Land the Tech Job You Love (Pragmatic Life Series)

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Overview

As a techie, you're a special breed, with special challenges facing you in the job search. Your competition is smart, tech-savvy, and highly resourceful. Expectations among employers are higher. Your competition will run you over if you're not up to the challenge. Land the Tech Job You Love gives you the background, the skills, and the hard-won wisdom to bypass the mistakes of those who don't prepare.

You might not think you need this book. Conventional Wisdom has it that finding a job is simple: send some resumes, go on some interviews, and take the offer that sounds best. But that's only the start. You've got the background and skills to work the Web and other resources that the general job seeker doesn't. This book shows you how to take advantage of those skills or be left behind by competing techies who do.

It all starts with an examination of you, your strengths, and where you want your career to take you. Without a roadmap, you'll wind up in any old job. Life's too short to spend in a job that you don't love. From there, you'll see how to find the job you want that fits you and the employer, using your technical and web savvy to find the hidden jobs that never make it into the classifieds or Monster.

"Marketing" is not a dirty word, and you'll learn how to present yourself, your skills, and your background in the way that shows the hiring company that you're the right person for the job. Create a resume that tosses out conventional wisdom, write cover letters that sell your background, and assemble a portfolio of work that will wow the interviewer.

Social networking has been the darling of the Web in the past few years, but it's no substitute for the sort of personal interaction that makes relationships that help in future careers. As one manager said, "One recommendation is worth a million resumes." This book shows you how to make and maintain the connections that will drive your future career moves.

Land the Tech Job You Love pulls no punches and lays out the details for what gets you an interview, and gets you hired in a job in the technical world that makes you happy.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781934356265
Publisher: Pragmatic Programmers, LLC, The
Publication date: 6/1/2009
Pages: 225
Sales rank: 621,626
Series: Pragmatic Life Series
Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 0.80 (d)

Meet the Author

Andy Lester has been a professional programmer for 18 years and a Perl evangelist for a decade. By day, he manages programmers for Follett Library Resources in McHenry, IL. By night, he spreads the gospel of automated testing and maintains over a dozen CPAN modules. Lester also writes for The Perl Journal, and three of his hacks have been published in Spidering Hacks by O'Reilly.

Appreciations xi

Introduction xv

The Fireman Who Loved His Job xv

How This Book Was Born xvi

A Disclaimer of Sorts xvii

What's Inside? xviii

Land the Tech Job You Love Online xx

Go Love Your Job xx

I The Job Search 1

1 The Foundation of Your Job Search 3

1.1 Be Honest with Yourself 3

1.2 Be Honest with Others 6

1.3 Think Like the Boss 8

1.4 Be a Problem Solver 10

1.5 Sell Yourself 11

1.6 Tell Stories and Give Samples of Your Work 13

1.7 Be Positive 15

1.8 Moving Ahead 17

2 What Do You Want in a Job? 19

2.1 A Crash Course in Work Motivation Theory 21

2.2 Dig In to What You're Looking For 22

2.3 The Motivation Worksheet 24

2.4 What Motivates You? A Dozen Factors to Consider 25

2.5 Now Go Beta Test Your Worksheet 33

3 Résumé Content: Getting the Words Down 35

3.1 Before You Write Your Résumé 36

3.2 Writing a Résumé Is Not Speedy 38

3.3 The Sections of Your Résumé 39

3.4 What to Leave Out of Your Résumé 60

3.5 Moving to Construction 62

4 Building Your Résumé Documents 65

4.1 The Three Versions of Your Résumé 66

4.2 General Guidelines 67

4.3 Use Word's Features Correctly and Effectively 69

4.4 Create an Effective Summary 70

4.5 Check Your Word Document 71

4.6 Build the HTML Version 73

4.7 Build the Text Document 77

4.8 You're Ready to Move Forward 78

5 Finding Your Job 79

5.1 It's All About the People 79

5.2 Where the Jobs Are 84

5.3 What to Find Out About a Potential Job 93

5.4 Do Your Detective Work 94

5.5 Headhunters 103

5.6 Work the Hunt 105

5.7 Summary 107

6 Applying for the Job 109

6.1Customize Your Résumé 110

6.2 Create a Cover Letter 112

6.3 Put the Package Together 115

6.4 Never Tell Anyone Your Salary History 116

6.5 And Now You Keep Looking 119

II The Interview and Beyond 121

7 Preparing for the Interview 123

7.1 Clear Your Schedule 124

7.2 Prepare to Sell the Interviewer on You 124

7.3 Prepare to Answer Tough Questions 124

7.4 Prepare a Relevant Portfolio 125

7.5 Prepare Your Questions to Ask 130

7.6 Prepare to Get to the Interview 135

7.7 Prepare What You're Going to Bring with You 136

7.8 Preparation Is Half the Battle 137

8 The Interview 139

8.1 Work Toward Your Goal of Getting an Offer 140

8.2 Listen to Everything 141

8.3 Treat Each Person Like the CEO 143

8.4 A Walk Through the Interview 145

8.5 Sell Yourself by Telling Stories 148

8.6 Sell Yourself by Doing the Job 155

8.7 Closing the Interview 157

8.8 Phone Interviews 159

8.9 The End of Your First Day 161

9 Handling the Tough Interview Questions 163

9.1 Never Give B.S. Answers 164

9.2 Never Complain or Disrespect 164

9.3 Know the Red Flags the Interviewer Wants to Uncover 165

9.4 The Tough Questions 166

9.5 Curveballs 180

9.6 More Tough Questions: Exercises for the Reader 181

10 Too Much Information 183

10.1 Illegal Topics 183

10.2 Other Topics to Avoid 187

10.3 Handle Inappropriate Questions Tactfully 189

10.4 Who Wants to Work for a Company Like That Anyway? 190

10.5 It's All About Focus 191

11 After the Interview: The Job Offer and Beyond 193

11.1 Send Thank-You Notes 193

11.2 And Now You Wait 194

11.3 Go for Further Interviews 196

11.4 Give Solid References 197

11.5 The Job Offer 201

11.6 Leave Your Job Gracefully 207

11.7 Getting Rejected 210

11.8 And the Cycle of Work Continues 213

12 Staying Hirable 215

12.1 Improve Yourself 217

12.2 Improve Your Network 221

12.3 Improve Your Brand 226

12.4 Always Look for Your Next Job 230

12.5 It's Never the End 234

A Meaningless Clichés to Avoid 235

B Résumé, Cover Letter, and Email Killers 237

C Interview Killers 239

D Web Resources 241

E Bibliography 243

Index 245

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Land the Tech Job You Love (Pragmatic Life Series)

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