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8 Essential Skills for a Successful IT Career
Anyone looking to build a career in IT should, in addition to IT training and certifications, develop certain people skills.
Any candidate for an IT job with a diploma or a certificate will have the right technical skills for a position. Their people skills, however, are just as important and can be harder to assess. ITI Resource Placement’s recruitment team knows how important people skills are and how to recognize them.
Will you be able to shine light on your people skills during interviews? Here are a few tips from our recruiters on how to do so.
1. Good problem-solving and analytical skills
Knowing the theory is one thing. Knowing how to use it to cater to clients’ needs is another. IT experts are in great demand for their ability to thoroughly analyze a situation and make informed decisions.
To let prospective employers properly assess your skills, give examples in your resume or during interviews of situations where your decisions positively impacted a project.
2. Able to work in a team
IT specialists are regularly asked to work alongside other IT experts and colleagues with different fields of expertise.
To do so effectively, you must be willing to be open-minded and a real team player.
3. Adaptable and resilient
You know too well that technology is rapidly evolving. To keep your IT career on the right track, you must be willing to integrate new tools and processes to your toolbox.
You will also find that, in any IT job, being able to persevere when faced with a challenge and to bounce back from failure will come in handy. To help you prepare for an interview and show your ability to adapt, think about situations in which you were able to overcome obstacles.
4. Client-focused
IT experts help businesses achieve their objectives. As an IT specialist, your business acumen is an asset that helps you understand customers’ needs and know how to meet them.
If, as part of the hiring process, you can demonstrate to your future employer that you understand their and their clients’ realities, you will be a step ahead of the competition.
5. Curious and displaying leadership
From discovering new technologies to acquiring new skills, there is no shortage of opportunities for IT workers to learn. You must, however, show that you are willing to grow and develop your expertise.
Showcasing your self-sufficiency, leadership skills and willingness to continue learning will impress any IT employer.
6. Organized and thorough
IT jobs often require you to work on several projects at once. Knowing how to organize your time and priorities is, therefore, an essential skill.
How do you get everything done? Give it some thought before your next interview!
7. Ethical and detail-oriented
Now more than ever, IT systems collect sensitive data from companies and their customers including personal information, databases, financial information and more. Decisions about technology can have huge repercussions. Additionally, code, programming and configurations can be unforgiving, and a single mistake can bring down a whole system.
IT specialists must be able to handle broad project overviews, all the while paying attention to details because details play a pivotal role in project success and data security and confidentiality.
You can expect interview questions about your work ethic. Be ready to answer them in a way that shows how thoroughly professional you are.
8. Able to communicate and popularize concepts
IT is often complex. As such, IT specialists who can clearly explain technical concepts, both in writing and in presentations, stand out from the crowd.
If you can make complicated things simple, your employer will surely want to highlight you and your IT expertise, and that can only be a good thing for your IT career.
A successful IT career built on solid people skills
At ITI Resource Placement, we match companies looking for IT workers with candidates looking for an exciting career in IT. We are not only IT experts; we are also recruitment experts. We know what recruiters want to see and hear in interviews, because we are, ourselves, recruiters for hundreds of IT companies throughout Quebec and Canada.
Today’s IT labour shortage is so acute that a candidate’s people skills often outweigh their technical skills. After all, technical skills can be learned in a new position; people skills cannot.
