From Intern to Manager: How to Progress in your IT Career

Are you looking to become an IT manager? Or thinking about how to get your first role in IT? In this article, we’ll be covering our best tips for advancing your IT career as you take your journey from intern to manager and beyond!

Starting Your IT Career

If you’re still at the stage of thinking about how to get a role in IT, then now’s the time to really start looking to the long term. While any entry-level role will be a great asset to your CV, if you really want to progress, then you’ll want to find a role where you’ll be able to push beyond your comfort zone and build new skills.

Furthermore, once you’ve found that role, don’t settle for just meeting the needs of your job. If you want to develop your career, then you need to start proving that you’re manager material and that means bringing as much value as you can to the team.

Can you work more autonomously? Are there extra responsibilities you could take on during work hours that would make life easier for those around you? Do you have ideas that could improve your workplace and are you willing to express them?

Most importantly of all, remember that growth and development take time. After all, there’s a reason so many companies place such a high value on experience. That being said, you should never lose sight of your goals and always be looking for ways that you can use those work hours to improve your professional skill set.

Finding IT Manager Roles

After a year or two in your first role, it’s normal to find yourself looking around and wondering where to go next. While some companies will make an active point of promoting internally, promotion is never something you can rely on, no matter how much you bring to the team. At a certain point, if you want to move your career forwards, you’re going to have to take proactive steps.

The first thing you should do, if you’ve started to do so already, is to network. Speak with your circle and keep an eye out for potential openings. Make sure potential employers can find you on LinkedIn and don’t be afraid to connect with people after just one or two meetings.

Building good connections with your coworkers and developing a reputation for reliability can be incredibly valuable in the long run. After all, as those people move on to other jobs in other companies they’ll remember you, and when they’re looking for a hardworking professional to take on a new role, you’ll be the first person who comes to mind.

The second, and probably the most valuable, step you can take when looking for IT manager roles is to tailor your applications. As a rule, the further you progress into any career path, the more of a specialist you’ll become. While the work of an IT manager is broadly the same from company to company, the specifics can vary a lot.

When tailoring your applications, try to frame the specific experiences you’ve had that you think will translate well to the company you’re applying for. In the case of IT this is particularly relevant as you can talk technical details of the systems you’ve worked with and the first hand knowledge you’ve accrued.

Last but certainly not least, remember to stay persistent. Remember that almost every career path is shaped like a pyramid; there will always be fewer roles at the top than at the bottom. This means that with every stage of your career, finding that next role will get harder and for many people this can be really demoralising.

Sticking with it massively increases your chances of progress. It might take you a year or even five but if you keep tweaking and refining your application process, you’ll be beating out the competition and maximising your chances of finding that dream role.

Working As An IT Manager

Of course, progress doesn’t stop once you become a manager. As an IT manager you’ll be entering into a new stage of your career journey – one where you’ll be in the driver’s seat far more often. You’ll be helping to train beginners and also liaising with higher ups.

Most importantly, once you become an IT manager, you’ll be gaining incredibly valuable experience that can translate into any number of other roles. Whether you’re looking to stay at a managerial level or progress higher is entirely up to you.

Alternatively, you could use your experience to help others climb their own ladder. By becoming a mentor, you could take those years of development and help share them with others. That hard work you put in to find the perfect IT role could be passed along to someone else.

When all’s said and done, your experience makes you more valuable both as an employee and as a guiding voice. So if you’re looking for a part time side job or to move beyond your IT manager role, then become a mentor today with Career Navig8r!