In my book, Uncommon, with business development guru Brian Tracy (released June 2015), my contribution has to do with what I call "becoming a corporate entrepreneur." My premise is that in today's world of work, tech included, with professionals likely to change jobs every 3 to 4 years, with job "security" at an all time low, and with contract work on a steady rise, there are a lot of important elements from entrepreneurship that today's corporate professional should (really, "must") adopt.
One of them has to do with making more of testimonials. Every good small business owner learns this, and fast. You have to know what the market is saying about you because it is a powerful thing to have someone else promote you. It's one reason LinkedIn added its recommendations and endorsements feature, and employers are increasingly looking for strong references.
But often we receive other testimonials that go untapped, such as via email, and we don't do anything with them. I strongly encourage you to start storing these emails if you haven't already. Then I encourage you to convert them into a testimonials page.
This page can be used during your next career move as part of your portfolio approach. It can be brought out at promotion and review time as a reminder to leadership of the value you have brought (believe it or not, but we as humans are forgetful and need such reminders). It can be used as an add-on to your LinkedIn profile recommendations. You can copy and paste portions of it onto your resume or cover letter. You can send it along with your follow-up thank-you note after the interview as a form of "drip" marketing.
In other words, the Testimonials page adds so much more than the resume alone could.
Things like the Testimonials page, the Innovation page, the Problem-Solutions-Results page, and the Marketing Brief are why we strongly encourage our technical leaders here at ITtechExec to focus on resume portfolios instead of putting so much pressure on the resume alone to "sell" you like 95% of candidates do. When executed properly, the portfolio approach speaks much louder about the type of value you bring, not just list of credentials or features.
And the Testimonials page is a great way to let your network of co-workers, corporate leaders, end users, and so forth showcase your value.
So either start saving these types of kudos now or go dig them up, and let your world of work do the talking.
(By the way, in case you think this is something just for a job search, it is wise to have one for review time, promotion options, and to go alongside a bio or introduction that you might use during the course of your day-to-day work [I'm thinking about all of you who are brought in to lead diverse project teams across several locations or must collaborate with global divisions of your company].)
--About Stephen----
Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!
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