How to Get an I.T. Job without I.T. Experience

By Jeff King

It may sounds like a bad situation for an IT job seeker, it may be you  (I hope not, but if it is, you can still get IT) :

• No IT experience, or no work experience at all, you may be a new college graduate, college dropout, or only out of high school.
• No IT related education such as a computer degree (Computer Science, MIS, etc).  Your college major is something like, let’s say, Political Science, or you don’t have a college degree at all.
• No IT training, — something like week-long Oracle database performance tuning class, it’s too expensive!

In this case, can you get a real IT job?  A real job means getting paid, full time work, permanent position with all common benefits.

Why IT?

First, why someone in this situation wants an IT job?

Well, for every job seeker no mater what background, the job market only offers 3 choices:

• Blue-collar jobs
• Service jobs
• Professional jobs

Blue-collar jobs are like factory workers working on assembly lines.  Since many manufactures are moving out of North America to the third-world countries, blue-collar jobs are vanishing.

Service jobs are opening everywhere and are very easy to get.  But they are poorly paid.  Many service jobs are seasonal or temporary based, — no job security, less stability, and limited career growth opportunities.

For a career oriented job seeker, your choice is clear, — professional jobs.  Engineering, information technology (IT), management, teaching, research, these professional jobs can give you fair compensation, reasonable stability, and better chance in career advancement.

Professional jobs are not easy to get, however.  There are many restrictions such as requirement of formal education.  But IT is an exception.  Unlike traditional professions, IT is open to take talents in all conditions.

Why IT?  The door is wide open, and with such a humble background IT is the only quick route toward professional career.

Can You Get IT?

No experience, no education, no training, can you get a IT job?

YES, even in economic downturn or jobless recovery, you CAN.  Here’s why.

IT needs you.  Today’s business cannot run without IT.  Enterprises depend on IT workers to operate in good economy and bad economy as well.  IT workforce grows fast all the time.

As a new industry, IT has been built with a diversified workforce.  In fact,  over 60% of IT professionals come from non computer science background, and obviously,  ALL of them started without IT experience.

Driving by highly creative and open-minded people, IT industry has become the most opened market to attract job seekers with various background and from all directions.  In hiring process, IT managers care less about your academic education and corporate experience, they count on your ability, skills, commitment, and dedication.  They are willing to give you a chance and put you on test.  That means it’s easier to get in.  Then if you can demonstrate your determination and the ability to learn, you’ll survive and prosper. 

How to Get IT?

If you are interested in IT, and know how to break in, you’ll get the IT and do well in your career no matter what background you are from.  But you cannot just come with bare hands.  Instead, you must make yourself well prepared.  To break in to IT industry, you need to prepare three things: 

(1) Some basic IT skills, 

(3) Self-made experience, and 

(3) A solid IT resume.

In addition, you should charge yourself with some soft materials such as positive attitude, desire to succeed, self-motivation, spiritual inspiration, etc.  These invisible things are important and can be very helpful.

Obtaining Skills

You don’t have to hold a computer degree, but you do need to have some IT skills to start with and get the job done.  You must convince recruiters and hiring managers that you are capable and trainable in IT field.  To get IT skills, you need to train yourself.  There are tons of free or almost free resources you can use for self-training, but you need a plan and time to do it.  

You can build the latest IT skills from knowledge and information which are always overloaded in IT industry.  Here is a few practical approaches you can take:

• Read technical books online and offline.  There are at least ten books available for each IT topic and sub-topic.  A lot of them are for beginners.  Pick up one of your interest and start to read.  These books can be found in your local bookstore (Borders, Barnes & Noble) or online at Amazon.com. 
   
• Take free online tutorials.  All IT vendors provide tutorials with sample code and instructions.  A lot of tutorials are also provided by third parties.  They are all free.  Use them to learn a specific skill, such as programming, database, web design, etc.  Use Google, Yahoo, or your favorite search engine to locate free IT tutorials.
   
• Go to top IT vendors’ websites to get knowledge for their systems and products.  These vendors offer excellent online knowledgebase.  For instance, if you want to get java skill, just go to Sun’s website, you’ll find any Java related information you need, from installation, coding, to creating complicated Java components.  The most important IT vendors are Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and Sun Microsystems.
    
• Study  manuals and documentations, most of them are available free online from vendors.  Nothing would give you more detailed and accurate knowledge than the manuals and documentations by the product’s vendor.  For instance, if you plan to build skills on Oracle database, you need to get the full set documentation from Oracle website.  It’s free and everything is covered.
    
• Join user groups and mailing lists for a specific area.  You’ll get all sorts of tips and tactics there, and you can ask questions.  That will speed up your process in gaining latest IT skills.
   
• Take online training courses, a lot of them are free.  These courses may be offered by vendors or training companies.  Some of courses are designed for IT certifications.  They usually give you the first course for free.  Online registration may be required.
   
• Subscribe technical based ezines and newsletters. As always, they are free.  you get them delivered to your email box with the latest information about technologies and development trends on systems, tools, and platforms. 
    
• Subscribe IT magazines.  They are free from publishers and vendors.  For instance, you can have a free copy of Oracle Magazine which covers DBA skills, PL/SQL coding, database tuning, and a lot more.
    
• Go to technical seminars in your local area.  These seminars are organized or sponsored by IT vendors to offer new product overview and brief training.  You don’t get in-depth skills from them, but it is a quick way to get basic concepts and directions on a technology, and it is a good opportunity to meet people and build your career network. 
       
• Download trail software tools to play and gain hands-on experience.  That’s the most important.  In fact, a lot of trail versions are fully functional, and a lot of software systems are fully free for developers to use.  Playing them and using them personally would make no difference from actually working on paid projects to gain experience.  

Self-Made Experience

Even though you don’t have a full time job in IT field, you can still make real, practical, and countable IT experience by yourself.  your self-made experience would be served for two purposes: (1) prove the skills that you claim to have; (2) provide credible materials for your resume to land the job.  You’ll find practical tips on self-make experience in the following paragraphs.

• Learn only the hottest IT skills – Java, .NET, database, CISCO network, TCP/IP, etc.  Go to a local bookstore, find books on these topics, read the first three chapters.  If you can make yourself understand the technical concepts and feel confident to implement the technologies in work, you should list these skills in the “Sills Summary/Inventory” section in your resume.
   
• Show your IT work and experience with organizations where you offered volunteer work.  Describe your accomplishment in the resume.  You don’t have to emphasize that it is unpaid, part time, small, volunteer.
     
• Describe the project and the work you did in internship.  Focus on the technology and your accomplishment, instead of the internship itself.
   
• If you developed a shareware software, list it and describe it as an experience in your resume.  Be proud of it even if it is small.
   
• Take one or two free online training classes and list them in the ‘Education and Training’ section in your resume.
   
• If you obtained skills and knowledge through self-study, say so in the ‘Education and Training’ section in the resume.  For instance, “Microsoft SQLServer 2000 Database Administration – Self-training”.  Since you don’t have a IT related college degree, you need a little bit more material in the ‘Education’ section to make your resume IT balanced.
    
• Join an IT professional association and list it under ‘Professional Activities’ section in the resume.  For instance, ‘Member of Association of Information Technology Professionals ‘.  Look for ‘IT Professional Associations’ in this website for more information.  The membership is NOT free, but it does show you are serious in IT career.
   
• Try to get one IT certification so you can list it in the ‘Education’ section in the résumé, i.e., ‘Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)’.  Take one of Microsoft exams or Sun’s Java programming exam, they both require only one passed exam to give you the certification.      

Making Solid Resume

Your resume is the stone you throw to knock the door and break in.  Make it a strong, solid, and powerful one.  Put a lot of IT stuff in.  You say IT stuff?  Without a degree and no experience, where to get these IT stuff?  Easy, make some.  Here let me give the following power tips:

• Learn only the hottest IT skills – Java, .NET, database, CISCO network, TCP/IP, etc.  Go to a local bookstore, find books on these topics, read the first three chapters.  If you can make yourself understand the technical concepts and feel confident to implement the technologies in work, you should list these skills in the “Sills Summary/Inventory” section in your resume.
   
• Show your IT work and experience with organizations where you offered volunteer work.  Describe your accomplishment in the resume.  You don’t have to emphasize that it is unpaid, part time, small, volunteer.
     
• Describe the project and the work you did in internship.  Focus on the technology and your accomplishment, instead of the internship itself.
   
• If you developed a shareware software, list it and describe it as an experience in your resume.  Be proud of it even if it is small.
   
• Take one or two free online training classes and list them in the ‘Education and Training’ section in your resume.
   
• If you obtained skills and knowledge through self-study, say so in the ‘Education and Training’ section in the resume.  For instance, “Microsoft SQLServer 2000 Database Administration – Self-training”.  Since you don’t have a IT related college degree, you need a little bit more material in the ‘Education’ section to make your resume IT balanced.
    
• Join an IT professional association and list it under ‘Professional Activities’ section in the resume.  For instance, ‘Member of Association of Information Technology Professionals ‘.  Look for ‘IT Professional Associations’ in this website for more information.  The membership is NOT free, but it does show you are serious in IT career.
   
• Try to get one IT certification so you can list it in the ‘Education’ section in the résumé, i.e., ‘Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)’.  Take one of Microsoft exams or Sun’s Java programming exam, they both require only one passed exam to give you the certification.      

If you followed some of the tips listed above, you should have had a solid resume with strong IT muscles.  You are in a good shape to land the job. 

Article From http://newezinearticles.com/