Overdone Resumes

I recently helped a friend with his resume. I have some experience with this from coordinating the CIS internship program at PCCC, though I am certainly no expert. My resume is about two pages long at this point. I'm certain it could be improved upon, but I basically have only needed it to send in a book proposal to Pearson and to apply to teach part-time at Bergen. Since I am not an active job seeker, I have not done a lot of work on it.

Though I coordinated the internship program, our former internship coordinator was my resume expert, so I sort of learned by watching her edit resumes. When we would work with our students to get their resumes done, I would help them with the basics (list your jobs, what sort of responsibilities did you have, etc), and she would come around and really polish the resumes.

This Career Builder article discusses some of those cliches, and how you can clean some of them up:
Link to article

Of course, if you are an active student, your college probably has a Career Services office that will provide you with free resume help. I'd say that is something to take advantage of, whether you are at Passaic, Bergen, or elsewhere. Otherwise, once you start looking for a job, you will end up bugging a friend or maybe even paying a professional to do it.

10 for 2010 (Technology Predictions)

I was thinking about what we are going to see in 2010, and here are some things that came to mind.

1. Standard DVD Format Gets Phased Out - Blu-Ray will become the dominant DVD media, and as a result prices will fall on these devices.  I wouldn't be surprised to see some low end Blu-Ray players going for $100 this Black Friday.  Since Blu-Ray players can play your old DVDs, people will be less resistant than they were when VHS was replaced by DVD players.
   
2. Standard Internet Sales Tax - Some smart politician somewhere will author a bill that will come up with a solution to the whole Internet sales tax issue.  Too many states (Rhode Island, North Carolina) are fighting legal battles with vendors (Amazon) over laws that were originally written in 1887 (really), and e-commerce has become so large that someone is going to fight this battle.
   
3. Office 2010 Will Disappoint - If one looks at the specifications, Office 2010 seems to do some clever things.  Microsoft Works is being phased out and there will be new tools "Word Starter" and "Excel Starter".  These will be the cheaper versions of the tools, and this is great because no one seems to be able to differentiate between "Works" and "Word".  The Ribbon interface will find its way in to Publisher, Visio, and the rest of the tools that it wasn't integrated into previously.  Microsoft will also introduce Web-based versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that will allow people to use the tools online for free, much like Google Docs.  With all that said, I just wonder if Microsoft may be overly ambitious, and cut some corners with the release of Office 2010.  I also feel like the operating system release followed by the Office release will split the focus of the company, and they are more likely to pour resources in to any Windows 7 problems that arise, following the debacle that was Windows Vista.  This would obviously take away from other projects in the company (such as Office 2010).
   
4. eBooks Take Off - eBook readers (such as the Amazon Kindle) will become more popular.  As demand goes up, prices will fall, and this will make these devices available to many people.  College students will be driven by lower prices (for example, my Internet/E-Commerce class textbook goes for $113 new, but the eBook version is $57 for a 6 month subscription), and the ability to electronically mark up your book without having to worry about ruining the resale value.
5. Netbooks Emerge - Netbooks will take off and become a popular alternative to a laptop for people that just want a basic portable machine.  As we see with cell phones, people don't always want all the stuff you get with a PC, they just want something to do the basics on, and Netbooks will fill that void. 
   
6. eNews - More newspapers and magazines will work towards making a digital model work.  According to an article linked from Magazine Death Pool, 367 magazines ceased printing in 2009 (and another 64 went online only).  This industry HAS to adapt, because times are changing.  To be quite honest, the only reason I get my paper is for the Sunday coupons, and the rest of the paper is immediately recycled.  If advertisers decide that online is where the money is, print media will have to follow.  They are also competing for advertising dollars with radio stations (both local stations like 1010 Wins and national stations like NPR) and with TV stations (again, both local news outlets like News 12 and global stations such as CNN). 
   
7. New Careers - Careers with titles like "Medical Informatics" will start to arise.  There is a need for people who have knowledge of both medical and technological concepts, and this seems like an area that will start to grow.  For example, insurance companies may not want to pay for a full-time nurse for someone, but instead have someone monitor remotely.  That person would need to interpret the results and know things like blood pressure and O2 saturation...but also be able to troubleshoot the technology if there are problems.  NJIT is one local institution that has already created a degree program for this.
8. Bing Takes Off - Bing will start to do what Microsoft Live Search didn't do: take away market share from Google.  Not a huge percentage, mind you, but it will start to make headway that other search engines could not.
   
9. Skype Makes a Comeback - Free from eBay's control, Skype will find direction and challenge VoIP providers.  Technology like a Wireless Bluetooth Headset for the PC (i.e. this one: AmbiCom SKYHS-KIT) will attract people who want the freedom to roam their apartment while making calls. 
10. The Mets Win! - The Mets will win the World Series.  (Hey, a guy can dream, right?)  I doubt even the guys at metsblog.com will be predicting this one.
    

I hope you are enjoying your 2010.

Job Seeking Techniques

I am serving on a few search committees for positions at my college and it got me thinking about mistakes people make in the job search process. I also have a Web link later. Let me present the following hypothetical situations that could be reality.

• Imagine a person applying for a faculty position sending in a 15 page resume. Do you think anyone is going to read it? (Resumes are typically much much shorter, and I doubt Barack Obama's resume is 15 pages)
  
• Imagine someone sending a cover letter saying they were looking forward to interviewing...except it lists the name of another college. What does that say about an applicant?
• Imagine reading a resume for a non-labor position and seeing someone listing their height and weight...why would I care if I were an interviewer?
• Imagine a resume or cover letter with typographical errors that are so mangled that they are near unreadable at points. Guess what happens to that resume?
• Imagine a resume arriving for a position that requires a certain degree, and the person doesn't make their degree clear on their resume. Guess what happens to that resume?
• Imagine showing up for an interview for a highly paid position...in jeans and a t-shirt. What message does that send?
• Imagine not being on time for an interview...what message does that send interviewers?
• Imagine being asked about your current job and talking bad about them. Even if it is true, that sends a poor message!

These are all situations that could and do happen. You obviously don't want to be "that person" if you can avoid it.

I saw an article on the Web at some point that details some of the common interviewing mistakes people make, and I thought it might be a decent thing to link.

Link to article

Free Web tutorials

One thing I love about the Internet is that is offers free learning in a lot of ways. Back in 1999, I taught myself Perl basically overnight using Web-based tutorials (training). Of course, I already had been programming in school for years, so it was learning the language syntax rather than learning how to program. I already understood loops and if statements and classes and all that, so it just became learning a new set of words. With Perl, however, there was the wonderful word of "regular expressions"that I had never seen, so that took a while to master. Instead of having to do a lot of complicated searching, for example, you can replace one set of characters inside a string with another using commands like this:
s/original/replacementstring/gi;

That would take you a few lines of C++ code, for example. I was always taught that you want to choose the right programming language based on the task you wanted to do, and for string manipulation or interacting with the operating system, Perl is much better than C++.

Anyway, point being, once you have a foundation, you can always update your skills. I've had to do that this summer - I went to a four-day PHP training. If you don't have a job paying for it, you can always find things online that will help you. For example, a friend recommended a site called W3Schools to me a while ago, and they seem to have some nice free content.

Just remember, especially for those of you in the Information Technology field...learning is not a product - you don't just learn and that's it. You will need to keep learning over time, especially in this field.

http://w3schools.com/

Free Career Expo @ PCCC - 4/11/2009

The school is hosting a Career Expo this weekend in preparation for the job fair. This is on Saturday 4/11/2009. There are two sessions - 10 am to 12 pm and then 12 pm to 2 pm.

There will be a series of workshops (30 minutes, I am assuming) on the following topics.

• PANEL DISCUSSIONS ON CAREER PLANNING
• INFORMATION ON RESUMES & JOB SEARCH TECHNIQUES
• PRACTICAL ADVICE ON STARTING A SMALL BUSINESS
• CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Might be worth checking out, especially for free.

(Edit: location is in the Theater on the Paterson campus)

PCCC Career Fair: April 16th

On April 16th on the Paterson campus, PCCC is having the annual Spring Career Fair.

Employers looking for employees will be there. Whether you are a technology major or a liberal arts major, there are companies that you might be able to find work with. It's a great opportunity to get to interact a little bit with potential employers, learn what questions to ask, etc. If you are going, you should definitely bring some copies of your resume so they can contact you!

Again, that's April 16, from 11 AM to 3 PM, in the gymnasium in Paterson, and of course, it's free to attend.

Resumes...resumes...resumes

The best way to get your foot in the door is of course ... to know someone.

But, barring that, a resume is nearly a requirement for many jobs, and having a good one certainly would give you a leg up.

If you are a student at PCCC, one of the first things I would do is contact the Career Services office. They can provide some of the initial guidance that you would need to set up a resume.

Larger companies will typically use a resume parser to automatically cut down on the amount of resumes they review. That's right - a human might not even see your resume! These software packages rank candidates based on the job criteria. This is why it is important to get your resume checked out by someone with some expertise, because they know what keywords to put in there.

It's also important to make small changes to the resume to emphasize the skills they are looking for (this also can be done using a separate "cover letter").

People majoring in the Information Technology program, for example, may see an ad that says "Security+ certification required". Why do they put that? Because they are getting a lot of resumes and someone told them "get me someone with Security+". If this keyword does not show up on your resume, guess what? You're not getting past the parser software.

One way around this, especially if you have other certifications, is to throw the keywords in the resume. Let's say you have a SSCP certification - this is similar in content to the Security+ exam. If you read an advertisement and it says "Security+ required" - don't just assume that the person will figure out that your certification is similar. You're trying to get in the door!

If the ad asks for something specific, I'd change my resume a little to make sure those keywords show up. For example, if you formerly listed SSCP, change it to say SSCP (similar to Security+ certification). This way, the resume parser doesn't ignore your resume.

Likewise, even if you don't have the certification, you can say that you are studying for it - for example, you could put under your education that you are "Currently pursuing Security+ certification". Of course, if it says "required", a human might still parse you out. However, if it said "Security+ preferred", that might be enough to get you in the door, if your resume fits the other qualifications.

All of the tips I really have are for tweaking and changing resumes - your first start should be to get your resume looked at by someone - like I said before, Career Services does good work, and the woman in charge (Adrienne Wolff) seems very good at what she does. If you're not a student or have graduated, you can always pay for this service (Google "Resume Consultants"). You may say "$200 is a lot of money!!". However, if this gets you a job paying $5 an hour more than you make now...or if it gets you a job when you are unemployed...it may be an investment worth making.

Thanks to David Csuha for getting me thinking about this.

Microsoft Interviews

I led a workshop today discussing interviewing with our internship students. The thing that is interesting is that there are plenty of standard interview questions - "What is your greatest weakness"..."where do you see yourself in five years"...etc, etc.

However, when one starts to look for a higher level job, you get asked harder questions. For example, when I interviewed at one company in my pre-higher education days, I was asked to design a sorting algorithm. Definitely a pain to do, but the interviewer wanted to see my thought process.

I did one of the more difficult ones correctly, and impressed him with it, to the point that he still remembered it five years after I had been hired.

Same type of thing would happen at a company like Microsoft. If they are looking for software engineers or other technical people, they may ask you a few technical questions. One Web site has a list of questions people were asked on Microsoft interviews.

Check out the list here...and be prepared to think.

How to turn the tables on human resources

What you have on your Myspace or Facebook, someone can find easily.

Try this. Log out totally, search for your name. See what information you can see about yourself.

This information can be used in electronic warfare, as David Csuha discussed recently in his Security Sense blog, but also can be used in scenarios such as job hires, and often is! According to recent estimates, 20% of companies use social networking sites like Myspace or Facebook as part of the hiring process.

For example, put forth a cover letter saying how responsible you are, and a company may check up on you - Googling your full name in quotes may lead to pictures of you falling down drunk because someone tagged a picture with your full name on Facebook.

If you are job seeking and this is your Myspace picture, change it.

What happens if interviewers search Myspace - will they find a public blog you wrote saying "hey, I'm at work and it sucks here, but it's nice to be paid to hang out on Myspace instead of working"?

What sort of comments are your friends leaving you, and what do those things say about you?

Here are some examples of what can happen:

• Pet snake confiscated by animal control
• Student denied teacher certificate
• Olive Garden GM fired
• AAA Workers fired over blogs

What's interesting is that you could even turn it in to a POSITIVE. If your Myspace or Facebook are well written, and you have a blog that details that you are really hopeful that your interview with company X goes well, and that you are excited about getting a chance to work with that company, it might be a good idea.

Freelance Computer Repair - How to Get Started

I was reading a post over on The Simple Dollar, and the site founder answered a question about how to start doing freelance computer repair. I figured this might be something worth posting here, since I assume some of my long term readers are former Information Technology majors.

First things first: Remember, you have an advantage over places like Best Buy's "Geek Squad", or Staples. Why? First of all, price. For the Geek Squad to visit you at home or in the office and repair the computer, they are charging $75 to $125 an hour. I don't know about you, but I can't see myself paying $400 to repair my home computer. You have a HUGE advantage in terms of price.

Secondly, many of you speak multiple languages. Staples or Best Buy may or may not offer that advantage. If you are bilingual (or trilingual, etc), that can only work to your advantage.

Thirdly, you have the advantage that, since you are in effect working for yourself, you care how the customer responds to you. If you help them, word of mouth can be very powerful for you. If you can fix their problem and help them out a little bit, they will tell their friends.

So, how do you get started?

Post Flyers
You can start by downloading a basic Word template with the little tear-offs down bottom (or, if you have Publisher, use the templates in that software). Remember, not everyone has computer experience, so list both a phone number and an email address. Do you speak multiple languages? Make sure you put that on there. Same with transportation - can you drive to them? Also, remember, people are concerned about cost - you may want to quote a price (more on that later) or simply say "why pay more money to Staples or Best Buy?". If you want to set up a basic, cheap Web site on a site like Geocities, do that.

Where should you advertise?
There are 7000 people attending PCCC, for example. If you advertise on campus, you have access to all those students (plus faculty, staff, administrators, and visitors). Remember, you have to get them stamped in A202A first, but they typically are very accommodating. Many local businesses will let you hang flyers as well, if you ask. Think of places people wait - a laundromat, a busy restaurant, train and bus stations, etc.

How much should you charge?
Well, this is entirely up to you. How much is an hour of your time worth to you? There are other factors as well. Are you doing something basic (like running a backup for the user)? Are you doing something more complicated (virus removal)? Remember, you are offering a premium service. I would say BARE MINIMUM ask for $30 an hour, and feel free to go up from there. If the person is nice, you can always cut them a break.

How do you keep people coming back?
First of all, be nice. Secondly, get it done right. Thirdly (is that a word?), go the extra mile. If you've cleaned up a virus because they didn't have a virus scanner installed, install a free virus scanner, and make sure they realize you are saving them $75 that they would have otherwise spent on packaged software. If they call you for something complicated and you fix it, ask them if there is anything else that annoys them, and help with that. Ask them to tell their friends.

How do I really build my business?
Get a Web site. You can do something free and very basic on a site like Geocities.com or one of the other 10,000 free Web hosting sites. If your business starts picking up, you might want to invest in your own domain name. Another way to invest in your business - you can get a free or inexpensive voicemail number, so people aren't calling your cell phone and interrupting you. eVoice.com is free for a basic service or $4.95 a month for the "Plus" service that includes a local phone number. Business cards are also a great idea - you can leave them with your satisfied customers, or hand them out. I've found VistaPrint to have excellent prices.

Hope this helps - I've gone through versions of this discussion in some of my classes, and I've always wanted to put it online here, and now here it is. Do you have questions or suggestions? Something else that worked for you? Please add them in the comments and I can address and/or add them.

Job Lead: Layout for School Paper

The school paper Visions is looking for someone with some Graphic Design expertise to do layout for them. This is a paid position. If anyone is interested, please let me know and I can direct you to the newpaper coordinator for more information.