ITCareerCoach Training - Coaching » hgh school 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 How To Earn Significantly More Money, When Your Career Hits a Plateau! http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/12/06/how-to-earn-significantly-more-money-when-your-career-hits-a-plateau/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/12/06/how-to-earn-significantly-more-money-when-your-career-hits-a-plateau/#comments Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:38:28 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3359

How To Earn Significantly More Money, When Your Career Hits a Plateau!

How To Earn Significantly More Money, When Your Career Hits a Plateau!


Have you you reached a plateau in your career?

If you have, consider becoming a contractor.

As a contractor, you may earn significantly more money (20% to 50% more) and you will find more challenging work for your skill sets.

In this post, I will show how you to minimize the risks while maximizing the benefits of being a contractor so that you end up with significantly more money in your pocket!

Is A Contracting Lifestyle Right For You?

Contractors actually have a corner on the market because they have better, more up-to-date skills, better job exposure, more hands-on experience and better marketing skills which leads to more (and not less) job stability.

Contractors have a refined sense for making money because being a contractor is one step removed from being a business owner.

Contractors focus on learning marketable skills and on staying ahead of the technology curve because the best paid contractors have the sharpest, most marketable skills.

Being a contractor, involves striking a balance between the false sense of security that regular, full-time employees are sometimes lulled into and the fear that sometimes overwhelms business owners.

Contractors also have access to full medical, dental and 401K plans just like regular, full-time employees.

So, my question to you is: have you considered becoming a contractor?

Here are some of the signs that your career has hit a plateau:

  • You are not being challenged at work: you have not worked on a project that challenges or stretches you for a long time
  • Your skills have stagnated: your skills have stagnated because you no longer work on leading / cutting edge projects
  • You have lost your sense of direction: you spend more time dealing with corporate politics and less time getting results
  • You are not getting any recognition: you can’t seem to move up in your career or earn more money regardless of how hard you work
  • You have a boring job: you dread going to work because you job is boring … boring … boring!

If have been affected by any of these situations, there is good news for you.

Becoming a contractor can lift the ceiling on your salary or provide you with more challenging work, without causing you to lose the best benefits of a full-time, permanent / regular job.

Here are some tips to help you create a successful contracting career

TIP #1: Build Your Contracting Career Around Marketable Skills

Analyze your local economy to find out the sectors that are hiring. Based on these sectors, you can figure out the type of contracting experience that is going to sell.

Note: One industry that hires professionals from all sorts of backgrounds is the “Web Development Industry”.

TIP #2: Manage The Longevity of Contracting Jobs

Contracting positions should be six months or longer. I would advice you to stay away from contracting jobs that are less than 6 months because they are just too short to get anything useful done.

When you hear that a contracting gig is less than six (6) months, you may need to walk away, because that kind of job may come with a lot of pressure to perform or a lot of stress.

Focus on long-term contracting jobs, except if you are starting from scratch or you are willing to work any job, just to succeed.

On the other hand, contracting jobs that last 1, 2 years or more are desirable because they offer just about as much security as regular, permanent, full-time jobs.

Contracting jobs have longevity. They may not last as long as full-time, permanent jobs but they last long enough to be meaningful!

TIP #3: Bill A Lot More!

How do contractors handle the shorter employment periods? They bill a lot more!

Assuming that as a business analyst contractor, you earn $65,000 (USD) or £41,675 (British Pounds).

When you become a contract business analyst, you may earn anywhere from 20 percent ($13,000 or £8,345) to 50 percent ($32,500 to £20,800) more .. without changing your career or going to college for a masters or post-graduate education!

Now, that extra money should not to be invested in your lifestyle, buying a bigger house or more cars. Instead, it should be put away in a savings, retirement or investment account because you will need it!

Contractors have to account for down-times. A down-time is the time between projects, contracts or jobs when a contractor is looking for the next gig, assignment or project.

Contractors may encounter down-times in between their assignments which last up to a month or longer.

A business-savvy contractor will use down-times to learn new skills or sharpen existing skills.

As a contractor, learning a new (marketable) skill or sharpening an existing skill, means that you will encounter less and less of a downtime and that you will be paid more money because you always bring the best skill-sets to your projects!

So, it is not uncommon to see contractors, earn 50% more than their full-time contemporaries because they have better, more marketable, sharper skills!

TIP #4: Contractors Don’t Have To Travel

Contrary to popular opinions, contractors are not really required to travel except when:

  • They don’t have marketable skills and because of that, have to travel to different locations to get a good job
  • They choose to travel because they like being on the road even though there are contracting jobs that do not involve traveling.

Keep in mind that the majority of employers will disclose any traveling requirements before you are hired.

I won’t advice that you to bring up the question of traveling except if it’s mentioned in the job posting or interview.

If traveling is mentioned, be frank and tell the employer during a face to face job interview, that you don’t want to travel because of personal or family commitments.

Contractors do not have to travel. So, if you find yourself traveling excessively, you either have the wrong skills or you are in the wrong job.

TIP #5: Contracting Does Not Negatively Affect Your Credit

As a contractor, you actually have a full-time job and your bank, financial institution or creditors can call your staffing company and verify your employment history or salary just as easily as if you were a regular, full-time employee.

If you are working for yourself, or you are billing the employer directly, you may have a tougher time getting credit because you are self-employed.

However, most contractors are employed with a staffing agency, so they really have a full-time, regular job just like everyone else.

Getting loans, credit or financing for a contractor is usually just as easy as getting credit for a full-time employee because contractors earn a lot more money and they probably have more savings, which means that their credit is just as good.

TIP #6: Manage Your Contracting Profile

Let’s say that you use the same staffing agency all the time, then your employment history / profile will look like that of a full-time, permanent employee even though you change clients often, because you are still employed with one staffing company.

However, if you change staffing agencies every time you change jobs, your work profile will look less stable and that may negatively affect your employment profile during a job interview or a credit check.

Fortunately, you have a good measure of control over which staffing agency you work for.

For starters, make sure that you work with a recruiter that you like and then stay in close communication with that recruiter throughout the life of your project.

Money Making TIP:Get your recruiter to start looking for new projects at least six (6) weeks before the exit date or the ending of your project and you will be able to transition from one job to another with zero or little down-time.

TIP #7: YES, Contractors Must Be Highly Skilled

Contractors are the most skilled, knowledgeable and experienced professionals on a project. That is why they are paid all those big bucks.

Being a contractor does not mean that you have spent a lot of years in the industry. It does not mean that you have more formal education or more certifications than your regular, full-time colleagues.

You do not need a post-graduate degree, an MBA or a computer science background to become a contractor because college education does not parallel the functional skills required for success in Information Technology jobs.

Being a contractor does means that you are performance minded or that you are obsessed about achieving results.

Read this post titled: “Can You Perform, Prove It!”

This post was written in answer to a question posted by a business analyst

This question was submitted to “ASK IT Career Coach” by a business analyst looking for advice on how to become a contractor.

If you have a challenging career situation, be sure to [Submit A Question] using our Free, Amazing, [Ask IT Career Coach] – Ask A Question Service.

For more information, read this post titled” Do You Want To Become A Consultant?”


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/12/06/how-to-earn-significantly-more-money-when-your-career-hits-a-plateau/feed/ 0 How to Tap Into Magical Hiring Powers http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/08/18/how-to-tap-into-magical-hiring-powers/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/08/18/how-to-tap-into-magical-hiring-powers/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:28:09 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3269

Tapping Into Your Magical Hiring Powers

Tapping Into Your Magical Hiring Powers

As a Career Coach, I come across questions or discussions from job seekers “looking for recruiter who can get them a job“.

From the way these statements are worded, it seems that all it takes for the job seeker to get a job is finding a recruiter with magical hiring powers.

But, is it really true?

Do recruiters have hiring powers and how much of the success or failure of the job search depends on the recruiter’s magical hiring powers?

In this post, I will clarify the recruiter’s role and show you how to tap into the magical hiring powers available to job search candidates!

  1. Recruiters Are Gatekeepers

    Recruiters, staffing agencies or placement services simply screen and then forward resumes to employers / clients.

    A placement service will forward your resume to the client / employer if you have performed jobs in the past related to the job posting.

    If the employer is picky about resumes or complains about the quality / number of job candidates, the staffing / placement service will raise the requirements for submission.

    But keep in mind that recruiters do not exclusivity to job postings in a broad sense because you can always forward your resume to employers, have a staffing agency do it for you or do both.

  2. Recruiters Are Lie Detectors

    Generally speaking, many recruiters in the Information Technology (IT) industry do not have a technical background.

    They have not worked with or used the tools listed on your resume / job posting and cannot really say whether you are qualified or not.

    So, what they do is check your resume to see if it will pass a very basic, unsophisticated lie detector.

    Recruiters want to know such things like: where you have worked, what titles you held and whether you are eligible t work for the client.

    Note: when working with recruiters, take the extra step of convincing them that your resume and background is a good fit, because they may not be able to tell the difference!

  3. Can Staffing Agencies Claim Exclusivity?

    Generally, employers will use multiple staffing agencies and then use their own internal hiring team to narrow the pool of resumes down to a few candidates who would be interviewed or hired.

    An Employer may also decide to be discreet about the hiring process and use only one staffing agency.

    But even in this case, the staffing agency does not make a hiring decision. All the placement service can do for you is forward your resume to the employer.

  4. Who Makes Hiring Decisions?

    In all cases, it’s the employer’s internal hiring team / manager that makes the hiring decision and not the placement / staffing agency.

    Recruiters do not have magical hiring powers and you cannot base your job search on claims of exclusivity by a recruiter.

    Remember that the job search process is a democratic process and that you, the staffing agency and the employer all participate or play active roles in the process.

Discover Magic In A Law Of Numbers

One of the most important laws in the hiring process is the law of numbers.

This law says that “the more resumes you submit and job interviews you take, the greater your chances of getting hired!”

The law of numbers gives you magical hiring powers because the more recruiters, staffing or placement agencies you submit your resume to … the greater are your chances of getting hired.

So, my advice is, don’t look up to recruiters, staffing / placement agencies instead, look-up to yourself by tapping into your own magical hiring powers!


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/08/18/how-to-tap-into-magical-hiring-powers/feed/ 1 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 6 Principles That Transform Your Work http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/04/6-principles-that-transform-your-work/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/04/6-principles-that-transform-your-work/#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 07:01:42 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3132

six principles that transform your career

six principles that transform your work

Are you looking for a transformation in your work situation? Follow these 6 rock solid success principles that summarize what I have learned about building careers or online communities!

Whatever your industry, background or situation, these six principles will help you “Discover Your Passion“, “Do What You Love” or “Take Your Passion To Market“.

The first two (2) principles are designed to help you choose work that matches your strengths, education, training, background, skills, experience, hobbies or interests.

Principle #1 – Choose Work Based On Passion

Work is much easier or more fulfilling when you do something that you are passionate about as opposed to something that stresses you!

On the other hand, when you are not passionate about your work, you will lack the desire to excel or motivation to perform at work!

Some people don’t believe in the “Do What You Love And The Money Will Follow” principle because the picture that comes to their mind is that of starving artists who do what they love and yet cannot pay their bills.

The good news is that you don’t have to be a starving artist because you can actually do what you love and have the money follow you :-)

The first step on this path to success, is choosing work that is at the intersection of something you’re good at, something you care about and something other people in your chosen industry, niche or market need, find useful and are willing to pay for.

Read this article titled: “How The Starving Artist Achieves Career Success Using Social Media“.

Principle #2 – Learn the Most Marketable Skills

Learn the most marketable skills for the work that you have chosen to do.

Your skills are just a means to an end which usually involves meeting the needs of customers in the industry or market.

When it comes to choosing skills that you will learn, be as objective as possible and choose based on facts or data as opposed to emotions or personal opinions.

Remember that the more marketable your skills are, the easier it will be for you to find a new job, earn an income or stay employed.

Read this post titled: learn the most marketable skills

It is easy to learn the marketability of a skill, just count the number of job postings that require that skill!

For your own personal education, after reading this post, “Download the Free Report” below which describes the Top 100, Most Marketable Skills in the Online Employment Industry.

The next two principles described on this post belong to a coaching course titled: “Do What You Love“.

These two principles will take your performance to an advanced level or give you the freedom to do what you love without fear of failure.

Principle #3 – Stay Current In Your Industry

Stay current with the information coming out of your industry by reading a lot of blog posts, articles or books.

Do not neglect to read professional textbooks because the fundamental principles, concepts and techniques are often explained in great details in them.

Subscribe to and read the blog post of the most influential professionals in your industry. Nowadays, the latest, cutting-edge information is often posted in blogs before it makes its way out to industry textbooks.

Invest time and money in learning because ours is a knowledge-based economy and the most valuable currency is your knowledge, skills or experience and not the money saved in your bank account.

In other words, the more you learn and put to work, the more money you will earn … and the less you learn, the more likely you are to lose your income!

Principle #4 – Advance Your Skills By Taking Tests

Study hard but better still, take frequent tests because they improve retention, comprehension and recall and also help you excel at work by sharpening your skills!

Read more about the Benefits of Taking Tests in this post titled: How To Ace Job Interviews Using Practice Tests.

It is important that you become highly skilled because when the economy sheds jobs, the easiest jobs to cut are those employing the least skilled workers and the most likely to get hired again, are the most skilled workers!

In other words, the only safety net for your job is to become highly skilled at your work, career or business!

Remember that you live in a global economy where a job can be outsourced to a professional living in another country simply because that professional is better skilled than you.

An article by Pam Belluck of the New York Times reports a new scientific finding in the “January 2011 Science Journal” which backs up my findings about the importance of taking frequent practice tests.

Click here to read the article titled: “To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test”.

This scientific finding suggests that taking tests is good not only for certification exams or assessing knowledge but for helping people learn new information as well!

The conclusion is that students who read and take a test asking them to recall what they just read perform better than those who use traditional learning techniques!

The next two principles described on this post belong to a online coaching course or web design & web marketing consulting services titled: “Bring Your Passion To Market“.

These last two success principles are important because without marketing your ideas, skills or business, someone else who is less qualified but more visible will take the opportunities meant for you!

Principle #5 – Blog Your Way To Success

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket by depending solely on your resume and online job postings. Learn to market your career with a blog.

Blogging is the process of putting out well-researched, informative or authoritative articles on your industry. When done right, it will keep you visible to a high number of employers.

Blogging can distinguish you in a global, competitive job market by helping you develop and market a unique personal brand, which is something that employers apparently value!

The value of blogging is that it can open the communication doors between you and potential employers or customers.

As you talk or write, yo differentiate yourself from your competitors and potential customers or employers begin to value your expertise.

Principle #6 – Invest In An Online Community

Invest time, effort and money in an online community that incorporates your strengths, your blog posts and your social media networking activities.

Your online community must be built around your passion and your strengths so that members feel energized, inspired, motivated or helped when they interact with you.

If you passionately help out your community members by giving your time and expertise, they will reciprocate the favor by referring customers, employers or new opportunities your way.

Building an online community can only be described as the best publicity or customer relationship management (CRM) tool and in the end all the good work that you do will benefit your reputation, online brand, business or career as well.

Bring Your Passion To Market: regardless of how good your skills are, you must stay visible to employers or potential customers, if you want to get hired.

These six (6) principles are documented in my FREE thirty six (36) page Report titled: “The Survivors Guide To Unemployment” which you can download below.

Click here to discover your passion: or find work that is at the intersection of something you’re good at, something you care about and something other people in your chosen industry, niche or market need, find useful and are willing to pay for.

Or hire our web design & web marketing consulting services: to help you bring your passion (ideas, products, services, skills or business) to market.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/04/6-principles-that-transform-your-work/feed/ 0 Success Principle: Learn the Most Marketable Skills http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/28/learn-most-marketable-skills/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/28/learn-most-marketable-skills/#comments Tue, 01 Mar 2011 01:47:21 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3126

Learn a Top 100 Most Marketable Skill

Learn a Top 100 Most Marketable Skill


As a career coach one of the challenges that many of my clients face is that of learning the most marketable skills in the current job market.

An example is a client that I will call John who has been looking for a while even though he has an advanced management degree (MBA).

He wonders why he’s constantly getting turned down for business analyst jobs even though he is certain of this: most of those getting hired are less educated than him!

John is having a hard time seeing why despite his impressive educational qualifications, his skill sets are still not in alignment with business analyst job postings.

John’s problem is that he is still viewing the job market from his perspective and not from the employers. If he can just change his perspective, his situation will improve dramatically!

John is not alone in this regard because just like him, we also hold on to our cherished opinions until a personal crisis forces us to objectively evaluate them.

However, if John does not confront his personal beliefs or change how he approaches the job market, he may not fulfill his potential career wise!

He will have to either leave his traditional way of thinking for a more modern, objective view point or remain in his comfort zone with nothing to show for his beliefs!

New Research Data On the Top 100 Most Marketable Skills

I start off my career coaching for some clients by asking them to take an objective look at the demand for their skills in the current job market.

This is because the constantly changing face of culture or technology causes a misalignment of skills in the employment market.

So market research is needed to highlight those skill gaps which must be bridged for one to become an in-demand professional again.

In today’s career defining post, I will show you how to research the skills that are most currently in-demand so that you can get back into your game.

Did you know that the last recession and resulting layoffs was a big boost to the online job market?

To survive the financial downturn, both employers and job candidates turned to the online employment industry in record numbers at a time when the traditional employment market was grinding to a standstill.

In the fourth quarter of 2010, a report produced by an online employment agency shows that the four (4) biggest industries employing online workers were:

  1. The Information Technology (IT) / Software Development Industry

  2. The Creative / Web Design Industry

  3. The Internet Marketing Industry

  4. The Office Administration Industry

Which Jobs Are Most Indemand Online?

This report is important because it shows the most indemand skills that employers are hiring for in the fourth quarter of 2010.

This type of report will help you make decisions based on real-world data and not based on opinions or subjective interpretation of the job market.

Here are the jobs that are most in-demand based on an analysis of hiring in the fourth quarter of 2010.

#1 In-demand Job: Information Technology Industry

The information technology / software development market is the biggest employer of labor.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of online job postings are in the Information technology / Software Development industry which primarily employs web developers, web designers, computer programmers, sql query writers, database developers and mobile phone developers.

Keep in mind that this industry also traditionally employs Information Technology (IT) business analysts, project managers and software testers who are charged with the success of software development / information technology projects.

The online employment market is weighed in favor of the Information Technology (IT) Industry and of computer programmers with PHP, MySQL, C#, ASP.NET, .NET Framework, Sql Server, Sql, HTML/XHTML, CSS, Javascript skills.

#2 In-demand Job: Creative / Web Design Industry

Creative jobs are the second most popular jobs (24%) posted by online employers.

Creative jobs may require skills in web design, illustration and graphic / web design software packages like Adobe Photosho, Flash, ActionScript, Adobe AfterEffects, etc.

The creative or web design industry traditionally hires professionals who can create logos, banners, website themes, illustrate comic books or websites, create cartoons, comic characters, interactive elements of web pages, animations or even movies.

The web design industry also traditionally employs web business analysts, project managers or software testers with strong handson domain experience in the web design / web development industry.

#3 In-demand Job: Internet Marketing Industry

While the software development / information technology industry is the highest employer of labor, the online internet marketing industry is experiencing the highest growth surge because of the increasing investment in social networking projects for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

What this also means is that the marketing department in many organizations are employing or spending money on social networking / social media platform projects.

So strong skills in this sector of the indusstry can put your career back online because that is where the marketing dollars are going right now!

The combined spending on online branding, media and customer acquisition, affiliate marketing, search engine marketing and social networking places the Internet Marketing Industry in the third position in the list of the biggest online employers of labor.

#4 In-demand Job: Office Administration Industry

The Office / Administration industry provides about six percent (6%) of the jobs posted in the online employment job market.

This industry hires for data entry, general office and computer skills, customer service and telephone services amongst others.

So How Do Begin To Learn A Marketable Skill?

You have read my analysis of the online employment job market based on the 2010 fourth quarter report from one of the online employment agencies, right?

My Free Report which you may download below contains more of my analysis of the top 100 most marketable skills and how to position your career to take advantage of them.

Next, practice the first of three (3) success principles that will align your skills with the online hiring needs of employers.

Success Principle: Learn a Marketable Skill

You may have your own ideas about which industries you want to work for ... but it is better to consider the industries that are most likely to hire you!

This is sometimes a question of whether you want to stay idle until your perfect job opportunity opens up or do what it takes to align your skills with the current job market and start earning an income?

Here is something to consider: learn skills that closely matches your personality, background, interests, education or training from the list of the top 100 most marketable skills online.

Download and read the FREE Report below … and if you need help with learning one of the top 100 most marketable skills, get in touch with us here.

For example, if you learn skills that align you with the software development / information technology industry, internet marketing, creative or office / administrative industry, you are making an informed decision based on data.

If your goal is to start earning an income in the shortest possible time, then learn a marketable skill from an industry that is hiring, OK?

For example, though the Information Technology (IT) industry is the highest employer of online labor, learning a computer programming skill like perl, which is not currently in top demand by employers, puts you out of the hiring game.

Whenever you learn a skill that is not marketable, you make it harder for yourself to get hired … and the less marketable your skills are, the harder you will have to work to get a job.

The Law of Numbers: Don’t put yourself out of the game by doing your own thing.

Make a data based decision by learning one of the top 100 most marketable skills today!

Download the FREE Report below and read my three (3) principles on aligning your skills with job market by learning.

When you download and read the FREE Report below, you will also learn about the top 100 most marketable skills in the online industry.

Click Here To Read the Newly Updated FREE Report

Click Here To Get A Top 100 Online Marketable Skill


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/28/learn-most-marketable-skills/feed/ 0 It’s Not What You Know It’s What You Do http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/22/its-not-what-you-know-its-what-you-do/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/22/its-not-what-you-know-its-what-you-do/#comments Tue, 22 Feb 2011 07:16:16 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3112

There is a lot of good career advice on this blog. This advice is for all you good people that have been so kind as to listen to me.

I am always interested in hearing from you, especially after you put my advice to work.

Today’s post is just a reminder to put my advice to work because it works.

Here is an email from a reader who got a JOB by doing what I say:

Hi, I kept reading your articles about the IT career to choose.

I was doing Field Service Engineering (Desktop support) and since when I was in school I have always in love with programming.

While I worked, I studied Intro to Java and Advanced J2ee and my wishful java career open right in front of my eyes.

I wanted to evolve from support to development so, I kept reading on how developers are getting paid and what to do to get your first java job without an industrial experience.

A company was looking for java devs and I applied and bam! in my face, my second interview for the java developer and I did my best during my interview and their assessment and got the JOB.

Thankx alot guys, I appreciate your work and your coaching is too valuable …

It’s Not What You Know It’s What You Do

Dear Friend,

When you read my article, take your pen and paper and jot down either things that you will do differently or questions that you want to ask me based on the information I’m given you.

Remember that reading all this precious advice is not enough. You’ve got to put it into practice and REAP the benefits in your career!

Thanks again for hanging out on my website, reading my blog posts daily and using my advice :-)

I appreciate you


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/22/its-not-what-you-know-its-what-you-do/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 Oracle Or Microsoft Access, Which Is Better? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/17/oracle-or-ms-access-which-is-better/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/17/oracle-or-ms-access-which-is-better/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:14:10 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3105

Oracle Or Microsoft Access, Which Is Better For Me?

Oracle Or Microsoft Access, Which Is Better For Me?

Are you matching your strengths to your opportunities or are you just being ideological … interested only in following your own ideas even when they won’t get you any results?

Here is a situation that illustrates the challenges of being ideological versus being results oriented. It is a situation that illustrates the challenges of learning an enterprise software like Oracle compared to a poor man’s database like Microsoft Access.

Are you wondering about who this situation involves? You are safe my friend because today, I will mainly be talking about me :-)

When I started out in the industry, my first priority was to get my foot into the door.

My goals were:

  1. To transition my career without incurring a lot of additional debt
  2. To learn a marketable skill so that I could get a job quickly
  3. To get myself into a position where I would be in high-demand by delivering excellent results

There were a number of career paths that looked promising and I looked into them all. Here a few of them:

Business Analysis

The business analyst career path was mostly available to systems analysts or management consultants people or poorly defined.

By poorly defined, i mean that it depended on the whims of hiring managers (it was subjective and depended on the employers needs or definitions) and so, there was no very clear or direct path to becoming a business analyst (this was in the ‘90s).

Network Administration

I had worked in network administration in an internship job right after college. My duties entailed helping support a Lotus CC:Mail/ Novell Netware Network

Based on my own first-hand experience, I ruled out computer networking primarily because I realized that I was not passionate about that industry.

Systems Programming

While in college, I had tried to learn C/C++ and I also decided that it wasn’t my thing because it took a long time to develop a fully functional software using C/C++

Based on experience, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to master C/C+ in a few months or get a job easily.

My finding was that it would take a number of years to become really expert or highly skilled at C/C++.

I was also certain, that even when I became highly skilled, I still won’t be able to deliver stellar results based on C/C++.

In case you’re interested, read my thoughts on choosing C/C++ as a programming language here…

Enterprise Database Software

I investigated getting an entry level job in SAP / Oracle / IBM or some other enterprise software since that is where it seemed that the big bucks where being made. In the 90’s, the major database players included IBM, Oracle, Microsoft.

Oracle was very popular in the enterprise database computing circle. However, learning Oracle was no small feat.

I mean that installing Oracle on your own local computer for learning purposes was not an easy proposition even for experienced oracle professionals because companies hired senior / experienced Oracle consultants just to install and setup Oracle correctly on their servers.

In addition to that, Oracle was targeted at the enterprise buyer which meant that purchasing a full-featured Oracle license for an individual like me without corporate sponsorship … was simply beyond my budget!

In addition, even if I raised the money to buy an Oracle License, I would have to spend additional weeks installing Oracle correctly by myself or else hire an Oracle database consultant to install it (Oracle database consultants billed anywhere from $60/hr. to $120/hr.)

And assuming that I overcame the hurdle of buying an Oracle license and then installing Oracle, I would still have to figure out one more thing about Oracle … how to learn Oracle!

You see, Oracle was one of those complex enterprise software application that had a really high learning curve.

The chances that I was going to learn or master Oracle in time enough to get a job was very low because professionals who had been working with Oracle for years where still struggling to understand it … it was that complex!

So, tell me, what will you have done if you were in my shoes?

Did I fixate on learning Oracle … even though I knew professionals that worked with Oracle for years were still struggling to get to a comfort level with it?

Absolutely not! One of the Oracle professionals that I was personally acquainted with had started working with or learning Oracle while we were still in college.

By the time I was evaluating learning Oracle, this professional (a lady based in the United Kingdom) was just getting comfortable with Oracle … and that is after working with it for 8 to 10 years!

So, I decided that the Oracle database and many of the other popular enterprise software applications available at that time had too high a learning curve!

Yes, I know that everyone’s situation is different and yes I understand that “what is good for the goose is not always good for the gander“.

But my situation was that I was married and I had to pay my bills.

Even though my wife was willing to support me, I wasn’t okay with asking her to take care of all the bills while I went on a multi-year learning trip.

Not only that,I had been out of college for a few years and didn’t want to risk taking another 8 to 10 years to learn a new career!

And I definitely didn’t want to start a career that would require such an expensive re-training that I would have to go deeply in debt!

Put yourself in my shoes and tell me what you would have done if faced with my situation keeping in my objectives which were:

  • To learn a marketable skill in a short time: I had to learn a marketable skill so that I could easily get a job and get out of unemployment.

  • To be prudent or save money: I had to pay my bills and account for all sorts of living expenses, while paying for my own re-training.

  • To get into a line of work where I could easily become competent: I needed to learn a skill that I would become an expert at in a reasonable short time.

What will you have done in my shoes … because I choose Microsoft Access!

In those days, a lot of professionals looked down on Microsoft Access as a sort of poor man’s relational database even though Microsoft Access had a lot going for it at that point in time.

Low Cost of Learning

Microsoft Access was available as part of the Microsoft Office family of products.

The cost of a Microsoft Office / Access license was as low as $300. And I budgeted an additional $100 for buying Microsoft Access textbooks from the local seller … Barnes & Noble. I would never forget the price that I paid for my very first Microsoft Access Book … just $49.50.

So, for less than $500, I was guaranteed that I would learn or master Microsoft Access … which was great news for me as an unemployed newbie IT professional!

Low Learning Curve

It took me between 30 and 60 days to study or master Microsoft Access from textbooks. After which I spent my remaining time, taking Microsoft Access practice tests and building relational databases.

In my first job interview test administered by a local staffing agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I scored above 90% and got hired into the systems / data analysis department of a local e-commerce firm with a starting salary of $15/hr.

Accelerated Time To Market

By my third month of working with Microsoft Access, I had completed a project that was estimated to last about 6 weeks in 2 weeks.

Because I could achieve those sorts of results, the IT Manager called a recruiting firm without my knowledge or permission and advised them to find more challenging work for me … which they did!

By my third month, I was billing $76,000/yr. and my billing rate continued to increase with time!

Dear Friend,

What I have learnt is that the only thing that stops us from achieving the results we want is our limiting belief systems or self-imposed mental boundaries.

So, what works and what doesn’t?

  1. Don’t hang your career on getting a recognized certificate or diploma

    That is so old school! The only thing that matters is your ability to perform on the job … and no accredited degree or diploma or program can confer that to you.

    In other words, you either learn or know how to get the job done or you don’t.

  2. Don’t get stuck learning any vendor’s software

    Because I got my foot in through the door, I have since had the chance to learn or work with Oracle and IBM enterprise databases at the employer’s expense!

    Learning Microsoft Access first actually made it easier for me to learn or work with SQL Server, Oracle and IBM databases later on.

    Remember that you are the one that makes the job work and not the software, vendor or qualification.

    I have seen professionals who want to become business analysts get stuck on learning an enterprise requirement management software like IBM Rational RequisitePro.

    These good folks forget that many employers can’t afford the licensing costs of the same software that they are hung up on and they also forget that requirements management is first and foremost a set of principles or techniques and not a software!.

    If you learn requirements management techniques you can for example document requirements using Microsoft Office or your employer can purchase any of the myriads of requirements management software in the market.

    So why are you so hung up on learning IBM Rational RequisitePro as if that makes you a business analyst?

  3. Learn a marketable skill

    One of the biggest challenges facing professionals is the right choice of a career. I know that because I get asked that question every day

    I’ve seen professionals get stuck with programming skills that are not marketable like mainframe programming or C/C++.

    In one instance, a C/C++ programmer with a computer science college degree after being unemployable for 3 years got the very first job he interviewed for … after I coached him on C#, ASP.NET and .NET Framework.

    His mistake that of failing to learn a marketable skill. The good news is that it only cost him a few months to rectify that mistake. And, once he fixed that, his career was back online again!

Here is my last advise to you on this point, make sure that you are pragmatic and not ideological about your career choices.

If it is looking like you are getting stuck on the path you are on, carefully evaluate all the other alternatives available to you.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/17/oracle-or-ms-access-which-is-better/feed/ 6 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 How To Start Programming for Mobile Phones? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/25/how-to-start-programming-for-mobile-phones/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/25/how-to-start-programming-for-mobile-phones/#comments Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:35:58 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3084

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

Here is a question that illustrates the challenges facing us as we try to find a worthwhile career.

I am a recent college grad who has come to the realization that I wasted time and money in a psychology degree with nothing to show for it.

I have always had an interest in computers, and recently developed a strong desire to possibly move into the computer industry (mainly b/c of google android and my passion for cell phones).

The problem is, i have no formal background, I don’t know where to start, and most articles I’ve read say don’t ruin your hobby by making it your job.

I respectfully seek more information about how to transition into this industry (really into cell phones) regardless of time, money or energy (seeing all I do at work and home is play with roms on my cell phones and dismantle them to discover their contents).

What I have though of so far is going and getting another bachelors (i love to learn; actually what I do best), going to a trade school (ITT, DeVry, etc.) or getting some type of certification, but I don’t know whats best. Any help would be appreciated.

Do You REALLY Need a College Degree to Get a Programming Job?

Congratulations, you have just made an important discovery; which is that it is more important for you to discover and develop your passion than to postpone it for a college degree.

However, don’t lose heart because your time has not been completely wasted.

While you do not absolutely need a college degree to get a computer programming job, some managers will view your college degree as proof of your ability to set a goal and achieve it.

According to Esther Schindler, having a major in a non-computer science discipline can actually work in your favor.

Read more about this in this article titled “Do You REALLY Need a College Degree to Get a Programming Job?“: http://bit.ly/2XKgEM.

The real issue here is not that you have a college degree but that you postponed doing what you love.

You should never put off following your passion for something else … at the very least, you should have worked hard at getting a college degree and also getting handson learning in cell phone application development at the same time.

Is A Computer Science Degree Worth It?

Is a formal background in computer science required for a career in mobile phone application development? The answer is absolutely not!

Again, you are making the mistake of looking for a solution in a college degree.

Don’t you see the trap that you are again falling into? You’ve already spent a number of years in college and all you got is a degree that you consider worthless … though I disagree with you on that.

And again, you are hoping that investing time, money and effort towards another degree will fix your career situation!

You are caught in a maze and it is time for you to wake up or get yourself out of it!

The problem is that most computer science colleges, trade schools or diploma providers will not teach you how to program on mobile phones.

They will most likely teach you just pure computer science and all the theoretical stuff, which is why you won’t be helped.

Even if you hit a homerun and you find a college where you can learn mobile phone programming, by the time you graduate, whatever you will have learned will have become ridiculously obsolete and you will be back at the starting point again!

Should You Turn Your Passion Into A Career?

Absolutely yes! The best career you can have is the one that you love, the career that interests you, the one that you do as a hobby or for fun.

Yes, I am asking you to do what you love and turn your passion or hobby into a full-time job.

The best reward you will get out of work is not the income that you make but the pleasure you get from doing your job.

Tell me, if you are not going to have much fun at work, why on this green planet will you do it?

How Do You Become A Mobile Phone Programmer?

You will become a mobile phone application developer by continuing along the path of getting your hands dirty with real-world mobile phone application development … and this is how you do that:

  1. Look into the cost of developing for each of the mobile phone platforms (Android, iPhones, Windows Phones) and then choose one of them to begin with

    .

  2. Get a good number of books on the platforms that you’ve chosen and start learning everything that there is to know

    .

  3. After you learn how mobile phone programming works on any of these major platforms, start building at least one mobile phone application project.

  4. If you find yourself being overwhelmed by all the information on mobile phone development technology, find a training provider or a course that you can subscribe to and learn mobile phone development in under a year.

And regardless of whether you are learning mobile phone development through self-study or through a training or coaching provider, keep building real-world mobile phone applications.

The biggest challenge that you will face with any Information Technology Career regardless of whether it is mobile phone programming or business analysis or project management is that of finding practical, real-world knowledge.

For overcoming that challenge, I would recommend that you read the book listed here: http://www.it-career-coach.net/book/

Are you facing a challenging career or job situation?Submit your Question to [Ask IT Career Coach] and we will answer it for you.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/25/how-to-start-programming-for-mobile-phones/feed/ 1 What Is Your Personality Type? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/22/what-is-your-personality-type/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/22/what-is-your-personality-type/#comments Sat, 22 Jan 2011 22:43:20 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3075

What Is Your Personality Type?

What Is Your Personality Type?

One of the reasons why professionals struggle with their careers or under-perform at their jobs is that their work or career does not match their personality!

When hiring someone to do job, it’s easy to see what skills and training they have acquired or what types of jobs they’ve previously performed from their resume.

What is not so easy to see is how that same person’s personality traits will fit in with that of other employees or how their personality will thrive on a daily basis after you’ve have hired them.

That is why you need to take a personality test … an instrument that is used to measure or assess the characteristics of your personality.

Personality tests are sometimes more accurately referred to as a personality inventory since the use of the word “test” implies a right or wrong answer must be given.

However when it comes to personality test, there is no right or wrong assessment but rather an objective, independent assessment of suitability for a career or a job.

Personality tests are simply a series of questions designed to gather information used in assessing general personality characteristics.

When administered properly, personality tests are effective for building successful teams.

The results from a personality test can give you good insight into what personality types work best together and what type of work is more effectively done by certain types of people.

Please note that: personality tests are not guaranteed to be accurate and people can change or adapt overall personality … even though that is not easy!

So, Is there a personality test that is accurate?

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test was first developed in 1943.

During the more than 60 years it has been used, it has been perfected as an accurate personality indicator and when the more accurate, complete version of the test is administered, the results can be alarmingly accurate.

The MBTI groups uses 4 Type letters to distringuish16 unique and different personality types based on the answers to a Myers-Briggs personality test.

What are these 4 Type letters and what do they mean?

  • (I)ntrovert/(E)xtrovert
  • (S)ensing/(I)ntuivite
  • (T)hinking/(F)eeling
  • (J)udging/(P)erceptive

The idea that someone is an introvert vs. extrovert does not necessarily mean one is extremely outgoing and the other extremely shy. But rather, it implies from which perspective they tend to view situation: From within, or from without.

Sensing vs. Intuitive is similar to the introvert/extrovert in that it implies whether decisions are made based upon the physical senses or an intuitive knowing from within.

Thinking vs. Feeling suggests the process of thought and decision making as to whether it is done by concrete thinking or logic or based upon a feeling.

Judging vs. Perceptive describes if a person comes to conclusions based upon a logical criteria or based upon an inward perception.

Here are the 16 personality types based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for use in determining how suited you are for a career or job:

ISTJ Personality Type – Introvert Sensing Thinking Judging

To the ISTJ personality type, order and schedule is of utmost importance. and no sacrifice is too great to an ISTJ when it comes to keeping unity.

Even though they tend to have difficulty expressing emotions and what they think and can come off as being uncaring, they tend to develop strong and loyal relationships with others.

The ISTJ easily takes on responsibility. Because of this, they fit in well with any aspect of the IT profession in planning and inspecting, management, scheduling, auditing or accounting.

Spontaneity and abstract thinking is not a plus to the ISTJ personality and the ISTJ will remain consistently strong in everything they attempt.

ISFJ Personality Type – Introvert Sensing Feeling Judging

To the ISFJ, work is very important.

In terms of the IT Professional, they effectively fill the roles of protecting and supporting though they will work hard at any position as they have a strong sense of duty.

They may even remain silent or let others take advantage of them just to avoid conflict. This can be beneficial in business as they tend to put up with complaints for the sake of harmony.

INFJ Personality Type – Introvert Intuitive Feeling Judging

Inspiring and insightful, the INFJ personality tends to do well as a developer.

INFJ often inspire others and tend to succeed in creative situations.

This personality type does not enjoy tension and can come off as quiet or even disinterested. But, don’t be fooled. Beneath this unassuming exterior is a ton of ideas waiting to come forth and when these ideas are properly tapped, they come alive.

They will also jump at any chance to learn and broaden their horizons.

INTJ Personality Type – Introvert Intuitive Thinking Judging

The INTJ is very independent and may be perceived as being arrogant.

They may even appear to be argumentative, but this is the way they learn.

They like to see change for the better and can be intolerant of stagnation.

They do well in work environments where systems are set up to achieve maximum output.

They do well in management, consulting, computer programming and as Directors.

ISTP Personality Type – Introvert Sensing Thinking Perceptive

The ISTP personality may take charge in fixing a problem.

They are ready to try anything at least once.

They are spontaneous and do not like others to control them.

They do not enjoy routine work such as that of an administrator or researcher.

They shine in problem solving spontaneously with a tangible goal such as Analyzer or Operator.

ISFP Personality Type – Introvert Sensing Feeling Perceptive

The ISFP personality tends to be non-imposing.

They fear standing still and enjoy a challenge when working with people.

They do well when they can produce new thought patterns.

They do well in fields that involve composing and producing.

INFP Personality Type – Introvert Intuitive Feeling Perceptive

The INFP Personality type tends to bring harmony and clarification to the table.

They do not like conflict at all. In fact, there’s very little an INFP won’t do to avoid conflict.

They do have a desire to help others. Teaching and training is an excellent position for the INFP.

They also do well with research, design and human resources and they tend to crave working hard in whatever position they are placed.

INTP Personality Type – Introvert Intuitive Thinking Perceptive

The last-minute planner, the INTP adapts well to fast changes.

They need to find a challenge in their work. If they don’t find a challenge, they will grow discontented and depressed.

They are excellent at problem solving and theorizing.

They are excellent at strategic planning, writing, computer programming and design.

ESTP Personality Type – Extrovert Sensing Thinking Perceptive

The ESTP Personality thrives on being the center of attention.

They have a lack of order and tend to never plan as they see planning as a waste of time.

They love daily changes and refuse to get stuck in a rut.

In terms of the IT profession for the ESTP, they do well as an executor or in a role where they can be the promoter.

ESFP Personality Type – Extrovert Sensing Feeling Perceptive

The ESFP personality lives in the moment and does not make plans easily if at all.

They can be viewed as hyper or shallow as they push for excitement.

They do not like confrontation. They do, however, make great motivators or presenters or any position that provides instant gratification.

ENFP Personality Type – Extrovert Intuitive Feeling Perceptive

The ENFP personality tends to be extremely loyal and will look for the best in others along with always looking for new possibilities.

They can appear to be over positive or insincere.

They have a need and a desire to work with people and they want to have fun in their work.

They make for great human resource development trainers, designers, and advocates.

ENTP Personality Type – Extrovert Intuitive Thinking Perceptive

The ENTP personality thrives on enthusiasm.

Though they will become excited enough about ideas to promote them, they don’t always follow through on these ideas.

They like to be challenged and stimulated in their work. Computer science, financial advising, teaching, computer or systems analyst are great career choices for the ENTP.

ESTJ Personality Type – Extrovert Sensing Thinking Judging

The ESTJ personality is a born manager.

They are dependable but tend to volunteer for more work and responsibility than others.

To an ESTJ, everything must have a plan.

They tend to fix what is broken and do a job correctly.

They tend to be loyal to the company. They make great managers as well as supervisors.

ESFJ Personality Type: – (Extrovert Sensing Feeling Judging):

The ESFJ is seen as a scheduler.

They are usually neat and enjoyable to be around.

They do well where organization is involved and they also make great listeners and are loyal.

They like to serve, facilitate and be the caretaker. Jobs in computers, science or consulting can be stressful to the ESFJ personality.

ENFJ Personality Type – Extrovert Intuitive Feeling Judging

The ENFJ personality tends to be known as a communicator and have an understanding of other people.

They are drawn to situation where they can interact with others who will challenge them.

They do not do well in careers that involve a great deal of detail or paperwork.

They do, however, make great mentors and envision well.

ENTJ Personality Type – Extrovert Intuitive Thinking Judging

The ENTJ is a natural leader.

They even enjoy confrontation and they tend to be the classic corporate type of personality.

They are not afraid to challenge old ways of doing things with more successful methods.

Business consultants and network integrations as well as strategists are careers where the ENTJ thrive.

My Final Thoughts:

Each of these 16 personality types will fit better into some Information Technology careers than others and that it’s where the Myers-Briggs personality testing can help you.

Regardless of how much you want a career or a job, you will find it hard to succeed if your personality does not match that required for the job and you don’t change your personality to match it!

  • If you choose to change your personality for a career or job, you can hurt yourself in the process, which will negate the benefits of doing that job!

    so you may be better off choosing a career that suites your personality than forcing your personality to fit in.

  • As a manager, director, project manager or human resources professional, you can place people in roles where they’re most likely to succeed alongside based on results from properly administered Myers-Briggs personality test.

    In the end, the proper use of personality testing can lead to more productive work place.

So, What Is Your Myers-Briggs Personality Type?

If don’t know the answer, follow this link to take your Myers-Briggs personality test..


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/22/what-is-your-personality-type/feed/ 0 Take Your Career To The Next Level! http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/18/take-your-career-to-the-next-level/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/18/take-your-career-to-the-next-level/#comments Wed, 19 Jan 2011 03:05:39 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3073

STOP, if you’re about to register for our training and read this post now because we are only interested in the right type of participants for our online bootcamp courses.

In many ways, we are not like traditional classroom classes or most training schools.

For example, we focus more on experiential learning in the sense that we want you to perform well on the job and not just have a certificate that you can show-off on your resume.

Click here to read our thoughts on experiential learning.

Do You Want To Build Handson Experience?

Finding the handson experience required to move up the ladder, transition into a career or find a new job is critical to career success.

Several years ago, just having a college degree was enough to get you hired and once you got a job, you worked for that employer, for a really long time!

Employers felt responsible for providing handson experience to students in college through internship programs or training for those who had a job.

But today, internship programs are hard to get because employers don’t want to take on the burden of training and a college degree no longer guarantees finding or keeping a job!

What employers are now looking for is proof of performance and not more diplomas, degrees or certifications.

When it comes to proof of performance, employers are of the mindset that your previous performance is the best proof of your future performance.

Please click here to read the article on “why employers want proof of your performance“.

So you have to supplement your training and professional development through personal initiative, traditional classes or online training bootcamps

Traditional classes do not help you develop skills or experience using tasks or assignments because that amount of work will be too much for a traditional school to handle.

In a traditional class, students have to start and complete their tasks within a set amount of time or that school loses money because the next class is delayed from starting!

But our online training bootcamps are not designed like traditional training classes.

Our students are given practical tasks or assignments which requires them to perform assigned activities with the knowledge or skills they’ve acquired.

Do You Want To Have Your Questions Answered?

In a traditional class, you may not want to ask questions that someone else thinks is dumb or you may not ask questions because your manager wants you to keep quiet or because the instructor just doesn’t have enough time to answer all the questions from all the participants!

Why can’t traditional classes entertain, encourage or answer all the questions from all the participants in a course?

Traditional classes can’t because they have a set start and end date and a limited amount of time within which the instructor must go over the course materials.

We do not have the limitations of a set starting time and a set closing time facing traditional classes!

Our online course participants may start their courses at any time or complete it earlier.

There are no limits to how many questions that you can ask and you don’t have the problems of someone judging your conversations or the appropriateness of your questions.

Because we use a learning management system, none of your questions is lost by the instructor in a bid to answer everyone else.

Do You Want To Be Personally Involved?

Unlike traditional online or classroom training, where you get a certificate regardless of your personal efforts, our assignments require your personal time and effort because they are reviewed and graded by us!

Our online training bootcamps requires non-trivial hard work which may be an issue, if you’re only interested in a passive learning experience.

When you enroll in our online boot camp training, you will watch videos, take practice tests, write assignments, perform research activities or perform any practical tasks assigned to you … all of which are required!

Our online courses are quite unlike traditional classes where you’re not given the chance to get your hands dirty!

Do You Want To Ace Your Job Interviews?

Have you ever been in a situation where you knew the answers to the interviewer’s questions but were unable to form an answer in your mind in good time?

What happened is that you weren’t able to form an effective verbal response because you hadn’t practiced recalling answers to similar questions until it became second nature.

That is exactly why we give you practice tests or quizzes in our online training bootcamps … so that you will be practiced at recalling or formulating the correct answers to interview questions in a timely fashion!

Click here to read this post on: how to ace job interviews using practice tests

Do You Want To Be A Top Performer On The Job?

Becoming the top performer is one of the best ways of securing your job because employers no long hire for keeps.

In other words, the moment an employer thinks that your performance is falling or that your skills are not as good as that of someone else, you are marked for firing!

Being knowledgeable about your job is not enough to protect or secure it!

You also need to be skilled at responding with the right answers or solutions in a timely manner because that assures your managers that you know what you are doing.

This is where our practice tests can help you.

You will retain, remember or recall answers or solutions easily … so that you’re always ready for the next challenge!

Do You Want To Take Your Career To The Next Level?

Regardless of where you are in your career: whether you are a beginner versus an expert, looking for a job versus working on your next career promotion, learning a new skill or refreshing the knowledge you already have … we can help.

Our help is not restricted to paying clients or customers only! We will help any of our readers by answering their most pressing career questions.

To get your questions answered promptly, post them as a response to any of our blog posts or Submit a question to [ASK IT Career Coach] here …

What Do You Want From Your Career?

We do not just provide you with the knowledge needed to get your job done, we also provide the real-world, practical education or skills required for your professional success!

So, if you are only interested in theoretical knowledge and you don’t care about building skills or learning how to perform tasks, then a traditional college or diploma course may be good for you.

On the other hand, if you want to build your knowledge, skills and experience using an interactive coaching or mentoring experience or if you are looking to apply your knowledge in a real job, then our online training bootcamps may be what you are looking for!


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/18/take-your-career-to-the-next-level/feed/ 0 Which Courses or Certifications Guarantee A Job? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/13/which-certifications-or-courses-guarantee-a-job/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/13/which-certifications-or-courses-guarantee-a-job/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 01:11:22 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3070

Which Certifications Or Courses Guarantee Jobs?

Which Certifications Or Courses Guarantee Jobs?

This question is frequently asked by job candidates searching for certifications or training courses they can put on their resume, present to an employer and get a job.

However, the answer to the question: which online courses, certifications, college degrees or classroom courses guarantee a job is NONE!

This type of question is seriously flawed because it assumes that there is something out there … a college degree or online course or certification program, that you can put on your resume and hired fast!

But what really guarantees you a job is the depth of your handson experience, skills and knowledge or your ability to convey, present or market your career competency in a job interview.

Yet many job candidates read a job posting and then immediately say to themselves: “regardless of the requirements for this job, who or what can endorse me?”

Instead of addressing the gaps between the job posting and their “skills, knowledge or experience”, they try to short-circuit the employment process with the rubber stamping of a course or certificate!

Listen, don’t try to game the employment system. The only way you can guarantee yourself a job is by giving employers what they want … which is typically stated in your plain view on the job posting!

Dear Friend,

Start your job search by first placing yourself in the employers shoes and not with pre-conceived, mis-leading or half-baked ideas on how the job market works!

In this post, I will help you understand how the job market works because this knowledge will keep you employable for years regardless of your chosen profession.

WHAT DO EMPLOYERS WANT FROM JOB SEEKERS?

The first and most important question that you have to answer before you begin a job search is the question: “What Are Employers Hiring For?“

At a minimum, 80% of the jobs out there have these basic requirements:

  1. Knowledge Requirement – the comprehension or understanding of the practical facts needed to get the job done.

    This knowledge may be gained from an online class, traditional classroom course, coaching, mentoring or self-study program.

    Employers don’t care how you get the knowledge … they just want to be assured that you have it!

  2. Skills Requirement – the ability to recall knowledge and apply the right solutions to problems.

    Skill is developed by rehearsing the answers or solutions to common problems using practice tests, quizzes or certification programs or by repeatedly solving a problem on the job.

    Most employers will probe your skill-level at the job interview regardless of what you claim on the resume.

  3. Handson Experience Requirement – the quality of exposure to real-world projects where your skills and knowledge are used to solve practical problems.

    Note that handson experience is not given by certification programs.

    Handson experience is developed over time by performing the roles, responsibilities or duties associated with your career.

  4. Personality Match Requirement – employers want you to have the right personality for a job and the right personality for their corporate or organizational structure.

    You may be a well-qualified job candidate and still fail at a job interview because the hiring manager perceives a clash or mis-match between your personality and the company culture!

  5. Marketability Requirement – the probability that you will get a job is also dependent on the demand for your skills.

    If you want additional guarantees that you will be hired … pay attention to the job outlook for your career!

    The less your skills are in-demand, the more aggressive you must be with your job search and the more your skills are in demand, the more you are guaranteed a job.

Now, let’s review the responsible actions you may take to guarantee yourself a job.

BRIDGE THE KNOWLEDGE GAP

Learn everything you can about your career or job using self-study, coaching, mentoring or training programs.

Don’t make up educational requirements thinking that it will move your employer to hire you.

Employers care less about your endorsement from an educational institution but they care most about the relevancy of your knowledge, training or education to their job!

BRIDGE THE SKILLS GAP

Your skills measure how practiced you are at solving problems or your competency.

Skills are developed by taking lots of practice tests or by repeating quizzes until you can answer questions or solve problems without thinking.

Expect an employer to test your skills by asking open-ended questions at a job interview …. which you have to answer promptly, comprehensively and confidently.

BRIDGE THE EXPERIENCE GAP

You can only develop handson experience by working on real-world problems.

So, the more tasks, duties, roles, responsibilities, assignments or projects you take on … the more experienced you become.

Be creative and find ways to get experience even without a job because your getting hired depends on it!

MATCH THE PERSONALITY

Employers want you to have the right personality for a career and also for their corporate culture.

Here are a few personality mis-match situations for your consideration:

Computer programmers are expected to be more geeky than business analysts and project managers are expected to be more assertive than either software developers or business analysts.

If you’re an introvert or shy of developing relationships or weak at verbal communications, you may fail at convincing hiring managers that you are good fit for their business analyst or project management jobs!

So, now you have it … THE GUARANTEED WAY OF FINDING A JOB.

Do not abandon these FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF HIRING for endorsements of any kind because that would be like chasing your own shadow!

With all this in mind, here is how our online courses, coaching, training programs or step-by-step bootcamps will help you:

  1. Knowledge – You may get the knowledge needed to do your job through our online video training or coaching courses.
  2. Skills – You can use our quizzes or practice tests to boost your skills or even ace certification examinations.
  3. Experience – You can use our in-built, handson assignments or coaching advice to jumpstart the experience needed for your career.

This how we (IT Career Coach) help … by aligning you with the requirements of your career or job.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/13/which-certifications-or-courses-guarantee-a-job/feed/ 2 Pros and Cons of Business Analysts vs Computer Programmer Careers http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/08/pros-cons-business-analysts-computer-programmers/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/08/pros-cons-business-analysts-computer-programmers/#comments Sat, 08 Jan 2011 16:48:08 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3060

Pros and Cons of Computer Programming vs. Business Analysis

Pros and Cons of Computer Programming vs. Business Analysis


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

I get a number of questions from computer programmers or software developers looking to change their careers to business analysis or project management.

I also receive questions about the suitability of business analysis, project management or computer programming as a career.

If you sent me a question along these lines, please use this post to evaluate your choices or decide on the best career for you!

This post highlights the pros and cons of “ business analysts careers compared to computer programmer careers or jobs“.

  1. Market Demand for Skills or Careers

    Finding a Software Developer Job is easier than getting hired for a business analyst or project management job because there is a lot of demand for software developers.

    As a matter of fact .NET Developers are in a class of their own because they get hired more easily than other computer programmers and definitely more than business analysts or project managers!

  2. Job Satisfaction

    A business analyst or project manager job spends a lot of time interacting with people (customers, stakeholders, management), projects, processes.

    The advice presented by a business analyst or project manager has a much better chance of being accepted by management than those of computer programmers who spend most of their time tinkering with computers and software products.

  3. Salary, Wages or Compensation

    Software Developers (especially .NET computer programmers) get paid more than business analysts or project managers in many projects.

    It is not untypical for good .NET computer programmers to bill more than $50/hr. or earn from the upper 90k to six figures even with junior to mid-level experience!

  4. Stress & Lifestyle After Working Hours

    Project Managers or Business Analysts are less affected by the pace of technological change than software developers.

    As a business analyst or project manager you may end up having more leisure or personal time after work unlike a computer programmer who is always learning new technologies after work (in the evenings and weekends)!

    Computer Programmers sometimes lose their jobs or burnout because of the stress associated with always learning new software tools or the rapid pace of technological change!

  5. Stress & Lifestyle During Working Hours

    Project Managers or Business Analysts are always bridging gaps between opposing or conflicting points of views or in-meetings helping different interest groups buyin to a common goal or strategy.

    So a business analyst or project manager’s day job is more challenging or stressful compared to a computer programmer’s who is given specifications or specific tasks and then left alone to get their job done!

    Business Analysts or Project Managers sometimes lose their jobs or burnout because of the stress associated with the high degree of conflict on their day job.

  6. Big Picture Thinkers

    Business Analysts or Project Managers tend to have a more comprehensive view of their projects or organizations.

    They are more exposed to the big-picture, organizational goals and objectives, strategy sessions, upper or senior management and they can influence things from that perspective.

    Computer Programmers are more likely to be focused on the minutiae or details.

    Computer programmers tend to obsess over small things and they are frequently on a need to know basis with their management team.

    In some organizations or projects, they spend all their time hunting down bugs, fixing them or improving the quality of their product one defect at a time!

  7. Portability of Skills

    Computer Programmers (especially .NET Software Developers) have very portable skills.

    They can switch industries easily (insurance to banking), migrate their skills to new software development platforms or jobs (mobile applications, internet applications, database applications, desktop applications) or even move to a new country and get a job easily!

    On the other hand, a lot of people want to be business analysts or project managers because of the hipness, coolness, job satisfaction and big-picture benefits.

    Finding a business analyst job may be harder because you have to stand out from this crowd of wannabes!

    Click here to read the post titled: 8 Tips for Business Analysts: How to Stand Out in a Crowded Job Market.

    Finally, a lot of business analyst jobs require domain specific business or industry knowledge which limits the ease with which a business analyst can migrate to a new industry or find a job!

  8. Authority & Control

    Computer programmers are frequently micro-managed.

    Their exists in many organizations an adverse relationship between the management team and the software development team.

    It is so bad that outsiders like me are hired to mediate or resolve the conflict which is what I was tasked with doing as an IT Director for a company in the Mid-Western, USA.

    The genesis of this distrust is that management often cannot see the progress made by software developers or understand their challenges because they are typically big-picture thinkers.

    On the other hand, Business Analysts or Project Managers are more likely to give directions software developers directions or supervise the work that computer programmers perform!

    Besides all this, the work performed by business analysts or project managers is highly visible to stakeholders, management or business teams!

  9. Soft Skills vs. Hard Skills

    Software Developers depend more on technical or hard skills to get their job done.

    Software developers are always learning new software tools or creating them using a number of technologies, platforms, tools or software development environments.

    Business Analysts or Project Managers depend more or soft skills or people skills to get their job done.

    They are always meeting with people in a one on one or group setting. They are skilled at presentations, communications, inter-personal relationships, conflict resolution, writing or speaking tasks.

    Answer this Question:

    What is your greatest asset, is it your hard skills or your soft skills?

  10. Career Security

    Software developers tend to have more career security than either business analysts or computer programmers because of the following reasons:

    • High Portability: Software developers can port their skills or careers easily across domains, industries, countries or jobs.
    • High Demand: Software developers are in high-demand because of the demand for internet, desktop, mobile applications or services.
    • High Salary: Software developers are amongst the first crop of professionals hired in startups and many of them have gone on to start their own companies and become wealthy in the process!
    • Intellectual Property: Software developers are more likely to patent or copyright their inventions, products or services! They tend to lead the pace of innovation and are more likely to take ownership for their products or services.

    Click here to read more about the job prospects for software developers in 2011.

Here is how to quickly find which career you’re better suited for.

Are you more concerned about finding a job quickly or getting paid very well than you’re about job satisfaction and do you like working with technology? If so, choose the .NET Software Developer Career Path.

Are you more concerned about the prestige, control, hipness, coolness or likeability of your job and are you good at resolving inter-personal conflicts or working with groups of people? If so, choose the business analyst or project management career path!

So there you have it, A review of the suitability of software developer and business analyst jobs.

What do you think of my advice? Do you agree or disagree? Do you have Any questions or rebuttals?


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/08/pros-cons-business-analysts-computer-programmers/feed/ 2 Breaking News: Software Engineers Have The Best Jobs In 2011 http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/05/software-engineers-best-job-2011/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/05/software-engineers-best-job-2011/#comments Wed, 05 Jan 2011 23:12:33 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3056

I dedicate a considerable amount of time to debunking myths and half-baked truths. And one about the future prospects of software developer careers has just been ratified!

According to a survey of the best and worst jobs in the United States, Software Engineers will have the best jobs in 2011.

For this survey, 200 professions were analyzed based on their pay, environment, hiring outlook, stress and physical demands using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and trade association studies.

According to this survey, the high-demand for Software engineering jobs is fueled by the desire for high-tech gadgets, iPods, tablets and other devices.

Click here to read more about the survey by CareerCast.com on MSNBC, titled: “Software Engineers Have Nations Best Job …”

Software Developers Have The Best Careers

The survey agrees with what I have been saying on this website: which is that web programmers or software developers are in high-demand because of the demand for technology and internet products or services.

Here are two our of several articles on future prospects for software developers / computer programmers:

  1. Reasons for Becoming A Computer Programmer
  2. Benefits Of Becoming A Computer Programmers

I Like Debunking Myths

I have been debunking myths about software developer careers including the following:

I’m not just interested in debunking myths about computer programmers. I’m also rebutting half-truths or misconceptions about business analysis, databases, project management and other careers in Information Technology.

In my opinion, too many smart people have wasted their lives or taking long, expensive detours because they accepted a half-truth, lie or misconception about their career!

I hate mental limitations because the worst prison is that which exists in one’s mind!

So, work with me as I help you identify or remove self-imposed limitations. Have an Awesome Year!


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/05/software-engineers-best-job-2011/feed/ 0 The Most Important Thing on Your Resume http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/03/the-most-important-thing-on-resume/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/03/the-most-important-thing-on-resume/#comments Tue, 04 Jan 2011 03:56:38 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3052

The Most Important Thing On Your Resume Is What?

The Most Important Thing On Your Resume Is What?

There are several things on a resume that can help get you hired. These include your educational qualifications, certifications, training, the college or institutions which you attended, skill level and your hansdon experience.

But regardless of whether you are a business analyst, computer programmer, project manager, data analyst, report writer or network administrator, the singular, most important thing on your resume or career is your handson experience!

Handson Experience Builds your Career

Handson experience matters because it is the only credible, impartial evaluation of the work that you are doing and here is why:

When you work on a practical problem, you get all sorts of feedback about your progress and about how you are doing. For example:

  • Fast vs. Slow Completion: If you complete the work quickly, easily or fast you feel good about the work and others realize that you are skilled at what you do.

  • Fun vs. Boring Job: If you do a job and you realize that you like it, you want to do the job again.

    On the other hand, a college education does not imply that you are suited for a career … you actually have to get a job to get that information.

    There are lots of college graduates who discover to their dismay that they absolutely hate the career that they studied in college!

    On the other hand, your performance on the job is an impartial, real-world evaluation of your suitability for a job or career.

  • Good vs. Poor Work: There is perhaps no better indication of your suitability for a job as the quality of your work.

    For example, having a Phd. in computer programming does not guarantee that you will build a better web application than someone without and having an MBA does not mean that you will be a better business analyst than someone without.

    In other words, there is no substitute for the quality of your work .. either you are good at what you do or you are not!

Handson Experience Builds your Skill

One of the best ways to remember all the common and important instructions which are essential for your job is to practice them over and over again.

With constant practice or repetition you’ll be able to recall the next steps at any time. Even in a critical situation you’ll be able to resolve issues quickly without having to consult books or the internet.

And one of the traits most valued by employers is the ability to recall solutions to pressing problems from memory, take control or fix problems and act with the confidence that comes from dealing with similar issues!

Handson Experience Defines your Resume

When employers post a job, the singular most important thing that they scan your resume for is your handson experience.

What employers do, is that they simply take an inventory of the types of tasks you will be hired to do and then scan your resume for evidence supporting that you have done that type of work before.

Some employers are so vested in this mindset that they will not hire you for a job if you are not currently working on a similar job.

However, most employers will hire you if you have strong handson experience especially when that is comparable to the job that they want to fill!

While reviewing your resume, employers are primarily concerned about the quality of your experience and they would scrutinize your resume for the following information:

  • Who you’ve worked for – employers want to know if you’ve worked in similar jobs or for similar companies or in the same industry
  • How long you’ve worked on various projects – employers want to know whether your experience is sketchy or detailed or recent

So your experience is the most important thing on your resume and if you want to be successful, you had better be working on improving your handson experience daily.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/03/the-most-important-thing-on-resume/feed/ 0 #6 Success Principle: The Proof Of Your Desire Is In Your Pursuit http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/12/24/success-principle-the-proof-of-desire-is-pursuit/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/12/24/success-principle-the-proof-of-desire-is-pursuit/#comments Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:33:34 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3042

Pursuit Is The Proof Of Desire

Pursuit Is The Proof Of Desire


Life Is About What You Have … And Not About What You Don’t Have!

I get a number of questions along the lines of:

I am 25 / 39 / 50 years old, I don’t have any work experience and I don’t have a college degree.

But I want to become a good business analyst / computer programmer / project manager, what do I have to do?

If you find yourself thinking along those lines, this is what you should do: use what you have to get what you want!

What do I mean by: “using what you have to get what you want?“

Right now, here is what you’ve got working for you:

  1. Interest
  2. Desire
  3. Passion

Right now, all you may have working for you is some desire or interest in an occupation or some passion or love for an industry. And that may not seem like much if weighed against your advanced age or lack of money, educational qualifications or handson experience.

Make a list of what you consider positive about your life and let the rest of your negatives (lack of college degree, lack of work experience, lack of skills, lack of anything) take care of themselves along the way.

What does that mean?

Your interest, desire or passion is one of the greatest assets in life because any achievement that is worthwhile in career, business or life is founded on passion … and those that are truly successful are so because of their passion!

The Proof of your Desire is in your Pursuit

The proof of desire is in the steps you’re taking right now towards your career … what does that mean?

If you are passionate about a career, you should take the first steps towards realizing your passion or keep moving forward in the direction of your interests until you actually hit a brickwall!

Why? Because it’s only when we fully realize the opportunities presented to us … that new doors or opportunities open up.

Invest in Your Passion

The first or most important step that you can take is to learn the career that you are interested in … business analysis, project management, computer programming, data analysis, software testing etc.

There’s no reason for not studying the career that you’re passionate about because there are all sorts of options for learning anything.

You may learn from textbooks purchased at Amazon.com, take an online course or get a college degree.

If finding money is a challenge, you may purchase fairly used but inexpensive textbook versions or you may take an online training course at a fraction of traditional college costs!

So, there is no excuse for not learning the occupation you’re interested in.

Don’t Put The Cart Before The Horse

Without studying a career, you’ll not be able to practice it and without handson experience, you may not be qualified for a job!

If you are transitioning into business analysis / computer programming / project management, do not start by first looking for handson experience … that is putting the cart before the horse.

Do you want to know, one good reason why putting handson experience before knowledge is not a good idea?

Handson experience is gained by applying what you know to the problems or challenges facing an industry.

In other words, if you haven’t studied an occupation, you won’t be able to recall or reuse available solutions or solve the problems and challenges found within that occupation.

So, when faced with a problem the best that you will be able to do, is guess or mock around.

NOTE: Potential employers or hiring managers do not want to hire those that don’t know what they are doing. Instead they want to hire those who not only know what they are doing, but they have done it several times before!

Monetize Your Passion

Take the first step by learning, next get handson experience and finally get a job.

If you have taken the time to learn an occupation and you have gained sufficient handson experience, then spend all your time marketing yourself into a job.

Dear Friend, focus all your energy on taking the next step in-front of you.

Don’t worry about all the things that you can’t do yet, because when you take care of your immediate challenges, doors for moving forward will open up.

  • Step 1: Study what you love
  • Step 2: Get some experience doing what you love
  • Step 3: Get a job doing what you love

It is only when you’ve completed the first two steps that you have the best chances of sending out your resume, taking job interviews and getting a job.

Trying to get a job without handson experience or looking for handson experience without first studying for an occupation … is what stops your career from moving forward!

This is how to move your career forward even if all you have is: interest, passion or desire.

The proof of your intentions is in taking the right steps to achieve them … so what’re you waiting for? Get Moving!


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/12/24/success-principle-the-proof-of-desire-is-pursuit/feed/ 0 The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/04/06/the-health-care-and-education-reconciliation-act-of-2010/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/04/06/the-health-care-and-education-reconciliation-act-of-2010/#comments Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:53:12 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2890

The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 helps American families that choose public service. It does several things to make college easier for American families;

  1. It invests more than forty (40) billion dollars in college and going forward it will be adjusted to keep pace with inflation or cost of living

  2. By 2017, the maximum PELL Awards may be raised to six thousand dollars ($6,000). These are grants and not loans, so they don’t add up to student debt for qualifying families

  3. To qualify for student grants and low-interest student loans, fill out the FAFSA forms

  4. You may also qualify for up to a $10,000 credit for four years of tuition and related expenses … for your child’s tuition including books. This is called The American Opportunity Tax Credit. It triples the amount you can deduct from your taxes for college.

  5. Beginning in 2014, students can limit their payments to 10% of their income with any remaining balance forgiven after 20 years.

  6. Graduates who work as teachers, nurses or other public service professions including the military can have their loans forgiven after ten (10) years.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/04/06/the-health-care-and-education-reconciliation-act-of-2010/feed/ 0 What Is The Most Difficult Challenge Facing Your Career? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/12/what-is-the-most-difficult-challenge-facing-your-career/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/12/what-is-the-most-difficult-challenge-facing-your-career/#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 02:33:53 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2820

The Most Difficult Challenge Of My Career

The Most Difficult Challenge Of My Career

Hello,

“What is the most difficult challenge facing your career right now”?

Your most difficult challenge may be about how to get a job or how to improve your skills or how to get promoted on the job

Perhaps your most difficult challenge is about how to transition out of or into a business analyst or computer programming or database developer career.

Whatever your challenge is, just go ahead and post it as a comment on this page and I will deal with it for you.

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

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

Thank You,


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/12/what-is-the-most-difficult-challenge-facing-your-career/feed/ 70 #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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