land the tech job you love

Prepared exclusively for sam kaplan What Readers Are Saying About L and the Tech Job You Love Andy Lester has done what no one has ever been able to do. He has written a software manual that teaches techies how to land a great job. Done up with style and insight that speaks clearly to programmers and other technical folks, this how-to guide shows you how to design, code, debug, and run a suc- cessful job-hunting project. Nick Corcodilos ask theheadhunter.com The timing couldn’t be better for Andy Lester’s fantastic new book, Land the Tech Job You Love. In these difficult economic times, a lot more people are competing for a lot fewer jobs, and they’re going to need all the help they can get. Andy’s excellent collection of guidelines and pragmatic advice may be the bible we all depend upon. Ed Yourdon A uthor of Death March and developer of software methodologies A perceptive, practical, positive, and powerful guide to scoring your next great tech job. Karen Burns A uthor, The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real-Life Career Advice Yo u Can Actually Use The people who have always stood out to me in interviews were not always the most t alented candidates but the most prepared. This book wi l l give you the tools, tips, and real-world experience that are invaluable to getting hired. If you are going to pick up one book on getting hired, this is the one you need. Jason A. Crome Partner, DEVNET, Inc. Prepared exclusively for sam kaplan Download at Boykma.Com This is a valuable, r eadable book that cuts through the normal B .S. of job hunting. If you ever t hink you will need a job, do yourself a favor and buy a copy of this book now. Johanna Rothman A uthor and management consultant Land the Tech Job You Love is one part sound advice, one part self-psychoanalysis, and one part wincing as you recognize things you’ve personally done. I wish I’d had this years ago. Dee Ann LeBlanc T echnical writer, Renaissoft You don’t have to be unemployed to benefit from reading (studying!) this book. It’s a great book to read before you start looking. Andy thoroughly analyzes the many issues involved in the complex process of finding the job you will love. Ilya Talman P resident, Roy Talman & Associates Andy has taken the mystery and guesswork out of t he technol- ogy career change. Essential stuff. Rob Warmowski P rincipal, South Loop Digital Prepared exclusively for sam kaplan Download at Boykma.Com Prepared exclusively for sam kaplan Download at Boykma.Com Land the Tech Job You Love Andy Lester The P ragmatic Bookshelf Raleigh, North Carolina Dallas, Texas Prepared exclusively for sam kaplan Download at Boykma.Com Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their p roducts are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial capital letters or in all capitals. The Pragmatic Starter Kit, The Pragmatic Programmer, Pragmatic Progra mming, Pragmatic Bookshelf a nd the linking g device are trademarks of The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC. Every precaution was taken in the preparation of this book. Howe ver, the pub- lisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages that may result from the use of information ( i ncluding program listings) contained herein. Our Pragmatic courses, workshops , and other products can help you and your team create better software and have more fun. For more information, as well as the latest Pragmatic titles, please visit us at http://www.pragprog.com Copyright © 2 0 09 Andy Lester. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by an y means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy- ing, recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. ISBN-10: 1-934356-26-3 ISBN-13: 978-1-934356-26-5 Printed on acid-free paper. P1.0 printing, May 2009 Version: 2009-6-12 Prepared exclusively for sam kaplan Download at Boykma.Com Contents Appreciations 11 Introduction 14 The Fireman Who Loved His Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 How This Book Was Born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 A Disclaimer of Sorts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 What’s Inside? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Land the Tech Job You Love On line . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Go Love Your Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 I The Job Search 20 1 The Foundation of Your Job Search 21 1.1 Be Honest with Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 1.2 Be Honest with Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 1.3 Think Like the Boss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 1.4 Be a Problem Solver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 1.5 Sell Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 1.6 Tell Stories and Give Samples of Your Work . . . 31 1.7 Be Positive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 1.8 Moving Ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 2 What Do You Want in a Job? 36 2.1 A Crash Course in Work Motivation Theory . . . 38 2.2 Dig In to What You’re L ooking For . . . . . . . . 39 2.3 The Motivation Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 2.4 What Motivates You? A Dozen Factors to Consider 42 2.5 Now Go Beta Test Your Worksheet . . . . . . . . 50 Prepared exclusively for sam kaplan Download at Boykma.Com CONTENTS 8 3 Résumé Content: Getting the Words Down 51 3.1 Before You Write Your Résumé . . . . . . . . . 52 3.2 Writing a Résumé Is Not Speedy . . . . . . . . . 54 3.3 The Sections of Your Résumé . . . . . . . . . . . 55 3.4 What to Leave Out of Your Résumé . . . . . . . . 76 3.5 Moving to Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 4 Building Your Résumé Documents 80 4.1 The Three Versions of Your Résumé . . . . . . . 81 4.2 General Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 4.3 Use Word’s Features Correctly and Effectively . 84 4.4 Create an Effective Summary . . . . . . . . . . . 85 4.5 Check Your Word Document . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 4.6 Build the HTML Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 4.7 Build the Text Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 4.8 You’re Ready to Move Forw ard . . . . . . . . . . 93 5 Finding Your Job 94 5.1 It’s All About the People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 5.2 Where the Jobs Are . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 5.3 What to Find Out About a Potential Job . . . . . 108 5.4 Do Your Detective Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 5.5 Headhunters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 5.6 Work the Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 5.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 6 Applying for the Job 124 6.1 Customize Your Résumé . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 6.2 Create a Cover Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 6.3 Put the Package Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 6.4 Never Tell Anyone Your Salar y History . . . . . . 131 6.5 And Now You Keep Looking . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 II The Interview and Beyond 135 7 Preparing for the Interview 136 7.1 Clear Your Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 7.2 Prepare to Sell the Interviewer on You . . . . . . 137 7.3 Prepare to Answer Tough Questions . . . . . . . 137 7.4 Prepare a Relevant Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 7.5 Prepare Your Questions to Ask . . . . . . . . . . 143 Report erratum t his copy is (P1.0 printing, May 2009) Prepared exclusively for sam kaplan Download at Boykma.Com CONTENTS 9 7 .6 Prepar e to Get to the Interview . . . . . . . . . . 148 7.7 Prepare What You’r e Going to Bring with You . . 149 7.8 Preparation Is Half the Battle . . . . . . . . . . . 150 8 The Interview 152 8.1 Work Toward Your Goal of Getting an Offer . . . 153 8.2 Listen to Everything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 8.3 Treat Each Person Like the CEO . . . . . . . . . 156 8.4 A Walk Through the Interview . . . . . . . . . . . 158 8.5 Sell Yourself by Telling Stories . . . . . . . . . . . 161 8.6 Sell Yourself by Doing the Job . . . . . . . . . . . 168 8.7 Closing the Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 8.8 Phone Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 8.9 The End of Your First Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 9 Handling the Tough Interview Questions 176 9.1 Never Give B.S. Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 9.2 Never Complain or Disrespect . . . . . . . . . . . 177 9.3 Know the Red Flags the Interviewer Wants to Un cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 9.4 The Tough Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 9.5 Curveballs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 9.6 More Tough Questions: Exercises for the Reader 194 10 Too Much Information 196 10.1 Illegal Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 10.2 Other Topics to Avoid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 10.3 Handle Inappropriate Questions Tactfully . . . . 202 10.4 Who Wants to Work for a Company Like That An yway? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 10.5 It’s All About Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 11 After the Interview: The Job Offer and Beyond 205 11.1 Send Thank-You Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 11.2 And Now You Wait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 11.3 Go for Further Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 11.4 Give Solid References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 11.5 The Job Offer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 11.6 Leave Your Job Gracefully . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 11.7 Getting Rejected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 11.8 And the Cycle of Work Continues . . . . . . . . 225 Report erratum t his copy is (P1.0 printing, May 2009) Prepared exclusively for sam kaplan Download at Boykma.Com CONTENTS 10 1 2 Staying Hirable 226 12.1 Improve Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 12.2 Improve Your Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 12.3 Improve Your Brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 12.4 Always Look for Your Next Job . . . . . . . . . . 241 12.5 It’s Never the End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 A Meaningless Clichés to Avoid 246 B Résumé, Cover Letter, and Email Killers 247 C Interview Killers 248 D Web Resources 249 E Bibliography 250 Index 252 Report erratum t his copy is (P1.0 printing, May 2009) Prepared exclusively for sam kaplan Download at Boykma.Com [...]... 2009) Land the Tech Job You Love O NLINE 19 Land the Tech Job You Love Online Follow up your reading of the book by participating online The home page for the book is online at http://www.pragprog.com/ titles/algh /land- the- tech- job- you- love You can submit errata from that page, and you can also participate in the Land The Tech Job You Love forum at http://forums.pragprog.com/forums/81 I welcome your... a job and company to pursue, you ll move on to Chapter 6, Applying for the Job, on page 124, finding the best way to make your introduction to the company Once you ve been called in for an interview, your approach changes radically You ll change from seeking a job to working to show the interviewer and company that you re the right person for the job and to find out for yourself that it’s the right job. .. waking hours at your job That’s more time than you spend with your kids or your spouse and even more than time spent playing World of Warcraft You can’t be happy with your life when you re spending so much time doing something you don’t love This book is here first to help you be happy with your life by helping you understand what you want in a job and then to help you find and land that job My goal in... hiring, either in the book forum or privately in email I’d love to know whether this book helped you and how I could have done better Go Love Your Job I know that many of you may be incredulous at the idea of loving your job Maybe you liked working with computers, but your job has sucked the fun out Your artistic side isn’t satisfied designing boring websites Your co-workers are obnoxious boors you dread... are obnoxious boors you dread I know the feeling You re not alone You re not stuck Other opportunities are available for you, if you know where Life is too short for a job to look and can work the hiring process you don’t love to your advantage and to the advantage of the company that hires you This book will help you get that job you love Andy Lester May 2009 andy@theworkinggeek.com Download at Boykma.Com... build on each other throughout the rest of the book and your job search You ll need to sell yourself as a problem solver, because you know that’s what the boss wants, and you ll do it by telling stories 1.1 Be Honest with Yourself There’s no better way to wind up in an unhappy situation than to lie to yourself What are your needs? What are your skills? What do you want in a job? What do you want to avoid?... no direct bearing on you or that you cannot fix There’s no point in worrying about the problems of others When discussing problems that do relate to you, then discuss what you ve done to fix them or how you ve gotten work done in the face of the problem Problems you ve faced in the past will come up in an interview, and you need to explain how you ve worked to solve them, even if you were unsuccessful... And, since your next job is probably not going to be your last, Chapter 12, Staying Hirable, on page 226 discusses how to make the most of your skills and career and how they’re seen in the world so that the next time you need a job the process won’t be so painful Finally, the appendixes give summaries of tips to make the most of your job hunt and present traps to avoid You may want to skim them now... happiness Chapter 1, The Foundation of Your Job Search, on page 21 discusses basic building blocks of how to be successful in the job hunt and in finding the job you want The idea of “what you want” is so important, and so often ignored by hiring books, that it gets its own chapter, Chapter 2, What Do You Want in a Job? , on page 36 Even if you think you know what you re looking for in a job, you may be surprised... evidence of who you are, what you can do, and how you ve done it in the past Samples of your work show that you re able to deliver the goods Most important, stories and samples let the person hearing the story make the assessment about you When faced with the daunting task of summarizing themselves, whether on paper in a résumé or face-to-face in an interview, job hunters often fall into the trap of trying . at http://www.pragprog.com/ ti tles/algh /land- the- tech- job- you- love . You can submit errata from that page, and you can also participate in the Land The Tech Job You Love forum at http://forums.pragprog.com/forums/81. I welcome your. kaplan Download at Boykma.Com Land the Tech Job You Love ON LINE 19 L and the Tech Job You Love Online Follow up your reading of the book by participating online. The home page for the book is online at http://www.pragprog.com/ ti tles/algh /land- the- tech- job- you- love . . . . 17 Land the Tech Job You Love On line . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Go Love Your Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 I The Job Search 20 1 The Foundation of Your Job Search