what is a technical resume portfolio...and why you need one

866.755.9800 [email protected] 1

From the Tech Market Zoo to the Corporate Goo...

Let’s Protect What You’ve Built.

Move Over Resume, Hello Portfolio

The emerging role of portfolios in today’s tech job market

http://www.ittechexec.com/


The Resume Isn’t Dead, But It’s Ailing.

There are so many more tools at your disposal today, from project highlights

options to innovation pages to LinkedIn profiles to online bios.





The Traditional Chronological Resume Is Still Needed, But…

It’s no longer the whole picture.





The Resume Only Tells Part of the Story

In today's job market, employers are slower to pull the trigger. They want to make sure they have a fuller picture of the type of talent they are getting.

They want to see how you problem solve, how you lead, how you apply your tech skills to business solutions, and the types of soft skills you excel at.

Back in the day, you put a basic resume together, worked a few connections or answered a few job ads, and felt pretty certain the right opportunity would come along. Then if you worked hard 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.




A Portfolio Can Complete the StoryWith professionals changing jobs every 3 to 4 years, consulting on the rise, and fierce competition for promotions, portfolios can help build in flexibility and prepare you to face different hiring scenarios.

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, not to mention the significance of the LinkedIn profile, which will continue to grow over the next few years.

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, we can guide you to the right tools for you. No one can predict for certain what the market will do, but we can make sure that you are properly prepared for whatever comes.




A Portfolio Provides VersatilityMost often, candidates will still submit their resume to recruiters and employers, and then they will use the addenda pages throughout the hiring process. Most hiring pros don’t like to be inundated with information, but they tend to be receptive to receiving additional info at different stages.

The addenda pages that make up your portfolio can be a great way to keep the discussion going and to enhance your time in front of the decision maker. By having the portfolio ready, and by providing the addenda at different times during the process, you can be versatile enough to read the situation and use just what’s needed for it.

Some addenda options include:

• Marketing Briefs• Project Highlights• Bio• Innovation page• Problem-Solutions-Results (PSR) page

When we talk “portfolio” here at ITtechExec, what we mean is a traditional resume with addenda along with an optimized LinkedIn profile.

These addenda can come in various forms, tailored for your specific situation. For example, a Problem-Solutions-Results page is a great opportunity to highlight key projects and the business improvements that resulted from your efforts.



http://www.ittechexec.com/resumesamples/PMB-sample%201.pdf

http://www.ittechexec.com/resumesamples/Highlights%20Page%20Sample.pdf

http://www.ittechexec.com/resumesamples/Professional%20Bio%20Sample.pdf

http://www.ittechexec.com/resumesamples/Innovation%20sample.pdf

http://www.ittechexec.com/resumesamples/PSR%20sample.pdf

http://www.ittechexec.com/resumesamples/PSR%20sample.pdf


Let's avoid the #1 pitfall pros make in the tech job market zoo...

They don't adapt with the current times and lose relevancy.

They think their experience and certifications will be enough to keep them progressing. They remain stuck in how the job search process used to be or in expecting the next promotion to come simply because

they've worked hard for it. It can be a rude awakening to find out that what used to work is now not as effective. That's why ITtechExec is here...to get you prepared for where the tech job market is today.




Portfolios are effective for all types of tech career moves: external job search, internal promotion, or consulting bids.

It just makes more sense in today’s market to be prepared for different types of hiring demands. It makes you more prepared and relevant to the market.

It gets you out of the “back in the day” job search mode and puts you in touch with where employer’s demands are now.

But you don’t need to do everything; you just need to know which tools will be most effective for you AND how to use them best. That’s where ITtechExec comes in.

So, if you haven’t already,

Join Us for Your Free Career Management Assessment.*

*To provide the best service, however, we do limit the number to just 10/week. So you might want to reserve yours today.



http://www.ittechexec.com/contact-IT-resume-writing-service.html



And while we’re at it, let’s not forget about the soft skills.

Today’ tech industry is asking more from its tech leaders than just tech knowledge and certifications. It wants to see strong soft skills as well.

[For more on this, check out our article “The Softer Side of Tech” (http://ow.ly/uNgUE).]

Believe it or not, a customized portfolio can help in this area as well. Here are just a few great options:

• Testimonials page (either from clients, peers, leadership, or some combination of them)• Blog/social media posts (here’s where social media can be really useful to candidates)• Audio/Video presentations (LinkedIn allows you to embed these into your profile, but you

have to know how to do them right…or they can backfire on you)



http://ow.ly/uNgUE)

http://ow.ly/uNgUE)

http://www.ittechexec.com/resumesamples/Testimonials%20sample.pdf


ITtechExec won’t leave you hanging.

At ITtechExec, we've built our services so that we are more than a resume design firm that just sends you on your way. We want to help our candidates launch their searches. And whether you like recruiters or not, they can play a vital role in the job search

process.

Nevertheless, not all recruiters are worth engaging. You need to know where to spend your time.

As a result, we've built in a recruiter engagement solution as part of our preparation and protection approach.

Building a strong recruiter network, with the right recruiters, can add another layer of protection.

For each client we serve, as a value-add, we offer to reach out across our network of top-quality executive recruiters, sending an anonymous Candidate Profile (a snippet of your IT or technical resume). We will even include this profile on our blog and use it

as part of our social media engagement.

When recruiters like what they see, we then contact you to make an introduction to that recruiter. You and the recruiter take it from there. No wasted effort on your part.



http://stephenvanvreede.com/2013/11/21/us-based-chief-product-officer-candidate-profile/

http://www.stephenvanvreede.com/


Once your portfolio is complete, and your job search is launched, now you need to think about the bigger picture.

With a career move, be it an external or internal one, happening every 3 to 4 years, and with market demands changing rapidly, it’s important not to let your portfolio…age.

Keeping it maintained keeps you ready and relevant. But we get it: No one likes to be in job search mode forever.

That’s why ITtechExec has put together an innovative solution called the “Career Maintenance & Protection Solution ”.

Offered in two forms, basic and premium, it provides tech professionals with the opportunity to keep their resume and addenda updated, unlimited LinkedIn profile updates and optimization, regular career coaching, and annual

reviews/assessments. You’ll never have to start a job search from scratch again.



http://www.ittechexec.com/solutions-career-management-protection-solution.html




The ITtechExec Story

Everyone else was just writing resumes. We wanted to do better.

Our followers on Twitter know us as @ITtechExec and @rezlady, but IRL (in real life), we are Stephen and Sheree Van Vreede.

In 2001, we launched No Stone Unturned, a resume (or résumé, for the purists among us) and career services firm. Thanks to Stephen's 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 has 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.



http://www.twitter.com/ittechexec

http://www.twitter.com/rezlady


The ITtechExec Story (Continued)

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.

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 exploded onto the scene, and the landscape became pretty messy, pretty fast. The traditional job search was still there but in a convoluted way, and there were so many more tools in the job search arsenal.

But most of all, it was obvious we could no longer just write a resume and send our clients on their way. They needed better preparation and lasting protections.

We knew then that we had to become a full-service career advancement and protection firm, not just another resume-writing firm.





As a result, under the No Stone Unturned umbrella, we now have ITtechExec, a technical resume and "career insurance and protection" service for executive-level IT/technical clients who want to protect what they've built, and NoddlePlace ("noddle" means "head"), a technical resume and "career advancement" service for emerging, mid-level technical candidates who want to make it to where our ITtechExec clients are.

Listen. It is no coincidence that we have been featured in leading industry publications like CIO.com, TechRepublic, and Dice or have been asked to conduct training seminars on technical resume writing at the annual Career Thought Leaders (CTL) Conference or to facilitate the Northeastern U.S. region's “Brain Day” 2013 for CTL. It's because we are recognized across our industry by our peers as a leader in technical career advancement and protection. (That's why they refer their technical candidates to us, by the way!)

Even more importantly, it’s also no coincidence that our clients have been hired by several of the premier companies in the world, such as Google, HP, Dell, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Yahoo, Caterpillar, Northrop Grumman, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, SEI, and many, many more, not to mention several Silicon Valleys startups and midsize leaders throughout the world.

Protection and advancement both begin with preparation and continue with maintenance.




http://www.noddleplace.com/

http://www.cio.com/article/748671/IT_Resume_Makeover_How_to_Write_to_Your_Audience?page=1&taxonomyId=3123

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/career-management/resume-makeover-project-manager/4293/

http://news.dice.com/2012/10/26/candidates-too-picky/

http://www.slideshare.net/StephenVanVreede/writing-resumes-for-technology-professionals

http://www.careerthoughtleaders.com/brain-day-2013/

http://www.careerthoughtleaders.com/brain-day-2013/



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), we have devised our project lifecycle approach that takes away the dread and confusion that often comes with these career moves and helps to build in the peace of mind that you are prepared for whatever comes. No one can predict for certain what the market will do, but you can build a career insurance and protection team to help you weather what comes and still advance to where you want to go.

From your tech/IT resume to your promotion/consulting portfolio to your recruiter engagement to your ongoing career advancement/management, we make each complicated step more certain.





In a world full of phony branding, we keep it real.

Each of us, whether we like the phrase "personal branding" or not, has one: who are we, personally, professionally, and so on, and the message that we project. In today's job market, we are now forced to think about our "communities" and our spheres of "influence," and how well we engage in those communities is becoming a key component in our careers. Honestly, for most of us, it sounds like a lot of blah, blah, blah, but basically it comes down to what the job search has always been about: meeting needs.

To do that, we start by building a personal brand message that lets employers see your distinct skills and background in an authentic, practical way. Then we carry that message into your technical or IT resume, LinkedIn profile, promotion portfolio, bio, and more.

From there, as a value-add, we market our clients out across our network of technical recruiters and we offer a recruiter matching service that takes specific parameters and identifies the best recruiters for you. It also launches a campaign to introduce you to those recruiters. It can save so much time and frustration trying to maneuver through the crazy world of recruiting. We are also able to do the same thing with potential employers.

Finally, we provide a career maintenance & protection subscription service that offers yearly updates of resume/LI profile, career strategy consulting, and other updates based on latest world of work market trends. It keeps our clients ready to move forward when the next time comes, which in our current market is, statistically speaking, every 3 to 4 years.





Listen. We know we're not for everybody. We remain exclusive for a reason.

Our clients are serious about their field and about managing their career within that field. They're ambitious, sure; but most importantly, they want to be free to focus on the work they love to do, and the last thing they want is to be in job search mode all the time.

BUT they recognize that we are in a market that rewards those who come prepared. And that a job search is tougher and tougher to navigate.

So they come to us get prepared, to design their resumes and portfolios and help them launch their search. Then they put the onus on us to keep their materials up to date and to keep them ready for the next opportunity when it comes along. It's peace of mind amidst an ever-changing landscape.





Your livelihood matters. So protecting careers protects families.

Therefore, our clients are more than just job seekers (active or passive); they are problem solvers who meet real needs. Our job is to help them showcase that across both traditional (resume) and social (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) forms of media and to do so while building in the proper preparation and protection.

At ITtechExec and NoddlePlace, we understand wanting to protect your family. After all, we’re a family too! Now, we know we might look like just your average family (and we are!), but together with our specialized writing team, our clients experience a 5-fold rate of return (or better) on their investment with us and they know they are ready to weather whatever storm comes in the job market. How?

Well, our clients say it all...







We develop proven strategies: “[NoddlePlace] help[ed] me cohesively package my diverse work and skill set, which allowed me to show my value to potential employers and organizations.” Steven O. (Healthcare Ops Exec, Los Angeles)

We get results: “I finally had the luxury of choosing from 3 separate offers.” D. Gradin (GM, Los Angeles)

We attract the right recruiters to you: “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)

Not only that, we do it by keeping it real. And that is what makes it simple...we break it down to the strategies and methods that will work for YOU in your situation.





To learn more about us and all our swanky credentials, check out our sites ITtechExec and NoddlePlace or e-mail Stephen directly at [email protected] today. (You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, and just about everywhere else too [we have lots of "neat" pins on Pinterest!].

BUT even better than all of that...Come try us out and see. Take advantage of our Free Career Management Assessment.





mailto:[email protected]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/NoddlePlacecom/51159061332

http://www.twitter.com/ittechexec

http://www.linkedin.com/company/ittechexec

http://pinterest.com/ittechexec/

https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/103400645095471881382/113586908186088589067/posts

