“CERT Boot Camp”

"CERT Boot Camp"

http://www.ExamsAreEasy.com

Issue 4 -- Friday, October 12th, 2001

CERT Boot Camp is published at the beginning of each month.

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IN THIS ISSUE:

1. A WORD FROM THE EDITOR

2. ARTICLE: 10 TOP TIPS TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR CERTIFICATION

3. EXAMSAREEASY.COM UPDATE

4. ARTICLE: HOW TO WRITE A WINNING RESUME

5. JOKE

6. CONTACT CERT BOOT CAMP

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1. A WORD FROM THE EDITOR:

Welcome to your CERT Boot Camp Ezine. With the

recent downturn in the IT job market in the US, and the

liklihood that this will impact other countries as well, we have

an article for you to help you write a top resume or "C.V." (as

we call them in England!)

Your feedback is always much appreciated. Can you suggest any

other career-related topics that you would like to see covered

next month? If so, please drop me a line!

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2. ARTICLE: 10 TOP TIPS TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR CERTIFICATION

What's the point of getting certified? Well, it make you feel

proud and sure of your skills, and the knowledge obviously helps

you in your job. But at the end of the day, for most people, the

certification itself is for one or both of two important

purposes: Impress your current boss and/or get great job offers.

So, here are some ideas for you to maximise the payback that you

get from your certification - even if it's just one MCP that you

have achieved.

1. Go to forums and meetings and wear your MCP lapel badge!

2. Print out your Official Microsoft Transcript at

https://partnering.one.microsoft.com/mcp/certtools/trans1.asp

(you will need to log in!) and send it to your Head of

Personnel, with a modest note saying, "Don't know if this is

useful for your files?" Believe me, it impresses them!

3. Have your MCP logo added to your business card and give it

out at every opportunity. If you have standard issue business

cards, why not buy some small stickers on A4 sheets, and print

the logo onto the stickers and add them to your business card?

4. Go to the MCP website and add your details into the

searchable database - and be sure to keep them up to date - you

might get head-hunted.

5. Have your MCP Certificate framed and put it on a wall or even

just on your desk. Or better still, suggest to your boss that he

place it in a customer service area.

6. If you've completed your MCSD or MCSE, then get your

discounted subscription to MSDN. You are now allowed to let

colleagues install it so get known as the person who has the

latest Microsoft help files and demo installation disks. Also,

use your MSDN disks for research and get a reputation as the one

who can give people answers to Microsoft software queries. It

WILL get back to your boss!

7. Add "Microsoft Certified Professional" to the signature on

your work email. And for HTML email, add the logo as well!

Here's how to do this in Microsoft Outlook (I expect there are

similar functions in other Mail Applications):

- First of all, you need to be sending HTML Mail. Select Tools,

Options and click on the Mail Format tab. Select HTML in the

"Send in this message format" dropdown.

- Now you need to create a new Signature. Further down on the

Mail Format tab, click on Signature Picker, then select New.

Type in the text of your signature.

- To add your logo, click on Advanced Edit, and Outlook will

launch another application for you to edit your signature in. If

you have Microsoft Word installed, it will probably launch that.

In which case, all you have to do is pop your logo in underneath

the text of your signature (by using Insert, Picture, From File,

and browsing to the place you saved the logo off) and then close

the application.

- Don't panic! You may now get an error saying your signature

couldn't be located and may have been removed. But this is

likely to be a red herring so just click OK and you should see

your final signature, including logo, displayed in the Preview

screen. So just click OK to save your new snazzy sig, and to

return to MS Outlook. Cool!

8. Bring in any books and training materials you have

accumulated to work and display them prominently on your desk or

a shelf. Ensure that you write your name in them in case you

lend them to colleagues.

9. Meet with your boss and offer to mentor other employees

through the exam/s you have taken.

10. If you have a company newsletter or web site which profiles

employees, get written up! Chat with the editor about what

you've achieved and how it helps you in your job (and/or

impresses customers!). Be sure to offer to review the article

before it goes out so you can improve or add to it.

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3. EXAMSAREEASY.COM UPDATE

If you are planning to take exam 70-152, you’ll be interested in

visiting http://www.ExamsAreEasy.com/70-152.html for a short but

sweet list of resources. Be sure to read the MCP review of the

exam!

** Thanks to subscriber Radhi P. for this suggestion! **

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4. ARTICLE: HOW TO WRITE A WINNING RESUME

With more and more companies spending more and more of their

recruiting efforts on electronic rather than traditional media -

in a recent poll, a striking 77% of companies surveyed claimed

that they get more hires from internet job postings than from

newspaper ads * - the temptation to email your resume off to

employers with little planning just increases.

(* Source: Recruiters Network (www.recruitersnetwork.com) The

Association for Internet Recruiting.)

But don't fall into that trap, when you are applying for jobs

that you seriously want a shot at.

Most employers spend 30 seconds or less, on average, scanning a

resume. So you need to think very carefully about your resume in

general, the first impression it makes, and specifically how it

relates to the position that you are applying for.

Your editor is a seasoned resume writer, having started off out

of college with an over-wordy, unattractive resume typical of

most school-leavers. During my career, however, I have seen the

real world of resumes from both an employee's and an employer's

perspective, and have through painstaking research and sometimes

painful experience, learnt what to do and what not to do to

create a successful resume for the IT industry. Now, I can

confidently tailor my resume to any position I'm even remotely

suitable for, and be virtually guaranteed an interview.

So what tips can I offer you?

First of all, always start your resume with a career objective.

You must be sure to tailor the objective to each job

application. So if you are applying for a Database Developer

position, don't say you want to be a Business Analyst.

Straight after your career objective, add a "core skills"

section with 4-6 bullet points. Again, tailor it to the job you

are applying for where possible.

Break up your paragraphs with plenty of bullet points. These

draw the eye and enable the reviewer to focus on the important

information you are trying to impart. Wherever possible, start

each bullet point with a strong action word.

Here’s an excert from a resume I was sent recently:

"As one of a two-man development team, worked on certain

projects that can be completed by one man and have shared the

load on those that require the input of the entire team. Besides

developing software, have also fully participated in the

installation and testing of Video Conferencing hardware and

software, and the reconfiguration of test computers."

This paragraph could be replaced by a series of bullet points

like this:

# Took full responsibility for software development for small

projects.

# Co-ordinated with other developers on larger projects.

# Installed and tested Video Conferencing hardware and software.

# Reconfigured test computers.

Notice how each bullet point starts with a strong ACTION WORD.

"Worked on" or "Used" or "Provided" just don’t cut it.

Here are some more action words you can use:

Managed, Developed, Assessed, Analysed, Integrated, Implemented.

How long should your resume be? While a school leaver may find

that one page suffices, and a person with a very great many

number of years of relevant experience may need more, as a

general rule, keep your resume to two pages, any more than this

and your potential employer will suffer from information

overload!

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P.S. Cassie’s little plug(!): When you don’t have time to write

your own resume, you can always call in a professional. Try

http://www.ExamsAreEasy.com/Career.html.

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4. JOKE

A language instructor was explaining to a class that in French,

nouns, unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically

designated as masculine or feminine.

"House," in French, is feminine -- "la maison."

"Pencil," in French, is masculine -- "le crayon."

A student asked: "What gender is computer?"

The teacher did not know, and the word wasn't in the French

dictionary. So for fun she split the class into two groups, by

gender, and asked them to decide whether "computer" should be a

masculine or feminine noun.

The men's group decided that computers should be feminine ("la

computer"), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other

computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for

possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you find yourself spending half

your pay check on accessories for it.

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be

masculine ("le computer"), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the

time they are the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you'd

waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

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6. CONTACT CERT BOOT CAMP

Do you have any CERT, techie or career questions? Do you want to

share your thoughts? Would you like to share a top tip with

other subscribers? If so, please send Cassie an email to:

cassiesimons@nospamExamsAreEasy.com (removing the "nospam").

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