​Do you or someone you know need help improving your career documents (resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile) and achieving your career goals?
 
Visit us at www.itcareertransformation.com for more information and to schedule a free initial consultation!

www.itcareertransformation.com | 678.224.8715 | info@itcareertransformation.co

The job search process can be a long, arduous journey. Applicants often receive an immediate rejection email or never hear anything about their application. Although optimizing your career documents to the target position is an essential step in your job search strategy, there are other factors that can affect your probability to be called for an interview. First and foremost, be patient and diligent. The old saying “patience is a virtue” has never been truer than when trying to land your ideal role.
 
Depending on the specific hiring company and the position you are applying for, each open position can have more than 250 applicants; of those, only 5-6 are interviewed and only 1 is hired. Many online sources such as recruiting agencies and tech communities suggest that most people spend an average of 2-4 months on their search effort, averaging 15-20 applications/week. Don’t let a few rejections discourage you from persevering!

Below are 5 helpful tips for improving your job search efforts.

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​Tip #1—Develop a search strategy before applying for positions to ensure your job search strategy and plan is in alignment with your target role and overall career objectives (i.e., your 3–5-year career goal). This keeps your search focused on how you want to advance your career.

• Build a search strategy that uses different approaches (i.e., networking, applying directly on company’s career sites, applying on job boards, working with recruiters).
• Define job search goals.
• List your target industries and make a list of target companies you are interested in working for.
• Considering the disparate IT specific terms, many of which are synonymous, write down the different terms you see in job postings to open up your search to new companies.

 
Tip #2—Research the company you are interested in. The majority of people land jobs through networking. A little research on a company’s website may help put your resume into the right hands. LinkedIn is an ideal platform to make connections. Find multiple contacts at each of the companies you are planning to apply to. If not already in your network, send a personal message to introduce yourself and ask to connect. Ask if they could give you more information about the work environment, culture, etc. They may be able/willing to forward your resume to the appropriate hiring manager. Not sure if your LinkedIn profile stands out? IT Career Transformation offers a service that provides update recommendations to improve your LinkedIn profile visibility and ranking in search results.
 
Tip #3—Put your strategy to work. Apply on the hiring company’s website or on job boards such as Indeed, Dice or Glassdoor when possible. Timing is everything. Determine how long the job has been opened for applications; are you one of the first candidates to apply or are you candidate # 245. Keep in mind that you can be the most qualified person for the job, but if the recruiter has already selected and submitted enough candidates to the hiring manager, the candidate list may be closed.

• Consider your search efforts as a job – set specific days/hours to work on your search.
• Recommend 20 hours/week invested in search activities.
• Be proactive—set up job alerts on LinkedIn and other career boards to be notified of new opportunities.
• Keep a record of all your applications and track the results.

 
Tips #4—Tailor your career documents. One version of your career documents cannot match 100% of the openings for your specific target role. When applying to positions different from your current role, be sure to tailor your documents specifically to the position job requirements, highlighting the appropriate skills and experiences. Furthermore, each position might have different “weights” assigned to different areas of specialty/keywords. Depending on the position’s specific areas of specialties, you will need to move the relevant skills and accomplishments to the forefront of your resume/cover letter and modify the terminology used.
 
Pay close attention to the job posting you are applying for. You may have an optimized resume containing the necessary keywords and desired competencies for your specific target role; however, if your keywords and those in the job description differ, the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) will reject your resume. For example: your resume has “Application Performance Monitoring (APM) Tools” but the job description has “Monitoring and Event Management Tools”. Furthermore, different companies use different titles for the same target role. For example, your resume says “Network Engineer” but the job description has “Network Specialist”. It is important to review your documents before applying and make sure your title, keywords and competencies contain the specific wording used in the job description. Doing so will improve your chances of getting through the ATS and into the hands of the recruiters. Not sure which keywords and competencies to use? IT Career Transformation offers a “target role analysis” to provide you with a comprehensive list of role specific keywords and competencies.
 
Tip #5—Key Success Factors. Following up on all applications/interviews is essential!

• Keep detailed notes on all introduction calls and interviews. Recording questions that were asked, the company’s specific needs and more details not included in the job description will better prepare you for follow-up calls/interviews.
• Send a thank you note to each contact with whom you spoke, inquiring about next steps.
• Provide quick responses. Keep in mind, if you have all the required skills except ONE, that could be the “must have” skill the employer is looking for.

 
New to the IT field or a recent graduate? You may think your experiences and skills are not relevant. However, no matter what roles you had in the past, your experiences offer something relevant to the job. For ideas on optimizing your IT career documents (resume/cover letter) refer to our blog article: 10 resume writing tips to help you transform your resume to the IT industry.  
 
For more help advancing your IT career, visit https://www.itcareertransformation.com/ and schedule your free consultation to learn how we can help you land that target role.

Experienced IT professionals generally have a vast array of role-specific experiences and skills. Sometimes it is difficult deciding which details to include on your resume. In fact, many clients come to us with resumes that are six or more pages and often ask: “how long should my resume be?” The short answer is: usually two pages for IT professionals.
​I bet you are asking: How do I fit all my career details into two pages?
​This article provides great tips for optimizing your resume to the ideal length to pass through Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) into the hands of potential employers.
​

​
​Fact: Most employers spend approximately ten seconds scanning each resume. This indicates the importance of streamlining all sections of your resume. To grab employers’ attention and make them want to keep reading, it is essential to have effective, concise statements highlighting your skills/achievements/experience while eliminating redundant information that has no benefit to your targeted role.

​WHAT ARE THE “MUST HAVES” IN YOUR RESUME?

​A strong opening statement
Remember: you want to grab their attention, making them want to learn more about you! Your opening statement is where you have the strongest ability to stand out. Streamlining it is essential to make employers want to keep reading your resume instead of moving on to the next.
The following is an example of many peoples’ opening statement—this does not provide any value to the hiring company and will not make you stand out.
​​
​A detail-oriented Business Intelligence Analyst with over 10 years of experience seeks the opportunity to join your organization as a Senior Business Intelligence Analyst and work with various departments to manage teams and deploy strategies for your business intelligence environment.

​However, this example makes the reader immediately want to learn more about you and what you can do for their business:
​​
Results driven Business Intelligence analyst with strong technical background and hands-on leadership skills. Experienced in multiple Business Intelligence (BI) solutions. Strong communication and interpersonal skills; trusted by peers, management and clients. Passionate about technology and consistently driving cross functional teams throughout the development lifecycle to implement and support strategic projects. Provide solutions for strategic business initiatives in fast-paced environments.

For more tips on optimizing your profile introduction, visit our previous post: creating resume and LinkedIn profile introduction that standout. 
​

​​Outstanding accomplishments
After your opening statement, you should identify recent accomplishments using concise statements. This not only reduces redundancies you may have throughout your experience; it also gives the employer a broader picture of how you fit in with their company.

Keywords for your targeted position
There is a fine balance between controlling the length of your resume and opportunities to incorporate targeted keywords for your desired role. Incorporating these keywords (even using the same keywords multiple times) throughout your resume means the difference between having your resume stand out and having it filed in the circular file.
If you aren’t sure what keywords and proficiencies you should use, IT Career Transformation offers a service that provides our clients with a target role analysis that identifies specific keywords and desired proficiencies for your targeted career.

​An area of expertise section that succinctly identifies your technology and people skills.
Many of our clients have a “skills” section in their resume, but it is essentially a list of experience statements using specific technologies. This example is typical of many resumes:

​Converting it to the format below clearly identifies your skills using the desired keywords for your target role. Its condensed format allows potential employers to review your skills quickly.

​Concise and effective achievement and experience statements.
Many IT professionals reach out to us with an existing resume with lengthy descriptions of non-added value responsibilities and outdated technologies. IT Career Transformation excels at streamlining your resume by using concise achievement statements with essential keywords.
For example, instead of using multiple bullet points to describe the different platforms you successfully migrated, the statement below relays the same information but is streamlined and uses keywords for your target role:

​These types of statements not only shorten your resume but also concisely define your credentials.
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If you are a recent graduate, have up to two years of IT experience or are transitioning to an IT field, all of the above information applies to you as well. However, you may only need a one-page resume. Your relevant skills can be streamlined and highlighted, while those not specifically related to the IT field can be moved to a separate section. With the appropriate keywords and statements, your resume can be one that grabs potential employers’ interest.

If your resume is too long and you are unsure how to begin optimizing your resume, let the experts at IT Career Transformation work with you to create the ideal resume that makes employers want you on their team. We encourage you to visit us at https://www.itcareertransformation.com/ for more information. Schedule your free initial consultation to discuss your career goals and how best we can help!

• Are you aware of what IT hiring managers and recruiters are looking for in a resume?​
• Are you proficient at converting tasks and achievements into effective accomplishment statements using unique terminology?
• Are your cover letters and resumes effectively written to sail through Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) and into the hands of potential employers?

​
If you said no to any of these questions, you may want to consider hiring a professional IT resume writer to work with you on creating your ideal resume.

​IT professionals face a unique challenge when writing career documents and updating LinkedIn or other social media profiles. Industry standards require very specific skills; however, there is a fine line between not enough details and too many. IT resumes must include enough specifics to highlight strengths and abilities but still be concise and easy to read.

Many companies today use scanning software to sift through the hundreds of resumes they receive. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) scan resumes for keywords and phrases. If your resume and cover letter do not have these keywords or phrases embedded into them in multiple places, most likely your resume will never reach the hiring manager’s desk.

To have a resume that gets past the scanners, you must have the ability to understand the skills companies are looking for and how to highlight your accomplishments to show value to the company. It can be challenging to understand areas of professional expertise and/or using the right professional keywords and soft skills that are in high demand for the target IT role. This is one of the many things a specialized resume writing service can do for you.


Highly rated professional IT resume writers:

• Are knowledgeable of the specific terms and skills employers value.
• Can tailor your resume to a specific IT role.
• Have the ability to convert the unique terminology and technical content candidates use into effective accomplishment statements.
• Know how to use targeted keywords to optimize your resume so it is ATS friendly.
• Offer a specialized industry and target IT role keywords analysis service.

Out of the many options, how do you choose the right one for you?

​The best thing is to do your homework:

• Know exactly what services the company offers. One thing a professional resume writer can’t do is guarantee you will land a job using the improved documents. If they offer this, move on to the next company.
• Look for a group that will work WITH you in the resume writing process. After all, it is YOUR resume and you will need to provide valuable information regarding your goals, past experience and accomplishments.
• Check the customer reviews on their website. These are a great tool to determine if they can meet your needs.
• Do they offer free consultations?
• Evaluate their process on improving career documents. Do they work with you to identify specific goals and achievements? Do they complete a target role analysis to identify highly ranked keywords relevant to your target IT role and specialty areas? Do they meet with you to go over any missing information or to clarify any questions?
• Do they offer personalized review sessions to discuss the improved documents?

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An improved/optimized resume is an essential step in the job search process and can definitely help in getting more calls for interviews. When you choose the right resume writing service, you can be sure you will be able to spend more time looking for that perfect job and less time stressing over how to make yourself shine above all the other applicants.
​

Do you or someone you know need help advancing your IT Career?

Visit https://www.itcareertransformation.com/ for more information and to schedule your free initial consultation.

​​Your resume and LinkedIn profile might be too crowded with technical language and lacking mention of your accomplishments that create value to employers and customers.

IT Career Transformation has worked with highly technical professionals such as Network Security Analysts and Performance Test Engineers and helped them transform their resume and LinkedIn profile. From a long bullet list of experience using different types/versions of tools to a value driven professional profiles that highlight experience and accomplishments that effectively demonstrate the value they created to their employers/customers. In this post, we share recommendations on how to effectively demonstrate your value as an IT professional. We provide practical examples that can help you improve your professional experience/accomplishments statements and increase your visibility by employers and recruiters. 
 
Technical skills are important and if you have reached a level of expertise using a certain technology tool you should include it in your resume and your LinkedIn profile. However, simply listing all the technical tools you have experience with by itself, will not help to attract the attention of employers and recruiters.
Here are few examples of plain “experience with…” statements found in many of IT Career Transformation customers’ existing resumes.
“Responsible for managing and configuring cisco ASA firewall model XXXX”
“Experience with troubleshooting SQL databases”
“Experience with developing automated test scripts using tools such as LoadRunner, Selenium and JMeter”

You should avoid using plain “experience with…” statements. Instead, convert these statements to powerful/engaging statements that includes:

• Short description of the project (goals/business problem, sizing, technology)
• Your responsibilities and contributions
• The impact to the company or its customers
• The value you were able to create (or contributed to as part of a team).

 
Be concise and mention any specific tool(s) you have used to achieve the accomplishment. You can also breakdown an accomplishment into related bullet points.
It might seem challenging to keep your professional experience/accomplishments statements short since there are so many details that you can mention about your projects and experience, but remember that you should only include clear and short statements that will drive conversations in the next step of the recruiting process – interviews.
To help out, here are few examples of effective professional experience/accomplishments statements that you can customize with your specific project and the value you created:

1. Provided network security support for a global high availability data center. Performed network and security logs analysis utilizing WireShark to identify incident root cause, enabling 30% reduction in recurring incidents.
2. Collaborated with infrastructure and architecture teams to plan and implement performance testing using LoadRunner and JMeter to support large-scale cloud migration initiatives.
3. Executed baseline testing in both on-premises and cloud (AWS) environments to identify performance issues and to validate business requirements before initiating the cloud migration, eliminating additional development/deployment costs of $XXX.

You can highlight your relevant value driven accomplishments as part of your resume/LinkedIn profile professional experience as well as in your introduction. (Checkout our previous post on how to create an introduction that stands out). You should also list recent/relevant tools in your technical skills section which can help improve your resume/LinkedIn profile visibility and ranking when searching for IT professionals like you.

www.itcareertransformation.com | 678.224.8715 | info@itcareertransformation.com

If you are in the information technology (IT) industry, you already know the importance of keeping up with the rapidly changing IT industry demand, technology advancements, new methods, and tools that you need for your next challenging IT role or project. Moving from one project to another using totally different technologies and methods within less than a year is very common in IT. Keeping track of new learning and accomplishments is essential and should be reflected on your resume.

Following are 8 tips to keep your IT resume up-to-date:  
​
1. Update your Professional Headline – choose a headline that is aligned with your target role and highlight your specialty area / unique value proposition statement. For example: “Senior Project Manager (PMP, CSM) | SaaS / Enterprise Applications Delivery”.

2. Review and update your Introduction section – it is your short professional story - your personal elevator pitch. Is it presenting your “professional brand” and what you bring to the table? Any new capabilities or soft skills that should be highlighted? Think about your differentiators and use the right keywords in your introduction. Make sure it aligns with your current career objectives and explains the value you can create to the hiring company or client.

3. Update your Key Area of Expertise (or Key Competencies) section with your most relevant competencies and soft skills that are in high demand for your target IT role.

4. Keep track and update your resume’s Professional Experience section with your accomplishments. Where possible include impact and measurable results. For example: “Reduced annual operational costs by $250,000...”, “Reduced number of post-production defects by 30%...” “Successfully launched an awesome product in less than 6 months from inception to production, generating revenue of $10+ million, exceeding projection by 20%”. You can also highlight recent / relevant accomplishments as part of your Introduction section.
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5. Condense work history that is over 5 year old. Consider removing listed responsibilities and accomplishments that are not value added, or not contributing to your current career objectives. You can move any position that is older than 12 years ago or not relevant to your target position to an Additional Experience section, listing the position in one line that includes company name, position, and duration.  ​

6. Ensure alignment between your Introduction and your Professional Experience. Does your professional experience section include responsibilities and accomplishments that support your introduction and your career objectives?

7. Update your education section with relevant new certifications and training. You can highlight any new professional affiliations or awards / recognitions received from employers or clients under an Awards, Recognitions and Professional Affiliations section.  

​8. Make sure you are using the right phrases and keywords recruiters and ATS systems are looking for. Update keywords in your resume’s Introduction, Key Areas of Expertise (or Key Competencies), Professional Experience and Technical Skills sections.  Add any new tools, software packages, methods with strong market demand that you have recently used and gained an in depth knowledge of. In order to get a sense of market demand you can simply search on job boards for jobs associated with a name of a tool, skill or methodology. Here are three examples for project management related keywords searched on a job board and the number of jobs associated with these keywords nationwide:  
“Portfolio Management” – 14,000 ; “Scrum” – 29,500 ; “JIRA” – 23,000
You can search for any other keyword relevant to your target position and location to get an idea of industry demand. 

Do you or someone you know need help with updating your resume and LinkedIn profile?
 
Please visit www.itcareertransformation.com for more information and to schedule a free initial consultation to discuss your career goals and how best we can help!

www.itcareertransformation.com | 678.224.8715 | info@itcareertransformation.com

​Your target IT role is in high demand. You possess the right technical skills and experience, but you still are not hearing back from recruiters and hiring managers?
​
More than ever before, companies are looking for the right soft skills when hiring IT professionals. Your resume and LinkedIn profile should be optimized to highlight your soft skills and clearly communicate how you fit in to the hiring company’s culture and work environment. In this post we share the top soft skills companies are looking for when hiring IT professionals.

​Companies are progressively shifting to do more work remotely. The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly been a key driver for investment in cloud / SaaS based tools designed to improve team collaboration, project delivery and operation management. This shift in the work environment introduces a change in desired skill sets IT professional candidates should possess to work effectively in a remote work setup.
While certain soft skills have always been a key requirement for senior management, technology leaders and other management positions (such as project manager, product manager / owner, and business analyst), more and more companies are looking for soft skills in candidates for all types of IT roles, including technical roles that used to be considered self-contained / task oriented roles.

​The list below is IT Career Transformation’s analysis for the top soft skills hiring companies are looking for in technical IT roles, such as network engineer, security analyst, data engineer, software developer and technical support just to name a few.

​In which sections of your resume should you include soft skills?
Soft skills should be integrated into your introduction, professional experience, and areas of expertise / key competencies sections. You can check out our previous post on how to build a strong introduction to your resume and your LinkedIn section.

​The following is an example of how to integrate soft skills into a professional experience statement:

“Effectively collaborated with diverse infrastructure support groups including network engineering, provisioning, security operations and telecom vendors to analyze and resolve critical issues, maintaining strict service level agreements (SLAs).”
This example communicates at least five soft skills about the candidate including being a team player, interpersonal skills, time management, problem solving and working efficiently under pressure.

In the Area of Expertise (or Key Competencies) section, you can list your key soft skills such as “Creative Problem Solving” along with other professional areas of expertise such as “Network Security”.  
 
Do you possess any of these soft skills? Does your resume showcase your relevant soft skills that hiring companies are looking for? 

​Do you or someone you know need help with optimizing your resume and LinkedIn profile with relevant soft skills and keywords to effectively communicate your professional brand?
 
Please visit www.itcareertransformation.com for more information and to schedule a free initial consultation to discuss your career goals and how best we can help!

www.itcareertransformation.com | 678.224.8715 | info@itcareertransformation.com

First, it helps you stand out from other candidates who do not bother to send a thank you email.
Secondly, it is your opportunity to show appreciation for the time spent during the interview, and for the opportunity to learn more about the company, the position and being considered for it.
Lastly, it is always important to follow-up. It provides an easy way for the interviewer to simply hit reply and let you know about the position, either way. Hopefully, they will let you know you are moving forward in the recruiting process and providing you with next steps.
​

​​When should you send a thank you email?
After the interview (phone interview, in-person or via video conference), ideally by end of day. Hiring decisions can be made fast, you want to show that you are interested in the position as early as possible.  
  
What to include?

• Thank the hiring manager for their time.
• Keep the message short and make it personalized.
• Highlight one thing that you have learned or that excites you about the position.
• Include a short summary of experiences / accomplishments mentioned in the interview that are most relevant and can create value to the hiring company.  
• Close the email with reiterating your appreciation, your interest in the position and that you are looking forward to next steps.

 
Need help crafting a thank-you email? Here is a thank you email template that you can download and customize for your use:

A week went by and still no reply?
Do not give up, send a short follow-up email. Hiring managers can be busy.

​Example for a follow up email:  

“Dear <Name>,
In case you are still considering candidates, I am following-up to let you know of my sincere interest in this exciting position. I hope to hear from you soon with next steps.
 
Best Regards,
<Your Name>
<Your Phone #>”

​Do you or someone you know need help advancing your IT career?
 
Please visit www.itcareertransformation.com for more information and to schedule a free initial consultation to discuss your career goals and how best we can help!

www.itcareertransformation.com | 678.224.8715 | info@itcareertransformation.com
​

​Can your resume tell your story in less than 10 seconds? Recruiters glance through many resumes until they find the one that draws their attention. Your resume and LinkedIn profile introduction should standout and be crafted effectively to catch their eye quickly and convince them you are the optimal candidate.
​

Here are 7 leading questions that can help you determine what to highlight in your introduction:

1. What is the target role that you are ready to move into?
2. What is your unique value proposition that you can bring to the organization that will hire you?
3. What are your most significant recent career accomplishments that are aligned with your target position?
4. What are your key areas of expertise relevant to your target position?
5. What are your top 3 personal qualities that can help support your target companies’ objectives?
6. Are you able to connect the dots from statements made in your introduction to accomplishments and responsibilities listed in your professional experience that support these statements?
7. Is your introduction optimized with keywords that show your professional expertise and are relevant to your target position? 

Here is an introduction example, crafted for a Senior Enterprise Architect resume:

"Visionary and results driven senior enterprise architect, specialized in large-scale cloud deployment and migration projects (Azure, AWS, Google). Executive presentation skills, strong communication and leadership skills. Proven record of success in collaborating with business and leading engineering teams to design and implement innovative, scalable and reliable enterprise solutions that improve user experience and drive business growth."
 
Following the introduction, you can add 2-3 recent accomplishments, preferably with tangible results. Here is an example:

"Led development of next generation service management solution, based on Google cloud-native enterprise services, enabling improved performance and operational cost savings of $2.5M/year."

Another thing you can consider adding as part of your introduction is a list of key areas of expertise which can be visually organized by a) soft/interpersonal skills, for example “Cross-Functional Team Leadership”, b) technology expertise, for example “Google Cloud Platform” and c) process expertise, for example “SDLC (Waterfall/Agile/Scrum)”

Your resume and your LinkedIn introduction are your opportunity to effectively present yourself, showcase your specialties and how you can create value. It is the most important section of your resume and LinkedIn profile, it should quickly convince hiring managers and recruiters that you are uniquely qualified for the position.

​Do you or someone you know need help with effectively communicating your professional brand?

​​Please visit www.itcareertransformation.com for more information and to schedule a free initial consultation to discuss your career goals and how best we can help!

www.itcareertransformation.com | 678.224.8715 | info@itcareertransformation.com

Are you maximizing your career potential? Make it a goal for the new year and we are here to help! 
Done right, resume or LinkedIn profile keyword optimization generates opportunities for your target role and delivers a competitive edge. Is your resume and LinkedIn profile optimized with the right keywords and skills?
In this post, we share a list of the top 15 keywords used in resumes of IT Career Transformation’s customers in 2019. 
​

​
​IT roles of customers we worked with in 2019:
​
Cloud Architect | Network Engineer | Enterprise Architecture Lead | Software Engineer | Full Stack Software Developer | Software Development Lead | Database Developer / DBA | Product Manager / Product Owner | Business Analyst | Project Manager | Senior Project Manager | Technical Project Manager | IT Leader - Enterprise Applications | IT Leader - Infrastructure | IT Manager / Director of Application Delivery | Senior Client Partner | DevOps Specialist | IT Infrastructure Manager | QA Analyst | QA Lead | Director of QA and Testing | Support Specialist | O365 Consultant | System Analyst | Senior Program Manager | Software Engineering Manager | Networking Solution Engineer | Networking Support Analyst | Security Support Specialist | Technical Support Manager | Pre-sale / Solution Engineer | Solution Architect

​Download a copy of IT Career Transformation 2020 Calendar for your use:

​​The IT Career Transformation team is wishing you a prosperous New Year!  

​Do you or someone you know need help with updating your resume and LinkedIn profile?
 
Please visit www.itcareertransformation.com for more information and to schedule a free initial consultation to discuss your career goals and how best we can help!

www.itcareertransformation.com | 678.224.8715 | info@itcareertransformation.co