I get no respect I tell ya…
“I’m tired of chasing my dreams, I’m just gonna ask where they’ll be and hook up with them later.”
It’s very hard to be successful in the IT field. There are a lot of “fakers” out there that are mostly incompetent so how do you stand out as a diamond in the rough without coming off as a “suck-up”?
Tip #1
Pick what you talk about carefully and don’t be Mr. Obvious. Techs whom point out the obvious are usually incapable on some level(compensating for something) unless mentioned as a variable to be controlled in a given applicable scenario. For instance if you are casually talking about the SMTP protocol and mention that it runs over port 25 I (as an extremely intelligent and talented tech 
) will assume that your experience with SMTP is limited because you are taking the time to mention such a “mundane detail”. This may seem ironic and it is but, none the less, the less you say the more you probably know or at least the less I know you know.
Signed,
Elitest Computer “GURU”
Tip #2
Don’t call or refer to yourself as a guru.
I like this. Now, I need to take advantage of your ability to pick our the “fakers” when it comes to hiring peeps for Architel. I’m glad to have you on my team, Mr. Elitest Computer “Guru”
The other side of that is that it important to make sure that you can outline specifics about your experience.
I received a resume last week that was long on hype but short on specifics (technical or otherwise). E.g. If you say that you’re an expert at managing email and operating system rebuilds you need to include the specifics of which email system and OS you’re managing.
I think that this could probably work if you’re looking to get hired at a huge company but for a company our size it’s best to avoid the hype because even the non-gurus like Jennifer and myself can see through it.