Remaining relevant and employable in a changing world (The Book + 2 Hour Intensive Coaching Session)
Remaining relevant and employable in a changing world
Testers Edition
About the Book
Remaining Relevant is a book for those who want to remain relevant and employable in today's fast changing world.
It's chocked full of ideas of how you can grab hold of your career and put it to work on your terms.
You'll find advice on seeking out good jobs, networking, joining social media communities, building your personal brand, writing outstanding CVs and rocking an interview.
I've spent many years improving my own interview technique and career development with exceptional results. I also now spend a significant amount of time hiring testers, developers and scrum masters, so I've seen the process work (and not work) from both sides. This experience and deep passion for communication has lead me to distilling these ideas here in this book.
About the Author
Table of Contents
- About The Author
- Dedication
- Introduction
- Stock CVs and Certifications
-
How To Get Started
- Get serious
- Be prepared
- Start planning. And plan like a pro.
- Ship stuff
- Personal kanban
- How are you getting on?
-
Is There Really A Career In Testing?
- What would you do for free?
- What would you do if you got paid loads of money?
- Is your path realistic?
- If you’re not having fun with it, be done with it
-
What Skills Do I Need?
- What sort of context do you want to work in?
- You will need to learn
- What skills do you currently have?
- Find a job spec
- Contact the recruiter to find out more
- Contact the hiring manager directly
- Follow the industry trends
- Find people you admire
- Slow down
-
Learning
- I don’t have the money
- I don’t have the time
- I don’t have the skills
- I don’t need to learn
- I rely on certifications for all of my training
-
Organising Your Learning
- Two main styles of learning
- What we learn changes how we learn it
- Hack your own learning system
-
An Example Of How I Learn
- Notes from books
- Evernote for mobile
- Social bookmarking
- RSS
- Conferences
-
Communicating Your Passions And Values
- You are creating an image of yourself
- Understand your audience
- Make the message clear
-
Your CV
- Make it succinct
- Make it match the job description
- Check the spelling and grammar
- Check formatting
- Remove lists
- Focus on outcomes
- Don’t use jargon
- Describe your learnings
- Include your social profile
- Don’t include a certification logo
- Make your CV look appealing
- Leave references until later
- Support your CV online
- Don’t appear desperate
- Include personal details
- Three different types of CV
- Make your CV available
- Use a good email address
-
Creating An Online Presence
- Start a blog
- Connect on LinkedIn
- Connect on Twitter
- Join an online community
- Volunteer your time
- Test in the wild
- Be honest
-
Networking and Connecting
- Connect in person
- Widen your network
- Business cards
- You are always being interviewed
- Jump on opportunities
- Some networking ideas
-
Finding Good Jobs
- Tap your network
- Build relationships
- Ask around
- Start early
- Scour job boards
- Social channels
-
Understanding Job Adverts
- About the company
- About the role
- Mandatory skills
- Desirable skills
- Why job adverts are wrong
- Why job adverts are useful
- Is the job a quality job?
-
Applying For Jobs
- Meeting the mandatory requirements
- Nice to haves
- Create a great first impression
- Follow up your application
- Build a relationship with the consultant
- Ask to speak to the hiring manager
- Go around recruitment consultants
- Keep a record of all applications
- Follow up on all applications
-
Speculative Applications
- Identifying suitable companies
- Review often
- Follow-up
-
Phone Interviews
- Different mediums
- How to rock a phone interview
-
Interviewing
- The purpose of an interview
- Practice
- Research
- You’ve got to hope
- The interview structure
- Questions
- Appearance matters
- Tell a joke
- Time keeping
- Eye contact
- Take the right things with you
- Turn your phone off
- Banish dis-comfort
- Ask questions
- Take notes
- Answer the questions well
- Answer the person asking questions
- Know what you wrote
- Don’t be negative
- Smile and be polite
- Draw to explain
- Get a tour
- Close the interview like a pro
- Reflect
- Speak to the recruitment consultant
-
Accepting A Job Offer
- Negotiating
- Rejecting
- Counter offer
- Handing in your notice
- Leave on good terms
-
Dealing With Rejection
- Moving on
- Ask for feedback
- Keep going
-
Patience Is A Virtue
- Focus on three things
- Set realistic time frames
- Be flexible
- Never Give Up
-
Checklists
- Application checklist
- Interview planning checklist
- References and Further Reading
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