There has been a recent uptick in the number of students requesting for some kind of content around transitioning from student to employee. They want to know the practical steps between getting a certification and landing their first job in IT. It seems this kind of content may be valuable, even if it is an optional supplement and not a required part of the learning objectives. Certification courses are generally focused on technical content and passing an exam, not the next steps to land the job. Another trend I’m seeing in feedback is that many job seekers with only certifications seem to feel that college graduates have some advantage in landing the job. That may have some truth to it, but rest assured, graduates of a college’s certificate or degree program have the same issues learning to navigate the job search process. It’s definitely not a problem strictly for those with certifications and no degree.
It is true that universities usually offer some resources here. They occasionally have internship arrangements, sponsor industry group functions, networking events, job fairs, etc. However, none of these really prepare an applicant for having to market themselves in the business world. They seem to be focused on making the initial connection and everything after that is basically ignored. Applicants often don’t know what to plan for, what to expect, how to improve their chances, or minimize any negative factors. They don’t know how to interview, what the competition looks like, or what it looks like on the employer’s side of the recruiting and hiring process.
This simplified guide gives a brief overview of the top five things any candidate should know about finding a job in the IT field.
1 – Bulk Up That Resume
Your resume is the primary tool you have to market yourself and your skills. When I get resumes, I’m typically looking for experience first, certifications second, and education third. If your resume is a little sparse, one of the best ways to bulk it up is to volunteer or take on temporary and contract work. Take a gig-type job for a weekend of rolling out hardware at a big company. It’s not exciting to walk around an office putting laptops on cubicles and connecting an external monitor for the thousandth time, but it’s a job in the field where you want to be, a few more lines on your resume, and a good reference. Not only will it put a little cash in your pocket, but gigs have the potential to turn into a part time or full time role. It’s never a bad thing to meet another local hiring manager in the tech business — even if it’s through short term project work.
2 – Get Certified
If you don’t have a certification, get one. If you already have some, look into getting more specialized or advanced certifications. Sometimes these are as simple as reading a book or taking an online course and showing you retained the knowledge from it with a proctored exam. There are some entry level certifications you can earn in weeks that can really improve your chances of standing out among all the applicants. Others require hands-on training, longer and more specific courses, demonstrating certain skills, and they can take a bit more time and effort to earn, — some taking years — but are very valuable in the marketplace.
Unfortunately, too many students take the course but never sit for the final exam to get the certification. They put in the work, but don’t take the last step. Some report that it was too expensive or they felt it was too much risk to pay to take an exam and potentially fail it. If you’re following the study tips, taking courses from multiple instructors, passing the prep quizzes, and you’re really putting in the work — you are very unlikely to fail any entry level exam. Even if you do fail, you’ll come away with a much better knowledge of what was on the exam, what questions you were comfortable with, and which subjects need work. Next time, you’ll do better. In most cases we’re talking about a few hundred dollars. It’s not peanuts, but it’s something you can earn delivering pizzas for a weekend. It’s not out of your reach. Don’t forget that quality employers and interviewers that work in these fields definitely know what baseline knowledge is covered by industry relevant certifications. If I were your interviewer, I would know exactly what skills you demonstrated to earn the various certifications offered by CompTIA, Salesforce, Cisco, Microsoft, VMWare, and lots of other vendors and certification providers. Good certifications are respected and can give you an edge over another applicant. So if you study, take that last step and sit for the exam.
3 – Build A Portfolio
Especially if you’re looking for a role as a developer, designer, or some web admin role, you should have a couple websites that demonstrate your skills. If you’re trained in this area, you should be able to pull this off for very little or no cost. Developers are going to need a github with some code in it to show what they can do. Join and contribute to an open source project or build your own tool and make it free to the world. This is also a good side note for people who work in more generalized roles or anyone that might need to show that they can code or that they’re proficient in a few coding languages.
This idea isn’t just for web technologies. If you’re involved with physical devices, running networking cables, or installations of some type — take before and after pictures as part of your portfolio. For others, you can make great tools or templates in Excel, data analytics products, addons or plugins to tools that you use regularly that solve common problems. The key is to put your completed work on display for employers to see.
4 – Scrub Social Media
Expect the name, email, phone number, or anything else you put on your resume to be run through a search engine, at a minimum. We’ve found public posts from social media sites that show some less than professional views of applicants. It’s probably not a good idea for potential employers to see you rant about hot-button political topics. There’s no need for your interviewer to know about personal drama or relationship issues. We’ve even seen people post admissions crimes including stealing from previous employers. If you have anything even remotely controversial in your search results, remove it. Go lock down those security settings. Ideally, you should never post anything that you wouldn’t want an employer to see. One last note, don’t forget about old services like MySpace or accounts that you had many years ago or even websites that copy or archive that content. Scrubbing can take quite a bit of searching and effort, but is definitely worth it. You don’t want to be passed over as an otherwise qualified candidate because you were tagged in an unprofessional picture that was posted by an acquaintance a decade ago which still shows up in search results for your name.
5 – Set Expectations Correctly
I realize that these numbers may change as this content ages, but currently, if you want an entry level role that pays $30,000 USD per year. That should be possible to accomplish within three months by anyone who has a high school diploma or GED and a relatively clean background and can earn a certification or two that help them get started in a specialized path. The more you want to make, the fewer jobs available and the more education, certification, and experience it will take to qualify. If you want a 40K job, expect a 4 month job search. If you want 50K, expect 5 months. Yes, this continues up into the 100K range and it does take, on average, about a year to find a six figure role when starting from a blind search.
Obviously, you shouldn’t rely on these ballpark estimates from my experience as facts. The job market is very different if you compare a small midwestern town in 2019 to a large metro area in 2021. This is the internet, so I can’t safely assume we’re in the same country, or that any other variables will be the same. I can only tell you my experience. The point of this is to say that many people report having a certification and not getting a job for which they felt they were a perfect fit. It usually doesn’t take long talking to them to figure out that they expected to get hired based on that certification and had only sent out one, three, or five resumes. That’s not nearly enough.
Reset those expectations. This is a numbers game. If you’re looking for an entry level role, there’s a lot of competition. I expect about a 3% response rate. That means, if you want to get 3 phone screening calls from recruiters or employers which might turn into interviews, you’ll need to apply to 100 jobs. You might only get the chance to interview for one or two of those. I wouldn’t worry about anything until you haven’t gotten a single call after 200 applications to jobs for which you’re qualified.
TL;DR
Employers often don’t want you to learn your job by experimenting with their equipment and their clients. Add relevant experience to your resume to bulk it up with short term gigs or volunteer work and you’ll get plenty of references that can vouch for you as a good investment.
Industry certifications cost pennies compared to a two or four year degree and they’re a great way to add quality content to the education section of your resume. You can deliver pizzas for a week and earn enough to pay for most entry level exams.
Build a portfolio. Show people what you can do. It’s expected if you’re in a creative field, but even if you aren’t, you should showcase your work. Don’t forget to get involved in open source projects or build something and give it away as a free tool.
Remove anything negative that might be found about you online. Lock down any social media security settings and remove any old profiles and search yourself once or twice a year.
Don’t send out five applications and give up or get frustrated. Expect that 100 applications might result in three phone screenings, one or two interviews, and maybe an offer.