I have found that many technical people do not know how to effectively write a cover letter to accompany a resume submission. A cover letter is your opportunity to positively stand out from the other candidates by showing the hiring manger that:

• You understand the position and what is being looked for in a candidate, and
• You are very possibly a great fit based on your particular skills and your particular experiences.

With this in mind, let’s look at some of the things that work and don’t work in an effective cover letter.

1. List the technical skills and experiences you have that relate to this position, and BRIEFLY state how you feel they would contribute to this particular position.

2. Keep your cover letter to a short couple of paragraphs (think lots of white space on the page).

3. Honestly, a hiring manager will probably just jump to the resume as opposed to tackling a mountain of text in a cover letter, and you will sacrifice the advantages to be gained from a good cover letter.

4. Good editing consists of getting rid of every non-essential word. Trim up those lengthy sentences.

5. If you’re responding online to a position, the body of your e-mail will function as your cover letter. Here it is even more important to keep it brief and to the essentials.

6. Don’t use verbiage that conveys the message that you are the perfect fit for this position. It is unrealistic at this point of the game to make that assumption.

Again, you are simply looking to maximize your chances of the hiring manager wanting to take a further look at you to see if indeed you might be the perfect fit. To come across otherwise in your cover letter is simply presumptuous and a potential turn-off to the hiring manager.

Speaking of presumptuous, following are examples (along with my corrections) of presumptuous verbiage I often see in cover letters.

BAD: “With my skills and experience, I will be a significant contributor to your business.”
GOOD: “With my skills and experience, I am confident that I could make a positive contribution to your business.”

BAD: “I look forward to speaking with you in person.”
GOOD: “I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you in person.”

By keeping these points in mind, you can have an effective cover letter that will maximize your chances of being put in the “for further consideration” pile.

Over the years, Stout Systems has received client feedback from hundreds of interviews. A hire is obviously in our best interest as well as the candidate’s, so we’ve paid very close attention to what helps and what hurts in an interview. Following are what we have found to be some of the top “Do’s” that both impress and influence clients to hire.

Do show up on time (if you do not know for sure how long it will take to get there, better to be early and sit in your car for 15 minutes).

Do go to the client’s website and familiarize yourself with their company and business.

Do come with questions to show that you have prepared for the interview.

Do be prepared to state how your skills and experience will contribute to the goals of the company (note: employers like to save money, make money, reduce waste and increase efficiency, just to name a few).

Do turn off your cell phone during the interview (or at least have it on vibrate).

Do re-familiarize yourself with your resume and be prepared to answer questions about it.

Do be prepared to explain large gaps between employment dates.

Do be respectful and non-critical of past employers and coworkers.

Do be prepared to explain terminations in a manner that is not critical of past employers or coworkers.

Do remember to speak slowly and clearly, especially if you tend to speak quicker when you are nervous.

Do bring a pen and portfolio to take notes.

Do bring additional copies of your resume for the interview.

More times than not the interview process comes down to a choice between two candidates. And more times than not, that choice is made based on a candidate’s adherence to (or violation of) one or more of the points above. Pay close attention to these points and have the odds be in your favor.

There’s not much that creates greater peace of mind than job security, whether it’s keeping your existing job or securing that next opportunity. Which tech skills would be the most valuable to add to your IT “tool belt” to help increase that security? Well, if I had a crystal ball, I could just look into it and tell you what I see—but lacking that, the next best thing is to “follow the money.” Where are investment dollars flowing in the world of technology? That’s where the IT professional wants to be looking. Let’s take a look at just a few of them.

• Web 2.0 Significant investment dollars are being spent on re-tooling existing Web applications to give them that Web 2.0 feel. It’s what end users are demanding, and it’s what companies are spending significant money on to deliver. Bring your tool belt up to date with the following: Web technologies like AJAX, Flex, social media, content management systems, blogs, wikis and Web services (for more information on Web 2.0 see http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0).
• Network Administration According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, this is an area which is going to be growing at a rate of 18% over the next 10 years (significantly faster than the average) with a resulting 155,000 new jobs over this same time period. Heavy investing is being seen in wireless technologies and security efforts. Bring your tool belt up to date by specializing in those two areas, particularly with regard to new government regulations affecting monitoring and privacy policies. Hot tip: certifications can make the difference to a prospective employer. Consider a specialized security certification such as the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
• The Current Hot Stuff Companies are spending huge amounts of dollars to upgrade old systems, and on top of the list is a migration to a .NET platform. Programmers skilled in .NET are going to have a considerable edge over those who aren’t. Additionally, as more and more corporate sites are migrated to the Web, look for these things to be hot for the next several years: ASP.NET, C#, Visual Basic.NET, Flash/Flex and ActionScript, Java, JavaScript, AJAX, Perl and PHP.

The progress of your career is less tied to the state of the economy than it is to the investment you make in yourself. Happy Holidays and best wishes for successful and prosperous 2009!

Major Study By CareerBuilder.com
CareerBuilder.com surveyed 3,100 employers to find out how many of them look up prospective employees on social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and such). The study found that over 20% said they are currently using social sites to find out more about job applicants, and 10% more intend to begin.

What Are Employers Finding?
The CareerBuilder study found that:

• 41% of candidates post information about their alcholol or drug use.
• 40% of candidates post photos or information that are of a pornographic nature.
• 29% of the candidate’s content display poor communication skills.
• 28% of the candidates badmouth former employers or co-workers.
• 27% of the candidates lie about their qualifications.

What Impact Might This Have On Getting Hired?
One employer received over 100 resumes for a particular position and simply went through the list, one by one, eliminating candidates based on their social network site’s content. A recruiter I personally know was very excited to present a highly qualified candidate to an employer and had to reject the candidate based on information posted to their MySpace site.

What Can Be Done?
Besides the obvious (don’t post incriminating content about yourself, and limit who has access to your sites), people should make sure to give some thought as to who might (or will) be viewing their pages.

Use It To Your Advantage
Take advantage of a professional social networking site such as LinkedIn. Paint the professional picture of yourself that you wish could come across in a resume but can’t due to its limited length (just be sure to be accurate and truthful, because those “embellishments” tend to come back and bite you as well). Occasionally I will get a resume that references the candidate’s LinkedIn site and I have found that in more cases than not it gave the candidate a considerable advantage.

There is Always a Bright Side
Contrary to any gloomy economic news that might imply shrinking IT budgets, the agreement among recruitment and placement companies seems to be unanimous that the IT sector has weathered the current financial situation remarkably well. Yes, there are positions no longer being filled (particularly in banking and automotive), but this has been more than offset by those positions that historically have demonstrated themselves to be quite recession proof.

What’s Still Hot?
Some of the most recession-proof IT positions according to industry experts: software design and development, network and systems administration, software implementation analysis, QA, and database administration. A highly successful international placement agency listed significant activity in these areas: virtualization, VoIP (both of which are considered cost-cutting measures), data warehousing/data analysis, and Web 2.0 technologies.

Recession-Proof your Resume
Employers no longer want to see just technical skills. In addition, they want to see the soft skills that will contribute to the business side of the equation.

• Have you taken any writing courses, or done any acting or public speaking training? Be sure to put those in your resume. It reflects a desire to improve your communication and presentation skills.
• Do you regularly attend local user group meetings? Put that down. It reflects a desire to keep one’s skills fine tuned.
• Do you attend national conferences? Put that down, too. It reflects your desire to go the extra mile to stay up to date in your industry.
• Do you answer questions on any Tech Forums? Add that to your resume. It shows that you have a desire to help others.

Yes, employers will still emphasize your technical skills as a top priority, but it’s often the communication skills and presentation skills that tip the balance in your favor in an interview.