Your resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile are critical to showcasing your brand, your skill set and your experience to potential employers. And yes, you need a LinkedIn profile if you are serious about your job search.
If you’ve followed the instructions on the Start Here page, you should have by now:
- Identified your target transition to tech role.
- Read some job descriptions and are enhancing your skill set by taking some certifications, courses and / or trainings.
You are ready to start job searching.
To start the job search, you need to get your application materials together:
- Resume
- Cover Letter
- Job seeker LinkedIn profile
The Resume
How to write a tech resume
- Write your resume to target the role that you have chosen. Click HERE to learn how to pick a target role.
- Reframe your prior experience and accomplishments in a way that entices tech recruiters and hiring managers and targets your chosen role.
- Properly format your resume for ease of reading and to be parsed correctly by the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) resume scanner. Check out some tips HERE.
- Tailor your resume to each job that you apply to.
How to reframe your experience for your tech resume
Your tech resume must read like that of the tech role you are targeting and not like whatever job you had previously. For example, if you are a teacher looking to transition to a Project Management role, your resume must read like that of a Project Manager and not like that of an educator. Here are the three (3) steps to reframe your resume:
- Analyze your target role job description and pick out keywords of hard and soft skills and main responsibilities.
- Examine your past work experience and find similarities between what you’ve done and the requirements for the target role.
- Reframe your past experience by using keywords from the job description of your target role.
Reframing your experience example
Hotel Front Office Manager to IT Project Manager
An IT Project Manager is responsible for planning, organizing, and directing the completion of a project, by proactively managing project tasks and working to identify, document and communicate risks and issues that may cause project delays. Ensures that the project is delivered on time, on budget and within scope.
A Hotel Front Office Manager supervises and coordinates the shift activities of the hotel, acting as a liaison between guests and management in order to provide efficient, prompt, courteous, trouble free and proactive service to guests; hence maximizing room revenue, associate and guest satisfaction.
| Hotel Front Office Manager | IT Project Manager | What to write on resume |
| Supervises and coordinates the shift activities of the hotel | Plans, organizes and directs the completion of a project | Organize daily shift activities for the hotel, including planning of staff schedules in the ABC system to ensure appropriate coverage and directing staff on tasks in order of priority. |
| Acts as a liaison between guests and management in order to provide efficient, prompt, courteous, trouble free and proactive service to guests |
Ensures the project is on time Identifies, documents and communicates risks, issues and blockers Reports on project status to management |
Prioritize daily hotel activities to ensure greatest guest satisfaction using MS Excel spreadsheet and Outlook calendar functionality. Identify and promptly communicate to management potential issues that risk normal hotel operations and can affect guest satisfaction. Lead weekly team meetings with management to keep an open dialogue on hotel activities. |
| Works to maximize room revenue | Keeps the project on budget |
Use XYZ software to run reports for monitoring daily, weekly and monthly guest revenue numbers. Implemented a dashboard report with alerts using XYZ software to automatically be notified if revenue numbers will miss target so that action can be taken immediately increasing hotel revenues by 10% over a 6 month period. Suggest marketing initiatives to management to bring in more guests if revenue numbers will not meet targets. Spearheaded a marketing campaign to offer a daily ‘happy hour’ to guests consisting of free drinks and small appetizers which directly increased hotel bookings by 20% over a 3 month period. |
| Maximizes associate and guest satisfaction | Delivers project on time, within scope and on budget to stakeholder and management satisfaction |
Continue to develop my leadership skills via online courses to effectively maximize staff motivation and productivity. Instituted a monthly staff outing for team building to increase morale directly resulting in an increase of customer feedback score from 4.2 to 4.8 on Booking.com |
Cover Letter
Do I need to write a cover letter?
This question is asked All. The. Time.
Here is the answer:
Will it hurt you to HAVE a cover letter? No. Can it hurt you NOT to have a cover letter? Yes!
More and more hiring managers are posting on LinkedIn that what stood out to them from a job application is personalization. Part of that is a cover letter from the applicant specifically tailored to the company and the job description.
Why?
Because recruiters and hiring managers go through hundreds of application for a role. It’s just the nature of today’s job search process. Anyone can go on LinkedIn or Indeed and quickly apply to hundreds of jobs, whether they are qualified or not. Writing a well thought out cover letter, that is directed at the company and the role will make you stand out.
What should you include in your cover letter?
In the cover letter you need to address the reasons why you feel you will be a good fit and how your previous experience translates to the job you are applying to. This is also the place to talk about your passions for the company’s mission or how you use and love the company’s product, as applicable. Your cover letter must help tech recruiters and hiring managers connect the dots as to why you are the right person for the job.
It is tempting not to write one, but don’t skip out on this very valuable tool. Create a templated version and each time you apply to a role, tailor it as needed to the company and job description.
LinkedIn Profile
Do I need a LinkedIn profile?
YES! Having a presence on LinkedIn is absolutely ESSENTIAL. There are no two ways about it. You need to be on LinkedIn to find people to network with that are doing the job you want to be doing and / or that are at companies where you would like to work or have a job opening posted. You then need to optimize your profile so that recruiters and hiring managers can find you.
10 Tips to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile
- Use a high-quality professional headshot as your profile picture.
- Write a headline that makes it clear the role you are targeting. If you are a teacher, targeting a Project Management role, make sure your headline includes “Project Manager.”
- In your summary, highlight your strengths, experience, and skills in the context of your target role and use relevant key words. Continuing with the teacher to project manager example, reframe your teaching experience using key words and concepts from project management. You want to come across as a project manager not like an educator.
- Reframe your work history to showcase skills and experience in the context of your target role. Again, use relevant key words. Make sure to include any technical skills.
- Customize your job preferences to show that you are interested in tech jobs. When recruiters search on LinkedIn, your profile will appear in the search.
- Set your profile as “open to work.” You don’t have to add the banner to your profile picture, but you can show recruiters that you are open to work so that you are more likely to get contacted. Users without the LinkedIn recruiter subscription won’t be able to see this information.
- Set up job alerts.
- Sign up for LinkedIn Premium Career subscription. The premium subscription will give you valuable insights, the ability to send direct messages and access to LinkedIn Learning.
- Customize your LinkedIn profile URL.
- Keep your profile up to date with any new experience, education or skills.
Now that you have an optimized LinkedIn profile, make sure that you follow companies you are interested in and influencers in the tech space to stay up-to-date on industry news and trends. This can also help you find job opportunities and make valuable connections.
Connect with people at companies you are interested in and / or that are in the role you are targeting. others and engage with your network; and engage with your network by sharing relevant content, commenting on posts, and congratulating others on their accomplishments.
Ready to start your journey to a career in tech? Check out the Start Here page for step by step guide.
Let T3 help you transition to tech! Get more information on our one on one coaching program HERE.
