How To Take Your Next Step Professionally In Your IT Career
Posted July 5th, 2013
Everyone’s career is different. In much the same way that a haircut looks vastly different on your head vs. the in the magazine – no one career path will work for two different people.
Every decision you make in life is filled with opportunities and opportunity costs. If you chose to learn Java, you might not have time to learn PHP. Which one will earn you / cost you the next job? If you chose to work in the IT department for an oil company, will your future opportunities shoot up or dry up.
The bottom line is that you are the only one who can plan your career path. To make the question even more confounding, the answer will change depending on when you ask the question. The person that you right now – with your current goals and dreams – might not be the person you are in 10 years. Life happens….you grow, you change, you meet people.
Therefore, in order to find out “what should I do next” you need to understand that 1) you are the only one with the answer and 2) you need to ask yourself this question repeatedly throughout your life.
Eric Bloom, former CIO, current president of Manager Mechanics recently provided a list of 6 questions that (if answered honestly) can help you decide the perfect next step for your IT career:
- What is your specific goal?
- What are your internal interests?
- What do you like to do?
- What do you not like to do?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses as both a person and professional?
- What are you willing to sacrifice to attain your professional goal?
Now, look at your responses and identify patterns and/or contradictions. For example, you might desire to be a basketball player for a NBA team, but your height might work against you. As a professional example, you might like to progress from development to management, but if you simply are not comfortable working with and managing other people, this might not be the best move.
Next, take patterns and contradictions and analyze how they can lead to specific IT jobs. For example, Mr. Bloom states that if you discover that you like working with people, are a good writer and dislike programming, and enjoy both the technical and non-side of IT, you might make a good business analyst.
Finally, look at your geographic area. For many of us, where we live defines where we work. Children, mortgages, significant others’ careers all play a part in the opportunities that we can take advantage of during a particular point in our life.
Remember to go through this process at various points during your life. You will find that your goals and dreams and aspirations change. The career you start off with is usually not the career you will finish with. Technology (and our own mindset) changes, adapts and morphs far too quickly.
If you are looking for work in the IT sector, send your resume to Bayside Solutions. We look forward to hearing from you.
