented. Your responsibilities describe you as a passive player who only responds by chance. Responsibilities describe you as being task or process oriented.

Hiring managers perceive the performance of responsibilities oriented candidates as being unpredictable and that of results oriented individuals as being a sure bet. So, do yourself a favor, become result oriented both on your resume and in real life.

Do not include irrelevant past jobs

You used to be a musician, a poet or a gunslinger in a past life, so what? Remove from your resume past jobs that you had to pass time or jobs you had when you were growing up or jobs that are not relevant to your job search! Let me spell it out, remove past jobs that have no skill and experience relevance to the position you are interested in.

By leaving irrelevant past jobs on your resume, you prove that you still have a lot of baggage and that you are still clinging to your past. Remember, that your resume is primarily a marketing document and not a monument to your ego.

Disclose your past employers

Include the locations (city and state only) and the company names of the past employers listed on your resume. If you do not disclose your employers, recruiters or hiring managers may start wondering about what you are hiding and then start digging into your garbage. If you have nothing to hide, make their lives easier and disclose your past employers on your resume. If you have something to hide, keep your own counsel.

List your past jobs in chronological order

Recruiters and hiring managers expect to scan your job history in a chronological order from the most recent job to the last. Present the past jobs on your resume in that order.

Is This Career Nirvana Or What?

These are some of the secrets of writing highly effective killer resumes for Information Technology careers and jobs. Use them to fast track to career nirvana, ignore them at your own peril! Either way, you have been warned :-)

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


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