Few professions have as much scope for career advancement and personal development as IT. It is estimated that over 55 million people work in the IT industry globally. This covers a diverse range of professions and payscales, from junior IT support desk staff up to directors of IT departments and senior software developers. Put simply, within the IT industry, there are a wide range of occupations and opportunities to develop your career as you build your skillset and areas of expertise.
If you are starting in the IT industry, you may be unsure of how to plan your career path or what routes there are to pay progression. This article will provide some key areas of advice in helping you to progress in your chosen IT area by describing three key strategies that you can employ. Each of these strategies will be relevant to your career development, regardless of your specific area of expertise.
Network Effectively
As a first point, it is vitally important to understand the power of networking in career progression. There are multiple reasons why networking should form a significant part of your working practices and you can read more about some of the key benefits in detail here. Effective networking is a skill that needs to be learned just like any other, although some personality types are more geared towards this form of communication.
Even if you find networking difficult, you must persevere with it, as it can increase your visibility to both managers and employers outside your current organization. This can lead to you being considered for or even approached to discuss new job roles that are being created. If you need to improve your networking skills, click here for some tips and tricks that will help to improve your confidence in this field.
Get Senior Level Training
As your career begins to develop and you start to rise to mid-level positions in your organization, it is important to begin thinking about undertaking some higher-level training programmes that will give you the advanced skills and knowledge to apply for more senior positions. For example, if you are wanting to eventually lead a company and play a key role in developing corporate digital strategies, it is beneficial to undertake an ITIL Strategic Leadership programme. Once you complete the learning and receive your Strategic Leader Certificate, you will be suitably qualified to apply for such senior roles.
Build Your CV and Portfolio
As a final point, it is of paramount importance that you continue to build and update your CV and your portfolio of work (portfolios are especially important if you undertake project work such as coding or software development roles). Ideally, you should update these records after every large project has been completed or when you switch roles within an organization.
Keeping an up-to-date CV and portfolio that demonstrates your knowledge and proficiencies helps to make applying for new roles easy and less time-consuming. These documents can also be sent out proactively to potential employers with a request that they consider you for any emerging new roles within their organisation.