How do you know when you’re ready to quit your job and graze on pastures new?

This is a question asked by many IT Professionals right now. Maybe you’ve read the signs that layoffs are ahead, or you’re frustrated in your current role. You could even be considering joining the ranks of freelancers. It’s a risky move to leave a paid job. Especially if setting up by yourself.

It’s important that we understand the risk factors and take these into consideration when preparing yourself to quit.

Enter Mark McClure ‘s recent post on this very subject. I love Mark’s writing because he says it as it is. No fluff. But with a bit of humor thrown in.

Mark isn’t advising against quitting your job, but he does highlight the risks associated with it. It’s education which adds to the quality of such an important decision. In his post he shares a great free resource that I strongly suggest you read if you’re thinking about quitting. You won’t regret it!

Read Mark’s post ‘Drinking The Quit Your Job Kool-Aid ‘ now.

Read my review of Mark’s ‘IT Career Engineer‘ too…

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

This is a burning question on the lips of many IT people who are out of work, or want to move on from a dead-end job. Should you take a role that you consider beneath your abilities and talents to get into the workplace again to put food on your plate?

Most of us work hard to build a career. Each promotion is another stepping stone towards whatever we decide is ‘Success’. We plough our energy into achieving this goal. We toil. We struggle. And we’re rewarded with another step. And we go on. But what if we have to consider taking a step back onto the stone we just moved off? Does this mean we are less successful? How do we decide to take that backwards leap?

This is an agonizing decision – I know, I have been there. During the last ‘IT Recession’ when the dotcom bust was in full swing, I chose to leave the e-commerce practice I had built up to join a infrastructure service company as a project manager. The job demanded much less than I was really capable of, and the pay was $30k less. So you can imagine how the decision wasn’t taken likely.

Why did I do it?

The motivation was clear – I really needed to get out of a situation I knew would collapse, and I had a strong desire to join a sector that was likely to grow. I could have pretended that everything would be ok. I could have made the common mistake by waiting longer for a fat severence check (which, incidentally, I would have soon received.) But I had to face facts – I had to walk or be stuck in a miserable job that was going nowhere (and soon be out of it entirely.)

I chose to take a ‘lower-level’ job as it was a solution to both of my problems. And I just knew that once I entered the new job, I could accelerate my career again. And I did just that. Within a couple of years I was Head of IT for a Financial Services organization, with renewed confidence.

Here’s a question: should we look at a job change like this as a move to a ‘lower-level’ job?

Guess what – I don’t think so.

If we look at a change like this purely from the perspective of status then it will do our head in, and create an irrational response that won’t do jack other than hinder ourselves. It’s a shot in the foot. Don’t do it.

Rather, if a shift in jobs means that we get back onto a career track and can pay the bills, then it’s a step forward. A Big One.

Meridith Levinson is a blogger on CIO.COM I respect. Meridith has just posted a great article on the site on this subject, the title of which I blatantly and shamelessly adopted for this post. Meridith shares the opinions of Steve Watson, a chairman of an executive search firm. Steve believes that employees at all levels (including executives) must consider taking lower-level roles under current market conditions. Steve asserts that, for the talented, this ‘downward’ move is only temporary.

It takes guts to accept this move. To take a downward step requires confidence that career aspirations can once again be fulfilled. Then again, reality bites: if you find yourself in a job that you’re unhappy and unproductive in, or if you’re out of work entirely, getting a surer foot back onto the career ladder is a wise tactic.

Besides, if it works for people starting an IT career, why wouldn’t it work for experienced workers too?

Have You taken a downward step? Or are you considering it? Has it worked for You? Share your story below by leaving a comment.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

I get a number of emails each week (especially from students) asking what the best way is to get into IT. There is rarely a simple answer to this (everyone is different, and everyone’s situation is different) but there is one thing I do come back to often as a sure-fire way to create the best opportunity to enter an IT career with.

It is this: Passion.

Students and young people are always passionate about something. Your passion is your total dedication to a chosen subject or goal. Your passion creates energy and motivation beyond anything a salary or manager can do.

Do you have a passion, and what is it?

Here’s my story. I have a passion for creativity and problem-solving. I just love a challenge and a complex problem to overcome. Whether it’s a business problem, a puzzle, or a quiz, I love it. This is why I work in innovation now, and also how I entered the IT profession as I demonstrated my aptitude as a problem solver when I joined Microsoft as a support technician. I talked about the problems I’d solved in the past (such as my final year project, where I wrote a natural language interpreter for a computer language), and my passion shone through. It wasn’t really my aptitude that got me the job; it was my passion for problem-solving.

When you talk about your passion, your whole body language changes, your eyes light up and you talk with a smile. This is hard to resist. People respond to passionate people.

What if your passion is gardening, or science fiction, or playing games on the PS3? What good are these in getting an IT job? Well, maybe more than you think.

Truly passionate people tend to show their enjoyment in their chosen interest by joining clubs and associations, writing papers, newspaper or magazine articles, participating/chairing societies or bodies, or connecting with other passionate people. What happens is that you become an authority in the subject, and have influence in the subject. Just because your passion isn’t IT related, it doesn’t mean you’re not developing business muscles and practising corporate yoga. And there is often some angle to find that demonstrates your commercial acumen.

Who will be employed first: a president of a regional camera club who can demonstrate leadership, commercial practise (such as managing budgets and committee membership), or a simple amateur photographer who has a mild interest in the subject?

The trick is to understand what you do when you pursue your passion that will have benefits in your IT job application and in performing your IT job.

Get this – everybody has a passion of some sorts. The question is, can you spot what it is and understand the commercial value of it in an organization?

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

I wouldn’t want you to start your career off on the wrong foot, especially now the market is so damn tough. Too many opportunities in starting a career in IT are lost because of a lack of understanding of the market and the belief that your first job must be the ‘right job’. If Mr X over there wants to wait for the ‘right job’ then let him – I’d take any job that pays and has prospects to accelerate upwards quickly! 

Here are 7 essential steps for starting an IT career in a recession.

1. Get to Grips With The Current Situation

Knowing the state of the market is real important if you’re going to enter it. Truth is: it’s grim out there. Jobs in the industry are in decline, primarily due to recession and also the shift of labor to developing countries. The recession is the current killer. It’s not simply a situation of people being laid off; this is happening, but it’s also a case that ad-hoc projects are not being started due to funding, so the contract/freelance market is stale. This has three consequences:

a)      Freelancers are looking for permanent positions

b)      Permanent staff are camping out in their current jobs

c)      The turnover of jobs has vastly reduced

This leaves a helluvva challenge for anyone entering the market. It’s not been so tough since the dotcom bust back in the early ‘00s. There are too many candidates for too few jobs.

So for any job posting, recruiters will see many applicants, often in the 1,000s. There are ways to raise your shoulders above the crowd so you will be noticed first, so I suggest you look at my previous posts on how you can do this:

A Killer Interview Tactic Revealed…

How To Land Top Jobs by Distinguishing Yourself

Great Resumes Arrive With Even Greater Cover Letters

9 Highly Effective Habits of Great Technical Resume Writers

What is the Best Way to Prepare for an Interview? (Part One)

Five Self-Marketing Tips for Information Technology Employees

The simple fact is that, right now, getting any job is a great achievement (well it always was, I guess, but more so now)… but that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities to build your career.

2. Know Your Challenge

Your challenge, then, is to enter the market to start your career. But start it in the right place. I think the ‘Challenge’ needs further definition though, as there is an interesting way of looking at it that I want to share with you.

I don’t think the Challenge is simply starting a career in IT. If it was just that, I think you are setting off on the wrong foot. The method I advocate is to start anywhere and climb as quickly as you can towards the type of job that fulfils your potential. I say get your foot in the door in almost any job and show how great you are.

Does this go against contemporary wisdom? Does it go against the advice elsewhere on this site? Probably. But times have changed. We can’t pussyfoot around anymore and be too picky to start – our time is running out.

Your challenge, should you wish to accept it, is to enter the market at whatever level you can, and then accelerate upwards.

3. Set Your Goals

It’s important to set goals, or this strategy won’t pay off. I always set myself goals when I employ methods like these. These are the outcomes that you believe you need or strongly desire; I’d leave out anything that isn’t vital. Draw your list from the bare essentials!

You might choose these goals, for example:

• Work for employers that I have affinity with their values
• Get a job quickly
• Progress based on networking
• Achieve professional status

4. Create Your Plan

Next, you need a plan. This is different from having a list of goals as you’ll be creating an order in which your goals will be achieved, sometimes by adding new actions. The plan should paint a roadmap for your early career, say 1-2 years. These will serve you in two ways:

1. You’ll know what decisions and actions you need to take
2. Goals can be articulated to potential employers, demonstrating your commitment to your career

My advice is strong and clear here:

Get in a job. Use it as a platform to find the work that excites you. Don’t bother with training courses, or certification BEFORE you begin your career.

The sooner you can get working, the sooner you can …

…begin building experience,

… networking inside and outside of your organization,

… identify what jobs you really want to do, once you’ve discovered how IT organizations really work

… build confidence in yourself

… spot the next developmental opportunities for you

Your plan will look something like this:

1. Draw up a list of organizations you would like to work for (1 month)
2. Apply for vacancies (2 months)
3. Accept an offer (4 months)
4. Begin your new job (4 months)
5. Build relationships with key influencers (6 months)
6. Achieve excellent scores in First Performance Appraisal (12 months)
7. Select opportunities to progress and be promoted (15 months)
8. Achieve one professional certification (18 months)
9. Achieve first promotion (24 months)

5. Get Going

Once you’ve got your plan – get on with it. Don’t procrastinate. I’ve known a number of people who find excuses for not taking action and in every case, they took a job they didn’t like because they didn’t have a plan and acted against it.

You can lose a lot of momentum in career building if you wait until all seems perfect, i.e. the perfect resume, certification, etc. Just get going and take a job that gets you inside an IT department.

6. Begin Networking

Once you’ve got a job, it’s essential that (to get off the bottom rung on which you entered your career) you begin networking. In other words, building relationships with your peers, managers, leaders, everyone in fact. The more people that know you, the better. Talk to them about your aspirations, and of course, listen to them more.

The more you can understand the roles and responsibilities of other people, the more you can help them and be helped. I don’t underestimate the power of a network, as this is what has created pretty much all the opportunities I’ve had to progress and rise in the organizations I’ve worked for. Hard work is just what you do to keep your job – it’s networking that creates new opportunities. And this is done by relationships based on equity and mutual benefit.

7. Promote Yourself

You’ve entered at the bottom rung, but you don’t need to stay there.

‘Promote Yourself’ works on two levels.

The first level is publicizing yourself. If your new employer has a company newsletter, find a way of being features on it. Get your LinkedIn profile up to date (or registered if you don’t have one). Join groups about your job family (e.g. web development, IT ops, Project Management), both internally and externally.

One other interpretation is to literally assume you have been promoted. That is, take on new responsibilities until told otherwise (it’s essential that you can actually honor them!). Assume authority until otherwise too. Think Big – but Act Small. What I mean by that is by assuming new responsibilities, don’t expect everyone else to know you have done so – so don’t throw your weight around!

Both of these interpretations are valid! Use these tactics to build yourself a profile of someone who gets involved and gets the job done, and is prepared to above and beyond your role, and take a few risks too.

Some last thoughts…

• Scour the market for jobs that you can do with confidence.
  • Use all your contacts and raise awareness in your network that you’re looking for work
  • Don’t be afraid to take jobs that are not your ‘dream jobs’
  • Look for organizations that have a variety of roles already filled within their IT department
  • Filter out any organizations that don’t fit you (but not the vacancies)
• Apply for these jobs using all the tools to stand out you can get hold of
• Confidently go for interviews with full preparation
  • Ask questions in your interview about progression
  • Ask to see an org-chart of the organization or have it described to you
  • Don’t take the first job offered to you necessarily, but don’t wait around too long. Remember, you need to get your foot in the door.
• It’s not what you know. It’s not even who you know. It’s who knows you. Once you’ve got a job, begin building  profile. Network. Find sponsors who can support you in progressing. Take every opportunity to get yourself off that bottom rung.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Can you remember what originally sparked your interest in IT? Was it the technology, or the pay? I look back on what created my passion for technology and IT.

There are two types of IT people: Those folks who are in IT for the career and gainful employment as part of life’s journey, and those who are in IT because it’s their natural calling and have chosen to build their career on their passion. I fall into the latter category.

An Early Career Choice

I didn’t stumble into IT as a career then – I chose it from an early age. It makes me laugh now as what I thought an IT career was all about is far different from the reality! I remember the first moment I saw a computer, and I fell in love! I was 10 years old and it was back in 1983. I was at school, probably in shorts. The machine that I gasped at (and bear in mind I am British) was something called a BBC Micro Model A, badged by the BBC organization, but made by Acorn. It must have cost my school a king’s ransom at the time (actually, not really – its list price was £235/$352!)

This machine isn’t beautiful – it won’t win any awards for aesthetics! But this was the first time I had seen a real computer; not just the ones on the movies. I was awe-struck.

The specs for this machine can be found here on wikipedia . By todays standards, it’s lame. You’ll find more computing power in a wristwatch. But hey, I can remember touching the keyboard and thinking I could do what those kids in the movies did (this was at the time where movies like ‘WarGames ‘ were out.)

It wasn’t long before a friend and I were typing in programs from books and enjoying the results. My first taste of programming had happened, and it was in BBC BASIC – the most advanced of its type at the time. I could create! I wasn’t great at art or music, so with the computer I could be really creative. I soon began writing my own programs and adapting them further. I remember spending hours and hours debugging code I’d written. I can also remember, with some embarrassment, some of the coding techniques I used. That’s bordering on geekiness . But as far as this goes, I am a geek.

This was the start of something important for me, and stemmed my career later in life. If it wasn’t for the pure passion and untethered creativity I enjoyed, I doubt I would have the same deep-seated interest in IT I have today.

Were you bitten by the technology bug at an early age? Maybe it wasn’t the BBC Micro for you – perhaps it was one of these handsome looking machines ?

Was I Lucky, or a Kid of My Time?

I wonder if kids today have those same opportunities? Do games consoles created an insurmountable barrier for most of them to assail? All they need to do is switch it on and insert a disk. Back then we had to know how a computer works to get it to play a game. You couldn’t even load a game without knowing a couple of instructions in BASIC. Sure, there were consoles too like the Atari and the Intellevision (I had one!) yet home computers were much more prolific as games systems than they are today.

I wonder how new kids get into IT from the same basis of passion and interest as me. Do they experience the spark early, as I did, and maybe you did? Perhaps I didn’t see it at the time but I consider myself lucky that I was around during the home computer revolution. It’s created a passion in me that will last a lifetime. The passion isn’t for the BBC Micro though, the passion is the belief that with computers, we can create the things of our dreams and imagination – anything is possible with technology and determination.

I’d got the bug . So through my school years I excelled at Computer Studies and Math – other subjects weren’t so great! At University, I took Computer Science and finished with a Bachelors Degree. And my career has been in IT ever since. All because of that BBC Micro!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

What if I told you that you could exchange 3 hours of your time and just over 40 bucks for all the IT career guidance you’ll need to move from pure techie to IT Leader? You’d think I was nuts, right? Well I wish I had known about Mark McClure’s IT Career Engineer 12 years ago when I was doing just that.

Mark McClure is a personal coach for ‘mid-career’ technical professionals. Mark was born in Northern Ireland and now lives in Japan. Mark is a frequent commentator on this site so I thought I would look at his product The IT Career Engineer and review it. Mark runs his blog www.markmccluretoday.com where he frequently talks about the opportunities and issues we technology professionals face in our career. It’s Mark’s experience and insights into the IT industry that has led him to capture his knowledge in his report The IT Career Engineer , which comes to us at $42USD on CD. Mark and I first began talking because of our common interest in the development of the technology professional, i.e. You, and I became interested in his course as our relationship developed. He has even written a Guest Article on this site: Five Self-Marketing Tips for Information Technology Employees .

The report is intended for technology professionals who aspire to build a successful career in the Information Technology industry. As Mark says, having great technology skills is not enough, so Mark’s report is a course designed to teach technology professionals to build new all-round skills to forward their career.

The course is delivered as video presentations from the CD which load into your browser. It’s broken up into eleven modules with a few seconds under 3 hours of content . Because it’s modular, you can break up the course to view it over several sessions at your convenience and you won’t lose the thread as you do. The course material isn’t accompanied with audio/mp3 versions for listening on your iPod, but as you’re a technology professional then I am sure you could find a way to do that. I tested the course by taking one module each day which I could slot into my daily schedule.

Each video is presented using a tool called MindGenius , which is a mindmapping tool. Mark talks you through the content of each module whilst navigating the way through the content on-screen. As Mark is talking he highlights the relevant content which he pre-prepared. MindGenius is an effective way of presenting educational material as it shows the linkage and decomposition of topics.

The videos are:

Introduction (10:27)

Your coach: Mark McClure (07:35)

01a – You! (18:14)
01b – You! (10:02)
01c – You! (06:00)

02 – ‘Luck’ (11:15)
03 – Baselining (07:43)

04a – Selling Yourself (10:17)
04b – Selling Yourself (Technical Skills) (09:02)
04c – Selling Yourself (Business Skills) (10:16)
04d – Selling Yourself (People Skills) (11:09)

05 – Project Management (05:14)
06 – Time Management (08:54)
07 – Managers (13:25)
08 – Training (10:29)
09 – Biz-Trips (13:03)
10 – (Performance) Reviews (07:52)
11 – Personal Vision (08:30)

Note that the first module is about You . Mark starts right with the person who is watching and discusses the challenges of the modern technology professional, the need for survival skills , the desire to transition into leaders and how technology professionals are motivated. Mark talks frankly about the reality of the IT industry and the kind of people who are successful within it. His frankness is refreshing as he shares with us the truth about the mindset and people in IT departments.

Subsequent modules take us through a career journey e.g. how to seek employment, assess new employers and it’s organization, building profiles inside these organizations, and so on. In module 2 Mark tells us about how to land technology jobs with recruiters and how to prepare for interviews, which is a great confidence booster. I particularly like the discussion on great questions to put to an interview panel as you don’t often get this kind of advice from other sources. Module 3 talks about ‘baselining’ which is Mark’s word for assessing the lay-of-the-land in a new job. Based on his own experience he describes a process of building awareness about a new employer and it’s culture, particularly on ‘how things get done’, reported and requested. This module is one of the best as it’s a lesson in finding the groove which isn’t something many books and courses discuss.

I especially liked module 4 – Selling Yourself – as this is a critical activity when you’ve joined an organization where few really know your personality, capabilities and potential. Mark adds specific focus on selling technical skills, business skills and people skills , giving us pointers on how to build these skills. When watching this module I was often reminded about the tough challenges I faced earlier in my career where I struggled to find help or solutions for. If I had Mark’s report back then, I could have saved so much time and bitten nails!

Modules 5, 6 and 7 give us the essential ’101′ for Project Management, Time Management and Managers respectively. These are not master-classes, but do cover the important aspects of each subject. If you’ve only experienced a cursory glance of these things then Mark’s discussion will give you sufficient depth to understand the subjects and then point you to further learning off your own bat. The brevity of these modules are what makes them most powerful – we don’t have to sift through pages of management text books and translate management speak into something we can understand.

Now module 8 talks about Training . This is where Mark’s insight into technology professionals really shines through. His experience in using training tells us that it is useless unless the skills learned are actually used and put to test. This module gives us pointers on how to take learning back into the workplace and put it into practice. If you’ve been on courses before and forgotten what you heard after a while (like I have) then you’ll understand why this is a valuable lesson!

Module 9 adds an unusual subject of Business Trips (I was curious why this was in the course at first) but it became clear as I watched. Mark offers some excellent advice on how to prepare for and manage business trips, such as collecting the necessary resources, considering information security (e.g. risk of data loss from flash-drives), travel itself, local holidays, access to offices, etc. If you hit the road in your job then this module will be your favorite. I LOVE THIS MODULE. So much wisdom in 13 minutes!

The last two modules cover Performance Reviews and Personal Vision . Both offer sagely insight into career planning, reviewing and career goals. The two go hand in hand as they talk about how we should look ahead to what we want from our IT careers and the way organizations nurture employees. Reviews are stock-checks along the way so Mark informs us what to look out for and why they happen.

You might be put off by Mark’s choice of the Japanese version of Windows XP, but this intrudes only on the Start Button at the bottom of the screen and doesn’t affect the course content at all. Also Mark speaks in a humble style and there are the odd few gaffes in what’s said, although it does nothing but endear me towards Mark’s character.

One thing Mark doesn’t do is to show his face on the video. You’re not as ugly-as-sin Mark (if you think so, then tell him!). I’d have liked to see Mark show his mug on screen, at least to open, to prove he is a human being. A quick mug-shot would have eased me into the content instead of the initial presentation of MindGenius.

Despite these quirks, Mark’s report is a wonderful introduction to the many factors of career building. It hits the spot in terms of it’s appropriateness to the target audience. It doesn’t go into too much detail, but enough to give us enough coverage of each subject. It really is a series of thirteen 101s, and I haven’t seen anything like it in one place. Sure, I can find this material in books I have on my shelf as there isn’t anything new, but that’s not the point. The path Mark takes us through is well put together as each module flows into the next. It’s a one-stop-shop for IT career development, suitable for any career-minded technology professional.

The report can be purchased from Mark’s site ITCareerEngineer.com for $42 plus shipping and handling which is about the same price as a introductory text-book. It offers great value!

You will need a PC with a CD-Rom Drive, Windows XP, Internet Explorer or FireFox, and speakers, in order to watch this CD course.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.