Your IT Career Start

How do I launch my career in IT? This is the same question you might be asking yourself when looking to start a technology career. Do I start with a technical certification? Study a programing language? These questions have endless answers and that is due to the fact that the IT field is so wide, with multiple paths to follow.

IT is a rapidly growing and awesome career that calls for one to know how to work with computers and human beings. Whether you want to start/launch your IT career or you want to fix your first IT job, you need to follow some few paths to prepare yourself to get into the IT workforce.

Note that it is difficult for beginners and unskilled people to understand how the IT sector works. In this post, we will educate both novices with the capabilities and those without skills but are interested to launch their career in IT.

Every career has some stepping stones to make you find your ideal job and the same applies to the IT sector. Here are a few important things to consider when launching your career in IT.

Do your homework

First things first: if you are not knowledgeable of what the IT sectors entail, you might think that IT jobs are all about typing on a computer with keyboard or troubleshooting.

If this is you, then you are right, but, also you must understand that IT jobs require some more skills and once you are sure of the work you want to in future then you will be in a good position to launch your career in IT. Otherwise, you cannot just get into the IT field with a mindset that you like computers. So, you need to do enough research on the sub-sectors within the IT field. In your research, you need to understand the salary, roles, and the certifications needed if any. This is how you will be able to narrow down your options.

Understand the sub-sectors within the IT field

This is the stepping stone if you want to launch your career in IT. The IT field has numerous sub-fields namely:

– Multimedia

– Software development

– Hardware/software engineering

– Cloud computing

– Web design and development

– Programming

– Networking

– Mobile App development and many more.

If you feel you are good at any of these and many other sub-sectors in the IT field, then it’s time to know how to hone your skills and learn it. Note that even if you are e beginner, you can still identify your sub-sector and make your career out of it.

Identify your suitability

The most complex step when it comes to launching your career in IT is identifying the suitable area to get into. Most often, people get into IT as novices as a result of numerous reasons which could be caused by a person’s passion, securing a job, making wealth out of the IT career.

Depending on what makes you feel interested in the IT career, you need to sufficiently research so that you get clear which sub-sector would be suitable to make you achieve your purpose. You need to understand that failing to choose the best-suitable career in IT might hurt your plans. So, you need to identify where your proficiency lies.

Your passion

It goes without saying that if you do what you are passionate about, you will achieve your purpose and when it comes to launching your career in IT you must identify your passion and work with it. The IT sector is very wide, so you are better off to focus on what you love. For instance, if you love programming, stick to that. Search programming careers and you will get more information that you might not be aware they existed.

Learn the skills

Identifying your suitability is not the final step if you are looking to launch a career in IT without experience. Once you have identified the suitable sector that you are passionate about, it’s time to go get the relevant skills that would make you achieve your purpose. If you don’t have IT background, you can enroll yourself in a learning institution near you.

Get certified

To become proficient in the IT career, you must top up skills with certifications. Note that having certifications will make it easy to convince an employer. Although a certification adds nothing to your skills, it makes you appear professional to a potential employer.

Getting certified should be a stepping stone if you want to launch your career in IT as a novice. Note that while there are unpaid certifications, it is advisable to go for the paid certifications as they speak volumes.

Hone your skills

If you have gotten the skills you need to launch your career in IT, you need to perfect the skills. To perfect your skills, you need to consider working as an intern. In this case, you could be paid or not. Note that what you need is the experience so even if it’s free, go for it. There are plenty of companies willing to employ people as interns, so you can take advantage of the opportunity to perfect your skills. You must know that a good internship can be a chief cornerstone when it comes to starting your career. IT internships are very helpful if you want to get yourself closer to the best IT organizations and it will also give you an opportunity to put the skills you learned into action.

Internships are helpful to give you hands-on experience and also to network with other people in the IT field. Provided you will show dedication and that you will adhere to instructions during your internship, your boss will recommend you well when starting to search for jobs. In fact, you stand a chance to get absorbed within the same organization you have been an intern.

Conclusion

Once you have completed the steps above, you can decide either to get employed or work as a freelance consultant. Starting a career in IT as a beginner is sometimes a difficult experience, however with good guidance; it can turn out to be an exciting experience. We hope our tips will help you.