First Step to Success in IT Career – Identifying the Right Career Field For You
An average Indian student is under tremendous pressure when he or she needs to choose a specialization for higher studies or while aiming at a potential job. A handful of suggestions coming to you as compulsion from parents; or say guidance from teachers, relatives, and everyone around; on what to do and what not to.
It was okay that you have chosen a random specialization for plus-two as you were not so matured or knowledgeable enough to take the decision all by your own. It is also okay to an extent that you did the same for your graduation / post-graduation too.
But ‘what’ after your graduation or post-graduation with the need to make an appropriate career choice?
Choosing the right IT career for you
Remember, you are 20+ by the time you complete a professional course, and then it is your sole responsibility to make the most appropriate choice and succeed in life. Unfortunately, many fail to do it properly. To avoid such a failure, let us further explore how to identify an apt IT career for you and find natural success.
Also Read >> The best way to choose a career path in IT
Know that you are unique
Each individual is unique with one’s own aptitudes, interests, skills, and personality traits. But, when it comes to choosing an IT career, most of us voluntarily go with the interests and priorities of our “so-called” well-wishers as something is good, based on market trends or it could be something else they find interesting to themselves.
You should know that to do an IT / Technology job well, apart from the baseline technical skills needed, each career demands specific aptitudes, skills, and personality traits in order to enjoy a superfine synchronization with real job responsibilities and succeed naturally.
Entry level IT jobs
A few students may get placed through campus recruitments to top MNCs. For the rest who search for off-campus placements; most of the opportunities may be in start-up, small, and mid level IT companies. As per current industry requirements, major IT job opportunities in this entry-level sector are.
- Software Programmers
- Software Testers / QA
- Web Designers
- Technical Administrator (Networking / System-Server Admin)
- Digital Marketing / SEO etc.,
So, while aiming at an IT career, you must first identify what each of these job fields consist of and which among these you should focus on to make it your career.
Also Read >> Which IT job is good to take – Programming or Testing or Networking?
Once if you have a baseline understanding of all possible career options and responsibilities of each, next you can enter into the critical step of doing proper career mapping.
Simply, career mapping is the process of matching your personal strengths and weaknesses with the actual requirement of a job and identifying which you can easily get along with and where you would struggle.
For example:
1) Apart from the technical knowledge of coding in PHP / Java / Dot Net / Android / iOS or any programming languages; to become a successful Programmer, you should have excellent logical aptitude and problem solving skills.
2) To become a successful Tester, knowledge of manual / automation testing is mandatory, but more importantly, you should be someone who is more quality oriented, have an eye on details, error finding skills, and with patience and perfection in each and every tasks you accomplish. This seems to be more of a life skill, right?
3) A Web Designer, as you know, needs to deal with Photoshop, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Dream Weaver and other technology tools, but apart from these, one should have excellent color and design sense as your personal strength to succeed in designing.
4) An IT Technical Administrator may be working in Network Routing & Switching or Linux of Windows System / Server Administration; however, the primary aptitude required is his or her sense to understand the technical backend of things and initiation as a troubleshooter.
5) Some are bone marketers and know how to impress others and how to present things in an effective manner. You may be seeing some earning hundreds of likes on FB. They do have the sense of mind-reading of others to promote those ‘likable’ things at the right time to right audience. They are ideal Digital Marketers.
Also Read >> In-Demand IT Skills for 2018
If you want to gain a better insight to various IT career fields to choose based on your personal skills and which to avoid, here is a Free Assessment Test which may give you a near-perfect Career Mapping result and guidance.
