making it through the tech career goo

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Making It Through the Tech Career “Goo”

The job market is a zoo, and corporate culture is

sticky, at best…Here’s how 5 fellow tech pros are marking their way through all the goo. Perhaps you can relate…

http://www.ittechexec.com/


Table of Contents

Story 1: Hitting the Resume/Job Search Brick Wall

Story 2: Making Recruiters Work for Me…For Once

Story 3: My Job Search Agent Got the Ball Rolling, Now What?Story 4: The Road to Promotion Is Paved With Forgetfulness

Story 5: When Tech Goes a Little SoftPLUS:

Silly me. I thought an MBA mixed with hard work was my ticket…


Story 1: Hitting the Resume/Job Search Brick Wall

What to do when the market isn’t as welcoming as you thought it would be…

Meet Raul. Raul is an IT executive in his early 50s with a very impressive background that includes an MBA, Six Sigma Black Belt, and 14 years with a high-profile, cutting-edge tech company.

Raul wanted to tell his story because he knew that there were many others who could relate. He began conducting a “passive” job search in 2012 that eventually became “active.”

Raul was not fully aware of the national job search average, which has remained pretty steady, even in tech, for several years:

Average length of job search: 1 month / $10-$20K in salary


“So I thought I had a pretty decent resume.”

“I mean, I knew I had good credentials and experience, and I knew that recruiters had always been interested in me in the past. Plus, after 14 years with a Fortune 100 company working my way to a high level, although I had heard about how hard the job market was these days, I wasn’t too concerned.

And then I started looking … First of all, I hadn’t really “looked” in 14 years. So that was eye-opening right there. Then I found out that all those recruiters who had seemed so interested before suddenly were nowhere to be found … for whatever reason. My network of colleagues, which I originally thought was pretty strong, was not producing much in the way of results. And pretty soon I found myself scouring job boards, to really no avail, and attending networking meeting after networking meeting, where things moved ever so slowly.

Finally, after almost no movement, virtually no response to my "decent" resume, and months of lost time and potential salary gain, I decided I needed to start looking for some help.

The problem, though, was that I just couldn’t fathom paying for a resume only to keep following the same job search pattern….


“That’s when I heard about a different approach.”(Raul’s Story Continued…)

A friend of mine had the opportunity to meet Stephen Van Vreede, and he told me about the portfolio-based approach as well as about the job search solutions ITtechExec offered. It made much more sense to me to invest in something that offered more than just a resume. Plus, I appreciated the “techie” only approach they take.

But I still called Stephen kicking and screaming on the inside as I was secretly hoping everything would just work out doing things the way I was doing them!

And even after I spoke with Stephen and felt comfortable that what he was offering was the best overall value, I still hesitated.

I just really wanted to believe that the next opportunity was coming if only I waited a little longer. So I waited another month … and another month of lost opportunity and lost salary … only this time I did get an interview … during which they told me my “decent” resume wasn’t so decent.

So I broke down and did what I should have done weeks before. I worked with Stephen’s team to build a complete resume portfolio with recruiter matching and employer profiling…


“It wasn’t a magic pill or anything, but”

“[T]hey were able to accomplish much more movement in my job search than I was able to do in 5 months. I ended up having 2 interviews within a couple weeks of launching my messaging, and I had another 2 within a couple weeks of those.

Pretty soon I had a solid job offer within 9 weeks. There’s no doubt in my mind that it came through the efforts of Stephen and his team. After 5 months of getting nowhere, I know they cut my job search time in at least half of what it would have been, probably more (especially considering my original resume wasn’t as decent as I thought).

I hate to think of the money I could have saved if I had done this sooner!

Now, I’ve joined the ITtechExec membership and have regular updates of my LinkedIn profile and resume portfolio. They also work with me to keep my LinkedIn network strong and to inform me of the latest trends in the tech job market.

It’s hard for me to believe I was really so hesitant to pull the trigger on these solutions, but I really didn’t want to admit that the market wasn’t welcoming me with the open arms I thought it would.” (Raul G., IT Exec, Chicago, IL)


Underestimating / Overestimating Today’s Job Market

If there’s one area that causes a lot of stress and confusion for both the passive or the active job seeker (as it did for Raul), it is having the right expectations for the current market.

The proper mindset is important because it allows for what “positive thinking” is really all about: preparation. You will have more productive positive thoughts when you approach the market with the proper preparation. Otherwise, you are just relying on wishful thinking or the opposite “doomsday” thinking, neither of which is realistic for today’s marketplace.

For more on this, check out our article “Underestimating and Overestimating Today’s Job Market”.

http://stephenvanvreede.com/2014/08/07/underestimating-and-overestimating-todays-job-market/


Story 2: Making Recruiters Work for Me…For Once

Why recruiters are such a frustrating bunch…

Ahmed is a Product Engineer in his late 30s in Boston. He is the father of 2 small children, and he came to ITtechExec after taking a severance package from his previous employer as a result of a buyout.

He had always had recruiters come to him in the past, but now that he wanted to engage them, he didn't know how best to match them to his needs and to do so efficiently. Perhaps you can relate…

Many candidates, and Ahmed was one of them, don’t realize that recruiting is the second WORST job search method you can employ (behind job

boards/online postings). It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them, however; it just means that when you do, make sure you use time productively and get

properly matched with them.


“In the past, I always had recruiters pop up from time to time with different opportunities.”

“To be honest, I usually brushed them off because I knew my certifications and credentials were good. I believed that would always keep me marketable. After all, employers kept saying they wanted someone with exactly the background and skills I had. But then my thriving company was bought out, and the incoming leadership wanted to take things in a new direction … a direction that didn’t leave much room for me.

So I took a severance package and went on my way, confident that my connections would come through for me…


“After a couple months went by, and”(Ahmed’s Story Continued…)

“My connections were pretty quiet, I started thinking about those recruiters who used to contact me all the time. I did my best to try and find them and reach out to them, but they were no longer as interested or had anything that suited me. At that point, I wasn’t sure what to do other than apply to online postings and hope for my personal connections to come through finally. I don’t like to sit around, so I started doing some research and found out about recruiter matching with ITtechExec.

They did such a great job of finding the right recruiters for me, and I began reaching out to them until I managed to get about a dozen of them to correspond with me pretty regularly. They liked my credentials but were not enthused that I was unemployed. Nonetheless, I was gently persistent in keeping the conversations going … all while kicking myself that I had not started doing this years ago!" (Ahmed R., Product Engineer, Boston, MA)


Why Recruiter Matching Matters Today

With all the misinformation that is out there regarding recruiters and the recruiting process, not to mention the low success rate most candidates have with them, it’s not surprising that some professionals like Ahmed get frustrated.

When properly matched or aligned with them, though, recruiters can be very effective resources in today’s job market and even in building leverage (what we call “pipelines”) throughout your career.

For more on this, check out our article “Making the Most Out of Recruiter Matching.”

http://stephenvanvreede.com/2014/05/12/how-to-make-the-most-out-of-recruiter-matching/


Story 3: My Job Search Agent Got the Ball Rolling, Now What?

When you thought you understood how to “network”…

Meet Justine. Justine is a very busy Project Manager in the pharmaceutical industry. She also happens to be a busy mom of 3 and very active in her community. Justine has always moved from job to job pretty easily until this time. Job boards and recruiters just aren’t coming through for her, and she knows she needs to build more professional contacts, but who has the time?

Plus, Justine wasn’t born yesterday. Although her current environment isn’t ideal, she doesn’t want to just jump ship for greener pastures. She wants to be careful about the next organization she works with. But that’s easier said than done…or so it seems. Perhaps you can relate:

Read any career strategy report, and you will hear all about the importance of “networking,” but many people like Justine struggle to reap the benefits they

hear so much about.


“I have to admit I was feeling a bit overwhelmed.”

“I had my resume done. I had a strong brand message in place. And I thought I had a plan for how I was going to conduct my job search: I was going to do what I had always done in the past.

I was going to call a few colleagues to get them ‘looking’ for me, respond to some job boards, and reach out to a few recruiters. So I did just that. And although I had some movement, it was very slow-going. Companies were definitely much slower to respond and progress the discussion than they had been in the past.

My colleagues were helpful and did put in a few good words for me, but frankly, there just weren’t enough of them out there and the timing just wasn’t right.

At that point, I had to decide either to give up the search for now or switch tactics…


“That’s when I spoke with Stephen about Employer Profiling.”(Justine’s Story Continued…)

Although I was a ‘Skeptic’ myself, I was drawn to the idea of 1) proactively targeting companies I wanted to work for (many of which I didn’t even know existed) and 2) having a ‘job search agent’ who did the upfront work for me (I knew if I had to rely on my ‘free’ time that it would never happen).

Without a doubt, this was the push I needed. Before I knew it, I was building my LinkedIn network with valuable contacts, profiling companies for my search, and being introduced to contacts at those companies!

After launching me into this direction, although I still had to be diligent and follow through, I did succeed in meeting with a decision maker on two separate occasions at one of my target companies who eventually made me an offer…for a position that was never posted!

This approach was definitely hard work, but all along the way, I felt more in control of the process, more directed, and less a part of the masses. I still applied to job boards and talked to recruiters (and even had some interviews from that), but I never gave up on building those new relationships with people at these target companies.

And now I can even say that I have leveraged those relationships to help others in my network. I think I finally truly understand how networking should work.” (Justine T., Project Manager, Tampa, FL)


Why Networking Is About More Than Just Meeting People

Like Justine, we all know the old adage, “it’s who you know.” So we trudge out to networking mixer after networking mixer and build our LinkedIn “connections” thinking we are creating effective networks.

That is, until we go to tap into them.

Then we start to realize that either we aren’t really sure how to make them “work” for us or it takes a lot longer than we thought to get things going.

For more on this, check out our article “How Not to Get Trapped in the Networking Loop.”

http://stephenvanvreede.com/2014/05/16/how-not-to-get-trapped-in-the-networking-loop/


Story 4: The Road to Promotion Is Paved With Forgetfulness

Shouldn’t your work history speak for itself?

Meet Maria. Maria has been working toward a Data Scientist role with her current company. Her division has been expanding, and last year it added 2 Data Scientist positions, both of which she was overlooked for despite the new certifications/training she received and her impeccable work history with the company.

Now a third position has been added, and Maria doesn’t want this one to pass her by. Perhaps you can relate:

The number 1 mistake professionals make in their careers is thinking their work history speaks for itself.


“After being passed over twice already, it was hard not to be bitter.”

“Yet I knew that my ‘future’ with the company depended on me getting this job. If I lost out again, I probably wouldn’t see another opportunity internally I was this well suited for. I mean, I had been ‘grooming’ for this role for a few years now…getting training, mentoring, certifications…all to be turned down twice already.

But no matter how mad I was, I had to figure out a way to put that all behind me when I went in for the promotion interview.

Boy was that ever hard! I couldn’t even think straight when I was getting ready for the interview. At one point, I even found myself visualizing what it would be like to reach across the desk, grab the division chief’s collar, and….well, you get the picture!!

I had had a full year to let my previous promotion rejection go, and I just couldn’t. The reason I had been passed over was because leadership had found two external candidates from our biggest competitor that they’d ‘wooed’ to come over.

I was expected to understand that for the good of the team…


“There was so much history there I knew I needed support.”(Maria’s Story Continued…)

After trying to prepare mentally for the emotional promotion roller coaster ride I was about to take again, I realized that I couldn’t go it alone. I was relieved when I came across NoddlePlace.

It wasn’t long before I started working with the NoddlePlace team not just on building a better resume but on understanding why I needed better leverage in the promotion process. I realized I was expecting my work history and credentials to be understood. After all, I had worked for this company for 6 years at this point.

So while Kalindi worked with me to create a better ‘brand’ in my resume and portfolio documents, Sue worked with me to launch an internal and external ‘job search’. Using LinkedIn, we developed strategic contacts and set up informational interviews.

By the time the promotion interview rolled around, I al so had a better idea of my marketability outside of the company, my value proposition within the company, and what else was out there for me. It was hard to go into the interview mad when I knew that I had other options! In the end, they offered me the promotion…but I didn’t accept it. Thanks to NoddlePlace, I found an external opportunity that suited me better, so I took it!” (Maria H., Data Scientist, NYC)


Promotions Are the Trickiest Type of Job Search

Because we have so much history with our current companies, we get lulled into thinking that we don’t need to “market” ourselves as much because leadership “knows” us and should remember all the support we’ve provided.

But time and again, this thought process often disappoints. Even in the best of situations, there is often a lot more going on than the candidate up for promotion realizes. As a result, when we go for a promotion, we need to prepare even more than we do for an external job search.

For more on this, check out our article “On the Road to Promotion, Don’t Get Stuck in Traffic.”

http://stephenvanvreede.com/2014/08/14/where-most-people-get-lost-in-the-promotion-process/


Story 5: When Tech Goes a Little Soft

When your culture sends signals you no longer fit

Meet Jim. Jim is a late 40-something Senior Software Developer for a medium-sized firm. He has more certifications that he can count, and he has never even needed a resume because his services have always been in high demand.

About 6 months ago, a new management team took over his group. Jim’s days soon became filled with discussing his “soft skills” and why he isn’t more extroverted. Although he’s generally coexisted peacefully with his colleagues in the past, the new management team wanted to see him think about his place in the “culture” and how he could communicate more effectively.

The writing on the wall became clear: If Jim couldn’t move in this direction, they’d simply outsource his services, preferring to keep in-house staff a little “softer”.

2014 was the year of soft skills for the tech industry.


“The message was clear: ‘We love you, now change’.”

“After several meetings with our new management team, it was obvious that the topic of communication was high on the list of priorities. At first, I think all of us on the development team could nod our heads in agreement. Who doesn’t want to improve communication?

But as time went on, somehow that discussion merged into more of a character study, where each one of us was carefully inspected and found lacking.

I have to admit that I did not take this well. It’s not that I don’t think there is room for improvement. It’s more that all of my other accomplishments and my highly marketable skill sets were being pushed aside to focus on my tendency to introversion.

After going round and round with my new boss, I concluded that it was OK for me to be an introvert as long as I acted like an extrovert…


“I felt like I had stepped into the Twilight Zone.”(Jim’s Story Continued…)

Honestly, of all the things I expected to deal with in my career, this was not really one of them. I didn’t see it coming, and I am still not sure I fully understand it. But after talk after talk, the signal was clear: Shape up or ship out.

The good news was that I knew I could find other opportunities. The bad news was that this whole experience threw me a bit. It made me doubt the value that I brought.

So for the first time ever, I thought I better get a resume put together. And really, that’s all I thought I needed. But once I started working with the ITtechExec team, I realized that in all that had happened, I had lost a sense of my own unique ‘brand’ that I needed to find out how to communicate.

Thanks to their efforts, I figured out what type of culture I fit best in without having to turn into something I’m not. And I landed a position with a company that values the entire package, not just what it deems most important at the moment.

It’s too bad that in the quest to improve the corporate culture, my old company lost sight of the big picture.” (Jim Z., Software Developer, Boston)


Tech Is Going Soft

On the surface, the discussion of cultural fit and the desire for improved soft skills within the tech industry and the internal tech groups of most organizations is understandable. Who doesn’t want to work with people with better work ethics, stronger communication skills, and more sensitivity?

Unfortunately, though, when theory meets application, as Jim saw, leadership can lose the forest for the trees.

For more on this, check out our article “Is Tech Getting Too Soft?.”

http://stephenvanvreede.com/2014/03/25/is-tech-getting-too-soft/


Silly me. I thought an MBA mixed with hard work was my ticket…

(A Note from Stephen Van Vreede, Co-Founder of ITtechExec/NoddlePlace)

When I first started my career, generally I didn’t know anyone who actually paid to have their resume (or résumé, for the purists among us) written, much less for “career services.”

Let's be real. It used to be pretty cut-and-dry. You put a basic 1-page (or maybe 2-page) resume (or résumé) together, worked a few connections or answered a few "classifieds," and felt pretty certain the right opportunity would come along. Then if you worked hard (got the right certs) and didn't burn too many bridges, you most likely had a pretty secure career path ahead of you perhaps even with the same company.

And at first, throughout most of the early part of my corporate life, that was generally how things went. I moved from internal position to internal position without the need to invest in resume or other career services, eventually landing a director-level role with a large GE Capital, multi-site inbound call center serving the logistics industry.


But then the job market began to change, my priorities shifted, and job security was, well, less secure.

So I decided to go back for my MBA and obtain some other credentials (sound familiar?), which cost me thousands and thousands (and thousands) of dollars (just ask my lovely bride who helped pay for them!). I even clawed my way through the Six Sigma process to become a Black Belt.

It was a great experience, but after two years of working full time and taking night classes, when I graduated, the job market wasn’t much better, competition for internal promotions was greater, and I wasn’t the only one with an MBA, a Black Belt, etc.


That’s when I was introduced to resume design and career services.

I came to recognize that the time and resources I had already spent on my career were worth protecting. The market was too uncertain and changing too rapidly for me to continue to go it alone.

At this point, I had already invested in someone to handle my retirement,another someone to do my taxes, and another someone to find me the right home. It wasn’t such a stretch to think that my career mattered as much, if not more, than these other things. After all, without it, then I couldn’t afford the retirement or the house (and yes even the taxes).


I began to see where resume/career services could play an integral part…

in not only helping people to secure jobs but also in building in protections to the careers we’ve all worked so hard to achieve.

Eventually, my wife, Sheree, and I began our own firm in 2001 called “No Stone Unturned”. Initially, we had a small office where we hosted seminars and workshops, wrote resumes, and served a cross section of professionals and backgrounds.

And although writing resumes and teaching seminars was fine, we wanted to do better. And we knew we could.


ITtechExec was launched…Thanks to my background in IT/telecom management for the supply chain/logistics industry and to Sheree’s experience serving as an editor to the scientific/engineering community in the publishing world, we soon realized that we were best suited to serve the technical professional trying to maneuver through what by that point (2008) had become a complex and exhausting job market. (Let’s face it…it’s a bit of a zoo out there!)

Not only that, we noticed that other resume writers were avoiding technical clients, unsure of how best to position their specialized skills.

Therefore, it wasn’t long before we began to work exclusively with IT and technical or “STEM” clientele, professionals who have devoted themselves to some of the most innovative and rewarding fields in today’s industries, from engineering to healthcare IT to scientific exploration to big data and cloud services to project/program management.

That’s when ITtechExec was born…


Silly me. I thought we could just write resumes…Then, before we knew it, unemployment skyrocketed and the tech market began waging its war for sophisticated tech talent.

And on top of all that, social media recruiting burst onto the scene, and the landscape became pretty messy, pretty fast. Soon, hiring folks were claiming they were no longer reading resumes (even though they continued to ask for them), and the job market became such a zoo that candidates found themselves focused on a document that everyone says they won't look at for more than 6 seconds but it better not have any typos in it!

That’s when we realized that we could no longer just write a resume and send our clients on their way. They needed better preparation and lasting protections. They needed strategies and tools that, well, worked.

We knew then that we had to become a full-service career advancement and protection firm, not just another resume-writing firm.


95% of technical leaders obsess over the resume even though they don't believe it has much value.

So we asked ourselves, if you know the market is a zoo, that resumes aren't likely to be read, and that obstacles like age or experience are more pronounced than ever, why would you (a) keep approaching it from the same angle over and over or (b) sit back and do nothing? Why wouldn't you instead focus on where the real value lies?

With tech professionals changing jobs every 3 to 4 years, consulting/contracting on the rise, and fierce competition for promotions, it's time to try something that is based on how the market is actually working now, not 10, 15, even 5 years ago.

It's why we've made a radical shift to a more portfolio-driven approach instead of just a resume-based one. And why we even offer the resume for FREE with our portfolio packages!

http://www.ittechexec.com/specialoffer.html


Yes, the resume is part of it, but let’s get more from your investment.You still need a solid chronological resume (no matter what you may hear) geared toward a very specific audience, but when done properly, having addenda to go along with the resume can be much more effective (and much more likely to be read!), not to mention the significance of the LinkedIn profile, which will continue to grow over the next few years.

Portfolios can help build in flexibility and prepare you to face different hiring scenarios. But you need to know which tools are best for your situation. Although there is a lot out there you can do (or buy), you don't need to do everything (that's the good news!).

So whether you are an external job seeker looking for a new full-time role, a consultant going for the next contract, or an internal leader seeking promotion or just retention (such as during an acquisition), because we are following the tech job market closely, the real investment is in knowing which tools are right for you and how to properly use them. (To learn more about why we recommend a portfolio-driven approach, check out our presentations: http://ow.ly/viT6C and http://ow.ly/vM9UH.)

No one can predict for certain what the market will do, but we can make sure that you are prepared for whatever comes.

http://ow.ly/viT6C

http://ow.ly/vM9UH


Building the messaging AND the strategic vision for your job search that lead to solutions.

The portfolio is great, the branding is wonderful, but now what are you going to do with it? Is it going to give you experience you don't have, turn you into something you're not, take away the gray in your hair? Of course not. But when done right, it can do something that the 95% of technical professionals keep missing: It can speak to the needs of your target audience ONCE you get it into their hands.

And that is ultimately why we do what we do. We equip you to face obstacles in the market, and we position you for the best chances of success.

We began developing this “positive negative preparation” approach in late 2011 when we started to realize that our client “members” needed more than just a resume and basic messaging; they needed a strategic vision.


That’s how NoddlePlace came to be…To best provide this strategic visioning, we realized we needed to differentiate our solutions even further! This meant tailoring some to meet the needs of the more experienced tech pro, the leader with 15+ years of experience who is now wondering how to face this market that seems to penalize them often for things they can’t control, like age, experience, and high salaries. For this leader, it isn’t so much about climbing ladders as it is about protecting what they’ve built so far and staying relevant to the marketplace.

So we customized ITtechExec to meet the needs of this type of client.

Then we introduced NoddlePlace in 2013. Here we focus on the “emerging” technical professional with 5 to 15 years of experience who knows another 25 years or more in the tech job market means 8+ more career moves, statistically speaking, and wants to keep advancing in the market but now has a lot of other demands on his or her time.

In either case, though, they are both looking for real solutions…


And protecting careers protects families.

Too many times we think of our careers in terms of climbing the ladder of ambition and in having it all “figured out.”

And although there’s nothing wrong with having ambition, there’s much more to our livelihoods than that. There are people depending on us, and no matter where we stand on the corporate ladder, we all have

something to protect.

And that protection requires preparation. (If you want to toss in ambition, great!) It doesn’t necessarily mean you have your whole life mapped out or that the obstacles you face aren’t real. It does mean,

though, that you aren’t going to keep letting corporate whims and job market trends toss you around with no regard for you and your family.

What is the cost of doing nothing? (Much more than the price of doing something!)


So we’ve developed our solutions, not to be so much an investment in a “resume” as an investment in proper positioning and solutions to your career needs.

Call it holistic. Call it different. We like to think of it in terms of allowing us to track results and ROI. After all, isn’t that what matters? (Tell that to the graduate programs and certification schools who often aren’t held accountable for their ROI; yet their prices go up, up, up!)

There are good resume writers out there. But they can’t/don’t/won’t do anything more than write the resume and send you on your way. And the resume alone isn’t really addressing the main issue: your age, lack of experience (too much experience), family or geographic restrictions, job hopping, you name it.

Having the right messaging is good; having the right messaging with the right strategic vision is better.

But the story doesn’t end there…or it shouldn’t…

http://www.ittechexec.com/pricing.html

http://www.ittechexec.com/consultcall.html


To learn more about ITtechExec or our other solutions:

Check Us Out

Or call Stephen toll-free at 1-866-755-9800; email at [email protected].

From Tech Job Market Zoo to Corporate Goo...

How to Protect What You’ve Built So Far.

http://www.ittechexec.com/contact2.html

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