Computer tips, tricks, tweaks, and hacks

We all know about the more common pet peeves recruiters have with resumes — poor grammar, misspellings — but here are a couple more that you may not have thought of. These came from a survey of technical recruiters and hiring managers on about.com.

• Writing the resume or cover letter in the third person. I have actually never even thought anyone would do this, but apparently it’s common enough to become a pet peeve. And it’s also kind of creepy.
• Using tiny fonts. A lot of people just can’t stand the thought of a one- or two-page resume, which is the recommended length, so they employ a microscopic font so they can still mention every technology they’ve ever laid a hand on. If a recruiter has to employ a magnifying glass to read your resume, you’re already losing points.
• Listing references but not professional ones. We know your brother-in-law thinks the world of you, but unless he’s Bill Gates, it really doesn’t carry a lot of weight for a recruiter.
• Attaching a resume with an obscure, significant-only-to-you name. Naming your resume named with the current date is not smart. Give it your name.
• Writing the resume using table formats (columns). Think in terms of what will be most accessible to the recruiter.
• Making the resume too long. Okay, this one isn’t new to readers of this blog, but I thought I’d mention that it came up in the survey just to reinforce my advice. I can’t say it any clearer–a recruiter only needs to see the skills you have that fit the job. He or she is not interested in the evolution of your technical development. You can mention that in the interview.

By Toni Bowers

Here’s the content of an email I received recently:

What would you make of supervisor who goes to a amusement park with several subordinates, or who goes to lunch every day with them to the exclusion of other subordinates? Can such a person be trusted to reliably evaluate their performance? When does a manager stop being a manager and cross the line over to best buddy? Seems to me that going to an occasional lunch or happy hour with subordinates is a good thing, but at some point doesn’t too much of a good thing become an unprofessional thing?

Here’s the image that came unbidden to me after reading your email: A manager and two staffers walking in the office laughing, all windblown and carrying huge stuffed animals they won playing Whack-a-Mole, while one lone employee sits at his keyboard tirelessly tweaking code.

I know this is an extreme example, but I use it to illustrate what can happen when you’re dealing with something that is open to human interpretation. Not only do I see that manager subconsciously distancing himself, and vice versa, from the guy who didn’t go on the outing but I also can’t see that manager-even if he is infused with superhuman levels of objectivity-being able to later look one of the two employees who went on the outing in his cotton-candy-stained face and telling him he needs to step up to the plate or he’s going to be fired.

If the outing was a rare reward for a high-performing team but the one guy just didn’t want to go, then that might be fine. But if it happens all the time, in addition to the lunches, with the same people, then there’s a problem.

It’s difficult sometimes for a manager to separate from the team, especially if the manager was promoted from within the ranks. But you really have to distance yourselves to some extent or you’re opening yourself up to all kinds of risk. It’s part of the job.

For one, if you have lunch with the same employee or employees all the time, you’re bound to communicate with them on a different level. The more those employees are around you, the more they indirectly pick up on how you like to see things done, while the other guy may not have the slightest clue.

One guy I knew worked for someone who hired a friend and they continued their friendship after hours-having dinner with each others’ families, meeting for drinks after work. Every time a plum assignment came up, it was the manager’s friend who usually got the opportunity to take it on. The manager didn’t make the choice because of his friendship but because he knew the other guy so well that he knew he would ace the project. The problem with this is that other employees don’t get the chance to prove themselves.

Even if the “outside” employee is legitimately not doing well and you have to mention it to him, do you not think some part of him is going to blame your closeness with the others on your perception of him?
I would recommend a friendly closeness with all team members but you must draw a line.

By Toni Bowers

In this blog, Erik Eckel discusses what the IT certification landscape looks like for 2010.

Back in December 2008, TechRepublic published its 10 Best IT Certifications list. The list generated quite a bit of discussion. Now that it’s time for revisiting that top 10 list and updating it to reflect changes within the economy and IT world, many readers will be checking to confirm if their favorites have slipped off the list or earned their way on.

Many may be disappointed. There’s no sign of NetWare. Sorry. It’s not there. Neither is ITIL. Nor is a Linux accreditation.

Why not? Well, for starters, it’s the 10 Best IT Certifications list, not the everyone’s-list-of-their-favorite-IT-certifications-list. Every accreditation can’t make inclusion. And, with changes in the economy and changes to major players’ certification tracks, there are significant changes to the list.

Further, I’ve clarified that the list is for consultants, support technicians and administrators and engineers servicing SMBs. It’s not fair to developers, programmers or global multinational administrators to try and lump their minority needs (there are, after all, only 500 Fortune 500 companies by definition) with the rest of the IT world’s.

What’s changed?

Quite a bit has changed in the last 18 months. Microsoft’s MCSA is gone (replaced by MCITP), as is the MCSE. Security+ is absent from the new list. The MCPD is missing as well (due to the audience refinement reasons described above). But so, too, is Linux+ missing.

What gives?

The new updated 2010 list is much more tightly focused to the largest contingent of IT professionals: those providing support, administration and management expertise to small and medium sized businesses. As I noted in the new list, I could have included sexy accreditations to make the list politically correct, more inclusive of fringe technologies, or simply more interesting, but I tapped my experience, education and real-world lessons to build the most authentic list I knew how to create. I’m just not seeing the demand for those skills removed from the list. Therefore, it’d be a disservice to readers to include such accreditations.

Microsoft’s technologies run the world. Market share bears that out. As a result, the Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) and Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) accreditations, when earned, possess the widest base of demand.

There’s no substitute for fundamentals, either. So instead of dismissing CompTIA’s Network+ and A+ accreditations, IT professionals should adopt these certs as default accreditations gracing their resumes. While these exams cover fundamentals, these fundamentals are so important to everything else that occurs within an IT environment that there can be no argument against them.

Next comes router, firewall and VPN accreditations. SonicWALL and Cisco own this space, as is evident to most every IT professional in the field every day. Support techs and network engineers need more than passing familiarity with these technologies, though. That’s why SonicWALL’s Certified SonicWALL Security Administrator and Cisco’s Cisco Certified Network Associate certifications earn a spot on the updated list. These are necessary skills IT pros can better demonstrate by earning accreditation.

Who’s responsible for bumping the developer and Linux certifications? Apple. Let the debate begin. But for my money, and the increasing frequency with which my consultancy is supporting Mac OS X (often in favor of Windows technologies), the Apple Certified Technical Coordinator (ACTC) and Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) certifications help ensure technology professionals possess the Mac OS X server and workstation (respectively) skills clients are demanding. Understand, I don’t have a horse in this race; I simply adopt those technologies that seem to work best and that clients request most.

Rounding out the list are two safe bets: ISC2’s Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP) certifications. Despite organizations’ desire to run from security and project management tasks, the fact remains that businesses must address both topics. Adding these accreditations to a resume helps one demonstrate mastery of these subjects. While I don’t recommend concentrating one’s expertise only in security or project management, combining these skills with other support or administration skillsets creates a powerful combination hard to dismiss, even in a tight economy.

Which certifications make your top 10 list?

Certainly, there’s going to be some debate, hopefully civilized, as to which IT certifications really belong on the top 10 list. Which accreditations make your list? Post your comments, along with the reasons why you’d make adjustments, by joining the discussion below.

By Erik Eckel