How to position yourself as an ideal candidate for IT jobs

How to position yourself as an ideal candidate for IT jobs

The tech­no­log­i­cal indus­try is grow­ing expo­nen­tial­ly, and IT pro­fes­sion­als are look­ing for big­ger roles and career devel­op­ment. The sec­tor has prospects for both entry and expert pro­fes­sion­als. So, you may be look­ing to get a job at Google, Twit­ter or a start­up. How do you con­vince the hir­ing man­ag­er that you are the best fit for the job? 

Many IT pro­fes­sion­als under­mine the need to posi­tion them­selves as the ide­al can­di­date and feel their work should speak for them. This notion is not entire­ly true. Except in cas­es of refer­ral or plat­forms that host your port­fo­lio, you need to apply for jobs more often than not. 

Com­pa­nies would not hire incom­pe­tent IT pro­fes­sion­als any­way, so where’s the tiebreak­er? This arti­cle details tips and career devel­op­ment piv­ots on posi­tion­ing your­self to land that tech job. 

Gaining relevant skills for your career development 

An IT job in, say, cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, soft­ware devel­op­ment or UX design, Soft­ware devel­op­ment and oper­a­tional­iza­tion, cloud, etc expects only qual­i­fied indi­vid­u­als to apply. They also require spe­cif­ic skills for an indi­vid­ual to thrive in their work envi­ron­ment. For example,

Tech­ni­cal skills: var­i­ous com­pa­nies require appli­cants to be famil­iar with var­i­ous soft­ware tools and have rel­e­vant tech­ni­cal skills like UI/UX devel­op­ment, front end, back­end, full-stack, IT ana­lyst, cloud stacks of AWS, Google and Microsoft etc. 

Secu­ri­ty: Computer/internet secu­ri­ty like encryp­tion of data at rest or in tran­sit, iden­ti­ty, access man­age­ment and cre­den­tials, authen­ti­ca­tion and autho­riza­tion are top secu­ri­ty skills recruiters look for when hiring. 

Inter­per­son­al Skills: Recruiters look for pro­fes­sion­als with nat­ur­al lead­er­ship skills to achieve defined com­pa­ny goals and improve over­all team per­for­mance. They may place a pre­mi­um on reviews to give an insight into your work eth­ic, cre­ativ­i­ty, exceed­ing client expec­ta­tions and prob­lem-solv­ing attitude. 

Our team can help you thor­ough­ly ana­lyze your skills to cre­ate a per­son­al­ized career path in the IT industry.

Orient yourself in the space 

Start by ori­ent­ing your­self in the IT space by gain­ing rel­e­vant expe­ri­ence. Whether it’s to build your per­son­al port­fo­lio, you should be famil­iar with the space. Then, have a list of jobs you are inter­est­ed in and the com­pa­nies that appeal to you. This will help stream­line your search and focus on jobs that best suit you. 

If you are unsure where to start, we have tons of arti­cles cov­er­ing a wide range of top­ics to guide you in your IT career. 

career devlopment

Know the Employer’s Needs 

As a top job can­di­date, show a poten­tial employ­er that you under­stand exact­ly what they need, and how you can help achieve their goals via your skills, knowl­edge, and experience.

By express­ing to the com­pa­ny what you can do for them (instead of what you want them to do for you), you can make your­self a much more attrac­tive job can­di­date and increase your chances of get­ting a job offer.

Get certified for career development purposes

Many non-IT peo­ple ask ques­tions like, “how to get into IT with­out a degree?” The truth is, you can match tech grad­u­ates with cer­ti­fi­ca­tions which you can earn in weeks or months. 

This posi­tions you high­er up the stack of appli­ca­tions. At the least, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions can get you your first entry job!

You can find these cours­es online on Ude­my and Cours­era to boost your chances. How­ev­er, they may require that you pass cer­ti­fi­ca­tion exams. We are here to guide you through what cer­ti­fi­ca­tions are the best.

Tailor your resume and personalize your cover letter 

A resume high­lights your pro­fes­sion­al back­ground, such as aca­d­e­m­ic qual­i­fi­ca­tions, skills, and work expe­ri­ence, includ­ing intern­ships. Much of this infor­ma­tion is nec­es­sary but not exact­ly what the recruiter is look­ing for. Tai­lor­ing your resume makes your appli­ca­tion spe­cif­ic to the job. 

High­light the skills that are rel­e­vant to the job descrip­tion. This approach helps make an impres­sion on the recruiters. Leave out irrel­e­vant details that make the resume unnec­es­sar­i­ly bulky. As a rule of thumb, your resume should not go beyond 2‑pages. So, stick to the essen­tials only! 

Also, a gen­er­al resume is as dis­as­trous as a gen­er­al cov­er let­ter. Recruiters know when appli­cants recy­cle cov­er let­ters, and they throw their appli­ca­tions into the bin. 

Ensure your cov­er let­ter should match the orga­ni­za­tion’s core val­ues. It should reflect your desire to work with them, and it presents you with an oppor­tu­ni­ty to sell yourself.

Have a pro­fes­sion­al edit your resume and cov­er let­ter, as this can be a deal-break­er for you. We also offer these services. 

Use professional networks for career development 

Uti­lize pro­fes­sion­al web­sites like LinkedIn and GitHub to find experts in the niche you want to get into. These can help you find the best province for IT jobs if you are a new immi­grant or if you are con­sid­er­ing relo­ca­tion. A rich net­work presents oppor­tu­ni­ties you may oth­er­wise not hear of else­where and can also boost your chances of land­ing your next job.

You can take advan­tage of our Midas touch on your pro­files to posi­tion you for the best jobs. We also help with post-place­ment sup­port and net­work­ing that can take you high­er up in your career. 

Prepare for the Interview 

Inter­views may take dif­fer­ent for­mats, from behav­iour­al to tech­ni­cal ques­tions. So, prac­tice com­mon inter­view ques­tions and brush up on some the­o­ret­i­cal aspects relat­ing to the job. We con­duct mock inter­views that can help pre­pare you to ace that recruit­ment process. 

You can get to know more about our ser­vices at Elite careers when you book a con­sul­ta­tion with us. We would love to hear from you. 

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