
Put Your Blinders On Before You Read This!
Blinders are useful in potentially distracting situations because they increase one’s ability to focus.
For example, blinders are useful for removing potentially distracting or scary scenes from a horse’s vision.
By preventing the horse from seeing everything in it’s peripheral vision, the rider can better control the horse’s focus or keep it on target.
So, what does “blinders on horses have to do with job descriptions”?
As you go about reading job descriptions and applying to jobs, you may become distracted, discouraged or even depressed by the skills or experience requirements posted on these job descriptions.

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?

Certifications Or Experience Which Is Better?
I have been in business development / sales side of the Financial Services Industry for the past 15 years.
I have worked as a VP for several Fortune 500 companies.
Due to the market downturn and layoffs, I find myself looking to other industries for stability.
I want to get into Software / Network Sales and wanted to know what is the best way for me to break into the Information Technology industry
Should I get A+ certified, get a masters in I.T.?

How To Overcome Lack of References
[Ask IT Career Coach] is a Career Advice Column for Information Technology (IT) professionals looking for answers to their most challenging career situations …
Submit questions about your career using the [Ask IT Career Coach] service and I will answer it for you just like I am answering this question …
Here Is A Job Search, Resume & Job Interview Coaching Question
Worked for a private company for 12 years. All 18 other employees quit through time and I was left alone the last two years with the CEO trying to save the company.

How To Boost IT Skills Rapidly Or Get Hired Fast
Learning a skill is one thing … knowing how to market, a skill a completely different thing!
That is why for example, some qualified business analysts fail to get a job that other less experienced business analysts succeed in getting.
Don’t assume that because you know a skill through self study, formal education or training, you can just go out and get a job … because there is more to finding a job than that!
Some people are really good at selling themselves … even when they know little about the subject at hand.

Will Pay For Work!
It is generally accepted that hands-on experience is one of the more important qualifications for getting a job and that you may get handson experience through paid or unpaid internship programs.
So this article on NyTimes.com about how job seekers are paying thousands of dollars for internships is not surprising considering how competitive the job market has become.
What is surprising is that these are college graduates from prestigious colleges paying for nonpaying internship programs!
The article is titled “Unpaid Work, but They Pay for Privilege” and you can read it here:

The Domain Business Analyst Career Path
Is a business analyst with domain knowledge more valuable than a business analyst without domain knowledge?
By looking at how business analyst job descriptions are written, you may be tempted to say yes!
Business Analyst job descriptions are written as if there is a distinction between IT oriented business analysts with skills in UML, Use Cases, Requirements Elicitation, Requirements Modeling and domain oriented business analysts with knowledge in specific domains like sales, marketing, customer relationship management, insurance, finance!

Ask IT Career Coach
This question was posted by a reader who needs advice on “what to do about making wrong career choices”.
If you need help with a Question or Challenge, be sure to ask it as a comment on this page and I will answer it fully just as I am answering this reader’s question below!
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Ask IT Career Coach
This question was posted by a reader who wants to overcome obstacles posed by employment gaps in an Oracle Programming Career!
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If you need help with a Question or Challenge, be sure to ask it as a comment on this page and I will answer it fully just as I am answering this reader’s question below!

Beat the Recession
You’ve got a
college degree, a
good looking resume and an
impressive listing of Information Technology (IT) skills but can’t seem to find an IT job.
Finding a Job doesn’t have to be a traumatic, nerve racking or frustrating experience filled with rejection, fear and pain!
Just follow this article series to find out what’s wrong or get back in control of YOUR job search.

How To Succeed at Business Analyst Job Interviews
Do you wish to know how to succeed at business analyst
job interviews?
Here is the secret.
Business analyst interviews are designed to evaluate two things:
- Your business analyst skills
- Your business analyst experience
How Sharp Are Your Business Analyst Skills?
At your business analyst interview, you are evaluated based on the correctness, promptness or comprehensiveness of your answers.
Give the correct answers
Your answers are evaluated based on how precise or correct they are.
Even when the business analyst interview questions are open ended, your answers are still evaluated as correct or incorrect.

How To Boost IT Skills Rapidly Or Get Hired Fast
I discovered the power of practice tests in 1999 after I aced a job interview test with a score in the mid-nineties and got hired fast!
Over the next few months, I mastered how to boost my skills rapidly using the technique that I will share with you in the rest of this article.
Research has shown that practice tests or quizzes improve your retention, recall or understanding.
Research that studies how people learn skills effectively also demonstrates that students who study and take quizzes have better long-term recall than their colleagues who study without taking quizzes.
As hiring managers are cutting costs and reducing staff size they are also hiring hiring professionals with a broader range of skills
As workers are laid off, the lucky ones left behind are asked to work longer hours or work on a broader range of tasks
IT Managers are now hiring for a broader range of skill sets. Business Analysts are being asked to perform light programming jobs and software developers are being asked to perform light business analysis tasks

How To Slam Dunk Your Next Job Interview
This post is an answer to a question asked by Chris who is attending his tenth (10) job interview. You may click here to read the original question or add your own question or comment to the discussion.
The original post is a No Holds Barred Discussion on challenges, problems or issues facing my readers. If you have a Burning Question or Challenge you need help with, be sure to add your question to that page and i will answer it fully just as I am answering Tom’s question below!
If you want to master working with SQL or are preparing for a SQL Interview, you already know that answering SQL interview questions is key to getting hired for a SQL job.
What you may not know is that the importance of learning SQL Interview Questions goes beyond just getting a job!
Believe it or not, getting a SQL job is not as hard as keeping the job after you get it!
In this article I will share the most effective strategies for acing SQL interview questions, getting a job or keeping a SQL job after you get it!
When you meet someone who is a technical expert, you immediately make a few assumptions about the person’s education, income, competence, marketability and problem-solving skills.
While you may find it easy to identify the technical experts in your industry, it is much harder to become one..
Read the rest of this article and you will learn how you can become a technical expert easily.
Who Is An Expert?
An expert, according to Wikipedia, is a person with extensive knowledge or ability in a particular area of study.
I’m finally done with it … the book that’s 10 years in the making and tonight I”m releasing the How To Ace Programming Job Interviews Book.
Why The Programming Job Interviews Book Took Ten Years To Write
If you are my customer, by that I mean you’ve bought one of my books, you will realize that i’m pretty thorough and not one to release a half-baked book. You will also realize that my computer programming books and business analyst books are practical, comprehensive and based on tactics, strategies and information that gets results in the software development industry.
I am taking questions on developer careers.
This article is on how to handle fear at programming interviews and become self-confident.
To succeed as a contract programmer, full time developer or freelance programmer you need to master the “developer interview”. Because your technical job interviewing skills are key to getting job offers, do not ignore them or you will quickly be un-employed in any competitive market.
The one critical skill that can make or break your programming interview is fear and here is why: