Research, Research, Research!
By this stage in your job search, you have no doubt noticed a pattern to the steps necessary to achieving success. Like every other major endeavor you will undertake as you pursue a great job with a great company, the creation and refinement of your résumé begins with crucial preparation in the form of research.RESEARCH COMPANIES
To ensure that your résumé will set you apart from other candidates, you will need to tailor it to the specific company for whom you’d like to work. To do this, must be very familiar with each company you are applying to and understand for what they are looking.Allow yourself ample time for this stage of the process—it can be time-intensive. The more time and effort you expend at the beginning of your job search, the more likely you will be to get an interview and ultimately, the more successful you will be in winning—then working in—your new position. By the time you’re hired, you will be amazed by how much you know about your industry and the companies driving it. In the long run, this knowledge will contribute to your professional growth. Here are some tips from our experts on how to research companies:
RESEARCH THE COMPANY
Research your selected potential employers and their industries until you can answer the following questions for each company with confidence and certainty:- What does the company do, make or offer the world?
- Who is the typical customer of this company?
- Who are the three leading companies in this company’s industry?
- What are the similarities and differences between this company and its competitors?
- How does the company match up against its competitors?
- What key strategic and operational issues does the company face?
- What does this company need to do to address those key issues?
- Is this company growing or shrinking, focusing or diversifying?
- How many employees does it have?
- How many key locations/offices/facilities does it have?
- Who are its major partners?
- What differentiates this company from others?
- Who is the management of this company?
- Is management close to retiring?
- What is the company’s reputation?
- What kind of management structure does the company have?
- What sorts of employees does it hire?
- What is its corporate culture like?
- What are its greatest accomplishments?
- What are its greatest failures?
- What is its financial condition?
- What new things are the company pursuing? New products? New Services?
RESEARCH THE POSITION
- Why did the person who previously held the position leave? Where did they go?
- What is the detailed job description?
- To whom does the position report?
- What is important to know about the position?
- What information should you bring to your interview for this position?
Resources for Researching Companies and Positions
There is a wealth of information out there that will allow you to research companies and gather the information you need to succeed. To get started:COMPANY RESEARCH RESOURCES
- Examine the company’s profile.
- Look at trade journals that mention the company.
- Review the company’s website(s) – especially employee message boards.
- Browse relevant trade group sites.
- Talk with people you know who work, or have worked, at the company.
- Read any business articles you can find written about the company.
- If it’s a publicly traded company, examine its investor information. An annual report, for instance, will provide you with a wealth of information.
- Go to job fairs to learn about the company.
- Attend any expos, conferences, training sessions, seminars and trade briefings that the company may conduct.
- Go to your university career center and read as much as you can about the company.
- Ask your professors and your placement officers, and other people you respect, about companies.
POSITION RESEARCH
Typically, there is not as much information available on specific job positions as on entire companies. To uncover the relevant information, you just may need to get creative. Some good ways to start are to:- Call the company and ask.
- Ask your third-party recruiter, if you are working with one, get you the information.
- Look at the company’s employee message board.
- Have a friend or acquaintance who works at the company supply the information to you.
- Review the job description on the Internet.
Understanding You Have Skills IT Employers Need
Before even considering approaching potential employers, you must first strive to understand your skills. Set aside some time—approximately two or three hours—to sit down and simply consider yourself. to begin, ask yourself the following questions and record your responses.WHAT SKILLS AND OPERATIONAL ABILITIES DO I HAVE?
- Technical Skills
- Assess all of your technical skills including hardware, operating systems, network operating systems, networking, web development, web design, development, database development, database administration, telecom, applications, engineering, systems analysis, quality assurance, helpdesk and any other relevant technical skills.
- Management Skills
- Assess all of your management skills.
- “Soft Skills”
- Soft skills consist of your communication and other non-technical skills, including: your ability to communicate with people such as other members of your team, customers and management. These are skills that can set you apart from the crowd. Examples of soft skills are:
- Written Communication skills
- Your ability to clearly communicate your thoughts in written documents such as an email, letter, project proposal, progress report or application documentation.
- Verbal Communication skills
- Your ability to clearly communicate thoughts in conversations with people such as your supervisor, a customer or team member, and to groups of people.
- Project management skills
- Your ability to define, plan, organize, control and execute a range of complex interrelated tasks.
- Presentation skills
- Your ability to communicate a concept, speech or proposal clearly and succinctly to an audience.
- Sales skills
- Your ability to sell and convince others, whether it concerns an idea you have, your suitability for your next position, pitching an internal project, or selling to a client.
- Meeting skills
- Your ability to manage and facilitate orderly and efficient group interactions.
- Leadership skills
- Your ability to drive a project and team forward, by reaching consensus up and down the corporate hierarchy, directing the project managers, and properly allocating resources.
- Problem solving skills
- Your ability to efficiently and powerfully analyze and resolve problems and challenges.
- Customer service skills
- Your ability to meet the needs of customers in a way that creates or increases their loyalty to your company.
- Self-direction skills
- Your ability to take responsibility for a task and accomplish it in an efficient and logical way, requiring minimal leadership from your superiors.
- Teamwork skills
- Your ability to build a team and perform effectively as a team player while completing tasks and projects.
- Management
- Your ability to manage a group and mentor others.
- Foreign Language
- Your ability to speak or write in other languages is very valuable in the increasing global field of IT.
- Vendor Management skills
- Your ability to deal with and handle vendors from a cost and direction perspective.
- Marketing skills
- Your ability to think creatively about how to position products
- Product Development skills
- Your ability to direct the creation of new products and services, and to develop new applications for existing ones.
- Financial/Business Modeling skills
- Your ability to look at a business as a whole from a financial and a business perspective and to use your understanding to predict the impact of different alternative strategies and tactics.
WHAT ARE ALL THE JOBS I HAVE HAD AND WHAT IS MY RELEVANT WORK EXPERIENCE?
The exercise requires you to write a list of every position you have held at every company at which you’ve worked, including the title and dates of each. Next, summarize your primary responsibilities and accomplishments for each position.If you cannot remember the details of your work history, conduct some research; look at old pay records, old job offer letters, even call former employers’ human resources offices.
Finally, review this newly minted Work History document with the stated requirements of the job position(s) for which you will applying. Look at each past job position, making notes on or highlighting the skills and requirements of each which best show you would be an excellent hire for the new position(s) which you will soon be pursuing.
Standing Out From the Crowd
Just like writing great code, writing a great résumé is as much an art as it is a science. A great IT résumé needs to do four things:- It needs to get you noticed by the right company with the right opportunity for you.
- It needs to properly market you to that company.
- It needs to clear the screening process of the HR Recruiter, so you can receive the serious and deliberative consideration of the Hiring Manager.
- It needs to help you to get you an interview.
GETTING NOTICED
To get noticed and standout from the crowd, you need to follow two simple rules when preparing your résumé:- Believe in yourself and your abilities. Be confident! You will never get noticed unless you recognize your confidence, competitive nature and self-assuredness and let it show in the way you discuss youself, your skills, and your experience in writing. Having prepared your Skills and Experience Work History notes, you should be confident that you have skills and experience any company would be lucky to get.
- Work to shape and manage your public image. Temporarily suppress your sense of modesty. Do not undersell yourself. Do not be ashamed or nervous about exhibiting a little pride. This can be counter-instinctual, but you can learn how to self-market.
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