Are you ready to tackle your IT career future head on?
With 2017 well and truly here, chances are you're thinking hard about what the year ahead will bring. When it comes to the future of your career, it's important to do everything you can to set yourself on the road to success. If you have decided it's time for a change and are in the market for a new IT job in New Zealand, here are four tips to help you hit the ground running and be well on your way to your next opportunity:
Establishing a set of objectives can give you motivation and direction when developing your career.
1. Set clear goals for your career
Before you can begin the search for a new role, it's important to think about what you're looking for. Where are you trying to take your IT career in the future, and what kind of role will you require as a stepping stone to get there? The Air New Zealand Careers site advises assessing your current position and identifying all the aspects that you would like to change or develop, and well as the things you'd like to achieve. From there, you can get an idea of what you must do to make this happens. Perhaps you'll need to upgrade your IT skills, expand into a new part of the industry or take a leap of faith and aim for a role that is a promotion from your current one.
Whatever you do, make sure you establish clear objectives to help guide you in the right direction.
2. Give your CV and online profiles a facelift
Don't fall into the trap of reusing the same, stale resume again and again – it's time to revitalise your CV to match your fresh goals for the future. According to a survey form career resource Reed, the presentation order, format and length are the three most important elements of a CV. While it's important you have a well-written work history and an impressive record of your skills and education, it's in the presentation that it all comes together, so make sure you pay attention to the finer details as well.
As for your online resume, don't forget to give your LinkedIn profile a polish as well. With a 2015 Jobvite study revealing that 87 per cent of recruiters use LinkedIn to find candidates, you should be ready to take advantage of this media for getting ahead in IT recruitment. Forbes recommends updating your summary and headline, getting a unique URL to make your profile more accessible, incorporating images, video and other media to make it more eye-catching and fleshing out your skills section with new expertise.
3. Keep an eye on the latest opportunities
Now that your new CV is ready, it's time to look for some promising IT vacancies to send it to. It's beneficial to pay attention to the current recruitment trends in the tech sector, as this will give you an idea of where to concentrate your search. IT career resource Modis predicts some of the most in demand IT jobs for the coming years. Web development jobs are expected to expand the most with a forecasted growth of 27 per cent, followed by analysis at 21 per cent and IT security at 18 per cent. Other promising opportunities include health IT, database administration and IT project manager jobs.
In addition, you should also pay attention to the positions in the tech industry that are in shortage. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment highlights a range of IT skills shortages in New Zealand right now, which include programming, software engineering and testing, and telecommunications network engineering. Focusing on these areas of the IT industry will give you a much better chance of landing a role quickly.
The help of an IT recruiter will give you an extra edge in your job search.
4. Call in the professionals
With these steps checked off your list you will be in a good position to tackle next stage of your professional development and impress potential employers. However, you don't have to do it alone – you can call in the professionals and give yourself every possible advantage available to you. If you really want to make sure you get ahead in your career in the coming year, utilising the expertise of an IT recruitment agency is going to give an extra edge over the competition. Recruitment consultants specialising in the technology sector will be able to find the most promising IT opportunities around and match candidates with roles that suit both their skill sets and their long term goals. Consultants' years of experience and contacts with New Zealand IT employers make them invaluable partners when pursing career development.
If you'd like to find out more about where you could take your IT career in 2017, get in touch with 920 today. We are experts in technology recruitment, and always have a finger on the pulse of New Zealand's IT industry.
