Working at a recent technology tradeshow, there were a number of attendees that asked the same question. What are companies looking for nowadays for an information technology worker? These were highly skilled and educated people that were having a hard time finding a job in their field, a field that is growing at an exponential rate. Technology engineers are always in demand, so why were these people having such a hard time finding jobs? After talking with them for a while, a few similarities came to the surface. So, let us answer that question finally.
Certifications - Get certified. Whatever type of technology you like or want to work on, get any and all applicable certifications. Companies will not even let you look at technology anymore if you are not certified. Experience does not matter if you are not certified.
Have a wide knowledge base - Gone are the days of companies hiring a person to specialize in a certain area. Companies are looking for people that are plug and play. They want people that can work on a variety of different technologies. Being versatile is a huge asset in todays job world.
Bring project management skills - Technology implementations today are large in scale, have a number of working parts, and take a long time. Companies are looking for someone that can manage a long project, within a budget, all while managing the installation, testing and switch-over to a new technology.
Say a company is going green, and changing over to a blade server architecture with virtualization. How many different moving pieces are there? How many different people are involved? Having project management skills puts you in the lead of that project instead of answering help desk calls while everyone else gets to do the hands-on stuff.
People
skills - Remember the old Saturday Night Live skit with the IT guy that constantly berates the people that call him to work on their computer? Yeah, those kind of people skills do not cut it anymore. You need to be just as good communicating with people as you are with that server. If you ever want to lead that team of engineers working on the big project, you need to be able to effectively communicate all that knowledge you have so the job gets done right and on time.
Learn the cutting edge - New technology is being developed at an ever more rapid pace. Stay up to speed on what is coming out and when it is coming out. Even more importantly though, figure out how it can benefit a company. The person that brings a new technology to the table is the person that gets to lead that project. If you can make it work and show positive ROI, you just went from technology engineer to rock star.
Even if it is not the right time to implement, it still shows that you are thinking of ways to benefit the company. Companies and their leaders like that.
Technology is not going away. It is only going to keep growing. Fortunately for you, there will always be a job market for someone that loves technology and knows how to make technology work. Companies pay a lot of money to the men and women that can make their company more efficient through the use of technology.
You want to be one of those people. So, get as many certifications as you can, learn how to manage a project, put on your winning smile and learn about the latest and greatest technologies. See you in the server room.
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