8 tips to create a Resume for IT pro

Source: techrepublic.com
You’re an experienced IT professional. You’ve been around the block and done it all. You think your resume is packed full with great stuff because years ago, you read all the articles on how to build the perfect resume and you’ve been following most of that advice ever since. Any employer should take one look at your resume and hire you on the spot, right?

That’s what I used to think too. I’m not a resume expert, but I thought I had a killer resume. Then, three potential clients in three month’s time nixed me because they thought I was “light” in areas where I was actually a specialist.

If that isn’t a wake-up call, I don’t know what is. So I called a close friend of mine, who is an IT manager at a large company. He knows my abilities, he’s an IT geek at heart, and he’s seen a ton of resumes. He looked at my resume and said, “Yep, I’d have thrown it right in the trash.” I called a couple more friends in similar positions. “It could use some improvement,” one of them told me. Ouch. At least they were honest. Basically, I had a resume that would sell me as an administrator or engineer, but not as an architect or consultant, which was the type of work I was looking for.

I began gathering comments and suggestions from these guys and completely rebuilt my resume from scratch. What I learned in this process is that building a resume for experienced IT professionals who want to land higher-level IT jobs is quite different from building the average resume to land entry-level administrator jobs.

I am going to share eight resume tips that sum up what I have learned.

Resume pointers

Most of the standard rules for building a resume still apply: Make sure you have a readable format, proofread for spelling and grammar errors, keep it simple, etc. However, experienced IT pros need to follow some more specialized guidelines. A few of these tips may actually contradict your previous notions of what to include (and exclude) on your resume. They certainly contradicted mine.

Keep your list of “core skills” short and sweet. When you’ve worked with a lot of different technologies, you want to show the world all you’ve done. However, having a long list of core skills actually gives the impression that you know only a little bit about most of those things and that you’re a generalist, not the specialist that the potential client/employer needs. Keep this list to a handful of key skills or possibly eliminate the list altogether.

Don’t list certification exams. At the very least, minimize the impact of this list. The average IT pro might want to list exams passed to build up a resume, but for the IT veteran, this actually marginalizes real-world experience and accomplishments.

Quantify projects and results. For example, if you do an Active Directory implementation, specify how many sites, domains, and servers were involved. If you design an e-commerce system, specify the increased percentage of sales that resulted from the project. Tell the potential client/employer exactly how you helped a previous company that you worked for.

Bullets, bullets, bullets. Don’t use paragraph style writing to describe your projects, tasks, and duties. Bullet-point every major accomplishment or project and leave out the minor things. (Your resume is already going to be too big anyway.)

Include examples of work, if possible. For instance, maybe you’ve written articles for an online magazine, or perhaps you built an e-commerce site. Include links to pertinent examples so potential clients/employers can see firsthand what you do.

Highlight major accomplishments. If you’re a high-tech consultant, you may have a lot of smaller projects and clients. Maybe you were hired as a “grunt” for a couple of short-term assignments but had a major project last year. You can’t exclude the small stuff, or potential clients/employers will question what you’ve been doing. But you can minimize the impact by focusing attention on the bigger things. Some ways of doing this include using a slightly larger font, boldface, or italics, or even drawing a thin border around the major accomplishments. But don’t go overboard-subtlety is still key.

Seek advice from actual managers. Recruiters, agents, brokers, and human resource personnel are all different from managers. Managers want to see results, and they usually know how to spot a weak candidate. If managers think your resume reflects someone who can’t do the job, you’ll never get anywhere. Run your resume by some managers you know and have them critique it for you.

Know when to stop. If you list all your experience from all the jobs, contracts, or projects you’ve handled, your resume will be more like a book. Find a place to stop listing your experience. If you feel you must at least acknowledge previous experience, try making a separate section and just bullet-point where you worked and what your title/function was. Of course, you’ll usually want to do this only for the less-accomplished jobs that you don’t want to highlight on your resume.

10 tips for making a resume for a high level IT post

Sourcc: techrepublic.com
10 things you should know about creating a resume for a high-level IT position
This list is based on the article “Eight resume tips for the experienced IT pro.” It’s also available as a PDF download.

Building a resume that targets an upper-level IT position, such as architect or consultant, requires a different approach than creating a resume to land an entry-level tech job. Although many of the standard rules still apply, you need to follow some more specialized guidelines. In fact, a few of these tips may actually contradict your previous notions of what your resume should include (and exclude).


#1: Keep your list of “core skills” short and sweet

When you’ve worked with a lot of technologies, you want to show the world all you’ve done. However, having a long list of core skills actually gives the impression that you know only a little bit about most of those things and that you’re a generalist, not the specialist that the potential client/employer needs. Keep this list to a handful of key skills or possibly eliminate the list altogether.

#2: Don’t list certification exams

At the very least, minimize the impact of a cert list. The average IT pro might want to list exams passed to build up a resume, but for the IT veteran, this actually marginalizes real-world experience and accomplishments.

#3: Quantify projects and results

For example, if you do an Active Directory implementation, specify how many sites, domains, and servers were involved. If you designed an e-commerce system, specify the increased percentage of sales that resulted from the project. Tell the potential client/employer exactly how you helped a previous company you worked for.

#4: Take advantage of bullets

Don’t use paragraph style writing to describe your projects, tasks, and duties. Bullet-point every major accomplishment or project and leave out the minor things. (Your resume is already going to be too big anyway.)

#5: Include examples of work, if possible

For instance, maybe you’ve written articles for an online magazine or built an e-commerce site. Include links to pertinent examples so that potential clients/employers can see firsthand what you do.

#6: Highlight major accomplishments

If you’re a high-tech consultant, you may have a lot of smaller projects and clients. Maybe you were hired as a “grunt” for a couple of short-term assignments but had a major project last year. You can’t exclude the small stuff or potential clients/employers will question what you’ve been doing. But you can minimize the impact by focusing attention on the bigger things. Some ways of doing this include using a slightly larger font, boldface, or italics, or even drawing a thin border around the major accomplishments. But don’t go overboard — subtlety is still key.

#7: Seek advice from actual managers

Recruiters, agents, brokers, and human resource personnel are all different from managers. Managers want to see results, and they usually know how to spot a weak candidate. If managers think your resume reflects someone who can’t do the job, you’ll never get anywhere. Run your resume by some managers you know and have them critique it for you.

#8: Know when to stop

If you list all your experience from all the jobs, contracts, or projects you’ve handled, your resume will be more like a book. Find a place to stop listing your experience. If you feel you must at least acknowledge previous experience, try making a separate section and just bullet-point where you worked and what your title/function was. Of course, you’ll usually want to do this only for the less-accomplished jobs that you don’t want to highlight on your resume.

#9: Make sure your design is simple, attractive, and readable

As with any resume, you should use a clean font such as Times New Roman or Arial. Be consistent in your use of boldface, underline, or italics to help lead the reader through the document and avoid contrived graphical elements.

#10: Edit, revise, and proofread

Experts suggest that a resume should go through three to seven drafts before it begins to reflect the multidimensional individual on a piece of paper. Be grammatically correct, spell-check the document, and have someone else proofread your resume carefully.

Telephone Interviews

http://www.seekingsuccess.com/articles/art167.php

Telephone Interviews

By Tamara Dowling, CPRW

Many employers conduct telephone interviews to screen candidates for basic qualifications. It is also an alternative when it is not practical to invite an out-of-area candidate to the office.

Telephone interviews can be challenging because it is more difficult to gain rapport with the interviewer because you cannot see the interviewer's non-verbal reactions and cues. Conversely, the interviewer cannot see your enthusiastic expressions or professional appearance. This places all the weight on your phone manners, clarity of speech, voice tone and the content of your answers.

Here is a quick tip list for excelling at a telephone interview:

• Treat the phone interview as you would a face-to-face interview.
• Select a quiet, private room with a telephone in good working condition.
• Conduct a mock telephone interview with a friend to gain feedback on your voice quality and speech.
• Before the interview, prepare talking points for the call including value you bring to the company and specific questions.
• Arrange the following items: your resume, cover letter, copy of application if you submitted one, highlights of corporate information and brief talking points.
• Dress in business attire.
• Breathe deeply and relax. Speak slowly, clearly and with purpose.
• Smile, it changes your speech and the person on the other end can sense it.
• Write down the full names and titles of each call participant.
• Take notes when appropriate.
• Be courteous and try not to speak over the interviewer. If you do, apologize and let the interviewer continue.
• Support your statements with detailed examples of accomplishments when possible. It is easy for someone to get distracted on a phone call, so paint a vivid picture to keep the interviewer interested.
• Explain any pauses in your speech to ponder a question or take notes.
• If you think of a question or comment while the interviewer is speaking, jot a note on your talking points list, so you remember it later.
• During the interview, if the interviewer inadvertently answers a question from your prepared list, cross it off. If you forget and ask it, it will seem as if you were not listening.
• Offer to provide additional information or answer other questions.
• Use your talking points list of specific skills and accomplishments; cross them off as you work them into the conversation. At the end, if you have some uncrossed items, you might say something like, "I thought you might be interested to know I led a major conversion project, quite similar to what you are planning. I managed a $2.5 million budget and completed it 45 days early, saving over $48,000."
• Before ending the call, be sure you know the next step in the process, and offer to provide any additional information needed.
• Do not hang up until the interviewer has hung up.
• Promptly send a formal follow-up / thank you letter, just as you would for a face-to-face interview.

sample cover letter

I understand xxx is one of the leading IT companies in Vietnam and I am glad that you are expanding to other countries. I am eager to know more about the long term strategy of xxx when it comes to the oversea market and how I am going to fit in your organization. To me, the vision and planning of a company in the long run is as important as the financial benefit it provides. 
It would benefit both of us if you can reveal a bit about the responsibilities as well as the challenges of the job before we take the discussion further. I am sure when we all know what the other party is going to bring to the table then you and me can be opened and talk about everything in details.

In term of location, I am quite flexible. I was born in XXX but spent the last 12 years in XXX. I hold dual
citizenship (X and Y) and traveling is not a problem for me as my current job requires me to move around a fair bit. 


In financial term, all I require is a competitive compensation package. I am confident the salary will take care of itself if I am the right person for the job.