About a year ago, I started posting what I intended to be 10 straight weeks of things you would need to know to improve your chances of getting a job in Information Technology.
I got busy with stuff and stalled out after the first 3 weeks. But, I'm in the process of trying to hire people and it's a lot more difficult in 2021 than it has been in the past. So, I thought I'd revive my IT Job Skills tutoring session threads.
This isn't the sequence I wanted to present this material in but, it's topical for me at the moment so here I go.
First, if I told you what the pay is for a highly specialised job in IT, most people get very interested. But on the other side of the coin, if I told you what you have to do - very detailed, sometimes monotonous/repetitive and boring / not glamorous, working with numerous non-native English speakers with heavy accents, most people would say - there is no way I'd ever do that.
Part 1 - Please tailor your resume to the job you're applying for
If you're applying to "hundreds" of jobs and not getting any callbacks, this could definitely be a reason why.
I'm reviewing candidate resumes right now and I'm looking for a specific set of skills. This is called out in the job description.
The first candidate I rejected this morning was a Manufacturing Engineer with education credentials as an Electrical Engineer. Now maybe he's done. Systems Administration work but that was nowhere on his resume.
Part 2 - Update your resume to remove old and/or irrelevant jobs
I first saw this when I was working for the House of Mouse and we were trying to hire a Systems Administrator. One of the guys who applied and we later hired, listed all his experience back to when he first started working with Cobol for Control Data Corporation in 1979. That's interesting but, completely not relevant to what we were doing with IBM AIX, fibrechannel switches, SAN storage, etc.
Maybe you've got an interesting story to tell about when you spent a summer driving a tourist bus at Yellowstone National Park or maybe you've got an interesting story to tell about when you were working highway construction on Galveston Island one summer. But, how does that experience relate to the IT job you're applying for?
If you're a recent college grad, leave that stuff on your resume. But, if you've got 20 years experience, I'm really most interested in what you've been doing for the past 3 to 5 to 8 years. Because technology changes so rapidly, it probably doesn't matter much what you did 10 to 15 to 20 years ago.
Now in my case, I list at the bottom in the additional interest section, the fact that my first job was delivering newspapers in my hometown in Saudi Arabia. I leave that in primarily as a check to see if they read my resume.
Another exception is that I include a mention about military service. It shows another dimension to a person that might distinguish them from their peers.
Part 3 - Update your resume to remove old and/or irrelevant certifications/qualifications
Here's a simple example. Working with Microsoft Windows.
Since 1996 when Windows NT4 came out, Microsoft has released a new version of Windows every 3-4 years.
These Windows versions are supported for maybe 7-12 years before they become unsupported by Microsoft.
Knowing that, and knowing that with IT software, everybody wants to know what's in the latest version, so, how far would you go back in your Windows qualifications? Does anybody care that you got your NT4 MCSE back in 1998?
I was just looking at a resume where the guy listed 6 different certifications for a software that is completely unrelated to what I'm looking for (back to the tailor your resume part).
And, he listed 4 different certifications for Windows 2008. This is 2021. Since 2008, there's been 2008R2, 2012, 2016, 2019 since then. So, why is he listing a software that is no longer supported by the manufacturer? And this also begs the question - why hasn't he updated his certifications during the past decade?
Part 4 - Your Additional Interests, Hobbies, etc. - make them interesting
Reviewed a guy's resume and he listed a few interests and one of them included the fact that he had volunteered with an organisation 5 times.
If you're showing me 20 years of work experience and you want to include community volunteering, I would expect that it's something you're committed to.
Like you coached Little League for 3 years or that you're a member of the Gallon blood donor club, or you're on the board at the local food bank.
Now, you don't have to go so far as a lady I used to work with who had raised $2 Million for medical research for a disease her husband had. But show me that if this is something you like to do to help the community, do it and make it impressive. Otherwise, leave it off.
On the other side of the coin, I've seen lots of people get callbacks because they participate in some activity that the hiring manager is interested in. Motorcycle riders are probably the most common.
Remember that getting your resume reviewed and moved up to the next level means that you're going to have to make it appear that you are qualified for the job and that you're more appealing than the next candidate.
I'll probably think of some more tips over the next few weeks.
I got busy with stuff and stalled out after the first 3 weeks. But, I'm in the process of trying to hire people and it's a lot more difficult in 2021 than it has been in the past. So, I thought I'd revive my IT Job Skills tutoring session threads.
This isn't the sequence I wanted to present this material in but, it's topical for me at the moment so here I go.
First, if I told you what the pay is for a highly specialised job in IT, most people get very interested. But on the other side of the coin, if I told you what you have to do - very detailed, sometimes monotonous/repetitive and boring / not glamorous, working with numerous non-native English speakers with heavy accents, most people would say - there is no way I'd ever do that.
Part 1 - Please tailor your resume to the job you're applying for
If you're applying to "hundreds" of jobs and not getting any callbacks, this could definitely be a reason why.
I'm reviewing candidate resumes right now and I'm looking for a specific set of skills. This is called out in the job description.
The first candidate I rejected this morning was a Manufacturing Engineer with education credentials as an Electrical Engineer. Now maybe he's done. Systems Administration work but that was nowhere on his resume.
Part 2 - Update your resume to remove old and/or irrelevant jobs
I first saw this when I was working for the House of Mouse and we were trying to hire a Systems Administrator. One of the guys who applied and we later hired, listed all his experience back to when he first started working with Cobol for Control Data Corporation in 1979. That's interesting but, completely not relevant to what we were doing with IBM AIX, fibrechannel switches, SAN storage, etc.
Maybe you've got an interesting story to tell about when you spent a summer driving a tourist bus at Yellowstone National Park or maybe you've got an interesting story to tell about when you were working highway construction on Galveston Island one summer. But, how does that experience relate to the IT job you're applying for?
If you're a recent college grad, leave that stuff on your resume. But, if you've got 20 years experience, I'm really most interested in what you've been doing for the past 3 to 5 to 8 years. Because technology changes so rapidly, it probably doesn't matter much what you did 10 to 15 to 20 years ago.
Now in my case, I list at the bottom in the additional interest section, the fact that my first job was delivering newspapers in my hometown in Saudi Arabia. I leave that in primarily as a check to see if they read my resume.
Another exception is that I include a mention about military service. It shows another dimension to a person that might distinguish them from their peers.
Part 3 - Update your resume to remove old and/or irrelevant certifications/qualifications
Here's a simple example. Working with Microsoft Windows.
Since 1996 when Windows NT4 came out, Microsoft has released a new version of Windows every 3-4 years.
These Windows versions are supported for maybe 7-12 years before they become unsupported by Microsoft.
Knowing that, and knowing that with IT software, everybody wants to know what's in the latest version, so, how far would you go back in your Windows qualifications? Does anybody care that you got your NT4 MCSE back in 1998?
I was just looking at a resume where the guy listed 6 different certifications for a software that is completely unrelated to what I'm looking for (back to the tailor your resume part).
And, he listed 4 different certifications for Windows 2008. This is 2021. Since 2008, there's been 2008R2, 2012, 2016, 2019 since then. So, why is he listing a software that is no longer supported by the manufacturer? And this also begs the question - why hasn't he updated his certifications during the past decade?
Part 4 - Your Additional Interests, Hobbies, etc. - make them interesting
Reviewed a guy's resume and he listed a few interests and one of them included the fact that he had volunteered with an organisation 5 times.
If you're showing me 20 years of work experience and you want to include community volunteering, I would expect that it's something you're committed to.
Like you coached Little League for 3 years or that you're a member of the Gallon blood donor club, or you're on the board at the local food bank.
Now, you don't have to go so far as a lady I used to work with who had raised $2 Million for medical research for a disease her husband had. But show me that if this is something you like to do to help the community, do it and make it impressive. Otherwise, leave it off.
On the other side of the coin, I've seen lots of people get callbacks because they participate in some activity that the hiring manager is interested in. Motorcycle riders are probably the most common.
Remember that getting your resume reviewed and moved up to the next level means that you're going to have to make it appear that you are qualified for the job and that you're more appealing than the next candidate.
I'll probably think of some more tips over the next few weeks.
