5 tips from experts on how to build a career in IT

Career topic somehow interests everyone, especially in a crisis. At Microsoft events, we often talk about technology, but there are reports on job search and career advancement from the coolest experts.

Below, I picked up five reports that answer questions like interviews, what skills you need to develop in order to become more successful in IT, and what to do to make your career go uphill. Carefully, they are talking about business here!
')


1. If you ask a CIO of a modern dynamic company, what kind of employees is he looking for, what will he answer?

Graham Hackland - CIO of the British Formula 1 team Williams has 19 seasons with his staff working on support for racing cars.

In the video, Graham Hackland talks about the principles by which he selects employees for his team, and stresses that most CIOs follow the same principles.

Working in Graham’s team is not easy, the rules and conditions are constantly changing, and the IT system must also change rapidly and remain up-to-date.

In short, when choosing an employee, technical skills go into the background, they can be taught, personal qualities become important. The advantages are people who are able to work at a fast pace at high loads and constantly learn new technologies.



2. Do you want companies to invite you to work with them on terms that interest you?

Microsoft MVP Vadim Bogdanov at one of our events talked about how to achieve new career heights in IT.

The main thing in this issue - the reputation, says Vadim. Speeches at conferences, books, your last name on the PMBoK list of authors, but the most important thing is to keep your promises.



3. Jeffrey Snowover has long been known as Microsoft’s PowerShell expert, but now he is the chief architect of the cloud team and is responsible for the Windows Server, System Center, Operations Manager, and Microsoft Azure products.

In the video, he says that you can achieve success in your career by focusing on business goals.

Snover calls on every IT specialist to develop a DevOps installation. This means that in the work you need to see the full picture, and not just your area, to be part of the business.

Ask yourself the question: what can I improve in my company?

You can study new technologies and implement them in the company: the cloud, containers, automated tests and much more, and you will be ready to move up the career ladder, because you are acting in the interests of the business.



4. This video, in my opinion, the most useful.

Nick Korkodilos, headhunter, creator of the portal The Ask the Headhunter and author of several books on career issues, provides useful tips for career success.

Nick does not advise focusing on sending out a resume and posting it on career sites. This does not work!

Korkodilos emphasizes that if you want to get the desired job, you need to show that you will be useful to the company-employer.

He tells the story of a manager who, getting a job, instead of a regular interview, made a small presentation of his understanding of the difficulties and problems that managers in this department face. Then he briefly presented his work plan with these difficulties and problems. At the end he wrote a number. Salary level? Not! The manager wrote what profit he would bring to the company.



5. And a little more about the business.

In the IT field, the word “marketing” is perceived almost as abusive, but you can look at marketing from the other side and learn something useful for your career.

Jarod Green, vice president of product marketing for Cherwell Software, talks about what IT professionals can learn from marketing.

According to Green, IT professionals should focus not only on technical aspects, product functionality, but also on who this product is being created for, how to go with it to the market, what message to carry to the target audience.



Career success to you!