Tips on How to Make an IT Career Change

When is it Time for a Career Change?

My husband and I are long-term veterans of working in IT. We have both morphed and reinvented our careers multiple times to keep up with changing technologies. I am now a career coach who assists IT folks in pivoting to new opportunities.

The need to ‘pivot to an IT career’ is determined by: 1) where you are in your career life and 2) your needs for work/life balance and career happiness. Workers in their early to mid-career phase have a more urgent need to manage their relevancy. A person late in their work journey may need to assess their time remaining in the workforce before considering a career pivot to IT careers. For example, I focused on gaining experience in SAAS implementations and Agile methodology when I was 5 years from retirement. Alternatively, my husband chose not to learn automated storage provisioning as he was only 1 year from retirement.

If you are an early to mid-career worker in IT, your best bet is to consider career reinvention as a regular annual exercise.

Educate Yourself on IT Career Job Trends

• Follow career-thinkers and influencers (a great place to start is LinkedIn)

• Read read read all the best publications (New York Times, Business Insider, Reuters)

• Stay active in your professional associations and NETWORK

• Know the 10-year projections for employment and salaries from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov)

• Work with a mentor who has the career and IT vision to assist you.

Create Your IT Career Transition Plan

Create Your Tailored Learning Plan

• Choose your target IT job

• Research and compile a list of required skills

• Compare your current skillsets with your target list

• Identify your learning gaps and create a learning plan

• Evaluate your learning resources. They can be mentorships, formal classwork, certifications, one-off classes, online learning, YouTube or video learning, company learning, and much more.

• Be realistic with your timeline to execute your learning plan for your tech career pivot.

Execute Your Pivot to IT Career

• Stay in your current company and move to a tangent job that has the skillsets you want to target.

• Work with your manager to gain the specific experience needed for your career change.

• Create a plan to leave your current company and perform a career pivot. You will need a learning plan for specific skills.

• Volunteer for projects or experiences outside or inside your company to gain targeted experience.

• Leave your current company and opt for a short but focused learning plan through a boot camp or specific education.

A few promising areas for an IT Career Pivot:

• Any jobs related to AI (Artificial Intelligence)

• Data science or data analytics – 36% projected growth 2021-2031

• Cybersecurity/Information Security Analysts – 35% projected job growth 2021-2031

• Computer and Info Research Scientists/Machine Learning – 21% projected job growth 2021-2031

Many people are already flocking to these areas and may oversaturate the job market in a year or two. These roles also have higher educational and experiential requirements. It may take additional time and patience to pivot completely into these technical roles. I would suggest pursuing RELATED jobs that have the skillsets that keep you relevant into the future.

• A storage architect can volunteer to learn automated scripting.

• A project manager can work on AI-based projects.

• A business analyst can work with chatbots.

• A network analyst can work with cybersecurity folks to elevate and improve security protocols against attack.

The opportunities are endless if you focus on trending needs and create a doable plan.

Good luck!

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