Develpreneur: Become a Better Developer and Entrepreneur

Our continued drive to become a better developer will eventually lead to certifications. Therefore, it will lead to those certifications expiring. While some authorities do not expire their certs, there is a useful lifespan for any technology. In this episode, we look at how to handle those expired certifications on a resume or when applying for a position. Expired Certifications Have Value The quick answer would be to drop those expired certifications and ancient skills from your current list. However, that would be a short-sighted step to take. The mere fact that you studied for and passed an exam shows value to an employer. It is proof that you took the initiative to improve yourself as well as showing a baseline in some technology or skill. A series of expired qualifications may even show a long-term pattern of going the extra mile and staying current in your abilities. A Result Of a Search Of course, we always have the bonus of these older skills, potentially getting us to show up on a search. You may not want to go back to old expertise or technology, but it never hurts to ask. The same skills may also tell a story that you are well-rounded in your skills and experience. That could lead one to think you are better at general development and problem-solving or maybe make you more memorable. Migration and Upgrade Value One of the best things that can come from listing those old skills and certs is an "in" for an upgrade or migration project. Those ancient skills are rarely dead in the professional world; they just become less common among your peers. That alone can make you a unique find for a prospective employer. Episode Challenge: Review your listed certifications and verify the information states what is current or expired. Maybe update those. Read more about advancing your career.

We have looked at a focused form of a resume with the mini-resume. However, we tend to have a lot of excess in our resume as our career goes on. This excess may be due to a large number of projects, employers, or both. It may also come from older skills becoming useless in the modern-day. A focused resume tackles those struggles. The Focused Resume We have looked at a mini-resume that is a marketing flyer for our experience. The focused resume is similar while being all-inclusive as well. In this document, we still list all of our skills and experience. However, we limit the focus and wording to paint a picture of a skill subset. For example, a developer might need a C# and a Java focused resume. Someone focused on QA might have an automation targeted resume and one on test creation. We might want to split out our experience to front-end and back-end or design and implementation. The possibilities are only limited by the categories of jobs you might pursue. Full and Sparse In One Document One way to create this form of resume is to have one-line entries for some jobs or projects while providing more details for others. This obstacle is something we saw with substantial resumes in general. We want to avoid getting deep in the weeds for the experience that does not relate to the current role. Our database skills and work may be impressive. However, that can muddy the waters when we apply to be a development manager. That is the problem we are trying to solve in this case. We want to present a focused story (and resume) that shows how our career has led us to this point. Not an Origin Story While we want to show how our career has led us here, we can keep it concise. There is no need to show all of the little events that brought us here. Stick to the main thread of work related to this new job you are applying for. Remember, the goal is to provide a clear story pointed at this new job. If you add too many ancillary details, it can distract from that goal. Episode Challenge: Create a focused resume (a new copy of your current resume) for your next area of focus. Read more about advancing your career.

We have looked at resumes small and large during this season. However, it is worth our time to examine a mini resume. This format gets to the point and is a focused sell for a position. We also can create one tightly focused document and use it as a template for others. The Mini Resume It helps to start with a definition and goal. The purpose of this document is to provide the reader with a page (or maybe two at most) that highlights specific skills and experience. It is intended more as a marketing tool than a standard resume. Thus, you might find it useful to "pretty it up" with more formatting and color than you would typically use. These additions can help make it more appealing and a quick way to convince a decision-maker of your suitability for the position. Experience and Solving Problems We do not want to forget to list out the skills we have. However, the goal with a mini resume is to highlight the experience you have gained. Achieve this goal by providing project and role summaries. It is easy for this information to become dry and dull, so liven it up. Think of a flyer format rather than a standard resume. Ideally, this is a PDF document you can link to or attach to all sorts of applications. You can even throw it on your LinkedIn page or personal website. This document should be a way to show off your value to an employer. Make It About You The essential outcome of this exercise is a document that "brags" about you in your voice. We often find it hard to talk ourselves up specifically. Thus, do it in written form. You can even include quotes and references from others. Check out a boutique consulting company web site or the back of a hardcover book to see the kinds of language and quotes often used. Do not be afraid to emphasize how good you are at your job. A hard sell is sometimes the only one that works. Episode Challenge: Build a Mini Resume that would help you land your ideal job. Read more about advancing your career.

One of the best ways to build experience and grow your skillset is through a side hustle. There is nothing wrong with using that side hustle experience in your resume. On the contrary, it can be the information that puts you over the top for that dream job. Valid Side Hustle Experience There are good and bad uses of this experience. Flagrant misuse of a title (e.g., CEO of your one-person company) is not helpful. However, you will gain valid and useful experience and skills as part of these endeavors. Some of this experience is almost impossible to have outside of a long and deep resume, which makes it that much more valuable. Technical skills, design, and even client interactions are often examples of side hustle experience that is perfectly valid on a resume. Think Like A Normal Job There are all types of tasks and roles you take on as part of a development team. These could be downplayed as you being part of a team. On the other hand, you did gain experience from it. A side hustle is no different in this aspect. You did the work, whether it was for a fortune 100 company or as a favor to a family member. The process will understandably be different. Nevertheless, there are skills required to get it done, and those can flesh out a resume. Add A Finishing Touch One of the best ways to gain from side hustle experience is to try to do it using best practices. This is not always possible in the real world, but sometimes our side hustle can be framed in a way that allows us to take steps we often would have to skip. Instead of cutting corners because it is a personal project, step up the quality and process. Your resume will thank you. Read more about advancing your career.

We have looked at resumes that are too large or too small. Now we discuss what makes one "just right." In this episode, our focus is on resume extras or bells and whistles. These are items that might make our resume more impressive, or they could just make it gaudy or desperate. Resume Extras That Matter - Complementary Skills There are almost always experiences we have that are close to a need, but not exactly. For example, writing SQL queries in MySQL instead of Oracle. These skills fall under a category we call complementary. They can help you win a job even when you are not an exact match for the job needs. In a case like this, those bells and whistles are necessary. They can help you win the desired position. Therefore, we want to include resume extras that can add color to our experience via complementary skills and expertise. Do Not Ignore The Process There is a broad range of tasks that the typical developer will do in their career that are not technical. These include task planning, estimation, documentation, team discussions, and much more. While the topics may be technical, we often ignore them as part of our descriptions. These bells and whistles are worth mentioning. You do not have to go deep into the explanation. However, these items can provide depth to the image of your experience that is being created. We can keep a bell or whistle if it gives a little more background Avoid Duplicates One of the more common resume extras is repeated data. When you go beyond the most shallow description of an experience, you will often repeat yourself. For example, you might mention unit testing code at one customer and then at another. It is useful to provide some extra information to show you know about the testing process. However, avoid doing it for both jobs. Sometimes a mention is enough to spark a conversation if the reader wants to. Read more about advancing your career.

This episode delves into a problem that may seem a non-issue. We look at what to do with a large resume. The thin resume challenge may seem like a significant obstacle. However, we can have too much information and end up effectively hiding the most critical data. That can be a fatal step in landing a job or project, so we need to be aware of how to handle this. A Large Resume From Detailed Experience If you have just listened to the episode on a thin resume, then you might become frustrated. Some of the things we highlighted in the prior episode will now be turned on their heads. For example, we looked at expanding a one-liner job experience to a paragraph. ABC Consulting Junior Developer Jan 15, 2015 - Dec 31, 2017 becomes ABC Consulting Junior Developer Jan 15, 2015 - Dec 31, 2017 Job Focus: Java developer (jdk 8) for a web application and it included database development and integration. This was for an e-commerce site that was primarily B2B that generated 50mil in sales annually across around 450k orders. Fulfillment and invoicing was included. The above is an excellent approach for calling out your essential skills and relevant experience. The problem is that when you do this for even a few jobs, it creates a long resume quickly. We may need to move from the second example back to the one-liner example in some cases. Be Specific With Experience It is a rare case where we should go all the way down to a single line entry. The exception would be jobs that have roughly aged out of your sphere. Your Visual Basic (not .NET) experience may be useless other than a vague mention or that DOS application you wrote last century. The better approach is to curate your experience to the reader. There are going to be things you have done that are critical for a job, nice to know, or completely irrelevant. It is best if you can review the requirements for the desired position and then craft your resume, so it includes the critical job information, a touch of the nice-to-haves, and ignores the irrelevant. This task may seem like a lot of work. However, it is easy to do. You will be able to tell from a post (hopefully) the type of applicant that is desired, and you can whittle down your resume to those skills and complementary experience. It may even help to have resume versions focused on the types of jobs you look for (DB developer, Lead/Manager, Web Developer, Java Developer, etc.). Maintain Data Where Possible The one thing you want to maintain when paring down your resume is the specific experience. There will be cases where it helps to mention that Python script you wrote or your Oracle database knowledge. Fortunately, these can be simple mentions. A list of skills and environments is a perfect way to cover this data quickly while avoiding clutter. Read more about advancing your career.

We all have started our professional life with that most challenging obstacle in front of us, experience. I think all of us have experienced the challenge of getting experience when every job seems to require it. This common chicken-or-egg situation is not hopeless. We can put together a compelling case even when we have minimal experience in specific areas or skills. Minimal Experience or None At All When we have limited or zero experience in the desired area, we have to get creative. Our best chance of winning these positions is through complementary skills. Remember that most IT positions are aimed at solving problems. When you dig into the problem to be solved, you can find some options for getting there with different experiences. For example, an entry-level PHP job may involve building a web application. In that case, you can highlight HTML, CSS, or Javascript skills as a way to be productive while mastering PHP. This situation is common, so make sure to highlight skills that are used across several platforms, including database work, web applications, mobile applications, and industry exposure. An exact fit is not always feasible or even the best fit for a position. Sometimes thinking outside of the box will allow for the best person for a job. Detailing Your Experience When you start your career or with new technology, experience may be thin. It is ok to take a class you attended or side project you worked on and include it in your resume. You also can add detail to make a little experience more appealing. Rather than a short line item that you worked on a project using technology X, provide information on the problem(s) you solved. You can get too far in the weeds. However, if you give a short description of the project and how you used the technology, it can be impressive. You might even be able to show a better grasp of utilizing the technology than someone with more experience. A little selling never hurts. Avoid Dishonesty Above all, do not put in details or experience that you do not have. This path is most alluring when we think we lack experience. However, it is never good to use dishonesty to win a job or project. You are more likely to fail and generally be unhappy along with the risk of being seen as untrustworthy. That is a lose-lose situation every time. If nothing else, the challenge of selling your resume when it is thin is an excellent learning experience. That can be a huge benefit when you get to a point where your resume is full of rich experience.

We kick off the new season on career improvement with an episode to set the table. We take a look at what we will cover and how our attitude can drive success. Our path is not always easy. However, it should be enjoyable. When you are unhappy at your job, it is time to look elsewhere. There is no need to be miserable. Both Sides of The Table This season will look at several topics from both the hiring and prospective hire views. Communication with our boss, coworkers, and staff is critical. Thus, insight into how "the others" live and view jobs can help us all. We will use multiple viewpoints and seasons of a career throughout this season in the hope that everyone gets something out of it. Career Improvement and Self Satisfaction There are many ways to "keep score" in our careers. The primary method should be happiness or enjoyment. When it is not, all of the other rewards will tend to fade. Money and respect can be excellent. Nevertheless, I subscribe to the old idea that happiness is worth more than any amount of money. If you have a different view, that is ok; I want to be clear on what my typical focus is in case you weigh options differently. Experience Rules We will be looking at many ways to improve how you are seen and highlight strengths. However, our goal is not to fool people. Instead, we are selling a product we believe in (ourselves) and trying to find win-win scenarios. Our best job is the one where we are happy and highly valuable to our employer. The challenge is finding out where that is and then winning the offer. Thus, our experience and skills are tantamount. Whether we consult, are employed, or work a side hustle, we need to be able to follow through on the jobs we take on.

As we reach a milestone episode number (350), it is a good time for us to look closer at milestones. These project management tools may appear to be tags or labels along our path. However, they are more than that and are a valuable way to drive us through to completion. Also, they can be points in time that allow us to take a step back and ensure we are still on track. Milestones can be a clean start One of the best values of a milestone is that it allows us to define a before and after. We can often get a fresh start as we pass one of these points. Nearly everyone embraces this fact. Even when we do not recognize it as such. The most famous of these situations is a new year. That is a milestone at its heart and one we often use to put the past behind us and focus on the future. This step can relieve stress as well as provide us a pivot to become better. Providing a Narrow Focus A well-designed milestone gives us a narrow focus for a while. We drive our actions to progress towards the goal. Likewise, we have an excuse to ignore the tasks that do not contribute to that goal. This process allows us to avoid distractions as well as make them more visible. For example, A goal to earn a C# certification makes it easy for us to skip reading the latest Java news. Our focus is elsewhere, so that distraction is easy to identify for what it is. Building and Pivoting That natural pause that milestones provide gives us many benefits. These include the list below. We can build on a milestone. It provides a concrete deliverable that can be critical for advancement. It is an excellent time to pivot. We have arrived at a point where it is probably cleanest to change directions or correct our course. A celebration never hurts. We should at least take a moment to revel in our success. We have accomplished a goal, and that is worthy of a little celebration. We have looked at how to use pauses and whitespace to add flavor and productivity. Why not utilize these natural pause points to our advantage?

We spend a lot of time talking about planning and setting schedules. This activity is a necessary process. However, we should learn from our past and adapt our schedule when possible. There is no sense in scheduling ourselves into an unworkable schedule. Sometimes a few schedule adjustments make the difference between glorious success and burnout. All Plans Go Out The Window In Reality There is a quote that says plans are worthless, but planning invaluable. This simple truth is important for us to take to heart. We can plan all day long to achieve an impressive number of goals. However, planning and doing are not the same. Life happens, and that can throw off even the best plans. We also may find that tasks look better on paper than they do in reality. For example, sleeping four hours a night and completing a lot of goals looks appealing. However, we may end up utterly exhausted or find we have ignored critical things like our health or family. Incremental Improvement Via Schedule Adjustments Think about your weekly plans as an estimation exercise. You may find that some of the items on your list get done faster than you thought. On the other hand, some will take more time or effort than suspected. With that in mind, you should find it perfectly logical to periodically adjust your schedule and plans. You can do this weekly as you start into a new season of tasks and chores. For example, it makes sense to start your year with weekly reviews of how you did since we tend to make a lot of changes as part of the new year. These schedule adjustments will help keep you sane and might even improve the success rate you have with resolutions. Quality over Quantity In my experience, a common problem with goal-setting is putting too much into the pot. There are limits to the value we can give to each item and may get to a point where we are mostly just spinning our wheels on too many things. Warren Buffett has a 20-slot rule that he refers to in investing, but the concept works for goals as well. We have a limited number of goals we can effectively work on at a given time. It makes sense to reduce the number of goals and improve our quality of progress. https://jamesclear.com/buffett-slots