Making the Most Out of Your Resume Portfolio Pages

How to Make a
Technical Resume Portfolio
Work for You
And keep working for you.
866.755.9800 stephen@ittechexec.com 1
Please be
sure to check
out Part 1 of
this
presentation
on technical
resume
portfolios.
Portions of it
are recapped
here.
From Tech Job Market Zoo to Corporate Goo...
How to Protect What You’ve Built So Far.

A Portfolio Provides
Depth and Versatility
Most often, our portfolio candidates will still submit their resume to
recruiters and employers, and then they will use the addenda pages
throughout the hiring process. Most hiring pros don’t like to be
inundated with information, but they tend to be receptive to receiving
additional info at different stages.
The addenda pages that make up your portfolio can be a great way to
keep the discussion going and to enhance your time in front of the
decision maker. By having the portfolio ready, and by providing the
addenda at different times during the process, you can be versatile
enough to read the situation and use just what’s needed for it.
Some addenda options include:
• Marketing Briefs
• Project Highlights
• Bio
• Innovation page
• Problem-Solutions-Results (PSR) page
When we talk “portfolio” here at
ITtechExec, what we mean is a
traditional resume with addenda along
with an optimized LinkedIn profile.
These addenda can come in various
forms, tailored for your specific
situation. For example, a Problem-
Solutions-Results page is a great
opportunity to highlight key projects
and the business improvements that
resulted from your efforts.
For more on these
addenda pages,
request our
Resume Portfolio
Sample Book.

The Resume Isn’t Dead,
But It’s Ailing.
People love to say that nobody reads
them, but the reason is because they
are all too much of the same thing.

Nevertheless, the Traditional
Chronological Resume Is Still Asked
for, But…
It’s often no longer enough to make
employers feel confident in what they are
getting (even with a good peer referral).

The Resume Only Tells
Part of the Story
In today's job market, employers are
slower to pull the trigger. They want
to make sure they have a fuller
picture of the type of talent they are
getting.
They want to see how you problem
solve, how you lead, how you apply
your tech skills to business solutions,
and the types of soft skills you excel
at.
Back in the day, you put a basic
resume together, worked a few
connections or answered a few job
ads, and felt pretty certain the right
opportunity would come along. Then if
you worked hard and didn't burn too
many bridges, you most likely had a
pretty secure career path ahead of you
perhaps even with the same company.

A Portfolio Can Complete
the Story
With professionals changing jobs every 3 to 4
years, consulting on the rise, and fierce
competition for promotions, portfolios can help
build in flexibility and prepare you to face
different hiring scenarios.
You still need a solid chronological resume (no
matter what you may hear) geared toward a
very specific audience, but when done
properly, having addenda to go along with the
resume can be much more effective, not to
mention the significance of the LinkedIn profile,
which will continue to grow over the next few
years.
But you need to know which tools are
best for your situation. Although there is
a lot out there you can do (or buy), you
don't need to do everything (that's the
good news).
So whether you are an external job
seeker looking for a new full-time role, a
consultant going for the next contract, or
an internal leader seeking promotion or
just retention (such as during an
acquisition), because we are following
the tech job market closely, we can guide
you to the right tools for you. No one can
predict for certain what the market will
do, but we can make sure that you are
properly prepared for whatever comes.

BUT Don’t Spill Your Guts on the First Date.
Portfolio pages are best used when they are spread out over the hiring process.
The job search process and dating have a few things in common. One is the tendency of job seekers to be a bit
overeager, to think that employers will look at them the same way they look at themselves.
Therefore, our advice at ITtechExec is to begin by submitting your carefully crafted resume, one that is tailored to
meet the needs of your target audience. The portfolio pages come in when you’ve “hooked” a serious contender.
But you still want to feed the information to them in pieces.

Here’s where the versatility comes in….
Scenario 1: Submit your resume/cover letter to a job opening. After you receive the call to schedule the
interview, you can send ahead a Problem-Solutions-Results page to the direct decision maker you are going
to meet with (if you are given contact info). Then you can show up to the interview with a Marketing Brief
that is a shorter version of your resume that highlights key points of interest to the interviewer. Finally,
after the interview, you can send your thank-you along with an Innovation page that highlights some ideas
that you came up with based on the discussion you had during the interview, showcasing how you would
use your background to solve their problem(s).
Scenario 2: You attend a networking event. You bring along a 1-page Marketing Brief that highlights your
credentials and hand that out to new network connections. Someone at the event passes it along to his or
her employer who calls you and asks for a full resume and to set up an interview.
Follow from here Scenario 1.

But wait…there’s more.
Scenario 3: You develop a personal website with blog. On the site you include your Bio page as well as a
Testimonials section. You also take your Innovation page and expand on it by creating articles that provide
more details about the ideas you highlighted there. You set links to all of your social media outlets,
including LinkedIn, and you make it easy for people to request your full resume. As you attend networking
events, you take along your 1-page Marketing Brief that directs everyone to your personal page.
Scenario 4: You are asked to present at a conference. You ask the speaker to use your Bio to introduce you
or to print portions of it in the conference literature. You place your 1-page Marketing Brief at the end of
your presentation, and you have a mobile version of it ready to send to people as you meet them or to
those that signed up to receive more information from you. Everyone is also directed to your personal
website with blog.

With the portfolio, the possibilities are many.
We’ve only really scratched the beginning of the type of portfolio options you can do. (Just think of how we
can use them in the promotion process!) But the important thing to remember is that you need to be
strategic in how you present the information and to provide it in small portions. No one wants to read a
thesis.
ALSO, too many employers/recruiters are already tired of getting video presentations and white papers.
So, remember, your portfolio doesn’t need to be extensive or exhaustive. Simple, 1-page addenda to the
traditional resume that you meter out over the course of your correspondence with “serious” job
possibilities is more than enough. (You can always add links to more comprehensive stuff like videos or
white papers that employers can peruse if they want to.)
It gives them more than they get with just the resume, but it doesn’t give them too much all at once.

Portfolios are effective for all types of tech career moves:
external job search, internal promotion, or consulting bids.
It just makes sense in today’s market to be prepared for different types of hiring demands. It makes you
more prepared and relevant to the market.
It gets you out of the “back in the day” job search mode and puts you in touch with where employer’s
demands are now.
But you don’t need to do everything; you just need to know which tools will be most effective for you
AND how to use them best.
To talk more about this, feel free to contact me, Stephen Van Vreede, through my firm ITtechExec.
(I’ve also set up a special Offer of Support for my LinkedIn/social media connections.)
Let’s Do What Works

ITtechExec won’t leave you hanging.
At ITtechExec, we've built our services so that we are more than a resume design firm that just sends you
on your way. We want to help our candidates launch their searches. And whether you like recruiters or not,
they can play a vital role in the job search process.
Nevertheless, not all recruiters are worth engaging. You need to know where to spend your time.
As a result, we've built in a recruiter engagement solution as part of our preparation and protection
approach.
Building a strong recruiter network, with the right recruiters, can add another layer of protection.

Once your portfolio is complete, and your job search is launched, now you
need to think about the bigger picture.
With a career move, be it an external or internal one, happening every 3 to 4 years, and with market demands
changing rapidly, it’s important not to let your portfolio…age.
Keeping it maintained keeps you ready and relevant. But we get it: No one likes to be in job search mode forever.
That’s why ITtechExec has put together an innovative solution called the
“Career Maintenance & Protection Solution”.*
Offered in two forms, basic and premium, it provides tech professionals with the opportunity to keep their resume
and addenda updated, unlimited LinkedIn profile updates and optimization, regular career coaching, and annual
reviews/assessments. You’ll never have to start a job search from scratch again.
*If you are interested in our subscription solution, this service is exclusive to ITtechExec members. We offer this solution as part of our
technical resume portfolio packages once a member’s messaging has been fully developed. We do not recommend this service until an
effective resume solution and optimized LinkedIn profile have been designed.

Silly me. I thought an MBA mixed with hard work was my ticket…
(A Note from Stephen Van Vreede, Co-Founder of ITtechExec/NoddlePlace)
When I first started my career, generally I didn’t know anyone who actually paid to have their
resume (or résumé, for the purists among us) written, much less for “career services.”
Let's be real. It used to be pretty cut-and-dry. You put a basic 1-page (or maybe 2-page) resume
(or résumé) together, worked a few connections or answered a few "classifieds," and felt pretty
certain the right opportunity would come along. Then if you worked hard (got the right certs) and
didn't burn too many bridges, you most likely had a pretty secure career path ahead of you
perhaps even with the same company.
And at first, throughout most of the early part of my corporate life, that was generally how things
went. I moved from internal position to internal position without the need to invest in resume or
other career services, eventually landing a director-level role with a large GE Capital, multi-site
inbound call center serving the logistics industry.

But then the job market began to change, my priorities shifted, and job
security was, well, less secure.
So I decided to go back for my MBA and obtain some other credentials (sound
familiar?), which cost me thousands and thousands (and thousands) of dollars
(just ask my lovely bride who helped pay for them!). I even clawed my way
through the Six Sigma process to become a Black Belt.
It was a great experience, but after two years of working full time and taking
night classes, when I graduated, the job market wasn’t much better, competition
for internal promotions was greater, and I wasn’t the only one with an MBA, a
Black Belt, etc.

That’s when I was introduced to resume design and career services.
I came to recognize that the time and resources I had already spent on my
career were worth protecting. The market was too uncertain and
changing too rapidly for me to continue to go it alone.
At this point, I had already invested in someone to handle my retirement,
another someone to do my taxes, and another someone to find me the
right home. It wasn’t such a stretch to think that my career mattered as
much, if not more, than these other things. After all, without it, then I
couldn’t afford the retirement or the house (and yes even the taxes).

ITtechExec
Protecting the Technical Career You’ve
Built So Far
ITtechExec members are senior managers, directors, executives,
and C-level tech leaders (15+y ears of experience) who specialize in
the following fields:
• CIO & CTO
• IT Operations
• Project/Program Management
• Enterprise Architecture
• Telecommunications
• Engineering (Mechanical, Aerospace, Electrical…)
• Manufacturing
• Call Center Operations
• Technical Sales Leadership
• Medical Device
• And all things technical related…
These members have worked hard to get where they are today, and
they are committed to investing in protecting and maintaining
these careers. They come to us as guides through the technical job
market “zoo” to help them invest their valuable time and resources
wisely on solutions that produce effective results.
NoddlePlace
Your Technical Career Advancement.
SIMPLIFIED.
NoddlePlace members are the up-and-coming versions of our
ITtechExec members. With about 5 to 15 years of technical career
experience under their belts, they are dedicated to investing in
steady career advancement.
They understand that they are likely to make 8 to 10 career moves
over the next 25+ years of their career, and they are looking not
just at getting a resume but at building in a strategic approach that
positions them for this next move and beyond.
As with ITtechExec, we provide a concierge-type service, where we
combine the resume portfolio side with the job search “launch”
side.
Our goal is to produce measurable ROI and to reduce the stress that
comes with job search and career management for both our
NoddlePlace and ITtechExec members.
At NoddlePlace, we make technical career advancement simple in a
job market that’s gone insane.

I began to see where resume/career services could
play an integral part…
in not only helping people to secure jobs but also in building in
protections to the careers we’ve all worked so hard to achieve.
Eventually, my wife, Sheree, and I began our own firm in 2001
called “No Stone Unturned”. Initially, we had a small office
where we hosted seminars and workshops, wrote resumes,
and served a cross section of professionals and backgrounds.
And although writing resumes and teaching some seminars
was fine, we wanted to do better. And we knew we could.

ITtechExec was launched…
Thanks to my background in IT/telecom management for the supply chain/logistics industry and
to Sheree’s experience serving as an editor to the scientific/engineering community in the
publishing world, we soon realized that we were best suited to serve the technical professional
trying to maneuver through what by that point (2008) had become a complex and exhausting job
market. (Let’s face it…it’s a bit of a zoo out there!)
Not only that, we noticed that other resume writers were avoiding technical clients, unsure of
how best to position their specialized skills.
Therefore, it wasn’t long before we began to work exclusively with IT and technical or “STEM”
clientele, professionals who have devoted themselves to some of the most innovative and
rewarding fields in today’s industries, from engineering to healthcare IT to scientific exploration
to big data and cloud services to project/program management.
That’s when ITtechExec was born…

Silly me. I thought we could just write resumes…
Then, before we knew it, unemployment skyrocketed and the tech market
began waging its war for sophisticated tech talent.
And on top of all that, social media recruiting burst onto the scene, and the
landscape became pretty messy, pretty fast. Soon, hiring folks were claiming
they were no longer reading resumes (even though they continued to ask for
them), and the job market became such a zoo that candidates found
themselves focused on a document that everyone says they won't look at for
more than 6 seconds but it better not have any typos in it!
That’s when we realized that we could no longer just write a resume and send
our clients on their way. They needed better preparation and lasting
protections. They needed strategies and tools that, well, worked.
We knew then that we had to become a full-service career advancement and
protection firm, not just another resume-writing firm.

Our Resume Portfolio Solutions
• Resume
• LinkedIn Profile
• Cover Letter
• Marketing Brief
• Bio
• Thank-You Template
• Infographic Resume
• Problems-Solutions-
Results (PSR) Page
• Innovation Page
• Testimonials Page
• Project Highlights Page
Once you complete our initial survey, we will prepare a Customized Solution Proposal that will put together a portfolio
solution suited for you and your goals in the market. For more on why we advocate for a portfolio approach, check out our
presentation, “Move Over Resume, Hello Portfolio.”
But all boils down to one thing: We’re interested in doing what works, not just in selling resumes.

95% of technical leaders obsess over the resume even though they don't
believe it has much value.
So we asked ourselves, if you know the market is a zoo, that resumes aren't likely to be read, and
that obstacles like age or experience are more pronounced than ever, why would you (a) keep
approaching it from the same angle over and over or (b) sit back and do nothing? Why wouldn't
you instead focus on where the real value lies?
With tech professionals changing jobs every 3 to 4 years, consulting/contracting on the rise, and
fierce competition for promotions, it's time to try something that is based on how the market is
actually working now, not 10, 15, even 5 years ago.
It's why we've made a radical shift to a more portfolio-driven approach instead of just a
resume-based one.

Yes, the resume is part of it, but let’s get more from your investment.
You still need a solid chronological resume (no matter what you may hear) geared toward a very specific
audience, but when done properly, having addenda to go along with the resume can be much more
effective (and much more likely to be read!), not to mention the significance of the LinkedIn profile, which
will continue to grow over the next few years.
Portfolios can help build in flexibility and prepare you to face different hiring scenarios. But you need to
know which tools are best for your situation. Although there is a lot out there you can do (or buy), you
don't need to do everything (that's the good news!).
So whether you are an external job seeker looking for a new full-time role, a consultant going for the next
contract, or an internal leader seeking promotion or just retention (such as during an acquisition),
because we are following the tech job market closely, the real investment is in knowing which tools are
right for you and how to properly use them. (To learn more about why we recommend a portfolio-driven
approach, check out our presentations: http://ow.ly/viT6C and http://ow.ly/vM9UH.)
No one can predict for certain what the market will do, but we can make sure that you are prepared for
whatever comes.

Building the messaging AND the strategic vision for your job search
that lead to solutions.
The portfolio is great, the branding is wonderful, but now what are you
going to do with it? Is it going to give you experience you don't have, turn
you into something you're not, take away the gray in your hair? Of course
not. But when done right, it can do something that the 95% of technical
professionals keep missing: It can speak to the needs of your target
audience ONCE you get it into their hands.
And that is ultimately why we do what we do. We equip you to face
obstacles in the market, and we position you for the best chances of
success.
We began developing this approach in late 2011 when we started to
realize that our client “members” needed more than just a resume and
basic messaging; they needed a strategic vision.

That’s how NoddlePlace came to be…
To best provide this strategic visioning, we needed to differentiate our solutions even further!
This meant tailoring some to meet the needs of the more experienced tech pro, the leader with
15+ years of experience who was now wondering how to face this market that seemed to
penalize them often for things they can’t control, like age, experience, and high salaries. For
them, it isn’t so much about climbing ladders as it is about protecting what they’ve built so far
and staying relevant to the marketplace.
So we customized ITtechExec to meet the needs of this type of client.
Then we introduced NoddlePlace in 2013. Here we focus on the “emerging” technical
professional with 5 to 15 years of experience who knows another 25 years or more in the tech
job market means 8+ more career moves, statistically speaking, and wants to keep advancing in
the market but now has a lot of other demands on his or her time.
In either case, though, they are both looking for real solutions…

ITtechExec Approach
At ITtechExec, we lean heavily on building our resume portfolio,
which is designed to take the diverse background and skill sets
you’ve earned across your 15+ years and create a complete, unified
branding portfolio that gives proper due to the varied projects and
results you’ve achieved.
We then combine our portfolios with our job search solutions,
placing heavy emphasis on the importance of strategic
introductions.
We’ve put together a large network of connections that we will
leverage, along with your own, to vet and introduce you to contacts
who can help lead you to potential opportunities.
Our Job Search Agent walks you through how to build on
informational interviews with your new contacts to create more
momentum and potential in your search.
It’s the #1 most effective way to conduct a job search, ESPECIALLY
for senior-level candidates, and yet less than 5% of candidates use
it! So we’ve created a way to take some of the burden and help you
through it.
NoddlePlace Approach
At NoddlePlace, our main focus is on positioning you well with this
move while keeping the next one in mind. With 8 to 10 more career
moves likely, our members need to be thinking ahead.
To do that, we’ve created 4 membership status levels:
• Achiever
• High Achiever
• Over-Achiever
• Exclusive Achiever
Each membership status starts out with some form of our resume
portfolio approach and provides some level of our concierge job
search solutions.
As you progress through the membership status levels, we continue
to work toward building “pipelines” you can leverage and engage
throughout your career, not just in answering job postings and
hoping for the best.

So we’ve developed our solutions, not to be so much an investment in a
“resume” as an investment in proper positioning and solutions to your
career needs.
Call it holistic. Call it different. We like to think of it in terms of allowing us to track results and
ROI. After all, isn’t that what matters? (Tell that to the graduate programs and certification
schools who often aren’t held accountable for their ROI; yet their prices go up, up, up!)
There are good resume writers out there. But they can’t/don’t/won’t do anything more than
write the resume and send you on your way. And the resume alone isn’t really addressing the
main issue: your age, lack of experience (too much experience), family or geographic restrictions,
job hopping, you name it.
Having the right messaging is good; having the right messaging with the right strategic vision
is better.
But the story doesn’t end there…

Then we met Sue, our Concierge Job Search Agent.
If ever there were an answer to prayer, music to our ears, or a sight for sore eyes (you get the drift), Sue was it. Blending a unique background in managing
both IT and telecom day-to-day operations with extensive hiring and recruitment experience for small/mid-sized organizations as well as for a prominent
Fortune 1000 company, Sue has been up close and personal with HR, and has had to wade through layoffs, acquisitions, and corporate restructuring. (That
means she's a veteran of the job market zoo and has been so deep in corporate goo that nothing surprises her anymore!)
Together, we devised both a three-phase “NoNonsense” employer profiling solution that gives members another alternative to the job board “rat race”
and, the best part of all, provides personal job search support, so that each member has their very own job search “agent” helping them to zero in on and
find contacts at prime employers best suited for them. I know this is something truly unique!
Sue also helps conduct our Strategic Visioning Intro Session that get our members moving from the messaging stage into the execution stage. She runs our
Recruiter Matching Campaigns, and she oversees our LinkedIn Network Building solution, which recognizes the increasing role LinkedIn is playing in the
hiring process. She also performs our Employer Profiling solution, which vets and identifies properly matched employers and introduces you to contacts at
those companies! It is the most effective job search method; yet 95% of candidates ignore it. Now you don’t have to….
But of course, there’s more…

Our Concierge Job Search “Launch” Solutions
• Job Search “Prep” Sessions
(pre-job search and resume prep
sessions designed to strategically
position you for the technical job
market)
• What’s Next? Solutions
(pre-job search and resume solutions
designed to help narrow in and focus
your goals, particularly when you are
having a hard time deciding which
path is next for you)
• Strategic Visioning Intro Session
• Technical Recruiter Matching
• LinkedIn Network Building
• Employer Profiling
All solutions are conducted as part of our NoNonsense Job Search Agent concierge services. They are meant to launch you
into your next career move by strategically position you in the marketplace (and getting you out of the “job board rut” most
candidates are stuck in. These solutions are not sold separately from our resume portfolio solutions. We believe you must
have strong, targeted messaging in place first before you launch a strategically planned search.

To learn more about ITtechExec or NoddlePlace:
Check ITtechExec Out
Or call Stephen toll-free at 1-866-755-9800; email at stephen@ittechexec.com.
(When you contact us, we will help determine which of our approaches is best
for you. We will apply our special Offer of Support to our NoddlePlace members
as well.)
Check NoddlePlace Out

Making the Most Out of Your Resume Portfolio Pages

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