The Job Hunt, part I: initial preparation for the hunt
Here I document how I look for a job. You may have an entirely different methodology. As long as it works, you're good. Did you write it down? This post details the preparation steps so that the job hunt goes as well as it can.
Step 0: Read your resume as though you have never seen it before. Pretend you are a hiring manager seeing the resume for the first time. Does your own resume bore you? Rewrite it until it motivates someone to pick up the phone and call you right away. Use persuasive language. NB: every time I read my resume, I make changes to it. Read it, rewrite it, again and again. It matters a lot!
Make sure that you have a fast, well-written summary of skills and qualifications at the very top of the resume. This is what hiring managers will read first, and it may well be the only thing they read, so it has to be a masterpiece. Emphasize content, brevity, simplicity and clarity. The summary is what you do.
Be careful about putting skills in the summary that you have not exercised recently, would have to read up on, to do again. For example, I removed explicit reference to Oracle RAC and replaced the wording with "clustered systems", since I really don't relish working on Oracle RAC administration every day. I'm mostly on the development side of database work, and should stay there.
I also changed the ordering of "Administration and Development" to "Development and Administration". These details are important, because you have about two minutes or so to produce a picture of yourself in the reader's mind. You will want to fill that two minutes with wonder and excitement, not boring techno-drivel. I just checked how long it took me to read my own summary: 1 minute, 37 seconds. That's pretty good.
Make sure you mention where you want to go. I included the following bullet point.
This emphasizes my intention to get into cloud computing. Notice carefully I did not make any claims in that bullet point! Also note that I explicitly mentioned production support. Everyone in IT has to do that, and it is best to acknowledge it as near to the top of your resume as possible. It will help prevent the reader from feeling like you are a primadonna. You are willing to roll up your sleeves, get into the engine room, and make that star ship fly. Make it easy for managers reading your resume to imagine you confidently and competently getting things done for them with minimum hassle.
A table of skills summaries (including years of experience with each) and most important software used should come next. Again, you want to provide as much important information, as clearly as possible, as early in the resume as possible. I boldface the three most important skills to emphasize them. After these two summaries, I expect potential employers to stop reading carefully and start merely scanning the rest - what companies you worked for, when, etc.
Lower down in the resume, I list previous tenures and what I actually did in each one. This part is rather dry and boring, almost by definition. That's OK - it is there to document exactly what you did in previous jobs. Mine goes back a long way, and I may shorten that part a lot, later, to read more like "previous tenures" with just a bare-bones description of duties. There are a few hiring managers that will scrutinize every last word in your resume, and this documentation is for them. Just make sure you make definite points with each entry to support the main thrust of your resume: what you want to spend your precious time doing next.
Step 1: Write a brief, one paragraph description of your ideal job. This does not go into your resume. Instead, this clarifies in your own mind what you are trying to accomplish with your job search. You can call it a goal, but I would rather think of it as a target for continuous improvement of your employment-seeking SYSTEM. Here's my first shot:
Since I've been doing Oracle for a long time (18 years), I should be targeting the highest-end Oracle jobs I can find. I did not include that I would prefer to be a contractor, since that is market-dependent, and might not be available. The fewer requirements you put into your ideal job, the more likely you are to find exactly what you are looking for.
Step 2: Check your resume again to see that it fully and completely supports your single written paragraph. Again, check for dry and boring stuff. The resume, especially the leading summary, needs to tell the reader everything she needs to know about you. You have about two minutes of attention. Time how long it takes you to read your own summary. If it takes ten minutes, shorten it. Make absolutely certain the summary explicitly mentions the things you most want to do, acknowledges the things you know you will be expected to do, and avoids things you are not good at or do not want to do.
Step 3: Update your LinkedIn profile to match your re-written resume as closely as possible. More than likely, you will get the majority of contacts via LinkedIn rather than the job boards, but you need to use all available means to get the word out. I think Glass Door is currently the best after LinkedIn, and Dice, Indeed and Monster are OK but appear to generate irritating and time-wasting job spam. Glass Door now allows you to upload your LinkedIn profile, which I think is very good. Maintaining lots of different online profiles is a huge commitment of time, and is wasteful, IMHO.
While you are actively looking for new work, you must accept a certain amount of spam and wasted time, since you don't know in advance who might have a dream job for you. Try to be patient, as there are a lot of recruiters out there with little training or skill, who don't read profiles, don't read resumes, don't know that Austin is in Texas, not Pennsylvania. They have been hired, given a script, a list of jobs to fill (often very hard to fill jobs), e-mail and a computer. Not a lot of training for a difficult and demanding job. If you get the feeling a recruiter does not know what he is doing, politely decline the opportunity and move on.
Step 0: Read your resume as though you have never seen it before. Pretend you are a hiring manager seeing the resume for the first time. Does your own resume bore you? Rewrite it until it motivates someone to pick up the phone and call you right away. Use persuasive language. NB: every time I read my resume, I make changes to it. Read it, rewrite it, again and again. It matters a lot!
Make sure that you have a fast, well-written summary of skills and qualifications at the very top of the resume. This is what hiring managers will read first, and it may well be the only thing they read, so it has to be a masterpiece. Emphasize content, brevity, simplicity and clarity. The summary is what you do.
Be careful about putting skills in the summary that you have not exercised recently, would have to read up on, to do again. For example, I removed explicit reference to Oracle RAC and replaced the wording with "clustered systems", since I really don't relish working on Oracle RAC administration every day. I'm mostly on the development side of database work, and should stay there.
I also changed the ordering of "Administration and Development" to "Development and Administration". These details are important, because you have about two minutes or so to produce a picture of yourself in the reader's mind. You will want to fill that two minutes with wonder and excitement, not boring techno-drivel. I just checked how long it took me to read my own summary: 1 minute, 37 seconds. That's pretty good.
Make sure you mention where you want to go. I included the following bullet point.
Most interested in Cloud computing / managed services opportunities
This emphasizes my intention to get into cloud computing. Notice carefully I did not make any claims in that bullet point! Also note that I explicitly mentioned production support. Everyone in IT has to do that, and it is best to acknowledge it as near to the top of your resume as possible. It will help prevent the reader from feeling like you are a primadonna. You are willing to roll up your sleeves, get into the engine room, and make that star ship fly. Make it easy for managers reading your resume to imagine you confidently and competently getting things done for them with minimum hassle.
A table of skills summaries (including years of experience with each) and most important software used should come next. Again, you want to provide as much important information, as clearly as possible, as early in the resume as possible. I boldface the three most important skills to emphasize them. After these two summaries, I expect potential employers to stop reading carefully and start merely scanning the rest - what companies you worked for, when, etc.
Lower down in the resume, I list previous tenures and what I actually did in each one. This part is rather dry and boring, almost by definition. That's OK - it is there to document exactly what you did in previous jobs. Mine goes back a long way, and I may shorten that part a lot, later, to read more like "previous tenures" with just a bare-bones description of duties. There are a few hiring managers that will scrutinize every last word in your resume, and this documentation is for them. Just make sure you make definite points with each entry to support the main thrust of your resume: what you want to spend your precious time doing next.
Step 1: Write a brief, one paragraph description of your ideal job. This does not go into your resume. Instead, this clarifies in your own mind what you are trying to accomplish with your job search. You can call it a goal, but I would rather think of it as a target for continuous improvement of your employment-seeking SYSTEM. Here's my first shot:
That's exactly three sentences. Brief. Right to the point. This paragraph came from me, what I want to do, not from a survey of the market. I might be 'way off, and will need to re-write the description later. So be it. In the meantime, if I can stick to doing this, and find a job that required exactly this, I will be spending most of my time doing work I enjoy and that is at my ability level. This will substantially enhance my life, sense of well-being, and professional proficiency.
I intend to produce stunningly well-designed and well-engineered Oracle databases for service in high volume, big data, mission critical cloud applications. These applications shall be so easy for the customer to use, so complete, that they will require minimal support from the development team. That team will be able, with time, to concentrate increasingly on development of new features and functionality, increased reliability and security, and near total customer satisfaction.
Since I've been doing Oracle for a long time (18 years), I should be targeting the highest-end Oracle jobs I can find. I did not include that I would prefer to be a contractor, since that is market-dependent, and might not be available. The fewer requirements you put into your ideal job, the more likely you are to find exactly what you are looking for.
Step 2: Check your resume again to see that it fully and completely supports your single written paragraph. Again, check for dry and boring stuff. The resume, especially the leading summary, needs to tell the reader everything she needs to know about you. You have about two minutes of attention. Time how long it takes you to read your own summary. If it takes ten minutes, shorten it. Make absolutely certain the summary explicitly mentions the things you most want to do, acknowledges the things you know you will be expected to do, and avoids things you are not good at or do not want to do.
Step 3: Update your LinkedIn profile to match your re-written resume as closely as possible. More than likely, you will get the majority of contacts via LinkedIn rather than the job boards, but you need to use all available means to get the word out. I think Glass Door is currently the best after LinkedIn, and Dice, Indeed and Monster are OK but appear to generate irritating and time-wasting job spam. Glass Door now allows you to upload your LinkedIn profile, which I think is very good. Maintaining lots of different online profiles is a huge commitment of time, and is wasteful, IMHO.
While you are actively looking for new work, you must accept a certain amount of spam and wasted time, since you don't know in advance who might have a dream job for you. Try to be patient, as there are a lot of recruiters out there with little training or skill, who don't read profiles, don't read resumes, don't know that Austin is in Texas, not Pennsylvania. They have been hired, given a script, a list of jobs to fill (often very hard to fill jobs), e-mail and a computer. Not a lot of training for a difficult and demanding job. If you get the feeling a recruiter does not know what he is doing, politely decline the opportunity and move on.
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