Job hunt

Beginning this year 2015, I somewhat lost interest in my job because of many reasons. No challenging activities, flat learning curve, no work road map being the important ones. That's when I decided to search for an opportunity outside my company.
I started with the resume update. Believe me, this is an equally important task not just because a recruiter takes only few seconds to scan the resume and move on with the next one but also for one has to consolidate all the work or project handled during last many years. Update and review cycle went through few iterations and thanks to my friends who took time to provide valuable suggestions in the process. Here are few pointers one can take while coming up with resume:

• IMHO, 'Career objective', 'Personal Information' sections are unnecessary. Of course the contact details needs to be mentioned but information like marital status, languages known etc can be avoided, unless it's really required for the profile you are looking for.
• The first page of the resume should provide the important aspects which includes the contact information, your skill sets and your current role and responsibilities.
• Once the resume seems to be complete, verify the overall construct of it using the 'tag cloud' mechanism. This helps to verify which words are being emphasized and whether any repetitive words needs to reduced. Online tools such as tagcrowd.com can come handy. 

 Once the resume was uploaded to job portals and in LinkedIn, I could get the sense of the market and the demands. With that I started my preparation which covered the basics, previous projects, coding and other aspects. I took calls only when I was 75% confident of my preparation. After my first unsuccessful telephonic interview followed by face-to-face discussion, I filled in the gaps in my prep. It took couple of months for this cycle and in couple of trials I got an offer from a company which provided opportunity which I was looking out for. I gleefully accepted.
Few things to take away from this phase:

• Be ready to provide actual reasons for the shift. Try to be completely honest with it even if the reason is your not-so-good manager.
• There are many sites which provide you huge list of questions one can expect during the interview. Go through few and be mentally prepared. These are equally important to your technical preparation.
• Ask questions during the process so that you can get enough information about the job profile, company and team. 
• At the final stages, if you feel you deserve more than they have offered you then do not hesitate to negotiate. Remember negotiation is also a skill!

I've joined my new company now and looking forward for the new learning and new challenges.