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They're also the tenets of a new book by Brian Barton, a 35-year-old Silicon Valley author who teaches laid-off technology workers how to land their next gig. Barton's self-published "High-Tech Survival Guide" has sold out three times to rave reviews on Amazon.com.
Barton's no-frills, 20-page work is a stark contrast to denser tomes about career management. It includes scripted conversations with hiring managers, tips to figure out office phone extensions, and strategies for discerning corporate email addresses.
Barton, who spent 10 years as a contract project manager and writer for San Francisco-area technology companies, wrote the book for job seekers who have the gumption to try his "sneaky tricks." (For instance, he recommends waiting for one week to respond to a classified job ad, then calling the hiring manager and sympathising with the hundreds of emails and letters he or she must have received.)
After a day of outplacement clinics at a large Silicon Valley tech company, Barton sat down to sip coffee at the local Starbucks and share some trade secrets with CNET News.com.
Q: Why did you write "The High-Tech Survival Guide"?
A: It was mostly that as layoffs started happening, my friends started emailing me saying, "Brian, how do I go about getting a new job? What do I do?"
I'd held so many jobs, mostly as a contractor, that I had experience approaching hiring managers. So I started emailing them tips, and the tips grew too large, so I created the book. I hope it doesn't sound immodest to say this, but it's actually the only job-hunting book I'm aware of that's actually written by a professional job hunter. That's what I do. I've been working as a contractor for the past 10 years. For better or for worse, I've needed to find employment after every contract.
You advise job seekers to wait for one week after an online or newspaper classified ad is published before applying to that job. You say that the delay distinguishes you from the masses. How did you figure this out?
I've tried waiting two days; I've tried waiting for two weeks. Those didn't work. I figured one week was just right. Mostly, it was just trial and error. I've tried all the tips in the book, and they all worked for me...I used to work as a hiring manager. I can honestly say that if you didn't follow these rules, I would never have even seen your resume.
When submitting a resume to a prospective boss, what's the most important thing job seekers should remember?
No. 1 is if you're applying for a job as a sales manager, make sure that your resume says that your last job was as a sales manager. If your previous position was not exactly sales manager, contact the hiring manager and talk to him about that because he'll screen you out based exclusively on your title.
Think about it: The hiring manager will have 50 or 75 resumes on the desk. He'll look at each one for 5 or 6 seconds. If your previous title doesn't match the one they're looking for, you better have a pretty good excuse.
Let's say you're an associate sales manager and you want a position at another company as a sales manager. What do you say?
Without lying, what I would do is contact the hiring manager before you even send the resume and say, "Look, I'm an associate sales manager, and I have three years of inside sales experience, two years of project management, one year of business development. I have the right skills that you want, but my title wasn't the same."
After matching up the titles, what's the next most important thing?
Ensure that you have the exact same buzzwords on your resume that they say. If they're looking for XML, Java, C++, JavaScript--whatever--you have to have those exact same buzzwords. Think about it: All of us probably know 15 computer applications, but we only put a handful of them on the resume. They may be looking for someone who knows Visio Flowcharting, and if you don't put it down on there, you could get screened out. You gotta get those buzzwords down.
This implies to me that you need a different resume for every position to which you apply. Isn't that a huge amount of work?
There's no question about it: Turn in a different resume for every job. It doesn't mean you have to write a new resume from top to bottom for every job, but you really need to highlight the skills that they're looking for.
Start with a resume that describes your work history accurately, then tailor it...If they want inside sales experience, put it up high. If they want two years of channel marketing and you have that, be sure to put it in there.
