A question I often get is, how do you get experience in IT? For people trying to break into this industry, what can they do to gain experience? How can they showcase that experience to a potential employer even if they are applying for their first job? Breaking into a new industry can be the most difficult thing, you lack experience and most of all you probably lack a network. Here are my thoughts on how you can gain that experience.
University studies
The ROI on university studies will vary depending on if you live in a country like me where studies are financed by tax and there is no tuition, or in a country where it can be very costly. That’s not the argument here, university studies can give some things that is difficult to achieve in any other way. I did three years at a university and here’s why I think it’s really valuable.
Time – Having two or three years of dedicated studies is a luxury you won’t have at any other point in your career. You have a full-time job and trying to learn a new discipline on top of that is going to be much tougher. At the university, you’re one job is to study.
Hands-on – My university was also a Cisco networking academy. I did all the curriculum of CCNA and CCNP and we had physical labs with all the equipment needed such as routers and switches and computers. Building your first lab can be costly and complicated. I had plenty of hands-on training during my studies.
Internship – Initially, I was going to study for two years, six months consisted of internship at local companies, two times three months at two different companies. This means that I had the opportunity of applying the skills I was learning in real work environments. I also started building my network by getting to know people. Some of my fellow students ended up getting their first job at the internship.
Soft skills – The ability to write and present to others is something you get plenty of practice at the university. Don’t underestimate this as this is often that decides how far you go in your career.
The university is not for everyone, but by the time I graduated I already had three years of experience (to some degree), which is going to be better than someone with no experience.
Self studies
You don’t have to go to a university to study. You can, and should, study on your own. This is something that you will need to master for a career in IT anyway. You might for example decide to start with the CCNA. It’s really important to build a strong foundation of the fundamentals. Don’t rush through it, take your time and build a strong foundation that you will benefit from later. Get as much hands-on as you can by using a combination of virtual labs and optionally physical gear. A lot of labs can be virtualized, but if you are going to work in IT you also need to have seen what the devices look like and get some actual hands-on with the physical gear. Coming to an interview and showing that you have studied for and achieved a certification on your own, will demonstrate your commitment to breaking into the field.
Volunteering
Before you’re an established IT professional, people aren’t likely to want to pay for your services. How do you get experience? One way is to do volunteering. There’s plenty of churches, organizations, and smaller companies that need help, but don’t have much funds to pay for it. Even if these IT environments are small, much of the knowledge you gain from working in these environments is applicable also at bigger companies. You gain experience while also doing a good deed, I’d call that a win!
Helpdesk/NOC
You’re probably not going to land a job such as network administrator for your very first job. What you should be doing is trying to get a foot in, anywhere. Being in helpdesk or a NOC is no bed of roses, but you will get exposed to a multitude of things that you will benefit from later. Even if networks is your passion, you need to have some other skills as well, such as some knowledge around operating systems, applications, and so on. It can be strategic to work at a helpdesk at a big company where they also have specialized roles. If you do a good job in helpdesk, it’s much more likely you can get promoted to a networking job, for example, rather than applying from the outside.
Online communities
Online communities is a great way of studying and finding peers to study with. Many of the people that are now my friends, or at high positions at various vendors, are people I got to know by contributing to different online communities. Some of the online communities are geared towards people that are studying, some are more geared towards issues that people are having at their jobs. Both of them are really useful. You can learn a lot from seeing what type of issues people are having. Can you solve the problem they’re having? You practice your troubleshooting skills by helping others, then also learning yourself, and you start to network with other people. Perhaps this is the person that will help you land your first job?
Blogging/videos
When you’re applying for a job, your potential employer is most likely going to do an online search for you. What you don’t want to happen is that they either find you in places where you shouldn’t be, or that they find nothing. Both could be seen as red flags. It’s trivial these days to start a blog or YouTube channel. You’re a person with no experience in IT, what value does your perspective bring? Is something you might be thinking. It could be very interesting for others in the same position to get your perspective on what you’re doing to break into a new field. What’s your strategy? What are your focus areas? If you share that knowledge as you learn yourself, that’s going to provide a lot of value for both parties. You will also hone those soft skills. When someone does a search for you, they’ll see that you’re working hard on establishing yourself in a new field.
Contributing code
Even if you’re not applying for a programming role, it can be valuable to have a presence at places like GitHub. You could for example be contributing code to open source projects or displaying your own code that you’ve used to solve a problem. By contributing to projects you’ll get experience working with others and they may also be able to help you to land a job if you show proficiency at coding.
Closing words
Getting that first job is difficult. Anyone saying anything else is most likely a grifter, or got lucky landing their first job. My first job I got through a friend I had studied with in the past. I wouldn’t have gotten it if I didn’t put my heart into my studies, though. To land that first job, you need to do anything that you can to build experience and also a network of people that want to help you get that first job.
I’m curious to hear what other venues there are to building experience. Please put a comment with what you did and how you landed your first job.