IT Life Coach: Tips for Bridging the IT Career Gap

(“In Case You Missed It Monday” is my chance to showcase something that I wrote and published in another venue, but is still relevant. This week’s post originally appeared on THWACK)

Career-focused conversations on topics like advancement, job hunting, resumes, getting started, pivoting to a new area of tech, and so on are a staple of IT professional water-cooler conversations even when times were “normal” (whatever that actually was). But after the last 12+ months, with everything going on <gestures vaguely at the computer screen>, those topics are even more top-of-mind. Which is why I wanted to make sure at least one entry in our IT Life Coach series addressed it. You can find my career advice here: 

Once again, this IT Life Coach series is about skipping the simple, simplistic, or well-trod topics and getting to some of the often-overlooked but deeply important aspects, whether we’re finding ways to improve as a tech practitioner working on servers, networks, or monitoring solutions.

What you’ll notice is I skip talking about job hunting itself; or resume tips; or how to negotiate the best salary; or my opinion about how to respond to interview questions. Make no mistake, I have opinions about all those things (and more). But in the short five minutes I had, I wanted to focus on something “they” never tell people who are starting their IT journey.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch, listen, or read the transcript. Feel free to share it with folks in your life who might need to hear it. And if you have additional thoughts or questions, share them in the comments below.

And I’d be deeply remiss if I didn’t express my deep appreciation for the talents of Patricia Mitter (mitter) and Matthew Murray (mattwmurray) for their incredible work directing and animating this video.