IT career advice

As much as we love the technologies we use and how they work, most of our business users don’t. Business users are looking for solutions to their problems and not necessarily the behind-the-scenes technologies that make it work.

As a techie, I never understood why marketing people were paid so much to describe the product that we built, until I gained an understanding for what they do. That said, here are tips on how to write your resume like it’s a marketing brochure, not just a laundry list of skills.

As technical professionals, almost all of us have worked with managers that just can’t seem to get it right? It’s almost like they have been specially trained to be bad managers. That said, maybe they just read the list below. Enjoy :)

The first thing you must do to properly manage your boss is to be the best employee you can be.

I have my resume on all the job board sites, I’m continually looking online for open positions, and am emailing them my resume. I also participate actively on a couple of job search blog sites. I have been looking for a job for over six months and have only had three responses and one interview. What am I doing wrong?

When looking for new permanent job or contracting assignment, having a great resume has always been important. Given our current extremely competitive times, a high quality resume has moved from being important to being crucial.

People early in their career say “If I work hard, one day I’ll be a THIS.” THIS could be a CIO, Systems Architect, Senior Programmer, or any other professional goal you desire. Then, one day, years later, you look up from your day-to-day activities and realize one of the following . . .

I’m a software development manager who is continually being pushed by my business users to do more and do it faster, better, and cheaper. I can’t keep up with their demands and I think it’s putting my job in peril. Could I please have your advice on how to deal with this issue?

I know the readership of this column is a technical crowd. Don’t worry, I’m not going to talk about computer viruses and other related technical issues.

Are there any social media related jobs within a traditional IT group? Yes, there are ...

What is the real value of the various IT related certifications? Is it worth my time and money to get one?

Some techies become part of open source communities and develop professional quality software for free. Then, when the software is production ready, they give it away. This is the nature of open source systems. Participating in these projects is not only good for the world; it can also be good for you.