ITCareerCoach Training - Coaching » education 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 What Do You Study To Become A Business Analyst? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/08/15/what-do-you-study-to-become-a-business-analyst/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/08/15/what-do-you-study-to-become-a-business-analyst/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:37:26 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3260

What Courses Do You Study To Become A Business Analyst?

What Courses Do You Study To Become A Business Analyst?


You may start a business analysts career by taking some of the courses discussed in this post.

Keep in mind that for business analysis careers, soft skills count as much or in some cases even more than hard skills.

So, don’t make the classical rookie mistake of focusing on the hard skill requirements to the detriment of your soft skills!

The list of formal, informal or college courses that you may study for a business analyst career include:

  1. Study computer science & information technology courses in college because that will help you relate to the coding or testing that takes place on information technology / software development projects.

  2. Study Systems Analysis courses as they may help you get a better idea of how different networking, hardware & software systems are integrated into one functional Information Technology (IT) department.

  3. Take Technical Writing and Business Communication courses because a key part of the work that you perform as a business analyst is communicating business problems or solutions.

  4. Study business management courses as they will help you understand understand strategic and tactical business goals and objectives or see things from a management, stakeholder or business perspective.

    Keep in mind that not only do business analysts work in Information Technology (IT) departments, they also work in specialized business domains like Accounting, Finance, Sales and Marketing, so taking business courses can be helpful.

  5. Take conflict resolution, interpersonal, communication, verbal, presentation, negotiation, public speaking and leadership courses.

    While these sort of skills are not traditionally taught as part a formal college class, you can gain the required information from textbooks and audio material on bookstores like Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

The courses that you may take to become a business analyst may be divided into formal (business / technical) or informal (interpersonal, communication and leadership) skills.

So my friend, now you know what you may study to succeed as a business analyst … do do something with this information :-)

Thanks and Best Wishes


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/08/15/what-do-you-study-to-become-a-business-analyst/feed/ 0 Self Study or College, Which Is Better? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/07/27/self-study-or-college-which-is-better/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/07/27/self-study-or-college-which-is-better/#comments Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:25:23 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3243

Self Study or College, Which Is Better?

Self Study or College, Which Is Better?


Here is the question: can you study all the subjects that you are passionate about through self study (by using the internet and textbooks) and still learn more than someone who goes to college for the same purpose?

Consider both sides of the debate. Forking over $40,000 and 4 years of your life to college gives you something that you can hang on your wall, a certificate that both you and your employers can be sure off.

But what happens after you get your foot in through the door? Job descriptions change at such a rapid pace that what you learned after 4 years of college education may become obsolete in a heart beat!

What happens when your employer shifts your focus away from a task that you learned in college (like writing test cases) to a task for which you have no formal education like (analyzing and documenting business requirements)

Or what would you do when technology shifts emphasis from one platform like Mainframe Programming to another like Web Programming … would one go back to college and spend another 2 to 4 years and $20K to $40K on another college degree like a Masters or a Doctoral Degree?

However you look at it, there are not too many options for learning or studying new information after college … You may:

  • Self study or learn from scratch using textbooks and the internet …

  • You may enroll for another College Degree …

  • Or enroll in a training program.

In this post, I will only compare the pros and cons of self study compared to more college education.

How to self study or learn anything by yourself

Studying by yourself may work if you enjoy reading or if you are the kind of person that is not afraid of a challenge.

Self study is far cheaper than paying your way through college but at the same time it may require some form of external support or coaching just like a college education requires the external support of a university and college professors.

The first thing that you have to do is to create, get or buy a study / learning curriculum.

How To Study Using a Curriculum

The curriculum you get should be comprehensive and it should cover all the topics that you need to study in the right sequence or order.

In other words your self study curriculum should differentiate between beginner, intermediate or advanced level topics.

You can only create a curriculum after you have created a list of topics that you need to study or concepts that you need to master.

How To Create Study Lists of Textbooks and Internet Articles

Next research the study textbooks and internet articles that complement the topics or lessons listed in the curriculum.

Most of the topics listed on your curriculum will be covered by multiple textbooks or internet articles.

You are going to be doing a lot of personal study and you must get used to the idea of spending a lot of evening me on bookstores like Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com

However, do not expect that any one textbook, website or article will supply all the information you need.

When I was building my skills as an Information Technology consultant, I would visit Borders Bookstore at least once a week and spend up to $200 at any one single visit which means that I could spend up to thousands of dollars per year on study textbook alone!

How To Learn By Doing

Arrange for additional handson activities, quizzes or assignments that you can participate in to verify all that you have been learning.

Self study needs the presence of an online community which is a community of users, studying similar topics.

Your community is a forum or group that you can bounce questions against, answer the questions that they ask, discuss ideas with solve or troubleshoot problems with, exchange study lists (list of textbooks and articles), job interview questions, etc.

You will also need the help of coaches, group moderators or group sponsors who can help you answer the bigger questions or keep motivated just like a top performing, world class athlete needs a personal coach or trainer or help them get the best out of their abilities.

How To Get A Formal Education?

Alternatively, you may enroll for more formal education in college. Keep in mind that a college education may set you back by tens of thousands of dollars.

Evaluate your background

You also need to evaluate if you qualify, because getting the right prerequisites or educational profile for an advanced college degree like a masters or a doctorate may set you back a few months depending on whether you have the right background.

Do you have the right background or prerequisites

How will you manage the schedule?

Time is also something that you have to factor in. Before you finish 2 to 4 years getting a Masters or a Doctoral Degree, your job or your company may not be there and you may be left with an expensive education but without a job to match.

Scheduling may also be a pain. Some colleges may require that you attend classes during official working hours meaning that you have to choose between your job and your education or even have both suffer.

Also keep in mind, that Some colleges may be inaccessible to you because of their location or you will have to relocate before you can actually finish or complete the enrollment / degree requirements.

The best thing about a college degree is that you will have a certificate that you can hangup on your wall and say, I went to Princeton, Yale, Harvard or whatever school that is and you can feel really proud of your accomplishment!

How Does Self Study Compare To A College Education?

Here are some answers to this question …

  1. A college education is important because it allows the employer an objective assessment of your capabilities and skills. For that reason, you need to have at least a bachelor’s degree.

  2. Your first college degree will help you get your foot in through the door, but when it comes to keeping up to the demands of a fast paced, constantly changing workplace, you must learn how to advance your skills through self study

If you need more coaching, help or guidance with choosing self study or a formal education, let me know by posting your comment or feedback on this post and I will be glad to help you!


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/07/27/self-study-or-college-which-is-better/feed/ 0 Learn How to Make Knowledge or Skills Work http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/24/learn-how-to-make-knowledge-or-skills-work/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/24/learn-how-to-make-knowledge-or-skills-work/#comments Fri, 25 Mar 2011 01:55:38 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3147

Make your Knowledge or Skills Work

Make your Knowledge or Skills Work


There is such a wealth of information out there that it can be overwhelming to someone trying to figure out what they need to learn.

I mean, when you look in your local bookstore you will see a huge section of books to help, but what you won’t find is the insider information that teaches you exactly the most profitable techniques or what you absolutely must know.

You also won’t find any resources that will give you the inside information about what you need to know so that you stand out from the crowd.

You also won’t find the inside information about what to expect at information technology job interviews and more importantly – how to answer them!

Our online online career coaching or online training classes provides this information and more.

And not only that, but it is structured in such a way that it is easy to learn. Each step builds on what you learn in the previous step so you never get overwhelmed.

Here is how we help make knowledge and skills work.

Learn Whenever – Why Not Learn At Your Own Time?

You may login to our learning management system (LMS) and take your training at a time that is convenient for you.

And you don’t have to worry about following our timetable or rearranging your schedule to meet our class schedules ever!

Open Enrollment – Let the Scheduling Work for You

Registration for our online classes is always open and because of this, you may enroll at any time.

This is quite unlike other vendors that force you to enroll on specific days or restrict enrollments to their own schedule.

Pause & Resume – Take A Break When You Want

You may pause or resume your training at will and you will never be penalized for doing that.

Use this to catch up with pressing work or life commitments and for taking vacations or time off.

This is in contrast to rigid classroom training that forces you to start or finish your at the same time as everyone else!

Progress Monitoring – How Are You Doing?

As you complete learning activities like quizzes and assignments, your grade is recorded in real-time on an online report card that doubles as your virtual transcript.

Your online report card gives a measurable, objective assessment of how you are doing at a glance.

Virtual Coaching – What Do You Want To Learn?

Your ability to post questions for your course instructor as you learn or progress through your material differentiates our training from other vendors that dump videos on you or leave you to figure it out by yourself!

Our instructors do not walk away because online collaboration is built right into our learning management system (LMS) as part of our core service offering and not as an afterthought!

Real Learning – Resources For Work

Did you know that you still retain login access to our learning management system even after your training is completed?

This access allows you to watch your training videos as often as you want or use those videos as a reference resource on the job!

For Utter Beginners or Experienced Professionals

Our classes take you from novice or utter beginner to advanced level topics in a step by step fashion with each lesson building on the topics taught in previous lessons so you don’t feel overwhelmed or dumped on!

We make no assumptions about your background and that is why we also teach all the pre-requisite knowledge as part our classes.

Practice Tests – Better or More Effective Online Learning

Use the online quizzes integrated into our learning management system (LMS) to improve your retention, comprehension or recall for work or job interview purposes.

Retrieval based tests have been scientifically proven to boost your ability to learn new information and that is why we recommend or use them.

In other words, taking our practice tests will help reduce the learning curve typically associated with mastering new concepts.

Assignments – Bridging the Gap Between Knowledge and Practice

We provide assignments similar to those performed on the job so that you get handson practice at solving problems.

Assignments matter because they help you practice putting your knowledge or skills to work in a safe, virtual environment before you tackle them in the real world.

Bridging that gap between what you know and what you can do, helps you become better, more confident and successful at work!

Comprehensive Learning – Stay Ahead of the Technology Curve

Information Technology (IT) skills easily become rusty or out-dated because of the rapid pace of technological change.

Besides, information changes so quickly and so often that keeping up with is a challenge for everyone.

But now, with our comprehensive online curriculum, you may enroll and catchup with what you really need to know just by signing up for a class!

Social Learning – Research Best Practices

While our private discussion groups are for you and the course instructors only, our public study groups are for you and other participants registered for the same course.

Use our public discussion groups for researching best practices employed at other organizations or for learning from other participants who may contribute helpful solutions challenges or problems facing you at work.

Affordable, Convenient & Effective Learning

Our online coaching or training offers are all based on the same premise:

Anyone (regardless) of their background should be able to learn from any location in the world at any time of the day or night that fits their geographic, life or work commitments.

  • We make learning more affordable by combining the information you need including both entry level and advanced topics in one course.

  • Our private, web-based, learning management system allows you to enroll when you want or pause and resume your training at your own convenience.

  • Using practice tests which have been scientifically proven to boost your ability to retain, recall or understand new material, we make your learning more effective.

Right now, we are fulfilling coaching and training services for a world-wide information technology audience which includes course participants from USA, Canada, UK, Australia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, South Africa and several other countries … so why don’t you join us?

Let us help make your knowledge or skills work. Our secret is the sequence: what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and for how long, so that it all make sense.

So, why not enroll right now in an online career coaching or online training class and learn how to make your knowledge or skills work?


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/24/learn-how-to-make-knowledge-or-skills-work/feed/ 0 Live Up To Your Potential in 3 Steps http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/20/live-up-to-your-potential-in-3-steps/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/20/live-up-to-your-potential-in-3-steps/#comments Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:28:39 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3144

Live Up To Your Potential

Live Up To Your Potential

This question was submitted by a very young, exceptionally gifted and talented top performer who wants to know how he can live up to his potential.

Hello,

I am very young (23) and was radically accelerated through college \ graduate school.

By next year, I will have a BA (Math \ Religion), MBA (Management Consultancy), MSc (Business IT), PhD (Computing & Mathematics), and PhD (ABD), in IT from leading universities, as well as 9+ years IT experience, with 5+ years BA experience with stellar recommendations.

I do not want a career in university teaching or research … could you suggest a few viable directions to move my career forward in IT business analysis?

I feel “painted into a corner” and now am not certain which way to go at this point, as a Senior Analyst.

Just a few alternatives would be helpful.

Best regards and thank you.

How To Fulfill Your Potential

The first of the three most important challenges facing talented people is that of identifying their passion.

This is a big challenge because talented folks can do almost anything and succeed at it.

Another challenge facing talented folks is not doing what they love and / or following the money trail!

Because talented people can easily get high-paying jobs and get paid a lot more than their colleagues, they can be easily derailed from their true objectives.

Following the money trail is bad because it eventually leads to mediocrity.

Regardless of how talented one is, it is not possible to achieve your deepest potential if you do not identify your passion and do what you love.

The final challenge that talented people face is not taking their passion to market.

They pick vocations where they are unable to serve their community or their world because of money concerns or because of poor career recommendations.

Discover Your Passion

The first and most important thing that you have to do: “is to discover your passion“.

Your passion is something that you are deeply interested in doing because you love it, you have strengths in it, you enjoy thinking, dreaming or even speaking about it.

Your passion is not necessarily what promises you job security or what promises you lots of money.

Money and Job Security are used as the primary basis of making career recommendations and yet, they don’t truly matter because … guess what?

If you do what you truly love, the money will surely follow!

Discovering your passion is an exercise of the heart and not of the head.

You must be able to dream or envision your passion in your heart first and then use your head to figure out what to do.

Good folks get this heart and head mixed up all the time! Your heart is your instinctive, sensing personality and your head is your rational, logical person.

Do What You Love

The second thing that you must do on the path to self actualization is to: “Do What You Love”.

Doing what you love means working very hard at something that you love.

But it also means more than that … it means training yourself the way that world-class athletes do!

Though you can do several things exceptionally very well, you should concentrate on a few disciplines and hone your abilities in those alone.

You want to become so good in your chosen field, that your work in those areas will stand out in comparison to that of any others in your chosen field.

Think about this for a moment: world-class athletes have to invest considerable amounts of time into just training and honing their skills.

They understand that even through they may be exceptionally gifted, they cannot win unless they are much better than the competition or other equally gifted and talented folks.

And also get this … no world class athlete depends on their exceptional talents or giftedness alone!

Instead they put themselves through the most rigorous, skill-advancing training that they can find so that they can live up to their potential.

The issue is not really whether you are gifted. The true issue at stake is whether you will live up to your potential? I will advise that you read these two books:

  1. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
  2. Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

Amongst other things, these two books point out that to become a world class player, you will have to invest a solid amount of time into just doing nothing else but honing your skills and abilities!

Take Your Passion To the Market

Starting a blog and getting on Social Media is the starting point for taking your passion to market.

The next thing that you have to do with your passion or the work that you love is: “Subscribe to the Publish or Perish” mantra which you are already used to coming from academia.

The main purpose of your blog is to create a market for your passion or connect your passion with an existing market on the internet.

Your market is the readers or subscribers of your blog and what you must do is: help them, talk to them, connect with them using your blog as your premier publishing or speaking platform.

Without sharing your passion with other people who love the topics that you care about, your passion dies with you … which is the definition of being boxed in!

Not having a blog means that you are not others learn or grow. It also means your own growth is incomplete because you are closed off from the feedback of your industry … and no one can develop your passion in isolation

Starting a blog does not mean that you must offer a service or sell a product.

Starting a blog does means that you have decided to make your world a better place by serving humanity with your gifts and talents.

The lesson here is that being wired or connected to others using blogging and social media is now considered essential for success!

One person that comes to mind in that regards is Jacob Nielsen, the world’s numero uno usability expert!

For several years, he has been conducting researches on usability and publishing his findings online.

From those findings, he has written books and he conducts training seminars around the globe.

You can see that Jacob is deeply passionate and extremely knowledgeable in his field and that he publishes more than most people in his field.

Do these 3 things (discover your passion, do what you love, take your passion to market) and you will succeed.

Jonathan, when you break into stardom, don’t stop telling people how I helped you, ok :-)

P.S. I am sending you my new ebook titled “Discover Your Passion, Do What You Love, Take Your Passion To Market“.

Best Wishes and Lots of Success in your Career

This question was published using [Ask IT Career Coach].

[Ask IT Career Coach] is a Career Advice Column for Information Technology (IT) professionals looking for answers to their most challenging career situations.

If you have a question about your career that you will like me to answer for you, go ahead and submit it using the [Ask IT Career Coach] Career Advice Service.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/20/live-up-to-your-potential-in-3-steps/feed/ 0 Is College Worth The Money? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/22/is-college-worth-the-money/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/22/is-college-worth-the-money/#comments Tue, 22 Feb 2011 06:00:30 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3109

Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses

Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses

The answer to the question: “Is College Worth The Money?” is YES … so please go to the best college you can afford because there are doors in life that will be easier for you to open if you have a college degree.

That being said, there are pros and cons to attending college and a right / wrong mindset that you need to be aware of.

In a new book, “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” sociologists Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia, are of the opinion that “College Students in the US are not learning Much“

Reporting on a study of more than 2,300 undergraduates they discovered that 45 percent of students show no significant improvement in the key measures of critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sophomore years.

Based on the findings of the report, it looks like students who work hard, drain their personal or parent’s savings and take on a huge debt to go to college … are not getting what they paid for!

Click here to read the article titled: College Students Not Learning Much

I believe that college is worth the money, if you know how to get the best out of it.

Here is my advice on the matter:

  1. Go to college to expand your mind: Study a topic that you are really curious about and intellectually invested in.

    While you are at college, seek to understand or learn or acquire knowledge as a means to personal enlightenment and not as a means to making more money or finding a job.

  2. Go to college to study your passion: Study a science or art that you genuinely want to make a heartfelt contribution to.

    The process of trying to make a contribution to your industry will let you know if you are passionate enough about it or if you have the goods to succeed in that industry.

    If you can’t think of a way to improve the industry while you are surrounded by volumes of books and some of the smartest folks in the world, then you may be studying for the wrong career!

  3. Go to college to connect with your industry: Use your time in college to connect with or network with potential employers.

    Get a real-world part-time or full-time job and do something practical along the lines of your career regardless of whether you get paid for it or not.

    The feedback that you get from a real-world job is invaluable! It allows you to get the type of handson experience or practical skills that results in a good offer after graduation.

  4. Do not go to college to get a job: Going to college solely for the purpose of getting a job is a waste of your time and money.

    You will not learn any real-world skills from college and you will probably not learn much from your college studies either as the authors:p Arum and Roksa point out.

  5. Going to college does not entitle you to a career: I have hired, worked with and advised college graduates who are basically adrift in their careers because they assume that they are entitled to a career because they have for example a computer science college degree.

    These group of people find it very very hard to empty themselves of their preconceived notions of what society owes them and they typically have too high an opinion of themselves to start from the bottom or build their career up!

    They are typically very opinionated, very low in practical skills or experience and very high in expectations of what they will earn or what their skills will command in the market.

Going to college can be worth the money, if you have the right set of expectations about what it offers or will not offer you.

While in college, endeavor to widen your mind, your horizons and your vision.

Finally make the best use of your time in college by working on real world projects so that you can build the relevant skills or experience before you graduate.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/22/is-college-worth-the-money/feed/ 1 The Survivors Guide To Overcoming Unemployment http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/13/the-survivors-guide-to-overcoming-unemployment/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/13/the-survivors-guide-to-overcoming-unemployment/#comments Sun, 13 Feb 2011 11:46:02 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3098

The Survivors Guide To Overcoming Unemployment

The Survivors Guide To Overcoming Unemployment

Several years ago, I had a conversation with a lady who had a computer science degree but was unable to get hired for any type of Information technology (IT) job.

I realized right away, that what she lacked was an understanding of how the IT job / career market works. The sort of information that is generally omitted in schools because no one thinks it is important enough.

So, after she shared her story with me, I did some research and came to the startling conclusion that she was not alone.

I discovered that there was a big gap in our educational system and I am not just talking about schools, but staffing / recruiting / training agencies as well.

The problem was that all the players were in a hurry to make ends meet and no one really cared about the professional whose career or job was at stake.

For example, recruiters / staffing agencies will only work with you when your skills and experience matches that required on a job posting.

They will not think of helping you bridge the gaps in your skills, resume or experience or advancing your career further through coaching and mentoring.

So I started educating people on how to thrive or succeed in the Information Technology (IT) world and as a result this website (www.it-career-coach.net) was born.

Today, I have been giving another unique opportunity to help because a number of you are talking to me about their unemployment situations or asking for my advice or suggestions along those lines.

I want to say, thank you to everyone who has been talking to me about their unemployment situations.

I appreciate the trust you place in me and more importantly, your courage in talking about it!

I am dedicating the “FREE Survivors Guide To Overcoming Unemployment” below to those of you who are out of work..

Please download and read this career guide and learn how to survive unemployment or get productive by earning an income again.

I retain all the copyrights to this career guide. However, you have my permission to distribute it or share it with anyone (friends, strangers, colleagues, etc) or post it anywhere.

Download The Survivors Guide To Overcoming Unemployment Below


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/13/the-survivors-guide-to-overcoming-unemployment/feed/ 2 What Is the Toughest Challenge Facing your Career? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/11/the-toughest-challenge-facing-your-career/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/11/the-toughest-challenge-facing-your-career/#comments Wed, 12 Jan 2011 04:30:35 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3062

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Compliments of the Season and Merry Christmas To You. What is the toughest challenge facing your career right now?

Post a detailed question regarding your challenges right now, and I will help you take care of them, once and for all!

How To Discover Your Passion?

Perhaps, your toughest challenge is …

  • How to choose the right career or
  • How to make a career change or
  • How to get an entry level job that is inline with your career goals

Regardless of the type of challenge facing your career, go ahead and post a detailed question regarding your challenge and I will answer it for you

How To Do The Work You Love?

Perhaps, your toughest challenge is …

  • How to become highly skilled at your job or
  • How to get suitable hands-on experience or
  • How to transition from a beginner or junior position to a senior-level job

Leave a detailed comment about your challenging career situation using the form below and I will answer it for you!

How To Take Your Passion To The Market?

Perhaps, the most challenging situation facing your career is …

  • How to rewrite your resume and/or cover letter, so you can get the job you want or
  • How to distinguish yourself from others in your industry, so that you can standout or get hired or
  • How to ace your job / technical interviews so that you can get jobs more easily …

Whatever your challenge, just go ahead and ask a question using the “comment form” below and I will answer it for you.

I may answer by writing a new article that addresses your concerns or by posting a comprehensive reply to your comment below.

The concern or challenge facing you is important to me, so go right away and post it as a comment on this page.

The sooner you ask that question, the sooner I can take care of it for you. So, let’s get started


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/11/the-toughest-challenge-facing-your-career/feed/ 53 How to Prepare for the Real World When College Doesn’t Help! http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/08/22/how-to-prepare-real-world-without-college/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/08/22/how-to-prepare-real-world-without-college/#comments Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:22:46 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2981

Prepare for Life after College

Prepare for Life after College


How do you prove that you have learned or mastered business analysis or computer programming or project management or any other Information technology career?

Do you demonstrate your competency with a college degree or by gaining hands-on experience or acquiring a certification?

In some professions like medicine or law, there is a rigorous licensing, certification and training process without which you cannot practice practice the profession or get a job.

But in Information Technology (IT), you can become a software tester, business analyst, computer programmer, IT Manager or project manager without any supporting certification, college/post-graduate degree or license.

However, unlike so many other professions, you cannot get a job or succeed in an information technology career without a fair amount of hands-on experience or professional expertise.

As a matter of fact, the IT Industry is notorious for being performance or results driven. This explains why many managers fail to attach extra weight to educational qualifications and the like.

When was the last time your firm hired a web designer based on the web designer’s educational qualifications or hired a project manager with an MBA and zero work experience over a project manager with 10 years of hands-on experience and no MBA degree?

The superiority of hands-on experience over college education or certifications becomes self-evident when computer science or information technology college graduates find it hard to get jobs because they lack practical, hands-on experience or skills!

With that in mind, here is a question submitted by a college student on “how to deal with college”.

… the toughest challenges facing my career includes methodologies that our lecturers employ in teaching IT related topics; being not practical rather too theoretical, lack of competence criteria, difficulties in job seeking.

Become A Practical Learner

Find a way to build, create or perform the real-world tasks that correspond to the courses you’re taking in college.

If you are learning web design or computer programming, join an open-source project an contribute your code or start one of your own.

If you’re learning technical writing, volunteer to work on a commercial or open-source project where your skills and contribution will be used to create real-world solutions.

That will help you create a portfolio of projects that will open doors for you!

Find the real-world practical tasks that correspond to whatever theoretical skills you are learning from college and get a heads-up on your competition that way!

Take a Lot of Knowledge-Based Tests

Take tests or certifications not to get a job but to sharpen your skills, advance your knowledge or deepen your understanding of the industry.

Do not depend on tests or certifications to get a job because hiring managers realize that certifications by themselves are not necessarily a true test of ability.

Practice tests or certifications are better used for sharpening your skills or improving your comprehension or retention of a subject.

Discover and Follow your Passion

Don’t worry about making money after college. Rather use your time in college to find what you love or what you’re good at.

After college, get a job you’re passionate about at any cost … even if you are under-paid compared to your colleagues.

Don’t go into a career because it is popular or because it pays well.

Rather, follow your dreams, passions or strengths and the money will follow you after a while because you will excel and command the top pay in your industry .. if you are passionate about your job!

  1. Click here to read: Use Practice Tests For Boosting your Skills.

  2. Click here to read: How To Start A New Career.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/08/22/how-to-prepare-real-world-without-college/feed/ 6 #3 Success Principle: When It Comes To Experience, Beggars Can’t Be Choosers http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/01/07/3-success-principle-when-it-comes-to-experience-beggars-cant-be-choosers/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/01/07/3-success-principle-when-it-comes-to-experience-beggars-cant-be-choosers/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:17:52 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2753

Beggars Can't Be Choosers

Beggars Can't Be Choosers

One of the bigger issues facing IT professionals is: “the challenge of building experience“.

This challenge exists because employers still require experience for hiring, even when you need their jobs to build experience!

It’s the classic Catch-22: “chicken or egg which came first challenge” that may be solved through internships or full-time jobs.

However, internships are getting increasingly competitive (Read More …) and employers are still insisting on handson experience before making job offers.

Why Internships Are Hard To Get

For a while, internships helped provide the missing handson experience to IT professionals learning new skills or transitioning careers.

Now internships are hard to come by because employers are refusing the burden of hiring or managing interns. And here is the reason why:

  1. Productivity: interns need to be managed by experienced employees meaning that productive time will be lost to employers.

    Productive time is lost when experienced workers have to show interns the ropes, supervise or assign work to them.

  2. Risk: employers are unwilling to invest in interns because they are more likely to fail at completing their assigned tasks or duties.

    There is also the added risk of redoing the work done by interns when it fails to meet expectations!

  3. Money: employers hesitate to pay interns because there aren’t sure of the immediate economic benefits and they refuse to hire unpaid interns because unpaid interns also cost money and time to supervise or train!

How To Build Experience From Scratch … Without A Job

The challenge facing those that fixate on getting experience through internship programs or full time jobs is that of becoming stumped … when they can’t get either.

Really, when it comes to getting experience, the key is to stay flexible, creative or open minded because full-time jobs and internship programs are getting harder to come by.

How To Build Experience From Scratch By Keeping An Open Mind

  • Focus on Smaller Projects: don’t fixate on finding big projects because you are more unlikely to get big project exposure with little or no experience.

    Start with smaller projects first, because that is where your current background, skills or experience is likely to be needed or appreciated.

  • Build Up Experience Gradually: don’t expect to get a ton of experience in a short time. Instead, spread your efforts at building experience over a longer period of time.

    Overtime, the cumulative effect of all your project based work will begin to show and you will be rewarded for your hard work.

  • Don’t Fixate on Money: don’t be too picky about your income when you’re still building up your experience because the ticket to getting paid more money is more experience!

    Start by building your experience first and then work towards a better compensation afterwards!

  • Don’t Think Too Highly of Yourself: don’t be looking down on smaller projects because you’re thinking they’re beneath you and don’t be fretting over the size of your role, task or opportunity either!

    Always put your best foot forward and build up your experience at every turn. Because that is how to ensure that you qualify for bigger projects or even a full time job!

  • Stay Flexible, Creative and Open Minded: be on the lookout for experience building opportunities that don’t fall under traditional internship or full-time jobs.

    For example, you may signup for unpaid, volunteer work or start your own consulting business (yes, you can consult on almost any subject) or register for Hands On IT Career Training (click here for more information)

Expect that you will always be learning new skills or transitioning careers because of the constantly changing face of technology.

Understand that staying open minded will help you discover more ways to build handson experience without a job or an internship program.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/01/07/3-success-principle-when-it-comes-to-experience-beggars-cant-be-choosers/feed/ 1 Why Your Resume Gets Tossed http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/12/17/why-your-resume-gets-tossed/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/12/17/why-your-resume-gets-tossed/#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:28:15 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2743

Is Mindless Resume Submission Working?

Is Mindless Resume Submission Working?


Finding a job is just a numbers game, so submitting my resume to several job postings will get me hired … says a business analyst!

This is the mindset of some IT job seekers who approach the business of finding a job as if it is purely a numbers game.

But is a successful job search simply a numbers game or is there more to getting a job than that?

Why Resumes Get Tossed

  1. Learn It First – Before you start submitting resumes, first learn how to do the job you are applying for.

    Getting the right knowledge and skills does more for your job search because it assures the attention of hiring managers.

    Yet some job seekers assume that they can get the attention of hiring managers by simply re-writing their resume without significantly improving their skills!

    In a real life example, a marketing and sales professional with no real world business analysis knowledge, skills or experience, just keeps rewriting or submitting resumes for business analyst jobs without taking the time to study or learn!

    There is danger when one conditions the mind to act reflexively without thinking.

    Applying for jobs is not meant to be a mindless task that one attempts like an unthinking robot.

    You be the judge of the job prospects of anyone who thinks that “finding a job is just a numbers game“.

  2. Which Comes First Learning Or Doing – learning has always been the forerunner to doing. You always have to learn a career before you can start performing the roles, responsibilities or duties belonging to the career.

    As a basic rule, everyone has to first learn a skill before they can start producing or working with the skill.

    In some careers, the practice of learning before doing is regulated and enforced by law.

    For example, you cannot become a Medical Doctor without going though Medical school and training. And you cannot just assume that you are a Medical Doctor and start submitting your resume for jobs without first learning, studying for and passing medical examinations.

    In information technology careers, the practice of learning before doing is not enforced by laws or exams or any set of IT schools because it is enforced by the Information Technology (IT) employer.

    Employers want to know that you’ve mastered the knowledge, skills and experience needed for the job before you are hired.

    And when you think of the rigorous credentialing, certification and licensing standards applied to other non information technology careers, you will agree that IT employers are not asking for much!

    The good news is that, it is not how you learn new skills, careers or work that matters (self study, books, coaching, training, college is ok) but that you learn it well … in a rigorous, thorough, step by step way!

  3. Learning Comes Before Finding A Job – employers don’t want to re-train new hires. In other words, job postings are written for those who will be productive from day one.

    What this means is that if you are looking for a new job, you need to take the time to learn or master the skills required for the job and not just shop your resume around.

    Posting your resume mindlessly without first learning the required skills is a black hole that either sucks up your time and energy or brands you in a negative light as thoughtless to employers.

  4. Take a Personal Inventory of your Skills – Do yourself a favor during this holiday season.

    Take a personal inventory of the skills required for your job. List all the skills required; (for example: UML, Use Cases, Requirements Management, SQL, Databases) and then rate yourself on a scale of one to ten on each skill.

    Finally, take the time to study, learn and improve on your weak areas because that is one of the best gifts you can give to yourself or your family!

This post discusses why most resumes get tossed by hiring managers. If you have a question or need some help with your career, post it as a comment on this page and we will be glad to answer it for you!


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/12/17/why-your-resume-gets-tossed/feed/ 6 Discover Your Strengths Like Michael Jackson http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/06/27/discover-your-strengths-like-michael-jackson/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/06/27/discover-your-strengths-like-michael-jackson/#comments Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:40:03 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=1742

Michael Jackson, King of Pop. August 29, 1958 to June 25, 2009

Michael Jackson, King of Pop. August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009

Michael Jackson discovered his musical strengths early in his career, developed into a musical genius and then dedicated his life to serving humanity with music.

What we know about legends or superstars like Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan or Michael Jackson is that they are the best at what they do.

But the reason why we love the Michaels’ (Phelps, Jordan, Jackson) is: “we are just like them way down or deep inside of us”!

Each of us … everyone … has strengths that when discovered, developed and dedicated to the service of others … makes us stand-out and be noticed!

First, Disover Your Strengths

The answer to the questions: what career should I go into or what should I study in college or how do I get a job is “first, discover your strengths“.

Choosing a career just because it pays well, is not good enough because it may stop paying well when it becomes flooded with fortune seekers.

Not choosing a career because it doesn’t pay well, is not good enough because you are judging by the average pay reserved for average performers.

Choose a career by evaluating your answers to some of these questions:

  1. What truly motivates or inspires you?

  2. What do you love doing?

  3. What are you good or exceptional at doing?

  4. What do you do efficiently or what do you produce easily?

  5. What do you like to read, research or study on your own time?

  6. What are your hobbies and what do you do with your spare time?

  7. What work will you do if money wasn’t an issue?

  8. What work will you do if you weren’t trying to please anyone in you life?

  9. What do you get paid to do?

If you are not building your career around your strengths, now is a good time to stop and re-evaluate because it is never too late to do the right thing!

Develop Your Strengths By Constant Practice

You need to develop your strengths through constant practice.

Your strengths needs to be developed and improved by conscious practice otherwise you stand to lose them!

You lose the benefits of having strengths when you neglect to exercise them repeatedly until they become a competitive advantage.

Remember that no one hires for under-developed strengths. Employers prefer to hire workers who have developed their strengths versus those who are hoping to do so after they are hired!

Developing your strengths helps you take advantage of opportunities discovered along the path of doing what you love or what you are good at.

Not developing your strengths means you won’t be able to take advantage of opportunities that further what you love doing or what you are good at.

Not developing your strengths also means that you are building your career or life around your weaknesses.

When you don’t develop or play to your strengths, you are likely to get burned-out, unhappy, depressed and earn lower wages because you can’t work as efficiently or as productively as your colleagues!

Not developing your strengths puts you at a competitive disadvantage in a global economy because you will lose out to someone, somewhere, someday who will do a much better job than you!

Building your career around weaknesses instead of strengths puts you in a situation where ultimately, you won’t be able to keep up with the demands of your job!

Dedicate Your Strengths To Serving Others

Your strengths are for you to use in serving others. Seek out opportunities to serve with your strengths because “what you use becomes stronger” and “what you don’t use becomes obsolete!“

Your first reaction shouldn’t be to quit your day job. Begin by finding opportunities to use your strengths within or outside your day job!

If you are a business analyst and you discover that your strengths are in requirements documentation and not Use Cases for example, then ask for more requirements documentation tasks at work.

If you are a computer programmer and you discover that your strengths are in database development, and not coding for example, then ask for more database development tasks at work.

It more practical for you to utilize your strengths at work because that is where you spend the majority of your active working day. But if you can’t then do something with your strengths after work or as a hobby!

Whatever you do, don’t go overboard and quit your day job because you can’t use your strengths at work and don’t neglect to use your strengths because of work or family committments either!

Regardless of your situation, discover your strengths, develop your strengths and dedicate your strengths to serving others!

Use SWOT Analysis to Plan Your Career Around your Strengths

Use SWOT Analysis to elicit your strengths and position it for your benefit at work or in the job market!

It is not enough to know your strengths, you also need to take advantage of your strengths in a competitive manner.

Why, because competition is a fact of life. Your strengths are not evaluated in isolation but in comparson to others!

  1. Michael Phelps is not just a strong swimmer, Michael Phlelps is the Greatest Swimmer of All Time!. Michael Phlelps is the “Top Olympic Gold Medal Winner of All Time” with 14 career Olympic gold medals!

  2. Michael Jackson is not just a great singer, Michael Jackson is or was the “King of Pop!. The Guinness World Records holds him as the “Most Successful Entertainer of All Time” and his 1982 album “Thriller” is the “World’s Best Selling Record of All Time“!

  3. Michael Jordan is not just a good basketball player, Michael Jordan’s biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, “By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the Greatest Basketball Player of All Time.“

Do you get the picture? Your strengths are always compared to others … that is just how the world works!

To succeed at work, you have to pursue opportunities while defending against threats by playing to your strengths.

Use SWOT Analysis to plan your career by factoring in your competitive strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Remember that failing to plan your career is the same as planning to fail at your career!


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/06/27/discover-your-strengths-like-michael-jackson/feed/ 3 How To Plan For Career Success http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/02/17/how-to-plan-your-tech-career/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/02/17/how-to-plan-your-tech-career/#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:23:27 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=1041

jobs-employment-recession

On of my readers needs help with putting together his career advancement plan. I posted the information I provided to him below. If you have any question about this or about your career, post it as comment at the end of the post and I would answer it for you.

  1. Set a SMART Goal

    Begin by creating a comprehensive end to end career roadmap or plan.

    Your career roadmap needs to include a SMART goal (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely goal) That means that you need to define an end objective (for example, mastering business analysis or learning computer programming or improving your software testing skills) and a timeline for achieving it.

  2. Follow a Strategy

    Then you need to have a strategy for achieving your career goals. Your strategy is the “how to achieve your goal” part. So without a good strategy, you are not going to achieve your goal, no matter how hard you try at doing so.

    Your core career strategy needs to include: “gaining the requisite knowledge, skills and experience” needed to advance in your career as well as soft skills like “technical presentation / interviewing skills”.

  3. Execute your Strategy

    You need to define the specific tactics that would allow you to achieve your strategy. Your tactics is more like a day to day plan that you would carry out that aligns with your strategy. Your tactics is the execution part of the plan and if you don’t execute your strategy well, all the goal setting and strategizing in the world won’t help you.

How to Follow Through On Your Career Strategy

How do you ensure that on a daily or weekly basis, that you will get the knowledge, skills and experience required to succeed in your career?

To ensure that you succeed in your career, you need to define:

  • How you will gain the requisite knowledge

  • How you will gain mastery and turn your knowledge into skills

  • How to gain hands on, real-world, experience. Note that without experience, you won’t get be able to transition to new roles or get hired or get promoted

Here is some more information on how to gain more knowledge, skills and experience … which is required for IT career success:

  • How To Improve Your Knowledge:

    Would you use books, free website content, onsite technical training, online training, coaching or mentoring services, newsletters, etc. You need to come up with what works best for you based on your work, family and budget

  • How to Turn your Knowldege into skills:

    Note that knowledge and skills are not the same. Knowledge is theoretical and skill is practical. You must turn theoretical knowledge, education, certifications, etc into practical skills to succeed in your tech career

  • How To Gain Hands On Experience:

    The most valuable asset in your career is your hands on, real-world, experience. IT careers unlike careers in law, medicine and some other professional disciplines put more emphasis on experience than accrediattion.

So, before you do anything, you need to make sure you have defined the specific steps you will take to get your hands on experience. Also, not every experience is equal. Employers give more weight to experience gained in some specific ways compared to experience gained in other ways.

TO CERTIFY OR NOT?

This is a hot topic. Tech workers are worrying if their certifications, degrees, education, would hold up in the current economic climate.

There seems to be two schools of thought. One school asserts that certifications and educational degrees are everything. The other school asserts that certified tech workers may not necessarily have the experience to back it up and that certifications don’t matter anyway.

There may be a better way to answer this question. Instead of worrying about your certifications, educational qualifications, etc. focus on a developing complete, end to end career plan. In a complete career plan you may get additional certifications and educational qualifications as long as you do not neglect the core essentials needed for information technology career success: knowledge, skills and experience.

So, I want to know hear from you. Was this post helpful? Do certifications, degrees and educational qualifications matter? Does knowldege, skill or experience matter? If you have a question or concern I can address, post it as a comment at the end of this post and I will answer it for you.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/02/17/how-to-plan-your-tech-career/feed/ 11 How To Beat The 2009 Recession By Improving Your Skills – Top Predictions http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/01/26/how-to-beat-recessions-by-improving-skills-top-2009-predictions/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/01/26/how-to-beat-recessions-by-improving-skills-top-2009-predictions/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:12:16 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=632

jobs-employment-recession

2009 is proving to be a big year for online learning as more tech professionals enroll in web based, video based, distance learning programs to improve their skills and employment prospects.

I have compiled some predictions from learning experts, coaches, trainers, educators and training providers published in the eLearn Magazine

  • Allison Rossett, San Diego State University, USA: … today, in these harsh economic times, there is pressure to reduce costs. Technology is favored over registrations in hotels and hours in classrooms away from customers and clients …

  • Saul Carliner, Graduate Program in Educational Technology, Concordia University, Canada: … as organizations try to stretch their learning budgets in hard times, e-learning will become an attractive option …

  • Roger Schank, John Evans Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, Psychology, and Education, Northwestern University; CEO Socratic Arts: … A ruined economy will demand trained workers and college degrees will matter less than real abilities. Schools will have to offer to train students to do actual jobs, and they will do this online. … Real education, according to the second president of the United States, John Adams, “…is about learning to live and learning to make a living” an idea that got lost between the late 1700s and today. High schools and universities have simply failed to teach what needs to be taught. This will change in 2009.

  • Richard C. Larson, Founder and Director, MIT LINC-Learning International Networks Consortium, USA : … this will open opportunities for new technology-enabled educational innovations in which the repetitive routine lecturing, administrative and related repetitive tasks are replaced with e-learning options, and the teachers-though fewer in number-will have more opportunities to serve as student mentors. This combination of personal mentoring plus tailored e-learning environments for students could-if we are imaginative-will usher in an age of personalized learning analogous to the movement toward personalized health care.

  • Inge de Waard, eLearning advisor, Ignatia Webs, Belgium : … In the past, the budget of training departments got cut when an economic crisis erupted, but this time investing in learning will make or break companies and organizations. The world is evolving from an industrial age into a knowledge age, so content will become key in 2009. Social media use will increase because it saves money as it keeps knowledge in a central place (quick retrievability, international access,…) …

  • Matt Bovell, Vell Group, USA: … there are three reasons why e-learning will continue to grow in 2009: (1) The economy is tanking. More and more companies will be attempting to achieve cost savings using e-learning technologies. (2) As students attempt to make better use of their time and money, they will continue to avail themselves of e-learning opportunities. (3) As more and more companies try to establish a reputation for being eco-friendly, they will use e-learning as part of their green initiatives.

  • Peter Parker, Owner, EPCoT Systems Ltd and Management Consulting Consultant, UK : … see the current credit crunch as a time when more money is spent on training. The reasons are: (1) Good companies (particularly in the financial sector) use training as part of an exit package. Hence, as people are released, budgets are provided for the release packages and some of this is spent on training. (2) Individuals want to distinguish themselves from the market. This means they have to spend money on training to provide that differentiation. Many training companies see this time as challenging, but not a time to expect a large decrease in training revenue.

Note this prediction by Roger Schank, John Evans Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, Psychology, and Education, Northwestern University; CEO Socratic Arts:

… a ruined economy will demand trained workers and college degrees will matter less than real abilities. Schools will have to offer to train students to do actual jobs, and they will do this online. … Real education, according to the second president of the United States, John Adams, “…is about learning to live and learning to make a living” an idea that got lost between the late 1700s and today. High schools and universities have simply failed to teach what needs to be taught. This will change in 2009.

Editor’s Note

In the next set of articles that we will be posting the step-by-step tools, techniques and strategies for beating the 2009 recession. Stay tuned.

Your Opinion?

Do you have any opinion about this article? … post it as a comment below … do you have any topics that need to be covered in the recession set of articles? …. post it as a comment below.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/01/26/how-to-beat-recessions-by-improving-skills-top-2009-predictions/feed/ 0 How To Become A Rockstar In Your Industry http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/01/15/how-to-become-a-rockstar-in-your-industry/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/01/15/how-to-become-a-rockstar-in-your-industry/#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:00:57 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=498

How To Become A Rockstar In Your Industry

How To Become A Rockstar in Your Industry

Top performers, rockstars or successful professionals have a mindset or a way of thinking.

They practice a code or follow a set of principles that helps them achieve the best results in their industry.

Read the rest of this post to learn more about their philosophy and other actionable strategies for becoming the best at what you do.

Always Be Learning

According to the Japanese Kaizen philosophy, consistence and commitment to studying, getting more information or improving your skills is better than sudden bursts of efforts.

So become a lifelong learner and not someone who learns solely to get a job or or achieve some other short term professional goal.

Read this post titled: “Always Be Learning”.

Become An Expert In Your Industry

Acquiring knowledge is not enough. You must strive to become the best that you can be by sharpening your skills.

Improve your skills or become an expert by using practice tests to remember, learn more effectively or understand new material.

Keep taking practice tests until you become highly skilled and then gain a lot of handson experience by solving the problems or challenges facing others in your industry.

Remember that you can get experience outside the boundaries of an 8 to 5 job and note that becoming an expert does not mean that you know everything or that you have become the smartest person!

Read this post on How To Become A Technical Expert.

Become Inspired

There are skills or attitudes that can’t be passed along to you except by working with more experienced professionals.

So go find a mentor or coach who believes in you and is willing or able to work with you one-on-one towards your professional goals.

Make a habit of reading the blog posts or books of written by those that inspire you.

Read this post on How To Become Inspired.

Read Professional Books In Your Industry

Audio coaching is good and Video training is even better but books are still the most universal and widely accepted format for passing information across.

So, supplement all your video training with some good, old-fashioned textbooks!

Though many technical textbooks are boring or hard to understand, they are an indispensable part of your career development.

And do not hesitate to spend a lot of money on professional textbooks because the best investment that you can make is in yourself.

A long time ago, I formed a habit of spending Saturday evenings in Borders or Barnes & Noble Bookshop. While my kids are playing, I would survey or read the latest books in my industry and buy those that presented new or interesting information.

I would spend as much as 200 hundred dollars in one visit and I reckon that I made back the investment by getting top paying jobs usually offered to those that stay ahead of developments in their industry!

Read this post titled: How To Self Study Effectively.

Stay Ahead of Developments In Your Industry

Don’t bury your head in the daily grind of your 8 to 5 existence and become extinct like the Dodo!

The world around you and your industry is constantly changing, so you have to change too!

Be the first to learn new skills, processes, technology or tools and you will never lack a dull moment in your career!

Read this post on How To Stay Ahead of the Technology Curve.

Experience Is King!

In the Information Technology (IT) world, hands-on experience is King!

Experience counts more than certifications or college diplomas and degrees because experience is the currency of the Industry.

Experience matters because hiring managers are of the mindset that your past performance on previous jobs is the best predictor of your future performance (if hired for the job).

So, trying to convince a hiring manager of your suitability for a job without providing the experience to back it up is doing things backwards.

Give hiring managers what they want by getting handson experience with your current employer or building experience outside your 9 to 5 existence through working on leadership projects.

Read this post on How To Get Handson Experience At Your Current Employer.

Connect With Other Professionals on Social Media

Don’t look inwards until you implode into nothingness … Network with other professionals online!

There are tools like LinkedIn, Twitter or FaceBook that make it easy for you to create completely new relationships with total strangers, so get to know other people!

The success of LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook proves that we are transitioning to a world where new jobs, opportunities or clients will be increasingly referred to us by our Social Media Network.

You may start by connecting with me on Twitter.

Success Comes By Helping Others

You will never know a skill like you should, until you teach it to someone else.

The questions that you have to answer and the extra research you do to be sure of your facts, will in the end help you as much as it helps the person you are mentoring.

Besides, when you help others, some of the them will reciprocate by referring opportunities that you won’t have gotten by keeping your knowledge to yourself!

Becoming a leader by helping others improves your standing, value or reputation in an increasingly networked online community as a leader which means that you will find it easier to get full-time jobs or consulting offers.

Read this post On How To Become A Leader In Your Industry.

Work On Projects Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Accept responsibilities, projects or tasks that stretch you beyond your comfort zone.

There is really no safety in the comfort zone because that is not how life works.

Cultivate a mind that is willing to try new ways of doing things and you will never have to be afraid of the unknown!

In your Quest For Knowledge, Get Certified

Get some professional certifications. The process of getting a certification will improve your skills and stretch you beyond your comfort zone.

It will also ground you in the facts you need to know for your job. However don’t be like those who desire to get certified so much that … they are willing to cheat their way to through.

The true goal of certification is to make you a smarter, better, more knowledgeable person, so if you cheat your way to a certification, you have gained nothing!

In your Quest for Knowledge, Take Practice Tests

Use practice tests to boost your skills or get to your knowledge to expert level quickly.

Repetition in training is the key to skill mastery. So, to master any new skill just repeat the same set of tasks multiple times until it sinks in and becomes second nature to you!

And guess what? That is the same conclusion reached by “Daniel Coyle in Talent Code” and “Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers” in their ground-breaking, best-selling books!

These authors discovered that the top performers in any industry put in hours of practice into sharpening their skills and that constant skill-sharpening, passionate practice is essential for world class performance.

Read this post On How To Boost Your Skills Using Practice Tests.

Do it NOW!

The real purpose of knowledge is action.So take a pen and write down on paper, actions that you will take based on the information I have given you in this post.

Then, DO IT NOW!

I wish you the best in your career.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/01/15/how-to-become-a-rockstar-in-your-industry/feed/ 0 Coaching Or Self Study http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/20/coaching-or-self-study/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/20/coaching-or-self-study/#comments Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:11:14 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/20/coaching-or-self-study/

There are a number of ways you can learn programming or business analysis or any
other technical skill. I recommend both coaching and self study. I
am going to compare both modes of learning so you have a better idea of what
works for you and what doesn't.

Self Study or Teach Yourself

Self study is the type of learning where you are 100% responsible for the
outcome. It involves researching a concept, subject or topic through books,
online websites and other types of media. You set the learning goals by
yourself, draw up a lesson plan and then do your own reading and learning.

1. Self study is the cheapest way to learn a skill. It is cheaper than training,
coaching, mentoring or distance learning.

2. Self study is not the most productive or the fastest way to learn a skill. It
is easier for you to give up on your study goals because you are only
accountable to yourself. It is easier for you to skip on scheduled lessons
because you are only accountable to yourself.

3. Self study is great if you don't care about feedback. The books you are
reading are not likely to tell you anything about how you are doing or talk back
to you. So, if you like learning in solitude without any feedback from other
people, self study may be ideal for you.

Coaching

Coaching involves someone else other than yourself walking you through your
study material.

1. Coaching is more expensive than self study because you have to pay for your
coach's time.

2. Coaching is a quicker, faster, surer way to achieve your learnng goals and
here is why. When you pay a coach to learn a skill (body building, writing,
internet marketing, etc.) you are more likely to do whatever it takes to
complete your program. So, you are more committed and invested in your goal.

3. Learning a new technical skill can be a difficult or frustrating experience
at times and having a coach walk you through the process can save you a lot of
tears, detours and time.

4. Your coach can show you the shortcuts that shave years off your learning
curve. There is a limit to how much you can actually learn about a subject just
by reading it. A coach can supply that experiential knowledge that will take you
years to learn otherwise. That is why the top performers in almost every
industry have mentors who are above them.

5. Since coaching is a one-to-one relationship, you must admire and respect your
coach and also get along fairly well with your coach otherwise you may well be
wasting your money and your time.

I hope this clarifies things for you. On my website, I have IT Career Books for
computer programmers, business analysts and other software development
professionals. These books are perfect if you are a do-it-yourself kind of
person.

At the same time, I also have coaching programs that provide personalized,
one-on-one attention or feedback. So, just do what works for you
… get the ebooks if you prefer self study or the coaching programs if you want
a guide, mentor or trainer that will walk you through your
learning.

About The Author

My name is Kingsley Tagbo and I?m a technical expert living in Saint Louis,
Missouri. I write about the training, coaching, mentoring
and personal development of software development professionals including
business analysts, computer programmers, testers, project managers, web
designers, data analysts, report writers, software developers and other
information technology professionals .

My firm, Exacticity, performs software development consulting and training for
clients throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New
Zealand. If you are in need of software development consultants or training,
target="_blank"
title="contact the author">click here to get in touch with me.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/20/coaching-or-self-study/feed/ 0 How To Recession Proof Your Career http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/06/how-to-recession-proof-your-career/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/06/how-to-recession-proof-your-career/#comments Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:22:14 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/06/how-to-recession-proof-your-career-part-1/

Recession Proof Your Career

Recession Proof Your Career

Is the US economy already in a recession?

Will the weakened US economy affect the global economy leading to a recession in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and perhaps other international markets?

Should you really care about a recession and how it will affect your career, job or income?

How About A Refresher Course On Recessions?

If you do not quite realize what a recession looks like, perhaps you can do with this refresher on the last recession to hit the US economy in 2001.

In the beginning, no one seemed to be quite sure that the recession was going to happen. Some pundits felt that the US economy will perhaps weaken but not really experience a full blown recession. Other experts felt that the economy was already in a recession. Then all of a sudden all the pundits and experts and news media outlets seemed to be screaming in unison, we are in a recession!

Fortune 500′s Laying Off Employees In The Thousands

Fortune 500 corporations where laying off employees in the thousands! There where daily announcements of job cuts leading to tens of thousands of full-time employees hitting the streets with their last pay check! Smaller businesses could not be out competed too! If you read your local newspaper, you will see the same daily roll call of local employers laying off workers.

No Jobs for Highly Skilled Workers

The recession got so bad, that even highly skilled and highly qualified employees with post graduate degrees couldn’t get jobs. The news media was awash with news on how the middle class and the white-collar workers could not even get job interviews.

Salary and Wage Cuts

Some of the fortunate white and blue collar workers who still had jobs after all the job cuts and layoff announcements, had to stand in line for salary cuts. Freezes on wage increases and benefits beame common. Vacationing was a taboo word and as if that wasn’t bad enough, the senior, experienced, highly-skilled workers where being offered an option between either working for entry-level wages or getting the dreaded pink slip.

Dog Eat Dog Market

I recall recruiters telling me horror stories of how they would put up a job advertisement and get 500 resumes of highly skilled and qualified people within 24 hours contrasted to how they used to get a few weak resumes per week for their job postings. The irony of the situation, was that the mailboxes of hiring managers and recruiters got filled up within hours of putting up a job posting. Hiring managers and recruiters who couldn’t deal with the flood of resumes literally had to abandon checking their voicemails and inboxes for other covert (black ops) methods of hiring.

An Employers Market

The job market situation worsened as those employers who could still hire, realized that they literally had the whole employment world at their fingertips. Then things got really ugly as employers start getting really picky about resumes, credentials, qualifications, experience, level of expertise and level of technical training of job applicants. I recall the horror story of a techie who had to contact about 10,000 employers to get 2 job interviews and one job offer.

How To Protect Yourself From The Next Recession

Hopefully, you get the picture now. The point of these horror stories is that, yes you should care about the ongoing debate between pundits and experts about whether the US economy is in the beginning or middle of a recession.

The big question is really “what should you do immediately to protect yourself and your loved ones from a national or perhaps global economic recession?“

Here are a few tips recession proofing your career:

  1. Become A Highly Skilled Worker Now

    In a recession, the unskilled technical worker is obviously more at risk than the skilled technical worker. While the highly skilled technical worker may get downsized to a lower paying job, the lesser skilled technical workers are the weakest in the tech food chain and are the ones most at risk of losing their jobs.

  2. Take Your Technical Training Now

    Now is the time to take your technical training and not in the middle of the recession when jobs are difficult to get. First, when you take as much technical training as you can, you reduce the chances that you will be laid off because technical training increases your competitiveness.

    Also, it is much harder to pay for your technical training if you are laid off and in the middle of a job search than while you still have a job and an income. What typically happens to laid-off workers in a recession is that their first instinct is to cut down their expenses and cost of living including out-of-pocket training costs. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really help them because this is the time when they really need to be competitive.

    Note: some employers get picky in a recession and will question your judgment by asking you why you waited until you where laid off to take your technical training seriously.

  3. Polish Your Resume Now

    Now is the time to take your resume and update it with all the latest and greatest technical skills (recruiter speak for cutting edge technology) . If you are in a computer programming career, now is the time to master the latest versions of the most popular software development languages (I have listed them in my “how to learn programming book“).

    If you are a business analyst, now is the time to ensure that you have learnt and mastered full life cycle software development practices. Whether you a tester, project manager, quality assurance analyst, data analyst or database developer, now is the time to look outside the windows or confines of your day to day job and ask yourself the question, “what critical skills am i lacking on my resume?” or “how do I take my career to the next level?.”

    For your sake and the sake of your loved ones, do whatever it takes to gain the critical, leading edge skills that you need to take your career to the next level and then put those skills, experience and training on your resume now, so you are not caught in the deadly grip of a recession.

    Don’t forget to polish up your technical interviewing and job hunting skills and finally do whatever it takes to look after your employer or clients now and they will be more willing to look out for you when you need their help.

Current Training Opportunities

If you are a business analyst, software developer, data analyst, computer programmer, web developer, web designer, tester or project manager interested in taking your skills and career to the next level, SIGN UP NOW for the 2008 SQL / DATABASE DEVELOPER TRAINING PROGRAM

If you want to master software development, computer programming or web development SIGN UP NOW for the 2008 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TRAINING PROGRAM

About The Author

My name is Kingsley Tagbo and I?m a technical expert living in Saint Louis, Missouri. I write about the training, coaching, mentoring and personal development of software development professionals including business analysts, computer programmers, testers, project managers, web designers, data analysts, report writers, software developers and other information technology professionals .

My firm, Exacticity, performs software development consulting and training for clients throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. If you are in need of software development help or training, click here to contact me.


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