Sometimes, I see something online that will help IT professionals and I need to let the readers of Advance Your IT Career know about it immediately. This is one of those deals that I need you know about.

If you haven’t heard of PrepLogic, then you are missing out. PrepLogic is one of my favorite IT certification practice exams to use. I have been personally dealing with them since I earned my MCSE on Windows  2000. In fact, they are one of the main reasons, I was earned my MCSE other than hard work and studying.

Anyway, if you are like me in the process of getting certified, this $59 practice exam deal is great but it ends Friday, June 11, 2010, so you need to hurry.

If you are taking the advantage of Microsoft’s Second Shot deal, then taking advantage of this deal is a no brainer. If you don’t know about Microsoft’ Second Shot, read my post about it (Ends June 30, 2010).

If you are going for your Cisco, Microsoft, CompTIA, or EC-Counci exams, give PrepLogic a try. They are backed by a money-back guarantee.

Anyway, I need to get back to prepping for my certification exams.

Click here to purchase your practice exam for $59

To your IT career success,
Ivan Hurt
The IT and Technology Career Strategist

“All good things must come to an end.”
English Proverb

On June 30, 2010, Microsoft’s Second Shot Exam Deal comes to an end. If you don’t know what the Second Shot is, let me tell you:

Second Shot provides a free exam retake should you fail in your first attempt at passing an IT Pro or Developer Microsoft Certification exam.

Here’s a few little important notes:

1. You must register first and obtain a voucher code so you can enter it when you register for the exam.
2. You must register, schedule and take the first and Second Shot exams by June 30, 2010. One Second Shot exam per customer.
3. You must wait one day after taking your initial exam before you can register for your retake exam.

Stop procrastinating and take advantage of the Microsoft’s Second Shot:

 Use the link below to get more information about the second shot program.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/offers/Career.aspx#certification

To your IT career success,
Ivan Hurt
The IT and Technology Career Strategist

Speaking of job interviews, when was the last time that you had one?  If it has been awhile since your last job interview, you may want to consider doing a few practice runs. These practice runs are commonly referred to as mock interviews. Although mock interviews may seem a little bit silly, there are a number of benefits to doing them. 

One of the benefit to doing mock interviews before a real job interview is your options.  Most job seekers try to use their friends and family members for practice.  If this an approach that you would like to take, you will want to have your partner ask you common job interview questions, such what your strengths and weaknesses are. Be sure to answer with professional responses, just as if you would in real job interview.  You can also do a mock interview in front of your mirror. While this approach isn’t as realistic, it can help you practice your intended interview questions. 

Another one of the many benefits to doing mock interviews, before you have a real interview, is the practice that you will receive.  It is no secret that job interviews can be nerve-wracking.  Even if this isn’t your first job interview, they can still cause you nervousness. Many job seekers find that holding mock job interviews with their friends or family members helps to ease the nervousness often associated with job interviews.  In fact, many also have reported a slight increase in confidence. 

Preparation is another one of the many benefits of mock interviews. The goal of a mock or practice interview is to help you prepare for an upcoming job interview. This preparation may include answering common interview questions in a timely matter, giving a proper greeting, as well as departing properly from a job interview.  If this is your first job interview or if you haven’t attend a job interview in awhile now, you may be unsure as to how the process will proceed.  Mock interviews are not only a great way to calm your nerves, but they can also give you guidance, which can help you sail through your next job interview like a breeze. 

If you are able to do a mock interview with a close friend or family member, you may get a number of pointers.  Using other individuals, especially those who are known for their unbiased opinions is the best way to examine your job interview approach.  If your friends or family members have any suggestions, like tips on how you can improve your answers, you may want to consider their suggestions. In, fact, you may learn something new or important by doing a mock interview with your friends or family members. 

As outlined above, there are a number of benefits to doing a mock interview with a close friend or family member.  As a reminder, it is also possible for you to practice in front of a mirror, but you may have the best luck with someone who can give you feedback or provide you with helpful suggestions.

To your IT career success,
Ivan Hurt
The IT and Technology Career Strategist

Douglas MacArthur, the legendary World War II Army general, was looking to hire a new aide. After a staff review of candidates, MacArthur interviewed the “short list.” One of the potential aides was a young lieutenant. At the beginning of the interview, the general asked the lieutenant, “Did you have any trouble finding the place?”

“No, sir,” answered the lieutenant, who then asked, “Sir, what is your view of the role of the Army in winning the war here in the Pacific?”

For one hour, interrupted only by the lieutenant’s occasional “uh-huh” and “Could you elaborate?”, the great general talked. At the end of the “interview,” the lieutenant was offered the job. Later, MacArthur told one of his colonels that the young lieutenant was one of the most intelligent officers he had ever met.

I had the same experience in graduate school. I spent a quarter of an hour telling a visiting scholar how much I liked his books and what an important critic he was and asking him fan-club type questions. He later said to the department chairman, “That young man is extremely bright. He’s one of your best students, in my view.” He formed that opinion without hearing a single thing about me or what I could do and without hearing a single opinion of mine except how much I like him.

This is important to remember when you are seeking a job. It’s useful in any interview but especially so if you get to talk to the person you’ll be working for.

14 More Things You Can Do to Get a Better Job

That said, let’s round out this week’s discussion with 14 more ways to get a better job — from your current employer or a new one.

1. Your cover letter should be very personal. It should indicate that you (a) know the company in some detail, (b) like the company, and (c) believe you have something specific and valuable to contribute to it.

2. If you include a resume, make sure it is tailored to the individual company.

3. When talking about yourself, don’t use self-serving cliches (such as “a passion for customer service”) that virtually any job candidate can make. Instead, use facts, incidents, and numbers to reveal your qualities and capabilities.

4. When you are talking or writing about your accomplishments, focus on what you have done recently (say, in the last few years).

5. If you have no relevant experience, don’t try to pretend you do by making a job at Burger King sound like rocket science. Here is where you make up for your lack of experience by showing specific knowledge of the company and industry you aim to work for. If you’ve done your homework well, you will be seen as a blank sheet with great potential (always desirable).

6. Don’t summarize your career, experience, or skills. State the facts briefly and clearly once.

7. Don’t say what your career objective is. No one cares but you. Your job, as the salesman and the sales product, is to talk about the needs and desires of your prospect, not yourself.

8. When you go for an interview, have a specific objective in mind and work hard to achieve it. If you haven’t been promised it by the end of the interview, ask for it (nicely).

9. A hiring interview is a sales call. Don’t talk or tell. Answer, ask, and listen.

10. Consider “showing” something — a customer survey, industry data, etc. — that illustrates the work you’ve already done and helps make the case that you can contribute to the company’s success. The tactic of showing is a time-honored staple of strong sales people.

11. If you interview at a restaurant, don’t drink alcohol and/or order something and eat very little of it.

12. In your research, discover dress preferences, if any, of the company you’re interviewing for. Don’t be a rebel. Conform.

13. Don’t try to befriend your prospective employer. Be friendly instead.

14. If you feel you might not get the job you are seeking, suggest that you can do a project for the company on a free-lance basis. Perhaps even for free. “That way, you can find out if I can do what I’ve promised,” you can say, “without any risk on your part.” This works in selling vacuum cleaners. It should work for you.

One final word from Jeffery Fox: “If you don’t know why the company should hire you, it’s a good bet the company won’t know either.”

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

Jobs are hard to come by these days. So when my friend “Carly” was offered an interview a few weeks ago, I was really pulling for her. She’s smart and seemed perfect for the position – but ended up not getting the job. I believe it was mainly due to a common interviewing mistake she made. But you can boost your chances of getting any position just by learning from Carly’s failure.

When Carly called me after the interview, she sounded bummed. “I didn’t get it,” she told me.

When I asked what went wrong, she said, “When the hiring manager asked me to go into details about what I liked about the company, I couldn’t answer him. I hadn’t really looked into it that much.”

The fact is, the more you know about the job you’re applying for, the better. A Robert Half International poll of executives, reported in MSN Careers, found that most job applicants “display at least some knowledge of the company or industry.”

Doing background research before your interview will not only show the folks who are doing the hiring that you’re interested in the job… it will also help you determine, specifically, how you can contribute to the company’s success. (And, trust me, knowing that will come in very handy during the interview.)

If you can’t find any info about the business online, do what Carly should have done: Call up the company and set up an “informational interview” with the head of the department you want to join. You can ask questions – and show interest – without the pressure of a traditional job interview. And then, when you’re ready to apply, you’ll be a much stronger candidate.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

When an IT recruiter does a search for a resume using an online job site like Dice, Monster, CareerBuilder, etc or their companies resume database; they search for qualified IT professionals using keywords. 

Generally, the IT recruiter will first do a search based on a specific skill set that their client is looking for, such as ASP.net, CCNA, etc. Let me example:

A client needs 3 software developers who know ASP.net, VB.net, SQL Server, IIS, C#. My client really needs someone who knows ASP.net and SQL Server.

Using this example, I;m going to show you how to guarantee an IT recruiter will I’m going put in the keywords of ASP.net and SQL Server. Now, why is this bloody important? This is important because if you resume was written highlighting your skills using ASP.net and SQL Server, your resume will appear at the top of my search list

Key Point: If your IT resume is keyword rich for a specific skill set, 9 times out of 10, it will land at the top of an IT recruiters search results when they are looking to fill that open position.

Whatever you do, DON’T WRITE KEYWORD THROUGHOUT YOUR RESUME JUST TO MAKE IT KEYWORD RICH.

The easiest way to make your IT resume keyword rich is to use specific IT skill sets throughout your resume. For instance, I would put SQL Server and ASP.net in my summary and throughout my experience sections of my resume to make it keyword rich.

I will let you in on another little secret, generally IT recruiters pay attention to when the last time your IT resume was updated. So, it is best to go online and change something on your IT resume every couple of days. This way the IT recruiter will think that is was recently updated.

Key Point: If you change the word “the” to “a” just once a week on your online resume, an IT recruiter will think that it was updated recently because you made a change. It doesn’t have to be a big change to your online resume, any change will make your online IT resume look like it was updated recently.

Make any change to your online IT resume to make it appear as if it was recently updated to stay at the top of IT recruiter’s search results.

Follow these tips and you will be on your way to attracting IT recruiters to your IT resume like bees to honey.

To your IT career success,
Ivan Hurt
The IT and Technology Career Strategist

If you don’t remember at the beginning of the year, CompTIA did some slimy stuff to anybody CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, or CompTIA Security+ certified.

Not would you the new A+, Network+, and Security+ certifications have to certified every 3 years, but anyone with the old certifications would lose their lifetime certification.

But don’t get pissed off, because CompTIA did right by anyone holding the old certifications.

Here’s a quote from their updated renewal policy:

CompTIA will not require recertification for any current holders of CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+ certification. You are not required to retest to maintain your valid CompTIA certification. Regardless of when you became certified in CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+, you are certified for life.

For candidates currently preparing to sit for a CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+ exam, if you pass an exam and become certified by December 31, 2010, you too will have a lifetime certification with no requirements for recertification or retesting.

Effective January 1, 2011, all new CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+ certifications will be valid for three years from the date the candidate is certified. After three years, the certification must be renewed. This can be done by passing the most current exam for a respective certification or by participating in CompTIA’s upcoming new continuing education program, which will allow individuals to keep their skills current and their certification up to date without retesting.

In a nutshell, anyone A+, Network+, or Security+ certified by December 31, 2010 will have a lifetime certification. If you get certified January 1, 2011 or later, be prepared to be re-certified every 3 years.

All I can say is hurray for CompTIA and all the IT professionals who wrote nasty letters to CompTIA.

To your IT career success,
Ivan Hurt
The IT and Technology Strategist

The CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, or CompTIA Security+ now have a valid through date which last for three years.  In addition, if you do not hold the most up to date certification, you will be required update your certification. For more details, click the links below:

January 11th Press Release: CompTIA Announces Plan to Help IT Professionals Keep Skills Up-To-Date

CompTIA Certification Renewal Policy

I encourage all CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+ IT professionals to raise hell and remind CompTIA that a “LIFETIME CERTIFICATION” means “FOR LIFE” and not until they decide otherwise.

To your IT career success,
Ivan Hurt
The IT and Technology Career Strategist

With the economy in such a mess, now is the perfect time to take a Microsoft certification exam. Microsoft and Prometric are once again offering the second shot program. The program allows you to retake a Microsoft exam if you failed the first time. The offer goes from January 13, 2010 to June 30, 2010.

One little detail, you must register first and obtain a voucher code so you can enter it when you register for the exam. Use the link below to get more information about the second shot program.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/offers/Career.aspx#certification

To your IT career success,
Ivan Hurt
The IT and Technology Career Strategist

No matter, what holiday you celebrate this year, I hope you and your family have a blessed one.

Ivan Hurt, CPRW
The IT and Technology Career Strategist