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Tips to Improve Your IT Resume with No Experience

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Improving your IT resume when you have no experience helps you establish your career. The information in your resume shows why you are a desirable candidate who should be contacted for an interview.

When improving your IT resume with no experience, focus on other experiences that helped develop your skill set. Demonstrating your strengths, accomplishments, and willingness to learn shows you can be trained to fulfill the job duties and responsibilities. This increases your odds of securing an interview.

Implement these tips to improve your IT resume with no experience.

Update Your Experiences Section

Clarify how you are building the IT skills relevant to the job you want. Listing these experiences demonstrates your work ethic and desire to build an IT career.

Your experiences may include extracurricular activities or volunteer work:

  • Join a tech community such as GitHub or Stack Overflow to learn and share information about programming.
  • Participate in hackathons to solve technology problems in teams.
  • Take advantage of free online resources, tutorials, and open-source software to learn programming languages.
  • Learn to code through Coursera or other online courses.
  • Volunteer with a nonprofit organization focused on IT, such as teaching children to code.
  • Enter technology competitions through Cisco or other IT companies.

Highlight the skills you developed through each experience. Emphasize the skills included in the job posting. Include the goals you attained that are relevant to the role you desire.

Emphasize Your Soft Skills

List your soft skills that are relevant to the IT position. Examples include communication, organization, self-motivation, collaboration, and leadership.

Soft skills are harder to develop than hard skills. As a result, demonstrating examples of your soft skills shows the value you can provide the employer.

Include Your Education

Provide details about your education. Your high school diploma or GED and relevant coursework, IT certifications, or college degree demonstrate your commitment to ongoing learning and ability to fulfill commitments.

You might pursue certification in any of the following fields:

  • Data
  • Artificial intelligence (AI)
  • Business applications
  • Google Cloud
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Project management

You could pursue a degree in one of the following fields:

  • Information technology and information systems
  • Computer science
  • Information science
  • Software engineering
  • Computer engineering
  • Cybersecurity

Ready to Begin Your IT Job Search?

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7 Valuable Soft Skills That Can Help Boost Your Career!

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Developing your soft skills helps boost your IT career. Although your hard skills are important, your soft skills have a greater impact on your employability and longevity with a company.

Your soft skills determine how you interact with others. This affects how well you work with colleagues and coworkers to finish projects.

As a result, you should prioritize developing your soft skills along with your hard skills. The following are some of the soft skills to focus on.

Discover seven valuable soft skills that can help boost your IT career.

1. Communication

Communication is required to write, speak, actively listen, and collaborate. These skills are important for writing emails, talking with colleagues and coworkers, and sharing presentations.

2. Productivity

Your ability to strategize, organize, plan, and deliver results impacts your productivity. Showing your teammates, manager, and coworkers they can count on you to have things done by the deadline makes you a valuable team member.

Your productivity skills help you manage your time, maintain focus, and finish your work on time. This also helps you create a plan to reach the goals and requirements of a project within the timeline.

Using your productivity skills helps you balance multiple projects and changing priorities. This also lets you overcome obstacles to get more done in less time.

3. Problem-Solving

Problem-solving skills help you analyze and resolve issues both individually and as a team. Your ability to think critically, ask questions, and make decisions helps you solve problems. You can calmly and objectively discuss an issue, develop potential resolutions, and implement the best one.

4. Creativity

Your ability to think outside the box helps you develop original ideas and perspectives. Your curiosity encourages you to ask questions, learn, and find unique ways to add value to the organization.

Developing your creativity helps you contribute ideas to solve problems and resolve issues. It also helps you remain open-minded while overcoming obstacles.

5. Confidence

Confidence in your ability to complete tasks and reach goals is important. This helps you learn and develop your skills to provide more value to the organization.

Displaying confidence involves finding the resources and support needed to finish your work. This helps you maintain a positive attitude.

Showing confidence means assertively interacting with others. This can help you secure leadership positions.

6. Agility

Your ability to adapt to changing work situations is essential. This helps you complete your work and meet expectations during times of change.

Agility is required to stay curious and navigate through challenging times. It also helps you remain open-minded when talking with others.

Remaining agile lets you make fast decisions when information is limited. It also lets you change between tasks as your priorities change.

7. Self-Awareness

Self-awareness lets you appropriately monitor, manage, and display your emotions in the workplace. This helps you professionally interact with others.

Being self-aware involves reflecting on and learning from your experiences and mistakes. It also includes seeing things from others’ viewpoints.

Displaying self-awareness helps you collaborate with colleagues and coworkers. It also builds trust with others.

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Do You Offer Clear Career Development Methods?

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Offering clear development methods is essential for business success. This emphasizes opportunities to add more value and advance within the company.

As a result, managers must look beyond the skills their employees need to fulfill their current job duties to promote career development. Managers also should focus on the skills their employees developed through previous roles, current interests, and hobbies that support advancement within the organization.

Follow these guidelines to offer clear career development methods within your company.

Prioritize Agility

Use technology to break jobs into projects. Then, let your employees choose which projects to work on. This process distributes employees’ skills and contributions according to need. It also supports career development.

Dividing jobs into projects helps you better understand your talent. Knowing their strengths and capabilities helps your employees adapt to changing business conditions and priorities. This includes evolving customer demands and competitors entering the marketplace.

Developing your employees’ skills reduces the need for hiring. Your employees can take on project-based work as part of the learning process. This provides exposure to new situations, colleagues, and coworkers who can help with upskilling while completing work.

Using an internal talent marketplace promotes equity and inclusion. Managers have a larger pool of workers to draw from to gain the skills and competencies required for a project. This minimizes favoritism in deciding which employees get which roles. It also increases engagement, performance, and productivity.

Inventory Employees’ Skills

Maintain a list of each employee’s current and desired skills. This helps managers understand the talent pool they have to draw from to complete projects. It also lets employees take on new projects to develop their skill sets.

Managers can divide the work into projects, then determine which skills are required to complete the projects. Next, managers can match employees who have or want to develop relevant skills to the appropriate project roles. This promotes career development.

You can use technologies that evaluate resumes, LinkedIn profiles, or your human capital management system to create your skills inventory. Then, you can ask employees to add or modify the skills in their profiles. You can use the information to match the right employee with the right skill level to the right project role.

Develop Adjacent Skills

Implement technology to help employees develop skills related to the ones they have. For instance, a programmer who is fluent in one language could learn to code in another language. This process makes it easier for employees to connect with colleagues and coworkers who can help them upskill. It also provides employees with clear career development methods.

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Daily Remote Work Habits That Make You a Better Employee

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Remote work provides benefits that onsite work does not. Among them is the freedom of having no commute and the flexibility of working where you choose.

However, this freedom and flexibility can lead to issues. They include potentially overworking and experiencing burnout.

As a result, you must establish healthy remote work habits to improve your work-life balance. The following suggestions can help.

Develop these daily remote work habits to be a better employee.

Establish Your Workspace

Determine where you will perform your work. This may be in your home office, a guest room, or a section of your kitchen table.

Let the people you live with know that when you are in this area, you are working. They are not to disturb you unless there is an emergency.

You need uninterrupted time to get in the zone to complete your tasks. This promotes creativity and productivity. It also makes you a better remote employee.

Set Your Work Hours

Determine which work hours best fit your professional and personal needs. Adhere to these hours as much as possible.

You may be tempted to work longer hours because you do not have a commute. However, overworking can lead to mental health concerns and burnout.

As a result, aim to work a reasonable number of hours each day. Be sure you reach your deadlines and still have adequate time for other interests. These actions make you a better remote employee.

Prioritize Your Tasks

Determine which tasks need to be completed and when. Schedule them accordingly.

If you are unsure about your top priorities, talk with your manager. They can go over your objectives and help you plan your day or week.

Take Breaks

Include regular breaks throughout your day. Get up and walk around. Stretch, meditate, read, or listen to music. Come back refreshed and ready to work.

Regularly taking breaks, including an hour for lunch, lets your brain rest. This helps you be more focused and creative when you resume working. It also makes you a better employee.

Communicate with Your Team

Let your manager know what you are working on throughout the day. Include your accomplishments and what still needs to be done.

Share with your teammates relevant information that impacts their work. This is especially important for team projects.

Ask for and offer help when needed. This makes you an effective remote employee.

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What Should You Take Into Account Before Learning an In-Demand Skill?

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Being proficient with an in-demand skill makes you attractive to employers. Many companies are offering high salaries and competitive benefits to technologists with specialized skills.

However, knowing which in-demand skills are most desirable can be challenging. Understanding which tech skills are popular in the job market can help you determine which one to pursue.

If you want to develop an in-demand skill, now may be the time to start. Knowing how to approach the process can help you map out the steps to attain your goal.

Follow these guidelines to learn an in-demand skill that can benefit your tech career.

Research the Skill

Data science, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and augmented reality (AR) are among the most in-demand skills. These skills will be increasingly important for years to come.

However, before deciding which in-demand skill to pursue, do some research. Find out which related skills you should learn, the certifications you should earn, and the job opportunities available. This gives you a clearer sense of whether you should pursue the skill.

Gather Feedback

Talk with tech professionals for advice on the in-demand skill. Find out how and what to learn and which issues to avoid.

Gathering feedback on the skill helps guide your path to learning about it. This may include whether you should develop the skill on your own or take specific classes.

Talk with Your Manager About Upskilling

Find out whether your manager will cover your education, training, and certification for the in-demand skill. Emphasize the benefits the company receives from employee upskilling.

Your manager may have part of the budget allocated for employee educational activities. If so, the business might cover your professional development expenses.

Publish Independent Work

When you become certified in the in-demand skill, create an independent project to demonstrate your abilities. Then, share your results on GitHub or your personal website.

Publishing an independent project helps you stand out among other tech professionals. It also can help you land a role focused on your new skill.

Ready to Advance Your Tech Career?

When the time comes to land a job with your new skill, make RightStone part of your search. Here is a link to our job board.

7 Tips to Start Your IT Career Search

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The start of a new year is a great time to start a new job. This may include changing your career to IT.

Starting your IT career search can be challenging. You may be unsure of which path to take or how to enter the field.

Developing a plan to start your IT career search helps you map the steps to reach your goals. Working with a staffing agency that specializes in IT also can be beneficial.

Follow these guidelines to start your IT career search today.

1. Determine Your Career Goals

Understand the type of IT career you want before you begin looking for roles.

  • Focus on your dream job.
  • Include the type, size, and culture of the company you want to work for.
  • Think about the salary, benefits, and perks you desire.
  • Determine the types of jobs that can lead to your dream role.
  • Focus your search on jobs that align with your career path.

2. Update Your LinkedIn Profile

Show you have the qualifications needed for the IT position you desire.

  • Ensure your contact information, profile statement, and profile summary are current.
  • Include your relevant education, skills, work history, and certification.
  • Request endorsements from previous supervisors, managers, colleagues, and coworkers.

3. Create a Digital Portfolio

Use your digital portfolio to display examples of your work.

  • Showcase how your projects benefitted an employer.
  • Include quantitative results from your work.
  • Demonstrate how your skills can add value for your next employer.
  • Include a link to your digital portfolio in your resume and LinkedIn profile.

4. Network

Set up informational interviews with technologists in roles similar to the one you desire.

  • Connect with relevant IT professionals through LinkedIn.
  • Ask if you can talk for 30 minutes about their job, company, and career path.
  • Develop three to five questions that can guide your IT career search.
  • Determine whether a position may be right for you.
  • Find out whether the technologist knows of any job openings or can introduce you to a hiring manager.

5. Apply for Jobs

Customize your resume to the role you desire.

  • Include your relevant education, skills, experience, and certifications.
  • Share your relevant achievements, quantifiable results, and awards.
  • Use keywords from the job posting throughout your resume.
  • Show you are well-qualified for the position.

6. Customize Your Cover Letter

Your cover letter provides information not included in your resume.

  • Discuss whether you are beginning or changing your career.
  • Explain any gaps in your work experience.
  • Show how your qualifications make you stand out from other applicants.
  • Clarify why you are the best candidate for the position.

7. Practice Interviewing

Engage in mock interviews.

  • Research the company you want to work for.
  • Practice answering interview questions.
  • Prepare questions for the interviewer.
  • Monitor your body language.

Partner with an IT Staffing Agency

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Industry Leaders’ Suggestions for Climbing the Current Technology Management Ladder

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Virtually all companies value technology. This increases the number of opportunities available for technology professionals to be closely involved in business activities.

Companies’ increasing dependence on technology creates jobs at every level of the organization. This includes executives who lead technical teams and other leaders who help manage the business.

Industry leaders are one of the most reliable sources of information about management paths for tech professionals. Following their advice for climbing the corporate ladder can increase your career success.

Implement these industry leaders’ suggestions to move up the technology management ladder.

Plan Your Career Path

Determine where you want to be in 5 years. Then, make a plan to get there.

  • Discover the qualifications and steps for advancement.
  • Gain the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to reach your goals.
  • Develop your understanding of the tech side and business side of the company.
  • Understand the needs of the internal customers and how their role fits the bigger picture.

Stay Adaptable

Be ready to change. Adapt along with the company and industry.

  • Continue to add to your skill set.
  • Surround yourself with employees who complement your abilities.
  • Change your strategy until you discover what works.

Diversify Your Skill Set

Focus on developing your hard and soft skills. This helps you more effectively manage employees.

  • Live the company’s mission, vision, and values.
  • Understand the organization’s strategic plans so you can attain business goals.
  • Gain a comprehensive knowledge of fields beyond the one you work in.
  • Continue to find new ways for technology to solve problems.

Network

Develop a network within the company. Include employees at all levels and areas of the organization.

  • Take advantage of the opportunities to meet fellow employees, especially with a remote workforce.
  • Invite colleagues, coworkers, and leaders to lunch.
  • Focus on understanding other parts of the company.
  • Work with your team to overcome the organization’s tech challenges.
  • Use technology to promote innovation and advance the company.
  • Collaborate with your team to innovate business models and increase productivity.
  • Participate in an organization created for tech professionals.
  • Find a mentor for career guidance and advice.

Get Certified

Earning advanced tech certifications can help you move up the management ladder. Examples include the following:

  • Project Management Professional
  • Certified ScrumMaster
  • Certified Business Process Associate
  • Certified Business Process Professional
  • Certified Business Process Leader
  • Certified Brand Manager
  • Certificate in Analytical Skills

Ready to Find a Technology Management Job?

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You Just Landed Your Dream Job! Now What?

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Congratulations on securing your dream job! Your hard work and dedication paid off.

Now comes the challenging part. You must show your employer they made the right decision when they hired you.

Most employers can tell within a few weeks whether a new hire will be successful in their organization. This means you must pay close attention to what you learn each day to maximize your performance.

Follow these guidelines to make a positive impression during the first week of your dream job.

Clarify Expectations

Meet with your manager to determine what is expected of you. Once you have a clear understanding, you can begin working toward your objectives.

Find out what a successful first month and first 6 months look like. Asking questions to uncover the details helps you perform at the level your manager wants.

Understand that you need time to work toward reaching these expectations. Be sure to learn from your mistakes and do better going forward.

Listen and Observe

Pay attention to the things that go on around you. You need to develop an understanding of what is happening, who your main partners are, and how you can add value to the organization.

Take the time to establish a foundation in your role. Then, you can start making changes and impacting the organization.

Learn the Company Culture

Focus on how your colleagues and coworkers interact and have fun. This shows what the company culture is like.

Paying attention to the signals around you helps you blend with the culture. This includes the typical work hours, how long lunch is, and how employees communicate throughout the workday.

Ask Questions

Use your available resources to learn more information about things. If you are unable to find what you are looking for, talk with a colleague or coworker for the answer.

Asking questions shows your ongoing interest in learning. It also demonstrates engagement in your work.

Monitor Your Work Hours

Continuously being the first to arrive at the office and the last to leave does not increase your value to the company. Instead, it can lead to overworking, increased stress, and poor performance. Other results may include job dissatisfaction and burnout.

Instead, prioritize work-life balance. This includes watching the range of times when your colleagues end their workday. You should leave sometime around the midpoint. This shows you will not always work late during your time with the company.

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IT Job Security

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The latest IT trends are changing the way companies and consumers interact. This elevates sales, marketing, and ways of conducting business.

These IT trends also are creating job opportunities for technologists. As a result, you have more employment choices than before.

Discover some of the latest IT trends and how they create IT job security.

Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the belief that all tech-enabled devices can connect to the internet and each other to blend the physical and digital worlds. This increases opportunities for consumers to engage with products. The data can be used to maximize the results of marketing campaigns and user experiences.

IoT is changing the way business is conducted and the models used to do so. For instance, pay-per-use models are increasing in popularity as additional customer data becomes available. The growth of IoT increases the IT jobs related to it.

Machine Learning

More computers are able to analyze data and track patterns to facilitate learning. For instance, social media platforms use machine learning to analyze users’ likes, shares, and comments to see how users connect with the members of their networks. The platforms use this information to show users content from their closest connections.

Machine learning lets companies more effectively do business with customers. The technology helps businesses interact with customers to better anticipate and meet customers’ needs. The increasing need for machine learning means ongoing job opportunities for technologists.

Virtual Reality

Ongoing improvements in the hardware and programming of virtual reality technology impact almost every industry. In addition to its use in video games, virtual reality lets companies more effectively engage with customers.

Increased customer engagement maximizes sales and marketing campaigns. It also promotes learning, especially in educational organizations. All of these developments increase the number of IT jobs in the market.

Touch Commerce

Blending touchscreen technology and one-click shopping lets consumers purchase products from their mobile devices. Consumers link their payment information to their accounts so they can purchase virtually anything.

The increase in touch commerce increases sales related to this technology. It also creates new jobs for technologists.

Cognitive Technology

Natural language processing and speech recognition are examples of cognitive technology. These technologies are used to automate tasks previously done by people. Examples include certain accounting and analytics tasks.

Automated analysis of user data is especially beneficial for software companies wanting to scale. Staying current on cognitive technology in a given industry opens up a range of opportunities for IT professionals.

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4 Ways to Become a More Effective Leader

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Becoming a better leader increases your teammates’ engagement and performance. This elevates success for you, your team, and the organization.

Increasing your leadership effectiveness requires understanding your motivations, strengths, and weaknesses. It also involves openly communicating, promoting growth, and implementing feedback.

Elevating your impact as a leader increases your colleagues’ and coworkers’ productivity and connection to the organization. It also encourages them to develop their own leadership abilities. This positively impacts the bottom line.

Discover four ways to grow your impact as a leader at work.

1. Promote Communication

Engage in open communication with employees at all levels of the organization. Set honest, ethical, and transparent behavior as key values for others to demonstrate.

Tailor your communication styles and interactions to the situation and each person’s preferences. This includes whether the individual likes to talk in person, over the phone, or through email or text. It also involves actively listening to the person speaking.

Be genuine when talking with others. This helps build trust within your organization and increases employee morale.

2. Encourage Growth

Invest in your colleagues’ and coworkers’ personal and professional growth. This includes encouraging them to participate in in-person, virtual, and on-demand learning that promotes knowledge and skill development.

Inspire your colleagues and coworkers to request stretch assignments and cross-train in different roles. This helps them add more value to the organization.

Motivate others to take on challenges. This promotes satisfaction in solving problems and overcoming obstacles.

3. Stay Positive

Things will not always go smoothly each day. Mistakes and obstacles will come up.

Handle these adverse situations with a positive attitude. This includes finding the good in all circumstances.

For instance, look for three positives in each issue. This encourages others to interact more positively while resolving it.

Pointing out the parts of a problem you are happy about helps others work with you to more quickly find an answer. Everyone should think clearly and find a way to overcome the obstacle.

Maintaining positivity promotes engagement and productivity among your colleagues and coworkers. Displaying enthusiasm and confidence creates a work environment that encourages problem-solving.

4. Embrace Feedback

Encourage colleagues and coworkers to give, receive, and implement constructive feedback. Include what is being done well, what could improve, and specific steps to do better.

Promote honesty and clarity when providing feedback. This helps employees improve their performance.

Recognize colleagues and coworkers for their contributions and results. Include what they did, the steps they took, and something specific they achieved. Encourage your colleagues and coworkers to continue to perform their best.

Giving and receiving feedback helps guide employees in the preferred direction. This impacts how successful the company is in reaching its goals.

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