Tag Archives: resumes

The Most Important Part of Your IT Resume

All IT recruiters have a list of generic tips for IT professionals who are polishing their resumes. These may vary from IT staffing firms to IT staffing firms, but there is one major rule that all IT contractors should abide by if they want to attract a lot of attention from technical recruiters and IT managers: have a killer ‘Technical Proficiencies’ or skills section.

Why is this section so important? It provides a very efficient response to the question that most IT headhunters and the managers they’re working for have: can you take care of the particular kind of problems and work we need taken care of? While things like making sure you’re a great cultural fit are important, it’s imperative for managers to hire people who can do the work they need done. Your ‘Technical Proficiencies’ section will answer this question immediately, especially if you put it at the top of your resume. Polishing this section can quickly bring you to the top of the ‘yes’ pile!

 

 

Why it’s a Big Deal if Your IT Manager Doesn’t Like You

All IT recruiters and IT contractors know the vital importance of having your IT managers like you. Though pristine resumes chock full of skills are important, IT professionals that rub their IT managers the wrong way will develop terrible reputations with their IT recruiters and in the information technology field in general.

It’s also important to make sure your manager likes you for one more reason: they are probably allowed to fire you if they don’t. Most states in the US are at-will, meaning employers can fire you for whatever reason they want. While reasonable managers won’t fire you just because they don’t like you, their dislike will make you vulnerable. If you make a major mistake or your company is doing lay-offs, the people who hold onto their IT jobs will be the ones whom managers want to continue working with. Try to make sure that’s you!

 

Why ‘I Quit’ Videos Can Ruin IT Professional Careers

A recent poll reveals that 52% of Americans are disgruntled and unsatisfied with their current jobs. While there’s no particular numbers on how much of that 52% of the population is made up of IT recruiters, IT managers, or IT contractors, it’s safe to assume they have to make up at least a portion of that. A shocking recent trend that no IT professional should engage in is the practice of quitting with a video—and worse, posting it on Youtube.

Since Marina Schifrin’s viral ‘I Quit’ video back in October, the trend has only increased. For IT consultants who aim to keep a good reputation within the information technology field, though, this tactic is downright dangerous. Quitting always needs to be done in a courteous, calm manner. Doing it on video, in anything but that, will likely destroy one’s reputation with all IT staffing firms and IT companies who come view it. Even perfect resumes couldn’t survive the damage of an unprofessional video posted online.

 

 

Why IT Professionals Should Never Use Resume Gimmicks

IT recruiters and IT consultants all over the world have heard the advice that resumes sent with fun gimmicks, like odd packaging or edible goodies will really grab an IT managers attention.  Wise IT professionals know that this simply isn’t true, though.   Gimmicks don’t win IT jobs; skills and experience win IT jobs.

While many IT contractors may have an urban legend or two about somebody who got a job because of their wacky resume gimmick, the average person shouldn’t listen to this.  There are a few reasons why.  For one thing, information technology is a field that demands precision, experience, and the right answers.  This means it’s imperative for job holders to be able do their jobs competently.  Resume gimmicks are irrelevant to hiring managers, who are focused on competence.  Additionally, some managers may see resume gimmicks as a way to disguise incompetence.  Avoiding them is crucial.  Lastly, resume gimmicks can backfire.  Maybe they trigger food or other allergies, or perhaps they are simply too silly or offensive.  In any case, these are to be avoided at all costs.  The best resume is the one that fits the job.

Chocolate Bar Resume

How to Give Feedback to Your IT Manager

As in any other field, giving feedback to your manager in information technology can be a dicey thing.  IT contractors and IT recruiters may have completely valid feedback, but delivering it to IT managers in a way that avoids soured relationships or terminations can be tricky.   Below are a few ways IT consultants and technical recruiters can offer negative feedback to bosses without doing permanent damage to their resumes:

  1. Pay attention to time and place: Pick a time that your boss will be at his or her calmest and least stressed.  Pick a place that’s private.  Nobody wants to receive criticism in public—least of all a manager.
  2. Phrase the criticism well: Can it be put into an ‘I’ statement?  Can it be thinly disguised in a story about a fictitious friend or acquaintance?  The less this criticism actually feels like criticism, the better.
  3. Leave any drama out of it.  The easier this conversation is, the better.  Jokes may help, as will keeping any emotion out of it.

 

3 Ways to Communicate Better With Your IT Managers

Like most managers, IT managers are pressed for time and sometimes (if not often) stressed or overwhelmed with deadlines and projects.  For IT contractors, communicating with a manager at their IT jobs can be intimidating, especially when they don’t know them well.  Below are a few tips for IT consultants to improve their communication with managers.

  1. Say what you have to say with confidence.  This is for a few reasons, especially for time management.  Managers don’t often have time to hear you puzzle out the best response.  Probably the most important reason, though, is because managers want to believe they can trust you to deliver answer and information that they can rely on.  IT recruiters presented you as the best candidate and your manager went through stacks of resumes to find yours.  This alone should be enough reason to feel a bit more confident when you are relaying information to a manager.
  2. Keep your communication organized and to the point.  Relaying info in the form that makes it easiest to digest and use will make you a superstar to your manager.  They don’t want to waste time wading through a long email or presentation.
  3. Use the most concise and professional language possible.  In information technology especially, it’s important to demonstrate that you know what you’re doing and what you’re talking about.  Using the best and most up-to-date terms will give off a great impression when speaking with managers.

 

The Best Way to Polish an IT Resume

As in any field, there’s plenty of bad advice on how to create resumes passed around the information technology field.  One of the worst pieces of advice that IT professionals might have encountered is to just list out their skills.  While IT managers and IT recruiters want to be able to clearly see what IT contractors can do, simply listing things, particularly soft skills, isn’t the best strategy.  The IT consultants that get the jobs demonstrate their skills on their resumes, too.

How does one do this?  Look to the bullet points listed under each job in your resume.  If you are listing accomplishments and contributions you made to each company, you’ll find it easy to demonstrate your strengths.  If you’re a great communicator, mention how you used your communication skills to lead a key project.  If you’re a detail-oriented, mention how you used that strength to deftly de-bug a program.  Comb your resume for opportunities to show your worth, and before you know it, you’ll have IT staffing firms and managers knocking down your door.

 

3 Tips for Sparkling IT Resumes

For IT staffing companies and IT contractors, the Holy Grail is usually those pristine, attractive resumes.  While IT recruiters, IT managers, and IT contractors all tend to disagree on what makes the perfect resume, there are a few universal things to keep in mind.  These tips are especially useful if you’re looking to work with technical recruiters in the US.

  1. Forget the fanciness.  Don’t worry about a special format, border, font, etc.  Sometimes making your resume anything but simple will hurt you.  People may wonder if you’re overcompensating for something or it may just be generally distracting.
  2. Really edit your skill section.  Put it front and center.  Make it neat and make it comprehensive.  Don’t lie in it, no matter what.
  3. Consider the length of your resume carefully.  While in most other industries 2 pages is the maximum amount a resume should be, this guideline isn’t quite true in IT.  It is true that you should keep the resume to the shortest length you can.  Include what makes sense for the position(s) you’re applying to and leave off anything else.

Why IT Managers Can’t Be Friends with Reports

As in every industry, some IT professionals occasionally come across a moment when they have to make a decision: Can they be friends with their boss?  Or if they’re an IT manager, can they be friends with the IT consultants who report to them?  Whether you’re in information technology or zoology, the answer to this question is pretty much always a resounding no—both for the sake of IT contractors and managers.  Here are a few reasons why managers and their reports need to hold off on friendship—for the sake of their IT jobs and their own mental health.

  1. An imbalance of power.  The nature of friendship is usually that both parties are equal in most aspects.  Things get awkward and uncomfortable quickly when it feels like one person is better in a really significant way.  It’s pretty much guaranteed this will happen between managers and the people whose resumes they heavily influence and judge.  For your own sanity, then, it’s better to hold off on this kind of friendship.
  2. Friendship involves some vulnerability—something you don’t want to have with your manager or reports.  Friends help each other out in tough times or advise each other.  They’re also honest and open about most things.  As a manager or report, you don’t want any of this in the workplace. Managers should be resources, but pretty much only on work-related matters.  Reports should support their managers, but only on work-related matters.  Things will get confusing and awkward quickly when you add personal problems and vulnerability to the mix.
  3. Managers sometimes need to—and do—fire their reports.  Firing somebody or being fired are traumatic enough events.  Adding friendship to the equation makes an already unpleasant circumstance unbearable.  Don’t take that risk, even if things look very rosy right now.

What You Shouldn’t Bring to IT Jobs

It’s common knowledge that sparkling resumes and references make IT consultants very attractive to IT headhunters and IT managers.  Sometimes it’s what IT contractors don’t bring to the table that makes them so easy for IT recruiters to market, though.  Here are a few things IT Professionals should never bring to their IT jobs.

  1. Limits to your job.  Strike “that’s not my job,” or “I don’t have time for that project” from your vocabulary if you really want to stand out.  Even if either, or both are true, finding a way to do them will eventually pay off.  You’ll gain new skills and some truly glowing references when you leave the job.  If you’re worried about being taken advantage of, start documenting these extra projects.  Use them to ask for a raise at an appropriate time or a reference when you leave.  Make sure you add them to your resume, too!
  2. Personal conflicts.  It’s fine to want to avoid certain people outside the office or to actively disagree with people.  At work, it can be the kiss of death.  Work on your ability and willingness to work with and engage well with all types of people in the office environment.  Being easy to work with is a special attribute, especially in IT.  Stand out as a diamond in the rough with some outstanding interpersonal skills.  You won’t regret it.
  3. Concepts of fairness.  It’s easy to find little injustices all over some offices.  But the truth is, you can’t do anything about them.  The sooner you let the concept of fairness go, the sooner you’ll feel better and be able to focus better on your work.  Complaining about injustices won’t change them. It will only bring negative attention to you.  When you stop noticing or caring about these things, your silence will speak volumes because managers will understand that you have the same priorities they do: getting the work done!