What An IT Leader Needs To Have On Their Resume

February 11th, 2010
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What You Put In Your Resume Just May Get You Your Next Job

What You Put In Your Resume Just May Get You Your Next Job

As the global recession starts to fade away, IT Leaders who are searching for a new job are starting to feel some new hope and IT Leaders who still have jobs are starting to get the itch to take a look around at what other opportunities there might be out there. Sounds like it’s time to get some resumes in order…

Overall Format

A quick search of the Internet will reveal suggestions for a large number of different formats for resumes: classic, modern, etc. What is the right format for you? Sure, if you are applying to a progressive firm, a novel formatted resume might be eye catching, but since you can never tell what they are really looking for I’m going to suggest that you stick with the classic format.

This means that you should start out with your contact information and follow it up with a summary statement. After this you should list out your career in reverse chronological order (what you’ve done most recently is always the most interesting). Each job needs to be described by a list of bullet points. Wrap things up by listing your educational accomplishments.

Things That Need To Be In Your Resume

Ok, so clearly your resume needs to be both well-organized and easy to read. The person who will be reading it will probably be moving quickly and if your resume is hard to read, they won’t read it. Depending on how long you’ve been working, a three page resume is just fine – you’ve probably done a lot and so there’s a lot for you to document.

We live in a world where more often than not resumes now get scanned by computers before a human ever lays eyes on them. What this means is you’ve got to write your resume in such a way that a computer can process it correctly. This means that you’ve got to load it with keywords that recruiters would be using when searching for candidates. You can figure out what these keywords are by taking a look at job descriptions for the types of jobs that you are looking for – work the words used to describe the job into your resume.

In the world of IT we use a lot of acronyms to describe technologies and certifications. Feel free to include the acronyms in your resume, but make sure that you also spell them out at least once.

Three Things To Avoid

It’s all too easy to get caught up in worrying about what font to use and how to cram everything that you’ve done into as small of a space as possible. However, spending too much time on things that don’t matter can easily let an IT Leader skip over three things that are important. Here they are:

  • Include Enough Detail: As we cut and trim the descriptions of what we’ve done in the past, we can accidently cut out too much information. You should view your resume as telling a story about how you’ve advanced in your career. The goal is to show a prospective employer that you have the ability to grow in any role. Make sure that your resume has enough details about what you’ve done in each position.
  • Don’t Be Ambiguous: The older an IT Leader gets, the more likely it is that we’ll start to fudge some of the information contained in our resume. Leaving off dates such as when we graduated from college is a common technique in order to obscure our age. Don’t do it, if the company decided to hire you they’ll verify your degree(s) and so you should include graduation dates to begin with.
  • Grammar Counts: Those squiggly red lines and green lines that show up as you are typing up your resume in Microsoft Word really do mean something. No matter how impressive your past accomplishments are, if your resume is littered with misspelled words or poorly constructed sentences then that will take away from how you are perceived.

What All Of This Means For You

In this age of Internet everything, IT Leaders might think that all that it will take to get their next job is to have an account on every social networking site out there. It turns out that the old standby, your resume, is still an important communication tool.

Not only does it matter what work experiences you’ve had, but how you structure your resume and what information you put in it are what will make it work for you. Make sure that you include the essential details about your past jobs, eliminate any ambiguous information, and make sure that there are no spelling or grammatical errors.

Every job that you apply for ends up being a competition between you and other candidates. In order to give yourself the best possible advantage, you need to make sure that your resume does a good job of clearly telling your story. Follow these suggestions and you’ll be well on your way…

Do you think that it is worth while including old languages and skills on your resume (COBOL, Fortran, etc.)?

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Things are tough all over. If you were counting on getting a promotion this year, you might want to scale your hopes back just a bit. A lot of IT Leaders are discovering that their career plans are having to be put on hold. Maybe we should spend some time talking about what you should do now…

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New Job, Same Company: What’s An IT Leader To Do?

February 4th, 2010
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Moving From One Job To Another Can Be A Big Hassle

Moving From One Job To Another Can Be A Big Hassle

Changing To A New Job In The Same Company Can Be Difficult

Times of change can be difficult for everyone, including IT Leaders. We all know how hard it can be to lose your job – in fact I think that we’ve probably either experienced it or have friends who have gone through it. What this means is that we all have a basic understanding of what to do if it happens. But what if you don’t lose you job, it just changes on you. What do you do then?

When an IT department shrinks, there are suddenly fewer people to do all of the work that was being done before. If you were working on a project that all of a sudden becomes less important, then there’s a good chance that you may get “repurposed” to work on a new (to you) project. Got any skills to make that transition?

Ways To Make The Change Go More Smoothly

In my life I’ve moved residences a number of times. Sometimes they were big cross-county moves, and sometimes they were short across town moves. What I’ve found is that the big cross-county moves always went better. That’s because I took the time to sort things out, packed properly, and scheduled enough time to do things right. The cross-town moves were always a disaster – I’d throw things in the car and move them bit by bit losing things and never taking the time to put things where they really deserved to go.

Likewise, moving to a new IT job in the same company can be a disaster if you don’t do a good job of managing the move. Unlike going to work for a new company, a lot of the players and the rules are the same. However, it’s not the same job – there are differences. This is where things can trip you up.

In order to provide you with a little guidance on how best to manage this move, Jane Porter has gone out and talked with people who have lived through it in order to get their advice on what you need to do to make this a successful move:

  • Talk, Talk, Talk: When you get assigned to a new IT job, it’s sorta like being married to two people for awhile – your old boss and your new boss. Just like having two spouses, things can get awkward quickly if you aren’t careful. What you need to do is as soon as possible sit down with both bosses and review what they are expecting you to do. Instead of having you push back when they want you to do the work of two people, have them come to a mutual agreement on what and when you’ll be doing work for both of them.
  • Learn The Rules (Again): you used to know how things worked but you can no longer make that assumption. Silly little things like when your boss expects you to be available and if a weekly status report is still required are some of the details that you need to quickly get a handle on. Once again, communication is the key here: asking what is expected is the best way to make sure that nothing is missed.
  • Don’t Close Your Door: it’s not just your new boss that you need to be talking with, but also your new co-workers. If your job was just created, then nobody knows what you are supposed to be doing. If you are replacing someone who got let go, then you’ve got to help everyone work through their resentment of you. Either way, you’ve got to take the time to build bridges not only to people within your new department but also to those in other departments that you will now be working with.
  • Prepare To Leave (Again): nothing lasts forever, and your new job just might last for a very short time. All too often after a reorganization, something will happen that will require you to return to your old job for awhile in order to deal with a big issue. Although successfully solving problems is a good thing, you need to remember that your career no long lies with this old job. Keep your new boss updated while you are gone and make sure that your new tasks are being covered by someone.
  • Network: hopefully this goes without saying, but we’ll cover it again anyway. You need to start reaching out to everyone from your first day on the new job. Your old network is still there, but its value is now less. You need a new network that can support you in your new job and you are the one who is going to have to build it.

What All Of This Means For You

You can go to countless book stores and find books on how to start a new job at a new company. However, starting a new job within your existing company is a bit more difficult because the rules are not so clear.

Realizing that you need to treat this change of jobs as seriously as you would joining a new company is a good first step. Next you’re going to have to take the steps that we’ve outlined in order to quickly make yourself valuable and well connected in your new position.

Change happens and there’s not a lot that we can do about it. Savvy IT Leaders understand that developing the political skills needed to switch jobs within a company can go a long way in boosting their careers…

What do you think is the #1 skill that you need in order to do a good job when you suddenly find yourself in a new position?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental IT Leader Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

As the global recession starts to fade away, IT Leaders who are searching for a new job are starting to feel some new hope and IT Leaders who still have jobs are starting to get the itch to take a look around at what other opportunities there might be out there. Sounds like it’s time to get some resumes in order…

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Posted in IT jobs | 1 Comment »

It Turns Out That Personal Skills ARE Important For IT Leaders

January 28th, 2010
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Sure We’re Nerds, But We Still Need To Have Social Skills

Sure We’re Nerds, But We Still Need To Have Social Skills

Why Does Hacking Still Work So Well?

So here’s an interesting question for you: in this day and age, why is it still so easy to hack into a corporate computer system? I mean we’ve had years to invest in sophisticated encryption systems and multi-step identity verification systems. The answer is surprisingly simple – the weakest link remains the people who use the systems and a smooth talking criminal always seems to be able to get the info that he / she needs out of these people.

What this realization means is that no matter how sophisticated we make security technology, it’s always going to be personal skills that we’ll be battling against. This leads to another interesting point: just exactly what personal skills do IT Leaders need to have in order to do their (non-hacking) jobs well?

IT Leaders Don’t Know What They Don’t Know

I can almost see you grimacing when you read the words “personal skills”. Technical professionals have a tendency to poo-poo these types of discussions because we view these skills as being something that can’t be measured. This means that we don’t really value them – why bother if you can’t become Cisco certified in personal skills (would that be CCPS?)

Times they are a changing and IT Leaders are going to have to change along with them. Luis Fernandez-Sanz?” href=” http://www.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/MC.2009.329”>Luis Fernandez-Sanz has been taking a close look at what employers are looking for in IT Leaders and he’s detected a change in the requirements.

This all starts by taking a look at what skills IT Leaders often don’t bring to the table. Sure, we’re skilled technical professionals, but that doesn’t mean that we have all of the skills that will be needed to lead a team. Here’s where we often come up short:

  • Organizational abilities
  • Political skills
  • Public speaking
  • Understanding of business language and jargon

Fernandez-Sanz has found that IT Leaders are often viewed by the rest of the company as being good at what we do – solving technical problems. However, since we often work remotely from the rest of the business, we are also viewed as needing to improve our interpersonal skills.

What Social Skills Do We Need To Have?

When we sit down and try to determine just exactly what skills IT Leaders need to be working to acquire, we find some good news. Fernandez-Sanz has found that the needed skills are not unique to IT Leaders – they are the same skills that any business professional needs to develop.

Analysis of job postings for IT jobs has revealed a wealth of data. The first discovery should come as no surprise to any of us: IT is still a rapidly developing field and new types of jobs are constantly being created. Additionally, IT jobs can be classified into over 250 different areas that run from software development jobs to systems engineering jobs.

Studies of IT job postings over the past 16 years has revealed that not only is IT a growing field, it is also dynamic. It has been noted that the languages, tools, and technologies that are called for have changed dramatically over that time. Clearly this means that by entering into the IT field we have all signed up to a lifetime of constant learning.

In the area of IT leadership, the studies have revealed the top 5 personal skills that IT Leaders need to have. These results have been culled from descriptions of the skill sets that CIOs are asked to have:

  • Proactive behavior
  • Team management
  • Leadership
  • Teamwork
  • Communication skills

What All Of This Means For You

As an IT Leader, you will always be expected to be working to improve your skills. The challenge is to determine just exactly what skills you need to be working on. The technical skills that you’ll need to maintain will be constantly changing as IT moves forward.

Your real challenge will come in identifying the personal skills that you’ll need to be able to bring to the table. Although it is much more difficult to measure these skills, they are just as if not more important than your technical skills.

It turns out that the personal skills that you need to hone are the same skills that ever other business professional is working on. This won’t make your task any easier, but it certainly means that you’ll be in good company!

What do you think the most important personal skill for an IT Leader to have is?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental IT Leader Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Times of change can be difficult for everyone, including IT Leaders. We all know how hard it can be to lose your job. What this means is that we all have a basic understanding of what to do if it happens. But what if you don’t lose you job, it just changes on you. What do you do then?

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How To Keep Your Team From Leaving As The Economy Improves

January 21st, 2010
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Your Team Is Going To Be Jumping Ship If You Don’t Do Something

Your Team Is Going To Be Jumping Ship If You Don’t Do Something

I don’t want to say that it’s been easy to be an IT Leader during the recent global economic crisis. However, as the world economy tanked and countless people in all industries lost their jobs, the one thing that IT Leaders really didn’t have to worry about was having members of their team jump ship to go to work for other firms – there were no other jobs to be had. Well as the economy improves, this is going to change. Got a plan for keeping your team on board?

Don’t They Love Me? Why Would They Leave?

I’ve got an ugly history lesson for you – the experts tell us that when we’ve had a recession in the past, it’s during the recovery that you’ll see a big increase in people leaving your company for other career opportunities as more and more jobs become available.

So what’s an IT Leader to do? The last thing that any one of us really wants to do is to provide our staff with the skills and training that will boost their ability (and desirability) to leave. However, that’s exactly what we should be doing.

The Big Secret

Dr. Elizabeth Craig has been looking into this issue and she has made some surprising findings. What she’s found is that the members of your team will stay longer if you actively work to provide them with the very skills that they are looking for to make themselves more valuable in the job market.

Specifically, what Dr. Craig says is that the IT Leaders who provide the members of their team with the most opportunities to increase their value in the marketplace will get the greatest benefit by doing so. This breakthrough realization is something that too few IT Leaders fully understand.

The Three Secrets To Retaining Your Team

As an IT Leader, you need to start to take action to retain your team before it’s too late. There are three specific steps that you can take:

  1. Grant New Responsibilities: especially in the world of IT, your team members really do want to be challenged. In surveys, team members reported that having the ability to work on tough problems and being given more responsibility are the #1 things that determines their level of career satisfaction.
  2. Boost Skills: look, you’ve got smart people working as a part of your team right now. They realize that they don’t know everything, but they have an unquenchable desire to learn more. You need to do what you can to help sate this need by providing your team with ways that they can learn more about things that are outside of their day-to-day jobs. In IT this especially includes providing the opportunity to learn more about how the company works and the basic underpinnings of business.
  3. Networking: the ability to reach out and connect with others both inside and outside of the company is another critical desire on the part of your team members. Sure, their motivation may be to primarily build connections that could help them find their next job, but it will also help them gain fresh insights into how to solve the problems that they are working on right now.

What All Of This Means For You

When we were all children, one of the games that we used to play was called musical chairs. It involved constantly finding a new chair to sit in. As the global economy improves, the desire to play musical careers will start to seize your team and you could end up losing a lot of them.

It’s difficult and costly to replace critical staff. You need to start taking action right now to retain your team. This means that you’ve got to provide them with new responsibilities, opportunities to broaden their skills, and ways to connect with more people both inside and outside of the company.

This all may seem counterintuitive to you – it’s almost as though you are helping them to prepare to leave. However, this is not the case. It turns out that if you provide them with what they are truly looking for in their career, then although they could leave, they won’t.

Do you think that member of your team are going to leave once better opportunities start to show up?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental IT Leader Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

No matter how sophisticated we make security technology, it’s always going to be a hacker’s personal skills that we’ll be battling against. This leads to another interesting point: just exactly what personal skills do IT Leaders need to have in order to do their (non-hacking) jobs well?

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Google’s Lessons For Managing Tech-Savvy Teams

January 14th, 2010
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How Does Google Solve Common IT Manager Issues?

How Does Google Solve Common IT Manager Issues?

Sigh, if only we all could work for Google, right? If there is one company out there that seems to “get” IT, it would have to be Google. The stories that float around about how nice the Google campus is and all the free food and other perks sure make it seem like a Shangri-La. Hmm, but wait a minute, no matter how nice it seems, they’ve got to be dealing with the same IT Leader issues that we all are. Maybe it’s time to have a talk with their (former) CIO…

It’s All About Choice

One of the big issues that IT Leaders have to deal with on an almost constant basis is the issue of keeping our teams up and running. This comes down to making sure that they have the right laptops, the right operating systems, etc. If you are not careful, this can eat up a lot of your available time.

Over at Google, Douglas Merrill who was their CIO up until April of 2008 said that the model that they used for solving the individual system issue was freedom of choice: employees got to choose both their machine and their operating system. I’ll bet that pretty much eliminates any complaining!

You would think that this would make support from an IT perspective a lot more complicated / expensive. You’d be right, but Merrill said that it didn’t boost costs all that much in part because of Google’s extensive use of self-service. They maintain internal web sites where users can go to download and install any software that they need. They do this by themselves and it places no additional burden on the IT department.

What About Security?

I can almost hear what you are saying / thinking right now: man, that must cause all sorts of security nightmares. Any IT Leader that you talk with these days probably has one or more horror stories about a team member downloading (or clicking on) something that they shouldn’t have and causing a mess that took forever to clean up.

Merrill says that they look at things a bit differently at Google. Most companies try to secure their networks by locking down the endpoints: our laptops and our smart phones. He feels that this really doesn’t work very well — thus all of the problems that we still have. At Google they put the security into the infrastructure.

What this means is that, yes, they still have antivirus and antispyware applications running on everyone’s laptops, but they also have a lot of software running on their corporate mail servers and infrastructure. When taken together, they feel that they have solved the problem of just how you can secure your corporate network.

Just in case you need more convincing that they really take their security seriously, Merrill states that Google has over 150 engineers who work on nothing but security. They’ve worked very hard to make sure that security is not something that is handled by “some group” and instead is worked into everything that they do. One of the ways that they make this happen is to use automated tools to check each developer’s code before it gets put into production.

What All Of This Means For You

No, most of us are not going to end up working for Google (unless they take over the world, at which this turns into a different discussion). However, how they run their IT shop does hold some clues for the rest of us.

When it comes to resolving issues regarding the technical environment in which their team members work, they’ve turned over the decision making to each employee. We can’t necessarily set up the same system, but it does provide some clues. Where possible if we allow the team to decide things like what code editor to use or what template to use then all of a sudden it’s not “my” decision, but rather “our” decision which is always a lot easier for everyone to live with.

Security is another issue that just doesn’t seem to want to go away. Google’s approach is to do the baseline needed at the edge of the network and then focus on securing the core. This just seems like an overall good idea. Additionally, setting up ways to carefully check your team’s products to ensure that they are secure is always a good idea for any IT Leader.

It looks like Google is running a pretty tight ship in their IT department. Even if we can’t all work there, we can still learn from their example…

Do you think that working at Google is all that it’s cracked up to be, or is it just like working in any other IT department?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental IT Leader Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

As the world economy tanked and countless people in all industries lost their jobs, the one thing that IT Leaders really didn’t have to worry about was having members of their team jump ship to go to work for other firms – there were no other jobs to be had. Well as the economy improves, this is going to change. Got a plan for keeping your team on board?

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Posted in employee motivation | No Comments »

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