co mplet e it pro f essio nal.co m http://www.completeitpro fessional.com/career/six-tips-for-a-young-it-pro fessional/

by Ben on April 6, 2012 edit

Six Tips For A Young IT Professional

Are you a young IT prof essional? Would you like to get a head start on your ITcareer? Have a read of this article – I’ve put together some tips that should helpyoung IT prof essionals get ahead in the inf ormation technology industry.

Develop A Long Term Goal

So you’ve started in the IT industry – well done! You might be straight out ofuniversity, or working as an apprentice-type role while still studying. In any case,one of the most important things that young IT prof essionals should do is setsome long term goals.

Why should you do this? Because it ’s hard to know where you want to go if you don’t know how to getthere. Think about what you like doing in your job. Is it developing, documentation, talking to people,testing, planning? This might be hard to work out if you’re new, but you might have some idea. If not, thinkback to what you enjoyed most at university and expand f rom there.

The good thing about being a young IT prof essional is that you have a lot of t ime to decide what you wantto do. When I started, I remember I had about six or seven ideas of areas I wanted to get into – Javadevelopment, database administrator, project management, business development, and a f ew others. Sincethen, my roles have changed and it has made f inding a suitable long-term goal even easier.

Find A Mentor

A great way to improve your IT career is to f ind a mentor. A mentor is a more experienced IT prof essional,who possibly works in the same company as you, and is able to of f er advice and guidance f or your job andyour career. Ideally it ’s someone who works in the same area you do, or the same area you’d like to get into, so they have f irst-hand experience to of f er you.

There are probably two ways you can f ind a mentor – you can ask your employer if they can suggestanyone, or you can f ind someone yourself and ask them directly. Both have their pros and cons. If you’reable to get someone to be your mentor, that’s a great step in the right direction, and hopef ully they cangive you the guidance you need.

Learn To Express And Communicate

When I started working in IT, I f ound that there are a lot of dif f erent kinds of people in the industry.Communicating with dif f erent kinds of people isn’t something they teach you in university (well, they didn’twhen I was there). You get comf ortable speaking to other university students and teachers, but whenmoving into your f irst f ull- t ime role, the transit ion can be challenging.

You’ll need to learn how to express yourself and communicate at work, to all dif f erent kinds of people. Thisis something that comes with experience, but as you’re starting out, the one thing that helps is practice.Don’t shy away f rom situations and times that you can speak to and interact with other workers.Developing your communication skills and learning to express yourself early in your career will reap benef itslater in your career – an IT prof essional with great communication skills is worth their weight in gold!

Keep Learning

The IT industry is always evolving. New technologies are being released, new systems are being

implemented and new uses f or technology are being created. One way to improve your IT career as a youngIT prof essional is to keep learning. If you expect that your university degree is the last qualif ication youearn or the last thing you’ll learn, then you might not get as f ar as you can in your career.

There are many qualif ications out there that cater to all kinds of practices and technologies. Getting aqualif ication is a great way to enhance your skills, stand out f rom the crowd and even get a pay rise.

However, getting a qualif ication isn’t the only way to keep learning. There is so much inf ormation availableout there on the Internet that you can learn a lot of things f or f ree. Learning a new programming language,enhancing your skills in a current one, learning best practices f or business analysis – these are just someof the things you can learn as an IT prof essional. As the old saying goes, knowledge is power, and as youlearn more your ability to do your job will increase.

Act Responsibly

As a young IT prof essional you’ll probably be working with a lot of people who are older and more seniorthan you. This is quite dif f erent f rom your university days where most people were a similar age. Thismeans that you need to act mature and responsible at your job. The kind of behaviour that was appropriateat university or at your part t ime job may not be acceptable at your new job. There is a common thoughtthat young workers these days are immature and have no respect f or elders. It ’s your job to prove themwrong by acting responsibly and mature. You’ll get noticed as someone who is committed to working welland knows how to behave at work – another t ick in the box of being a great IT prof essional.

Create A LinkedIn Account

The f inal t ip I have f or IT prof essionals is to create an account on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social network f orprof essionals – it ’s kind of like Facebook f or your career. It ’s a great way to put yourself out there and tokeep in touch with all the people you’ll meet in your career. The people you meet in your career are one ofthe most important parts of your career in the IT industry, and as a young IT prof essional, getting startedearly is a great idea.

I hope these tips help you improve your career and give you some ideas as a young IT prof essional. I wasthere once and some of the points above I wish I knew back then.

Got any more tips? Post them in the area below!

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For more IT career t ips and inf ormation on how YOU can improve YOUR IT career, visit Complete ITProf essional