You’ve honed your IT skills with education and hands-on experience, and now you’re searching for a job—trying to find an employer who sees you as the best person for their open position. Job-searching involves a level of competition with other job seekers that can be challenging. Here are some tips for competing with other job seekers for the IT job you want.
1. Be informed.
There is a wealth of information about most companies online, including photos and videos of employees’ workspaces, company gatherings, and other information that can give you a good idea of everything from job responsibilities to company culture—before you even get to the first interview. Employers love informed candidates because they don’t waste time on the basics during the interview and can often progress to much better questions that show off their knowledge and skills.
2. Be detail-oriented.
Most job descriptions give a lot of detail about the requirements and how to apply. If you don’t follow these directions exactly, you are losing your first opportunity to show that you can handle detailed instructions. You don’t want to start out behind the curve by failing to follow basic directions about how to submit your CV and application, no matter how detailed they may be.
3. Go the extra mile.
Going the extra mile is a hallmark of a superior candidate. You can distinguish yourself by showing that you are the type of person who doesn’t just do what is required, but also goes above and beyond. Some ways to do this are to take IT certification courses even when your job doesn’t require it or to be early for your interview, not simply on time. Writing a thank-you note or email after each interview used to be standard practice, but has become another way to go above and beyond in recent years.
4. Demonstrate quantifiable skills and accomplishments.
Employers don’t simply want to know that you have particular skills, they want to know exactly how you have applied them and what the results of that application were in a previous job or other professional experience. Instead of simply listing a skill like cybersecurity, for instance, you can instead list the number of cyber attacks you thwarted, the number of days you protected a server successfully, or the percentage decrease in hacking attempts during your tenure.
5. Use technology tools to streamline the job search process.
Technology tools like apps and software can make the job search process faster and more efficient, which could help you beat out the competition for your next IT job. One example of a tool like this is Know Your Worth, a salary calculator tool on the Glassdoor website that helps job seekers determine the salary they should request or try to negotiate when a job offer is made.
PC AGE offers IT courses that help students earn valuable PC certifications to demonstrate skills that let them compete for jobs in the IT field. Request info to see how we can help you start a new IT career.