Planning A Career In IT: Here’s How to Set Yourself Up For Success

If you’re planning a career in IT, then it’s important to consider all your options. That being said, as a career path, IT offers so many options that it can sometimes be difficult to choose.

So what should you do to ensure that you have a successful and fulfilling career in IT?

Fortunately, there are some easy steps you can take to be sure that you’re making an informed decision. That’s why we’ve put together some of our top IT career tips to help you find a job you’ll really care about.

What Do You Need For A Career In IT?

A successful IT career requires a level of specialist knowledge as well as the ability to demonstrate that specialist knowledge. Often this can mean qualifications but a good portfolio can also do wonders as well as references from any IT adjacent positions you’ve taken in the past.

Beyond that, what you’ll need depends a lot on the exact niche you’re looking to go into. After all IT can mean anything from basic troubleshooting to web design or even networking. What’s important is that before choosing which direction to specialise in, you should have a good idea of what all your options are and which will be worth your time.

Understanding The IT Landscape

If you want to really understand the current IT landscape, then the best thing you can do is talk to people working in IT. Find out which jobs pay better, which jobs are more demanding, and which jobs are more satisfying.

While you’re doing this research, you should also consider what it is you want to get out of your career. Money is all well and good but are there other needs you’d like your career to fill? Perhaps you’d like a chance to exercise your creativity? Or else you want a career that will allow you to really help people?

You can have all of this with an IT career so long as you’re willing to shape yourself into the right candidate for those roles.

Seeking Valuable Specialisations

One thing that often gets underestimated in the IT career space is the immense value of specialisation. While there’s often a temptation to chase the latest trend, be that data science or machine learning, many of the most successful IT careers come from having the skills that nobody else has.

In its simplest form, it’s about supply and demand. New technologies come and go meaning that there are often new waves of demand. Those waves are usually quite noticeable so many people rush in to fill them. On the other hand, specialist niches won’t always have the same level of demand overall but the supply is usually very low.

For example, let’s say you’re an expert in retrieving data from damaged floppy discs. The demand for that skill might not be particularly high on the whole but, given that floppy discs haven’t been widely used in decades, the supply is also significantly lower. All this to say that when a company needs some information retrieved that wasn’t properly carried over to a more modern storage method, you’re the only person they’ll be able to contact. That places you in an excellent negotiating position.

Or, to put it simply, people will pay you whatever you want if you’re the only person with the specialisation they need.

Learning From Experience

With all of that in mind, what can you actually do to plan out your career in IT? How can you decide which path is right for you?

The simple answer is to learn from experience by working with an IT mentor. Your mentor will already have had their career and, after years working in the industry, they’ll also have had the chance to network and communicate with other people in the same space.

All of which means that they’ll not only know the ins and outs of their role but they’ll be able to tell you about the experiences of their colleagues. They’ll be able to teach you about the subject and the skills you’ll need but they’ll also be able to give you that all-important life advice so that you can make a truly informed decision.

At the end of the day, no matter which direction you take, your career will likely last you for years to come and define a huge part of your life. Therefore, it’s always better to really know what you’re going into and the best way to do that is by asking someone who’s been there before.

If you’re ready to kickstart your career in IT then sign up now with Career Navig8r and start learning from experience!