The PASS 2011 Summit

I haven't posted awhile, with this being a busy conference time and I've been working on a few other presentations. I need to get back to posting here, and I have a few drafts in progress, just lacking some time.

I'll be delivering a version of this talk at the 2011 PASS Summit, titling it Branding Yourself for a Dream Job: The Modern Resume.

It's the same talk, or nearly the same, but a different title based on some feedback from various people that were turned off by the idea of "working on their resume."

We will see how it goes, but I would welcome feedback if you are attending the event.

Back Up Your Resume

Don’t make a second copy, though it does make sense for you to keep a second copy of your resume on a separate system. Losing that data would not be good.

However for this post, what I really mean is that you need to be able to talk about the various things you’ve posted on your resume.

 

It’s all Fair Game

If you wrote that you consolidated server instances to save the company $100,000, you should expect to be asked any of these questions:

• How did you know you saved $100k?
• How many servers were consolidated?
• What happened to the old hardware?
• How did you decide which servers to consolidate?
• Did performance suffer? How do you know?

Open ended questions, and not necessarily easy to answer on the spur of the moment if you don’t have stories prepped.

Anything you have on your resume is fair game, so take a few minutes before any interview to review your resume and be ready to talk about anything on it.

 

Build Detailed Stories

At each job, you should have something you are proud of and can tell a story about. These are the chances that you have to build a bond, show some depth to yourself, your career, and your skills.

I

Why you need to write

I love writing. At least now I do. When I was in high school and college, I hated it. However over time I’ve learned to enjoy it, express myself, unload things, and teach people things.

I ran across this post recently from Jason Baptiste on Why Every Entrepreneur Should Write. It talks about the reasons that a person starting their own company might gain from sharing their thoughts and ideas with others, especially about their company.

But it works for employees too.

A lot of the same benefits will  come to you as a worker if you write, especially if you consider yourself to be your own company. You are selling your skills as a service to an employer, and while you shouldn’t have the accounts receivables hassle, you should consider any job a temporary arrangement, an open-ended contract from which you might move on at any time and will move on at some point.

Writing builds skills, it teaches you things, and more importantly, it builds a brand that can help you get that next interview, or even job.