The IT sector offers many candidates a chance for a second professional life. The growing competence gap on the IT staff market makes it very open to people willing to change the industry at different stages of their professional life. The audience gathered at our webinars also confirmed this trend.
Technology as a bargaining argument
Many people who want to enter the IT industry start by learning a chosen technology and advance along the technical path while completely ignoring their previous work experience and competences, which, from our perspective, may be more valuable to an IT employer than the ability to code in the given language. IT is not only a technical profession, the talent to talk with the business people and speak their language is highly valued here as well. Management skills are also in high demand in the IT area, such as leading a team and handling and navigating internal processes within a company. Widely used agile methodologies introduce other roles that have been very popular on the job market recently, such as Scrum Master, Product Owner or, in traditional methodologies, Project Manager.
Have a thorough audit of your professional competences
Before making the decision to change the career, it is worthwhile to conduct an audit of acquired and established professional competences. It is a good idea to ask another person what, from their perspective, we are good at, because often such knowledge is not consistent with our personal beliefs about ourselves. It is also a good idea to make an inventory of the tasks you have performed so far, add the foreign languages you speak and take stock of your management skills. It is also useful to have a broader view of the industry that you have been developing professionally in so far. A trainer has the best predispositions to become a Scrum Master, an employee of the public administration can be a great office manager, a person who operates an Internet store will find themselves in the role of a Product Owner in a company offering e-commerce solutions. The IT industry also offers a wide range of opportunities for linguists and humanists, and existing academics can successfully use the empirical methods while working as a data scientist or specialist in the development of artificial intelligence. Another occupational group for whom a career in IT is wide open includes informed (knowledgeable) salespeople using a consultative approach. We are also short of people with a flair for writing as copywriters and IT marketing specialists.
If not programming, then what?
The belief persisting on the market that only people with a science profile and very good knowledge of mathematics, analytics and, ultimately, at least the basics of programming, have a chance for a second career in IT, causes us to lose a lot of talent.
There are many other roads leading to the IT industry, where „other” does not mean „worse”. Our experience with potential candidates who want to change their careers shows that people coming from other professional areas bring a lot of value to the organization, they support us where we have large deficits due to the strong technological focus. They are facilitators of communication and take a conscious interest in the development of teams. They are the technology companies’ real success maximizers.
Develop your strengths, do not focus on deficits
Around 30% of attendees of our Jobicon events declared themselves as non-technical people eager to switch to IT. That is why we would like to encourage you to build a career in IT based on your strengths and the skills you have already gained, rather than catching up on areas you have never enjoyed. This is the fastest way to mastery and expertise, and there will always be a demand for this on the IT market.
He who asks a question does not err easily
If you are looking for the right place for you in IT, look for someone who knows the industry inside out, has possibly gone down this path and ask about his/her experiences. If you do not have any such people in your area, we would be happy to help you get in touch with such a person. Arrange a coffee with our recruiter and tell us your story.
