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First The IT Career Builder's Toolkit book will help any beginner or an experience person in his career, not only in the IT industry. I think that all the related themes will help any professional in any industry.
Basically it focus on the IT field you can transport the knowledge to any industry. Mat Moran has put together the most practical guide for your career. While reading the book I found out that some concepts that he explains and have apply in his career and in the development on this book, I once have used them as part of mi own personal career building program.
The IT Career Builder's Toolkit book has five parts: introduction to career building, filling your toolkit, putting your toolkit to use, more options to build your career and value-added technologist. Each chapter of these parts has an introduction and conclusion with a brief exercise in order to start building your toolkit. The structure and continuity of the book is well defined.
I have been in the IT industry for almost nine years. As the book states I am sure that the IT field is one of the most amazing professional. You need to stay focus and update if not you will start getting behind.
The chapter of boundaries and benefits of working at home has helped me in setting the basics for my transition from an office cubicle to my home office.
The references on some of the chapters to other books and tools in the CD are great references to work your career.
Another chapter very useful chapter and a most read monthly will be the Attitude chapter, because reminds you and help you see how are you acting in your job.
The CD-ROM tools are very useful and set the frame work to improve your career. You will find the framework of the toolkit, tracking tools, self-assessments tools, resume and cover letter templates consultant tools like proposals templates, time-tracking and billing database based on Microsoft Access and finally some financial tools for budgeting and cash-flow.
The end of chapter exercises I found them very useful to create your framework while you are reading the book. You will have an assessment of your actual situation and will help you to accelerate the use of the tools on the CD.
The book is a very easy reading you can probably read it on a long flight without any problem. I think that on a second decision you can add some other chapter about job search on the internet, head hunters, more soft skills development and references and others topics that will be useful for a career change or improvement.
I will highly recommend this book to have it in your personal library as a reference and to use it on regular bases. It will help on your daily professional and personal life.
Finally I just want to congratulate Matt Moran for writing The IT Career Builder's Toolkit in which he show a real life manual for your professional career.
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If you are new to the computer field, or an Information Technology expert looking for a new job opportunity, this book is for you! Published by Cisco Press, The IT Career Builder's Toolkit, ISBN 1587131560, by Matthew Moran, is approximately 280 pages and offers the essentials for readers to be a step ahead of their colleagues in the IT market.
Mr. Moran presents the material in a clear concise manner. As compared to similar types of literature, this book offers the reader an insight into the computer job market through the eyes of an IT professional. The book is not full of technical terms and jargon. The techniques and methods presented in this material are for individuals either looking to "break into" the field or for seasoned professionals. The toolkit offers real-world scenarios, examples and perspectives that the reader can utilize while starting the job search, as well as, fine-tuning their resume and interview skills.
The IT toolkit is separated into five sections. It begins with an introduction to career building. This part is essential for the reader and prospective candidate to perform critical career development, self assessment in order to plan and define their goals and aspirations. The next sections focus on cover letters, resumes, and technical skills. Throughout this book, the reader will learn to utilize the tips and procedures presented to perform successful job searches, improve and prepare for interviews and be able to be confident in performing salary negotiations, employment agreements and be successful in landing their promotion.
The remaining chapters focus on career options, consulting, management opportunities, processes and financial controls. I believe that at of all the chapters, the Career options, consulting and management opportunities section may be the weakest. I believe that an entire book can be written on this subject alone, but the reader will get a sampling of the types of choices that they can pursue if they are interested. The last chapter focuses on the "Value-Added Technologist". This chapter ends the book, leaving the reader with additional concepts and ideas on how to manage his or her own career and how they can become a mentor to other individuals.
The companion cd-rom contained at the end of the book complements the material. The four sections contained on the cd are: (1) The Value-Added Technologist (Career building process); (2) Career Management Tools (Self Assessment Resources, Sample Resumes and Cover Letter templates); (3) Consulting tools to utilize as a consultant for time/billing database tracking forms, sample proposals, etc.; (4) Financial tools (forms and spreadsheets for budgeting and cash-flow summaries). There are also online resources that are presented on the cd-rom that the readers will find extremely useful and indispensable.
It is essential in today's economy to market yourself in a unique manner to obtain the job and position that interests you. Utilizing this book and the supplemental cd-rom as a guide and a resource, you will be able perform self assessment and build a cover letter and a resume, as well as, prepare for the interview and be confident in your presentation.
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First things first: I am happy with my job, and not looking for another... But I read the book thoroughly, and I kind of liked it. But it's not the first book in this field I read, and I hardly did find anything new.
If someone asked for my advice, I'd say: look in your local library, and read it.
But don't spend your precious money on buying it.
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Matthew Moran's The IT Career Builder's Toolkit could also have been reviewed in our 'business' section for job-seekers, but is featured here because so many IT employees are seeking work, and so many college students aspire to enter the field. This is career prep with no holds barred: Matthew Moran profiles solid, market-based skills and proven methods to advance an IT career or reach a goal. Newcomers in particular receive explicit advice on how to present technical skills value in a tough job market, how to become an essential commodity in an overwhelmed market, and how to gain meaningful professional contacts. A 'must' for any serious IT pro.
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The IT Career Builder's Toolkit by Matthew Moran (Cisco Press, 2005) is actually a useful toolkit for building a career in many other fields as well. The author has taken the trouble to uncover a great many universal truths about the relationship between employee and employer, the bottom-line mentality of human resource management in business, and the effects of the current economy on new entrants to the job market. It was really unusual to see a business book that didn't seem to just echo the platitudes of every other business book on the market, but which instead, by reflecting on the state of affairs in one particular vocation, and focusing on the specific problem of starting out as an entry level candidate, repeatedly illustrated techniques that people can apply in any stage of their career, and in may different professions.
This is because so many of the players in everyone's career are aptly introduced, with numerous tips on how to deal with the ones who may have forgotten to take their medication this morning, or who may have more of an influence on your future than you think. The numerous personas of interviewers, bosses, coworkers, and the people you are ultimately helping-your users-are drawn up so that you can recognize them when you see them, and handle a variety of situations as a professional. For instance, even if a scrap of criticism is too harsh, is there a grain of truth in it? And if you are concerned about a pending performance review or how your supervisor views your progress, you may want to assign a self-evaluation and report the results to your supervisor. The author gives a vivid account of how well that worked for him.
But of course the focus is on helping the young entrant to the IT job market. To this end, he presents the concept of a toolkit, or a complete set of tips and tactics that can be applied at many different stages of a career: the point is to choose the right tool for the situation. The other analogy is that the book is for career building, not just putting together a succession of jobs. The would-be IT professional is encouraged to consider exactly what skills should be honed, what relationships should be developed, what approach should be taken to building a satisfying work life. It is very tempting to plow ahead and get the next hot certification, or to hop to the next job that pays a few bucks more or touches on the trendiest technology. It is useful to be reminded that-even in the post-bubble chill with salaries down from their happy heights and jobs for which you have to compete rather than step into-you can build a more satisfying career by deliberately designing and planning it instead of just adding jobs to the pile.
Still, the author realizes that there are not a lot of choices at first, and so a lot of care is put into describing how to make the most of any job. It compares and contrasts a number of possible situations the new employee might wind up in-enterprise versus SMB, IT department versus a branch of the business-and describes how someone might make themselves invaluable in any of these environments. There is a pragmatic and reassuring sense that by building the foundation of your career, you can then construct the house you want to live in.
There are many other basics covered in the areas of cover letters, resumes, networking, interviewing skills, searching for jobs, seeking promotions-the nuts and bolts of making your way into the market. And among the different options covered are the pursuits of salaried positions as opposed to consulting, and choosing the attributes for which job to take if you get multiple offers (it's not always about the money). The section of negotiating skills, and defining what constitutes an effective negotiation, is an eye opener for anyone who doesn't have those natural poker-playing skills.
The CD has a lot career management tools such as resumes, self-assessment forms, contact tracking forms, and others. There are also sections on consulting tools and financial management tools. There were some broken links but I'm not sure if this had to do with my browser (I was using Mozilla). In any case, you can browse the contents under Windows explorer without needing to use the menus.
For a very carefully written effort to help aspiring applications to the IT market, I'd give this one five stars.
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