Want to get ahead in the IT industry? Tear up your career plan and start working like a business. Beef up your marketing, work your contacts, keep looking for new opportunities and make sure you never lose your competitive advantage. Ongoing economic uncertainty, together with the rise in outsourcing and work automation, rapid changes in technology and growing constraints on training and development budgets have put an end to the long-term career paths employers could once offer IT professionals.
"We live in a world where there's no job security for anyone," says Raymond de Villiers, director at technology and business consultancy TomorrowToday. IT professionals can no longer rely on their employers to manage their careers; they need to take greater responsibility for themselves, he says.
Every IT worker, not just freelancers and employees looking to change jobs, should use social media to raise their profile and cultivate valuable contacts, argues De Villiers. He says a strong online presence keeps IT staff alert to new work opportunities, bolsters their standing with their current employer and helps them quickly find alternative employment should their services be suddenly terminated. "It's vital to always have a Plan B, whatever your job," notes De Villiers. Social networks are the fast-growing source of 'quality hires', according to professional online network LinkedIn. Nearly a quarter of South African, and almost half the US, senior recruiters surveyed by the company rated them as important in 2014.
Differentiate yourself
Social media is now an essential marketing tool for IT professionals eager to broadcast their skills and experience. "To be effective, you need to pitch your message on the right platform," says De Villiers. "I use Twitter, for example, to engage with my contacts by sharing short comments and insights. On Facebook, I share longer, anecdotal information such as journal articles. I use LinkedIn to demonstrate my professional ability, experience and skills. Blogs and websites can also be used to show your knowledge and ability to be an innovative thinker," he says. "It's important to be able to differentiate yourself. It's not enough to say what skills you have; you must be able to demonstrate what you have delivered."
Mark Gray, founder and CEO at recruitment software company supplier graylink, points out that social media is fast replacing traditional CVs. "Job seekers can direct prospective employers to their social profile and demonstrate not only their skills and expertise, but also, importantly, who they know. Social media is an essential tool for promoting your personal brand," he says. graylink is the South African partner of LinkedIn.
The ability to verify its members' skills and competence through peer reviews and client feedback is a key factor in the success of LinkedIn and similar online platforms. LinkedIn encourages its members to elicit references and endorsements to strengthen their online profiles. Collaborative work platforms, such as Elance, Freelancer and TrustedPeer, enable clients to rate the work performed by freelancers they've commissioned. Organisations can then see the track records of the people bidding for their business before they select a candidate.
The number-one reason job candidates gave us for moving last year was the need to work on interesting projects with newer technology.
Lara Green, Network IT Recruitment
Online work platforms are providing healthy incomes to an increasing number of IT contractors and freelancers throughout the world. Around 40 percent of US knowledge workers are expected to be working independently by 2020, according to a recent report in Fortune magazine. The report, which urges knowledge workers to reinvent their careers and operate like start-up firms, says the shift away from permanent employment is being driven by widespread cuts in corporate headcounts as well as a growing desire among many skilled professionals for greater freedom and flexibility.
In South Africa, contractors, deployed by IT service providers, and freelancers, working for themselves, tend to be young professionals. "Generation Y workers (born during the 1980s and early 1990s) are often very mobile and self-defined but older professionals with families and financial commitments usually prefer permanent employment," says De Villiers.
The acute skills shortage in South Africa appears to have tempered the move to independent working among older IT professionals. However, local IT workers, whether permanent employees or independent, need to ensure their skills are up-to-date if they want to stay in demand, says Lara Green, Johannesburg branch manager at Network IT Recruitment. The rapid rate of change in key technologies can quickly render a worker's skills-set obsolete, she says. Many IT professionals are realising that if they their employer can't provide them with the new skills and experience they need, they have to move.
"The number-one reason job candidates gave us for moving last year was the need to work on interesting projects with newer technology. The second reason was more money," says Green.
High turnover
The yen for access to new technology is fuelling an already high turnover rate in the local IT industry. "IT professionals are changing jobs more frequently, especially young employees. Graduates frequently jump for more money within their first year of employment. Those with a year or more of experience tend to stay for two to three years. Older graduates, from around 28 years old, usually stay with an employer for four to five years," says Green. She points out that despite the rise of job hunting on social media, specialist recruitment agencies continue to provide a valuable service. "We are better able to screen and match candidates and clients," claims Green. Recruitment and search firms were identified as an important source of 'quality hires' by 40 percent of the South African companies canvassed by LinkedIn last year.
It's important to have someone you can turn to for guidance.
Mark Gray, graylink
Online platforms also provide IT professionals with a host of training and development resources. Many of them are free. Massively Open Online Courses (Moocs) offered by leading universities such as Harvard, Yale and Berkeley and aggregated on sites such as Coursera, enable IT workers to constantly upgrade their skills and knowledge. They also offer entry into emerging technologies, such as mobile applications and data analytics, which are in big demand among employers.
"Moocs offer great opportunities for learning. However, they don't provide accreditation. IT workers using them to upgrade their skills still have to demonstrate evidence of their ability to prospective employers," points out De Villiers. He adds that IT professionals should not only bolster their technology skills but also gain business expertise. This makes them more valuable to potential employers and helps them manage their careers more effectively. "As the workplace becomes more complex, soft skills, like the ability communicate and collaborate, are becoming more important," says De Villiers.
graylink's Mark Gray recommends that career-minded IT professionals fi nd a business mentor. "It's important to have someone you can turn to for guidance," he says. As the careers of IT professionals increasingly mimic the trajectories of small businesses, such mentors are likely to assume the role of the company chairperson. They will provide the insight and acumen that's vital for success as well as the support and solace that's invaluable when times inevitably get tough.
This article was first published in Brainstorm magazine. Click here to read the complete article at the Brainstorm website.
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