When you want to further your career in IT, it’s all about focusing on building your skills. Investing time, money, and effort in extra-curricular training is a proven way to move up the ladder. To give you an idea of how you can create your own career development plan, have a read of the following hints and tips.
Create a shortlist of hot topics that employers are currently looking for
Resources like https://itpro.tv/ are a great place to find listings of the latest courses in the industry. This will give you an idea of what the hot topics in the IT industry are. You’ll also want to do some research into what employers are currently looking for. One fantastic method is to talk to some headhunters and recruitment agents as they deal with employers for a living.
You may find out that a lot of IT companies are looking for people who have cross-trained in digital compliance or GDPR. These would then be important courses to look into further and add to your shortlist when deciding what to study next.
Identify the next big tech trend or software standard and get in ahead of the crowd
GDPR is undoubtedly a hot topic now if only you’d trained in it a year ago and were now an in-demand consultant. By staying ahead of the crowd, you can get in early and carve out a niche for yourself. This is an excellent way of accelerating your career in IT, and it will open up plenty of new opportunities.
Employers will sit up and take notice that you’ve made the time, and effort to undertake training in your own time. It will also allow you to move into more senior or advisory positions training other members of your team. That is a great way to build your experience and show willing at the same time! It’s ideal if you want to get closer to promotion or to carve out your own role within the company.
Update your online profiles to display your latest qualifications and accreditations
Improving your skills is only half the battle; to finish the job you need to update your online skills summary. By taking the time to invest in your skills summary, you’re putting yourself in the spotlight so that recruiters will come to you. Take the time to get it right and find the right balance between descriptive language and industry-specific terms. Nobody likes to read an entire page of jargon, even in a technical piece, but no one wants to have to guess what courses you’ve taken either.
Work through a couple of drafts, and you’ll soon zero in on what works and what doesn’t. That way you’ll be able to create a skills summary that speaks for itself and shows the rest of the industry just what you can do.
Follow these three simple tips, and you’ll be well on the way to moving up the career ladder and seeing the results your hard work deserves.
