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5 TOP TIPS WHEN CHANGING YOUR CAREER

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Changing careers can seem like a daunting prospect but it can be a great opportunity for you. It offers you the chance to build new skills and find new challenges. Many people change careers for a variety of reasons such as job burnout, better salary or simply trying to find a better work life balance. The main question of course is where do you start, who could you consult about it? There is plenty of help and guidance out there to support you especially recruitment agencies. They will offer support in areas such as updating your CV, preparing for interviews and all the other things you need in your career change toolbox. To help you on your way here are 5 top tips to guide you in that promising career change.

  1. Update Your CV.

Your CV is one of your most important tools in order to enter a new field so it is vitally important it is completely updated. Employers will look at your CV, your many experiences and why you would be a strong fit for this position. Ensure you highlight your strengths and your experience and skills relating to the role.  This is also a huge chance to display your transferable skills that you can bring to a new position. There are also plenty of CV workshops if you are unsure as to how you should go about updating your CV. Contact your local recruitment agency as they will have knowledge of upcoming workshops.

  1. Update your skills.

Changing career will allow you to develop and update your skillset, lifelong learning is expected from all employers so they will want to hear and see what you have been doing to stay relevant.  New skills can not only help further your career but help strengthen your soft skills such as your confidence and communication. Whilst it is good to build new skills it does not mean the skills from your previous work are to be discarded. A new work environment allows you to transfer those skills and further utilize them. Examples of transferable skills are those such as teamwork and organization.

  1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the perfect opportunity to develop your personal brand online and showcase your digital presence. There are several ways to promote yourself on LinkedIn than just writing down your experiences. You can let recruiters know that you are open to job opportunities by updating your personal headline. You can display your skills which your connections can endorse you for and you can also receive recommendations from former colleagues/professional connections. You can now upload examples of your work/portfolio to LinkedIn so potential employers can see your strengths and how you could be the perfect fit for their organization.

  1. Networking

There is no greater opportunity than to make new professional connections than networking. Since you will be changing careers, research the field you wish to enter and any upcoming events in this area you can attend. Social platforms such as Eventbrite and Meetup are good to network with people that have a similar interest or attend a company event that you wish to work for.

Don’t be afraid to approach people and ask for advice or guidance as to how you can enter this sector or of any new job openings. Also inquire about training or workshops to help further your potential in this industry.

  1. Prepare for Interviews  

Finally make sure you prepare for any upcoming interviews. This will help with your confidence and your ability to have two way conversations. Please highlight relevant experience and prepare your answers and examples around the key problems that needs solved by the employer. Dress suitably for the interview. Ensure you know the travel route and arrive at least 10 minutes early. There is plenty of available guidance to help you prepare for interviews so check out our website for more interview hints and tips.

 

 

 

Don’t wait until January to change jobs, start now!

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January and February are traditionally very busy times for job seekers, hiring managers and recruiters alike but why do so many people change jobs in January? There are of course many reasons why people change roles but there are several reasons why they do so en masse.

There is a myth that the job market stalls in November and December. This is more of a self-fulfilling prophecy than anything else. Yes, it can take longer for the interview process to progress to offer stage, but hiring managers are still looking to fill their vacancies and typically would like new starters to join the team in January.  The myth though can mean that people delay starting their search until the New Year.

A lot of companies shut down over the Christmas period which gives two more reasons for the spike in job seekers. Any long break from work increases the likelihood of people considering a job change. Time off can make people reassess their day to day lives and make them realise that they are dreading going back to work.  If that is the case, then it’s probably time to change. Job hunting can be a very time-consuming process, particularly in the early stages when you have to write a CV and find jobs to apply for and recruiters to work with. The long break means that people finally have time to do that. – Don’t wait, do it now, get ahead of the crowds, get the advice you need and let us help you get your CV ready, with our £250 free CV review. Yes, sometimes Christmas does come early.

So, to ensure you’re ready for the ‘New Year, New Me’… why don’t you focus on what you really want from a job and consider these 5 things now, so you can make 2019 a year to remember. Ask yourself these 5 simple questions:

  1. What have I achieved?

List everything you achieved over the last year that make you valuable to your current company and how that can be transferred. Being able to explain the value of your achievements can be a sound basis to begin discussing a raise in Salary.

 

  1. What do I want?

You need to be prepared to articulate what you want. You’ve sometimes got to be explicit. What stage are you at within your career, what type of organisation do you want to work within; large corporate, SME, Contractor etc. Mapping out the path you need to take to achieve your goals is something you have to do for yourself.

 

  1. What is the bigger picture?

January is theoretically when the job market starts moving, so it’s a good time to look for opportunities. But before you start applying for a new role, taking a step back and considering what you want from life generally as this will influence the next move you make in your career.

If you want to buy a house in the next couple of years, or if you are thinking of starting a family, these life goals will have a profound influence on the career decisions you will want to make.

 

  1. Who is my dream employer?

Make a list of the top 10 organisations you would love to work for, then research them, follow them on Twitter and like them on Facebook. Look beyond the obvious large corporations as we have many SMEs that are more agile, flexible, and somewhere your ideas can really make a difference.

Take a few hours researching the internet and checking out their company culture, environment, locations etc and then understanding does this align with what you are looking for.

 

  1. Who can I talk to?

Career experts agree that talking your options through with somebody is often helpful. Partnering with a specialist recruitment agency can often spark new ideas on jobs you might not know exist and give you some helpful advice on local companies that would be interested in someone with your skills.

 

We know changing jobs can be time consuming and frustrating, let us help reduce that or even take it away. Chat to us now, and we can give you some free impartial, relevant career advice. 

 

What datacentre experts must do to stay relevant

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As datacentre operators focus on converged infrastructure to cut costs, IT professionals should keep their CVs aligned to the workplace!

A growing need to make datacentres more efficient and easier to manage has driven the use of converged infrastructure (CI) in recent years. According to 451 Research’s recent study of adoption trends, 40% of IT buyers said they planned to increase their spending in CI during the final quarter of 2015; just 17% said they plan to invest in traditional servers.

The trend has prompted a shift in how operators manage their facilities, with 40% of respondents to the survey reporting difficulties while attempting to source staff with CI skills. Whereas the older, siloed approach to datacentre design required separate administrators to manage the network, server and storage resources, a facility kitted out with CI appliances often calls for a slightly different approach.

CI appliances are often marketed as having been tested and configured before installation, which eliminates much of the manual work. And with the datacentre’s network, storage and computing elements all housed in a single appliance, the need for separate administrators to manage these resources is reduced.

While this is great news for operators looking to cut costs by reducing headcount, the trend may require some urgent re-skilling for datacentre-focused IT professionals, to ensure they know how to manage all parts of the CI stack, rather than just the individual components.

This is the view of Emma Fryer, associate director for climate change programmes at IT sector trade body TechUK, who works closely with the datacentre industry to promote sustainability.

“At the very commoditised end, the datacentre engineer needs to be able to span power, network, compute, storage and process skills. And when it breaks – fast track response and 24/7 availability for an ‘always on’ client base,” she says.

“Datacentre technicians in many environments will increasingly be expected to be generalists, but the real question is what the balance between them should be – or even whether we are seeking a general requirement or lots of different specific requirements.”

Industry views on the IT skills gap

At present, there is mixed industry opinion about how much demand there is for IT professionals with these types of skills.

Rick Vanover, senior product strategy manager at virtualisation management software supplier Veeam, claims the demand for IT professionals with CI skills is beginning to rise.

“Over time, the need for a converged skillset has developed. We saw it happen in the virtualisation space, and now a new offering of technologies has come in to address them with hyper-converged technologies,” says Vanover.

He says the key to success with CI lies in IT staff understanding how the technology can be applied to solve real problems of scaling-out and datacentre performance.

Market watcher Forrester Research supports this view, based on the contents of its August 2015 Vendor Landscape: Hyperconverged Platforms report, which cites anecdotal evidence as proof of the rising demand for CI-savvy datacentre workers.

“For several years Forrester has been hearing anecdotal evidence that early adopters of first-generation converged infrastructure – such as Cisco, HP, and IBM – have already collapsed some of their infrastructure and operations silos,” the report states.

“Forrester believes the adoption of hyperconverged systems will accelerate this trend, because it further abstracts the underlying management complexity – particularly in the storage domain.”

However, Scott McGlinchey, chief operations officer of IT consultancy Exception, says that – with so many enterprises still operating legacy, siloed datacentre setups – demand for CI specialists has not hit its peak just yet.

“I don’t think we’ve really hit the real demand for converged infrastructure skills yet. You can see that, for organisations that have got a handle on their legacy estate, convergence skills could be the next step, though,” he says.

“What we are seeing is an increased demand for architects.  However, the skillset expected has moved, from principle formulation, policy, strategy and governance, to that of experienced technical delivery lead with multi-platform experience across several technology silos.

“DevOps, server and app virtualisation, and cloud experience are in higher demand too at the moment.”

McGlinchey’s comments seem to suggest time is on the side of IT professionals willing to retrain in anticipation of the rising demand for CI skills.

 Skilling up

Colin Lynch, principal consultant at Computacenter UK, embarked on a supplier-backed training course to build out his CI knowledge, as part of his ongoing push to keep on top of emerging IT trends.

“You can’t afford to be an analogue person in a digital world, otherwise you’ll go the way of the dodo. You have to adapt with the times and the VCE Certified Professional Programme certainly provides you with the skillset you need,” he says.The course is not just about learning how to manage what’s inside the CI box – but also how to integrate it with the company’s wider IT strategy.“Not only do CI professionals have to manage converged infrastructure, but they also have to manage or at least be aware of the cloud management platforms that bind all these elements together – and that’s where the training comes into its own, because it ticks all these boxes.”For IT professionals just starting out, Nigel Moulton, CTO for Europe at CI supplier VCE, says specialising in CI may have to wait until they have completed their university or college courses.

“Here in the UK, most universities and higher education colleges tend to teach students broader industry skills and then, when graduates enter the industry, employers train them. They are often taught the basics of virtualisation and networking – but won’t know specifically how suppliers implement this,“ he says.

From here, professionals may go on to undertake a supplier-specific course – such as Cisco’s Academy course or VCE’s Certified Professionals Programme – to fine-tune their learning.

“It’s run this way because all suppliers have different approaches. This gives graduates a wider choice of career paths and doesn’t hinder their chances of securing employment,” Moulton adds.

Robert Rutherford, CEO of IT consultancy Quostar, says IT professionals should look to build out their integration skills.

“There’s opportunity in the areas for development focusing on hanging different platforms and providers together – moulding and adapting services between datacentres and different suppliers,” he says.

“This in turn will lead to increased security and compliance requirements, creating demand for in-depth cloud security and compliance skills and experience.”

 The importance of soft skills

Meanwhile in addition to their technical skills – CI specialists are increasingly expected to be well-versed in business matters too. As IT recruitment consultants “We tend to look for candidates who can demonstrate a mix of cross-skilling and with experience of more than just technology – candidates who are able to explain and translate technical language and concepts to business stakeholders are always in high demand!”

If IT teams cannot communicate effectively with business teams so that they understand the potential benefits, it is likely that many crucial projects will struggle to get off the ground.

 

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