I remember when I was a novice information technology professional and had to send my resume to multiple job openings at the same time, having to compete for each of these job openings with tens or hundreds of people who were older and possibly more experienced than I.
Nowadays I am a renowned IT manager of a multinational with 19 years of experience, but make no mistake I remember clearly those days and the effort required to convince a company to choose me.
Last week, one of my team members asked me to do an interview related to IT career advice to help him get his college degree. This article was born from the idea of helping him with his essay.
If you are anything like me, you must be wondering who this guy thinks he is to come here and give me career advice?
Here is a list of some of my achievements:
• Author of 4 successful IT books.
• Published my first successful book as the age of 18.
• More than 25 IT certifications related to network and information security.
• Network and Security projects implemented in 15 countries.
• I started traveling the world doing network and information security projects when I was 22 years old.
• Became a multinational IT manager when I was 25 years old.
• Owner of 2 successful IT Youtube channels.
• Owner of 2 successful IT Websites.
Enough talk, let's go to my list of tips for you to get the job of your dreams.
IT Career Related Tutorial:
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Major IT Career Mistake - No Planning
Usually, most people face the challenge of getting a job as a series of tasks in the following order:
• Prepare a resume with your information.
• Send the resume to multiple companies.
• Wait to receive a call scheduling an interview.
• Answer the questions of the interviewer.
• Wait for the company answer.
This is the wrong approach, you should face the job interview as a project which requires a lot of planning, I would go as far as to say that 80% of the effort to get a new job is related to planning and only 20% of the effort is related to the job interview itself.
1. Plan Ahead - This is War
Stop for 30 minutes and write down everything that you think that might happen during the interview.
Here is a list of things that might happen:
• You will receive a call from someone from the HR department.
• The interviewer will talk about the job position being offered.
• You will be asked during a 15 minutes call questions about your knowledge.
• You will be asked to talk about yourself and your experiences.
• You may be interviewed in another language.
• The interviewer will ask if you have questions related to the job.
• You will be asked to provide an updated resume.
Prepare a list of answers to every question that you think that might be asked during the interview.
You need to practice the delivery of the answers.
2. Create a Website
All candidates competing for the job will present a resume containing the following information:
• Professional goals.
• College Formation.
• IT courses.
• 2 languages he or she speaks fluently
• Past job experience.
Your mission is to stand out from this group of candidates.
The interviewer should find that there is something different about you.
One way to achieve this is by creating your own website.
Create a website related to IT and post at least 30 articles containing 1000 words in each article.
3. Create a Youtube Channel
Another free way to stand out is to create a Youtube channel related to IT.
Create an IT related Youtube channel and post at least 30 videos teaching how to do IT related stuff.
Less than 10% of the candidates competing for the job will have a Youtube channel.
Probably less than 5% will have a Website and a Youtube channel.
4. Write a Book
Another free way to stand out is to publish an IT related book on Amazon.
Amazon KND and Amazon CreateSpace allow you to publish a book without any cost.
Less than 10% of the candidates competing for the job will have a published book.
This could also become a source of income to help you pay the bills.
Probably none of the other candidates will have a Website, a Youtube channel and a published book.
5. Have an IT Certification
Nowadays, it is almost mandatory to have at least one IT certification.
Certification shows to an interviewer that you can commit to seriously studying a subject and are willing to spend some money by investing in yourself.
6. Create a Custom Resume
Try not to use Word templates when creating your resume.
Create something new that send to the interviewer a customized message about yourself.
Edit the resume design to transmit the message that you want to send.
Try to add the list of information that may cause a good impression as close as possible to the top.
You should also add images to help your resume to stand out.
As an example, here is an image that I use on the top of my resume.
Prepare multiple versions of resume to different types of IT jobs.
If you are from a non-English speaking country, create an English version of your resume because multinational companies always request the English version.
7. Do not Lie
Do not lie to an interviewer.
Nowadays, HR professionals have a lot of experience into detecting when someone is lying
A single lie can ruin everything.
If you are asked about an IT subject that you don't have any knowledge, you should tell the truth.
8. Have a List of Success Stories Ready
At some point during the interview, you may be asked to talk about a challenge that you faced during your career and how you overcome it.
Usually, the interviewer will ask details about the problem that you faced and how you overcame it.
Plan ahead and go to the interview with a couple of histories already in your mind.
9. Be Prepared for a Practical Interview.
Some companies may require you to do a laboratory interview to prove your IT skills.
At home, create virtual laboratories related to the subjects in the job description and be prepared for a practical interview.
You need to have a good technical performance to stay in the game.
10. Simulate the Entire Job Interview
Repetition is a key to success.
Ask friends or relatives to play the role of interviewer, sit down and simulate the entire interview process to help with your planning.
Write down your mistakes, work on the detected issues and try again.
Well Behavior and Dressing Code
Not even the best IT professionals will get the job if they do not behave properly during the job interview.
Show yourself properly dressed with 20 minutes in advance on the date and time specified by the interviewer.
Be polite to the interviewer, act pleasingly and do not be full of yourself for having a knowledge that you might consider superior to others.
You should also read at least a little about body language and acceptable behavior.
Conclusion
I hope these tips help you get the IT job of your dream.