Your Way Out of the Resume Jungle

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Your Way Out of the Resume Jungle

Why invest in something no one reads?

“I went from a contact or two every couple of weeks to more than a dozen contacts/phone interviews with recruiters this past week.” (Eric S., Information Security Director, Denver, CO)

http://www.ittechexec.com/


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 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 called “No Stone Unturned” in 2001. 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 some 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.

“I finally had the luxury of choosing from 3 separate offers.” (Dan G., General Manager, Los Angeles)


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 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 needed to differentiate our solutions even further! This meant tailoring some to meet the needs of the more experienced tech pro, the leaders with 15+ years of experience who were now wondering how to face this market that seemed to penalize them often for things they can’t control, like age, experience, and high salaries. For them, 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…


Hitting the Resume/Job Search Brick Wall: Meet Raul

“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 salary, 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…

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 tech company. Raul wanted to tell his story because he knew that there were many others who could relate:


Raul’s Story Continued…

That’s when I heard about ITtechExec. A friend of mine had the opportunity to meet Stephen, 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…


Raul’s Story Has a Happy Ending…

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 they 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)


Maybe you can relate….

A lot of times we know what we “should” do, but either we don’t do it or we just wait until we have to because:• We no longer have the ambition we once did• We have kids to raise and focus on• We believe the obstacles we will face in the market

are too overwhelming or exhausting to face• Work no longer matters much• We’re too busy• We always figure something out when we need to• We’re not really sure what we want to do next• We have external concerns that weigh on us• We have other unfulfilled goals and dreams


BUT 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?


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 the market.

Call it holistic. Call it different. We like to think of it in terms of allowing us to track results and ROI.

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…


Along Came Recruiter Matching Based on parameters that are specific to you and your situation, we

determine which recruiters are best matched with you. We even prepare and launch a campaign to introduce you to these recruiters. Then we provide you with tools to maximize your engagement with these recruiters that builds more than just a "what can you do for me right now" conversation. It's all part of preparing and protecting our clients.

Our first foray into offering job search solutions in addition to the messaging we do was recruiter matching. Our members were telling us how time consuming and frustrating it was to figure out the best recruiters for them to engage (geographic location no longer has much to do with it; most technical recruiters fill positions out of their state/country). So we looked into solutions that would make this process easier and more effective.

In 2013, we partnered with a research firm to offer what we call “recruiter matching campaigns.”


Let’s Meet Ahmed….“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 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.

It did 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)


Then we met Sue, our Job Search Agent.

If ever there were an answer to prayer, music to our ears, or a sight for sore eyes (you get the drift), Sue was it. Blending a unique background in managing both IT and telecom day-to-day operations with extensive hiring and recruitment experience for small/mid-sized organizations as well as for a prominent Fortune 1000 company, Sue has been up close and personal with HR, and has had to wade through layoffs, acquisitions, and corporate restructuring. (That means she's a veteran of the job market zoo and has been so deep in corporate goo that nothing surprises her anymore!)

Together, we devised both a three-phase “NoNonsense” employer profiling solution that gives members another alternative to the job board “rat race” and, the best part of all, provides personal job search support, so that each member has their very own job search “agent” helping them to zero in on and find contacts at prime employers best suited for them. I know this is something truly unique!

Sue also helps conduct our 45-minute introductory strategic visioning consult calls that get our members moving from the messaging stage into the execution stage. She helps get you moving toward a strategy for your search and provides advice on how to enhance on the standby methods you typically use.

But of course, there’s more…


Meet Justine...

“I have to admit that 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 heard about Employer Profiling. 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.”

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.


Don't Get Stuck in the Muck with the 95%

We saw that most tech pros got a bit off track in between career moves. So we wanted to make it simple for them to stay the course.

We kept seeing clients come to us, put a lot of energy into the latest career move, and then fade away for 3 to 4 years until panic returned and they realized it was time to go through the job search again.

They often got stuck in that period of time where work and life take over, and the last thing they wanted to do is keep their resume, much less a portfolio, updated. But Proper Maintenance Is the Key to the Whole Thing!


So why not build your portfolio/LI profile once and then put a little effort into keeping it maintained on a regular basis? Also, why not have annual assessments to adjust your strategic vision to life/market changes?

And when I say “maintained,” I don’t just mean adding job descriptions. I am referring to adjusting your materials to the adjusting tech job market.

It changes and fluctuates. Your brand messaging and your career strategies should move with it. That’s how our Career Maintenance & Protection Subscription Solution came to be.

And that’s another thing the 95% won’t do.


Our Non-Guarantee Guarantee

Here’s what we will NOT Guarantee…Guaranteed:

• That your life will be forever perfect and ever blessed because you bought one resume portfolio from us.

Our resume portfolios are well-designed tools, and when properly used, they continue to reap rewards for our clients. (Our clients are seeing up to a 77% reduction in job search time off the national average.) BUT, unfortunately, they do not lead to spiritual career enlightenment or even necessarily to companies that have only “good” leadership.

Think of us as engineers of a tool. We design it, make sure it is top quality, and provide you with instructions/guidance on how to use it. It should be considered just one aspect, albeit an important one, of your entire job search strategy. That’s why we don’t just offer messaging solutions but also job search solutions.



Our Non-Guarantee Guarantee, Continued…

• That our goal is for our messaging solutions to satisfy you.

All of our messaging solutions are written to appeal to your audience, not to you necessarily. Of course we want you to be satisfied that our expertise is right for you and your situation and, more importantly, with the reaction and the momentum our solutions create. To do that, our goal is to position you to meet the needs of your target market, and those needs, preferences, wants, and desires might be different from your own.

The point is to be effective when placed in the hands of decision makers. After all, that is who we want to influence…not your spouse, cousin, neighbor, sister, or even you (unless, of course, one of these people happens to be in charge of hiring you).




• That you will love every minute of your job search or find the market welcoming.

In fact, we are pretty sure the opposite will most likely be true.

We don’t come across too many people who enjoy making a career move (until it’s over and successful!). It’s why proper preparation AND positioning are so important. The better these are, the shorter the job search. Guaranteed.




• That you will be king/queen of the HR black hole.

If answering online classifieds is your main job search strategy, then you are in for a tough road. With a 1-7% success rate, job boards are a frustrating experience. At ITtechExec/NoddlePlace, we’ve built our solutions to do better than that. Although the job search often comes down to playing the odds, too many people (what we call the 95%) continue to focus the majority of their efforts on placing the worst bet (a bit like playing the lottery…you look brilliant if you win…a bit silly when you don’t).

Instead we recommend a diversified approach that looks at more than just poor performing job boards. We understand that 1-7% is still 1-7%, but why ignore other methods that have much better odds, like 25-30% or better?

Do they require hard work? Yes. Do they come with lots of guarantees, sure never to disappoint? No. (Does the standard job board offer that? Definitely not.)

Our job search solutions build momentum that launches your job search into different directions you can pick up and pursue…along with your favorite job boards…if you must.




• That we will make empty guarantees.

We live in a world of disappointment, and it is understandable to want some type of satisfaction guarantee. And certainly there are a plethora of services out there willing to offer them.

At ITtechExec/NoddlePlace, our focus is on the safer bet: your ROI. Conservatively, as of July 2014, our members experience a 5x ROI with us. In other words, we sell money at a discount.

How? With our average job search running 77% shorter than the national average, think of how much salary is recouped to you with our stats if you’re a full-time seeker or what it would it mean to get out of your current situation that much sooner if you’re a part-time seeker. What about if it were even 65% or 50%...?

It would be A LOT easier to “sell” if we just pumped out those resumes for cheap and didn’t care about the results, but we’re a little too ROI obsessed.

Why? Because the more effective our solutions are for you, the better advocate you are for us. (A business is really only as lasting as its credibility and accountability.)

It just doesn’t make sense in the long term to run a gimmicky business full of empty guarantees, but we get it: That’s what other people do.



Our Non-Guarantee Guarantee, Completed…

• That you will invest in something that has no real value.

The number of services out there where you can pay anywhere from $49 to $2500 for a resume that is treated like any other commodity abound. They will make promises, but they don’t offer you any job search solutions.

So what really are they promising? Your satisfaction? How does that solve your career goal exactly?

A certain number of interviews…or they just keep rewriting and rewriting? I suppose if the job search all came down to one thing that would make sense, but it doesn’t. To fix the issue, you have to be involved in both the messaging AND the job search. That’s our goal because that has real value.



Our Current ROI.

Time: A typical job search worldwide is currently taking 1 month/$20K in salary based on a 40-hour/week job search. That’s 5 months for every $100,000. You can double that number (10 months!) for “passive” seekers who might only spend 20 hours/week on their search. What about those who spend even less time? (Of course, these averages don’t account for geographic location, where it can be higher in some areas, or age, where it is often longer the older you are.) As of July 2014, our job seekers [both full-time (30–40 hrs/wk) and part-time (less than 20 hrs/wk) COMBINED] are averaging 71 days (2.4 months; that’s up to a 77% reduction in job search time; 65% overall) flat regardless of salary, location, or age to the first job offer. NOTE: Now, at this point, we are not physically conducting the job search (although more of that is coming soon!), only preparing the messaging and providing some job search “launch” options like our recruiter/employer matching campaign. So we cannot take all the credit (our clients are good!), but we are proud of the results our clients are seeing AND the role we play in that. That is why we are committed to doing whatever we can do and why we work hard to build a portfolio instead of just a resume. We stay in touch throughout your job search and encourage you to give us regular updates so we can make sure our messaging remains effective. We will revise and advise, use our contacts, whatever is needed. It just doesn’t make sense for us to not care about the results of our work. But we recognize that other places don’t track results. It’s what makes us more than just another resume-writing service who sends you on your way or makes promises it can’t keep.



Our Current ROI, Continued…

Response/Resume: The typical rate of response in the current market is 1 call per 50 resumes sent out. The number is hard to assess because it does not take into account different variables, such as whether the resume was posted to a job board, sent to a recruiter, given to a network contact, etc. It also does not take into account the effectiveness of the LI profile, which is how some recruiters might find you, nor the general slowness of the hiring market to respond (especially during certain times of the year). Nevertheless, 1 call per 50 resumes is the standard. As of July 2014, our clients have been receiving 1 call per 18 resumes (that’s a 64% faster response time). NOTE: So, overall, our clients are currently experiencing ~65% reduction in job search time. Also, 90% take jobs with higher pay or better benefits (double the average rate), 85% get jobs in their prime geographic location, and 70% receive multiple viable offers.

And 100% of our clients know we will keep them ready for the next career move when, statistically speaking, it comes in 3 to 4 years.



Our Current ROI, Continued…

Value: Of course, averages are, well, averages, and as we mentioned, we are not physically conducting the entire job search (although we continue to play a bigger part). But our stats are telling, and if you break the time saved alone down into a percentage of your salary, think of how much salary is recouped to you with our stats if you’re a full-time seeker? How much would you recoup if your job search was 2.4 months less or even just 1 month?

Or what it would it mean to get out of your current situation that much sooner if you’re a part-time seeker? On the conservative side, we estimate our clients experience a 5x ROI!

“Your resume, LinkedIn profile, and cover letter landed me several interviews and two simultaneous offers. I was able to choose the position that was an exact match in a city that my family and I are excited to move to.” (Greg S., Certified Project Manager, Portland Area)



But like any company, we have our flaws.

So we’ll just go ahead and admit ours up front.



We’re small.

We’re not a “quick-and-dirty” resume mill pumping out resume after resume and not tracking the results.

So we know we’re not for everyone. (That’s OK because we couldn’t properly serve

everyone anyway!)“The new resume and LinkedIn profile... made a big impact in me getting a job offer in less than 2 weeks!” (Christine K., Developer/Programmer, Boston Area)



We can’t control the market, and we ultimately can’t control your job search.

Each year we reassess how we can become more and more effective for our members. We work really, really hard to give you all the tools you need (and even now participate in parts of your search with you with our “Job Search Agent”), but it’s true that at the end of

the day, there are market forces out there that shift and the job search is still yours to manage.

So think of us as guides in the job market zoo, not as magicians or psychics…although some of us around here might like to think they are

(I won’t name names! ).



We’re different.

Although we like to say we are different for a very good reason (because we pay attention to what the job market is demanding), we understand that not everyone is comfortable with that.

Like we often say, 95% of the market likes to all do the same thing. So, frankly, we let them. Not only do we focus on tech leaders, but we also focus on that small 5% who aren’t interested in

following the masses.

(Believe me, it would be A LOT easier to “sell” if we just pumped out those resumes for cheap and didn’t care about the results, but we’re a little too

ROI obsessed over here.)“I can't believe it. I spent hours and hours trying to write my own resume. What you delivered is well beyond my greatest expectations. I can't thank you enough!” (Kevin K., Technical Sales Leader , Atlanta, GA)



We’re not the cheapest.

Let’s face it. No one likes to pay for things they didn’t use to pay for. And it wasn’t too long ago that most people never paid for a

resume, much less job search help.

Or if they did, they found the lowest priced service they could

find because, well, all you needed was a decent-looking resume…

It’s only going to get more expensive.

It’s why we’ve built in a subscription solution that will keep future costs reasonable.

Career services and job search support solutions are booming, especially in tech, thanks to growing demand (lots of career moves and lots of competition for positions) and to social recruiting processes (companies are vetting candidates much more now).

So you can expect prices to double for these services over the next few years.

At the same time, when uncertainty hits, if you are not prepared for the market as it is then, any amount of employment gap hurts your wallet. It’s extremely expensive to be out of work, and employment gaps make life even tougher, especially with recruiters.

Our clients can become “members” protecting their initial investment through an annual subscription that guarantees they will not have to start over from scratch with each career move.



Some Resources

On the next few pages, we have developed some articles, assessments, and other

resources for you to check out, not just about us but about the tech job market as well.



How does your LinkedIn profile rate?

To help you get a better feel for where you currently stand with your LinkedIn profile, we’ve developed a simple self-assessment survey you can take that is quick to do, free, and helps you compare your profile against those that are

having more success on LI in building a recruiter “pipeline”:

LI Profile Optimization Self-Assessment

http://ittechexec.polldaddy.com/s/linkedin-profile-optimization-self-assessment



Recent stats:Don’t be caught with your tech career pants down: Jobs are plentiful, but length of job search is holding steady.

Despite the plethora of job openings out there, the length of time out in the tech job market is holding steady:

1 month/$20K in salary

That’s 5 months for a salary of $100,000.

With the 5% who are building technical resume portfolios, however, we are seeing the average search drop by as much as 50%!



Dare to be different: Don’t get sucked into the job board black hole.

We get it. They are alluring. They advertise hope. They make it seem easy. Sometimes they actually work.

In reality, they are extending the job search process with 100-150 candidates submitting resumes for every 1 job posting.

Jobs boards continue to be the least effective job search method; yet they remain the one most used.

Job searching isn’t about 1 method; it’s about a diversified

approach. Why not create as many pipelines as you can?



Are you prepared today for tomorrow’s career move?

To help you get a better feel for where you currently stand in preparing for tomorrow’s career move, I’ve developed a simple self-assessment survey you can take that is quick to do, free, and helps get you thinking about where you are and

where you need to be:

Career Move Preparation Self-Assessment

http://ittechexec.polldaddy.com/s/career-move-self-assessment?p=1&r=AF76B318DBAB251E97CE85780CBB59BD&pb=1



Don’t wait for your credentials to do the talking.

Although certain certifications, degrees, and other credentials have a lot of value in today’s market, they still don’t “sell” themselves (or you) the way most tech pros think they will.

You still need to know how to position them in the market.

When it comes to specific skills, we have written extensively on the latest skills in demand by today’s companies.

You can visit Co-Founder Stephen Van Vreede’s blog. Here are just a few of the latest articles he has posted there as a sample:

• Most In-Demand Programming Languages for 2014• There’s Value in That Security Clearance• Do You Have a Top-Paying IT Certification?

How much have you invested in the Technical

Career you've built so far?

http://www.stephenvanvreede.com/

http://stephenvanvreede.com/2014/02/28/most-in-demand-programming-languages-for-2014/

http://stephenvanvreede.com/2014/02/12/how-much-is-that-security-clearance-worth/

http://stephenvanvreede.com/2014/01/28/do-you-have-a-top-paying-it-certification/


Know location, location, location and industry, industry, industry.

It’s important not to confuse your location or your industry as indicative of the entire state of the tech job market. Find out where opportunity lies.

Here are some differentiators:

•The U.S. Manufacturing Job Turnaround?•The Engineering Job Market: 2014 and Beyond•What to Expect When You’re Expecting Healthcare IT

http://stephenvanvreede.com/2014/01/02/the-u-s-manufacturing-job-market-turnaround/

http://stephenvanvreede.com/2014/01/02/the-u-s-manufacturing-job-market-turnaround/

http://stephenvanvreede.com/2013/12/20/the-engineering-job-market-2014-and-beyond/

http://stephenvanvreede.com/2013/12/20/the-engineering-job-market-2014-and-beyond/

http://stephenvanvreede.com/2013/12/23/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-healthcare-it/



So like it or not, if you plan to be in the tech job market for the next 5, 10, 15+ years, what is your answer to this market going to be?

Getting your resume ready is a start, but unfortunately it's no longer enough.

At the same time, though, you don’t need to do everything (or buy everything!).

You can waste a lot of resources doing that.

To talk more about today’s tech job market, feel free to contact me, Stephen Van Vreede, through my firm ITtechExec.

Let’s Talk Some More

This should be a

no-brainer, BUT

It’s not. Very few pros are

willing to adapt.

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