By J.M. Auron, Expert IT Resume Writer—Providing Professional IT Resume Writing Services for More than 15 Years.

So, over the last couple of weeks, I've written about a couple of things that are keeping IT pros awake at night; fears of the AI apocalypse (which I believe are exaggerated) ATS paranoia (which I also think has been blown up online to be a bigger problem than it is), and job application burnout (which is, alas, all too real).

Today, though, I'm going to talk about a problem that is serious—one that's impacting the lives of many technology professionals and leaders.

By J.M. Auron, Expert IT Resume Writer—Providing Professional IT Resume Writing Services for More than 15 Years.

ATS Paranoia and Application Burnout

These are, obviously, topics I hear a lot of as an IT resume writer—and they're closely related.

Many of my prospective clients are terrified of the ATS—and many feel that if they're not getting calls back it's because of the ATS. As I wrote for Irish Tech News, the ATS is the bogeyman of the current job search.

By J.M. Auron, Expert IT Resume Writer—Providing Professional IT Resume Writing Services for More than 15 Years.

The AI apocalypse is everywhere. Tech news. General news. LinkedIn appears to have absolutely no other topic (at least in my feed).

By J.M. Auron, Expert IT Resume Writer—Providing Professional IT Resume Writing Services for More than 15 Years.

Some advice is repeatedly, loudly, continuously, and endlessly on the internet.

Within my profession—I've been providing professional IT resume writing services for more than 15 years—one of the worst, loudest, and most destructive pieces of advice is the relentless drumbeat that, "You have to tailor your resume to every job!"

By J.M. Auron, Expert IT Resume Writer—Providing Professional IT Resume Writing Services for More than 15 Years.

As a solutions architect with years under your belt designing scalable systems that both enable and transform the enterprise, your solutions architect resume shouldn't read like a spec sheet.

By J.M. Auron, Expert IT Resume Writer—Providing Professional IT Resume Writing Services for More than 15 Years.

A key career decision in your IT path

Almost every IT professional faces forks in the road—times when you have to make a choice about your IT career path. One of the most common of these decisions is whether to stay a hands-on, individual contributor or move into IT leadership.

By J.M. Auron, Expert IT Resume Writer—Providing Professional IT Resume Writing Services for More than 15 Years.

CAR can help you analyze your career, uncover your unique value proposition, and create a resume that can win the interview.

As one of the world's leading CTO resume writers, I've worked with a lot of great Chief Technology Officers—both executives new to the role and seasoned leaders looking to move to even more challenging opportunities with greater scope and bigger responsibilities.

The IT Director role can be a critical turning point in your career—the time when you move from a largely technical job description into a position with significantly expanded strategic and leadership possibilities. That's one of the many reasons why your IT Director resume has to clearly reflect that transition from "in the trenches" to a leadership role.

This LinkedIn tip is important. Because everything we write, post, or comment on LinkedIn immediately becomes part of our profession identity—our brand—online. Prospective employers and recruiters are looking at that brand to determine whether a given candidate is a good fit for a new opportunity.

Given that (obvious) fact, it's a bit surprising—but LinkedIn, like every social network, does have its share of trolls—or folks who may look like trolls because of offhand, often arrogant or condescending comments.

But if someone looks like a troll? Odds are good that person isn't going to be the first person a good recruiter will contact for a fantastic new opportunity.

We've all seen one. The CIO resume that leads with "27 years of experience" in the first line of the resume summary on page one.

On the surface, that seems like a great strategy. It's apparently clear, and seems to give a sense of career level. Also, many job postings do start with number of years required for the position – so, it seems reasonable to address the issue of experience directly, at the very beginning of the resume.

I was speaking with a client of mine yesterday, and we were discussing his unique value proposition - and his equally unique approach to technology leadership.

And he told me an interesting story (with all details changed to protect his privacy). He was recruited - by a large, US-based manufacturing firm headquartered in a major Midwest city - to lead a very low performing IT organization. His mandate, essentially, was to fire the entire team within a month, and rebuild from scratch.

"The most transformational job in the corporate world right now isn’t glamorous, certainly isn’t easy, and at times is even a little thankless. It’s a job where little can go right and a lot can go catastrophically wrong. If that isn’t enough, it’s probably the hottest seat in corporate America today

We're all driven by metrics these days. Whether it's cost, revenue, increase in market share, streamlined operations, or KPIs, numbers often seem to tell the story of success or failure.

That's why Executive Resumes Writers - myself included - work to dig out the quantifiable achievements to demonstrate our client's success.

It's a rare week that I don't see a blog post or article with the 3, 5, 7, or 10 things that a job seeker MUST or MUST NOT include on a resume.

There's one big problem with articles like this. They go on the assumption that every career is the same, and that there's an simple template - a cookie cutter approach - that works for every career, every resume, every job seeker.