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. 
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​IT roles of customers we worked with in 2019:
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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!  

Considering a career transition to the IT industry but your existing resume has nothing to do with IT and you feel stuck? IT Career Transformation has helped many customers transform their resume to IT industry to achieve their career goals. In this post, we share 10 tips and leading questions that can help you transform your resume and LinkedIn profile to your new target IT role.

1. First, define your new career roadmap and specific target role(s). It will allow you to find and highlight those skills (technical or soft skills) that are most relevant to your target IT role.
2. Identify areas aligned with your new target IT role from your professional experience that can help position you as an IT professional. Did you have any technical / IT related responsibilities and accomplishments? Focus on tangible accomplishments (providing numbers if possible), and what was the benefit to the organization or the customer / end user.
3. Have you worked directly or indirectly on IT projects? Your involvement can be, for example, defining business requirements or testing a new IT system.  What was the benefit of the project?
4. Have you worked with technical teams or with IT vendors?
5. Identify existing soft skills that are relevant and have prepared you to your target IT role. For example, are you a fast learner? Find specific points in your existing resume that can be rephrased to highlight these skills.
6. What types of technologies or IT systems have you used to perform your previous roles? Did you gain an expertise using a certain technology or IT system?
7. Have you provided training involving use of technology / IT systems that can be highlighted?
8. Include any relevant professional training and certifications you have completed in areas related to your new target IT role.
9. Review job descriptions of potential opportunities aligned with your target IT role and identify 3-5 job requirements that you can find specific accomplishments from your previous roles that demonstrate your ability to take on the required responsibilities.
10. Most importantly, are you comfortable with doing whatever it takes to be successful in your new IT role? You need to believe in yourself and be confident that you can do it!

Do you or someone you know need help with a career transition to IT or improving your existing IT resume? Learn more about our services. Call 678.224.8715 or email us at info@itcareertransformation.com to schedule a free initial consultation to discuss your career goals and how best we can help!

​Optimizing your resume and LinkedIn profile with the right keywords is critical for ranking high in Applicant Tracking System (ATS) search results, and for evaluation done by recruiters and hiring managers to identify top candidates for the job. 

​As part of IT Career Transformation methodology, we consistently analyze relevant job descriptions from leading career job boards and leading technology organizations’ career sites to identify critical keywords and skills on demand. After analysis, we work with our customers to incorporate and highlight these skills in their resumes and social media profiles. In this post, we share analysis results performed for IT Manager / DevOps Specialist role.
 
The table below includes the top 25 skills and keywords found in IT Manager / DevOps Specialists job descriptions, with percentage of job descriptions that had at least one instance of the keyword.

Do you already possess these skills and if so, are these critical keywords included in your resume and your social media profile(s)? Should you set goals to improve / acquire these skills this year? 

Contact IT Career Transformation to ensure your professional profiles (Resume and LinkedIn) are up-to-date and include the right keywords to improve your profile visibility and ranking in search results.
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​​Note: The results provided in this sample analysis are focused on technical keywords and skills only. There are other types of keywords, such as action verbs, soft skills and business keywords that should be analyzed for inclusion in your resume and your social media profile(s). The search criteria and job description sources used for the analysis can vary between two customers with the same IT role, and are dependent on career objectives, industry, technology domain and company size preferences.  

There is more than one good answer to this question. You should prepare your answer as this can be one of the questions that will come up in your next interview.  And yes, it depends on the type of position you are applying for.  A few considerations when preparing your answer: Is the position client facing? Is it part of a PMO or Delivery organization? What is the team size, structure and location? (e.g. global matrix structured team vs. co-located)

Here are IT Career Transformation recommendations for common top skills required for high performing IT project managers:
1) Ability to translate vision and business strategy into a successful project plan
2) Ability to remove blockers and impediments
3) Ability to connect and drive cross functional teams
 
1) Ability to translate vision and business strategy into a successful project plan -  successful IT project managers possess the ability to bridge between business and technology. They work to understand business strategy and goals, what are the business problems that the project will solve and what will be the project benefits (e.g. revenue increase, operational cost saving, improved quality and customer satisfaction).
A good project plan should deliver results that correspond to business objectives and projected project benefits. Consider including the following steps:
  a. Breakdown project scope into workstreams and develop level 1 plan that outlines project phases, work packages and key milestones.
  b. Review level 1 plan with impacted teams, identify deliverables and owners, develop detailed tasks and dependencies.
  c. Identify and solve resources conflicts and optimize project schedule.
  d. Get commitment from impacted teams and communicate plan to key stakeholders.  

2) Ability to remove blockers and impediments – a good project plan will help to minimize unexpected issues during the project lifecycle, yet, a big portion of an IT project manager's time is expected to be spent on issues identification, analysis and driving team to resolution. Project managers should be ready to provide examples of where the project went off track, and what they have done to bring it back on-track. For example, an unplanned task that impacts project schedule was identified during project execution, describe what actions were taken to minimize the impact (for example using a fast-tracking schedule technique, streamlining operational processes, or re-planning project activities to deliver incremental value faster to customers)

3) Ability to connect and drive cross functional teams – large scale IT projects can involve multiple technical teams, business stakeholders and vendors which can be located in different countries, bringing communication challenges and time constraints. Project managers should be prepared to describe situations where they used their leadership and interpersonal skills to effectively communicate projects tasks, deliverables and issues and to drive cross functional teams to deliver project results.  
 
Overall, the skills that you highlight in your resume or during an interview should resonate with your experience and your ability to provide tangible examples of success stories.   

No matter what role you are interviewing for, most likely these questions will be asked, and a good interviewer will follow up with more specific “why” type questions, to make sure your answer is sincere.
 
Tell me about yourself?
This is an open question, the interviewer not really looking to hear your life story, rather he is interested to see how you communicate and learn more about you from a career perspective. 
Start with overall statement about who you are (career wise)
“I’m a technology program manager with a strong background in enterprise software development and process improvement”
“I’m IT professional with over 15 years of global support management. I built global support organizations that operate in a very dynamic and high performing environments, supporting global customers with a very strict Service – Level – Agreements.”
Then move to describe your professional experience in the last 3-4 years that is relevant to the role you are interviewing for.     
 
If you are currently employed, expect the interviewer to ask – why do you want to leave?
If you want to leave because you are looking for higher compensation, this is fine, but probably not something the interviewer will appreciate much.
You don’t want to be negative or complain about your current employer.
You can start by saying something along the lines of: I have been with company A for 3 years, I gained good experience working with great people on few challenging projects, I’m now in a point to look for other opportunities where I can continue my professional growth. 
I’m looking to join a company that is dynamic, growing, invest in their employees and support opportunities for change and growth.
This is when you want to switch to talk about the organization you are interviewing for and describe the reason that you are interested in this opportunity. It can be a professional area that you have passion for, industry you want to specialize in, organization values that you appreciate and that align with your values. You can also mention that you are following this organization for quite some time, and excited to hear about all the new initiatives, products and services that the company is developing.
Following the introduction questions, the interviewer will have a set of professional questions to evaluate your knowledge and specific experience for the role you are interviewing for.
 
Most likely, at the end of the interview, the last question will be - do you have any questions for me?
Asking questions at the end of the interview is highly important and can demonstrate your understanding of the role, and your interest to learn more and to move forward. If you are truly interested in this role you should have at least one question, try to keep it under three, being respectful to interviewer’s time. 
Example of questions to consider:
What are the key challenges and opportunities the business is facing this year? 
How would you measure success for the team and for this role?
How fast are you looking to fill this position?
I hope to be considered to move forward, if so, what is the next step?
 
There are different ways to answer these questions, most importantly, stay positive, energetic, and genuinely provide answers that reflect your values and goals. 

If you are in information technology (IT) industry, you already know the importance of keeping up with technology advancements, new methods and tools that you may need to use in 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 periodically of your new learning and accomplishments is essential and should be reflected in your resume.

Following are 5 guidance points to keep your resume up-to-date:  

1. Review and update your introduction section – is it still presenting well “who you are”, your “professional brand” and what “you bring to the table”? Any new capabilities that should be added? Think about your differentiators and use the right keywords to update your introduction, make sure it is aligned with your current career objectives.
2. Keep track and update your resume’s professional experience section with your projects’ 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%”.
3. Ensure alignment between your introduction and your professional experience. Is your professional experience section includes responsibilities and accomplishments that support your introduction and your career objectives?
4. 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.
5. Make sure you are using the right phrases and keywords recruiters and ATS systems are looking for - add any new tools, software packages, methods with strong market demand that you have recently used and gained an in depth knowledge of to your resume's technical skills and professional experience/ expertise sections. 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” – 2500+ ; “Scrum” – 1690 ; “JIRA” – 795
   You can search for any other keyword relevant to your target position and location to get an idea of industry demand.