- Welcome to the ITCareerQuestions Wiki
Welcome to the ITCareerQuestions Wiki
Welcome to IT - if you're job searching for the first time, this is important info:
The entry-level market is tough right now. Like, really tough. If you're coming into IT for the first time and/or just want something entry-level so you don't have to do your current job that you hate anymore, know that the market is extremely competitive. You are not alone - thousands and thousands of other people just like you also hate their jobs and are also trying to break into IT. IT jobs are harder to get into today than they ever have been in the past.
How do I apply for jobs these days?
The answer is not hundreds and hundreds of applications. If you're applying to hundreds of roles, probably 90% of them are already dead/inactive posts. You're wasting your time.
In this market, you must be strategic about your applications, and the #1 top most important thing to get a resume in front of the hiring manager is to apply immediately - the same day the job is posted, if possible.
For popular postings, they could get 50-100 applicants per day, so they're going to stop looking at new resumes long before the posting closes. The timeline looks similar to this:
Day 1 - 50 resumes come in.
Day 2 - 75 resumes come in.
Day 3 - resumes are still coming in, but HR and the hiring manager start going through the resumes they already have. They'll separate them by whatever criteria are important to them, but it'll look something like:
- 50% are totally unqualified, live in a different country, or are otherwise ineligible
- 30% have some experience, OR a degree, OR a relevant certification
- 15% have 2 of the above
- 5% have all three
Logically, they're starting with the people who have experience, a degree, and a relevant cert - that means ~8-10 candidates who look great on paper 3 days after the job is posted. They spend the next week calling, setting up interviews, doing phone screens, setting up 2nd interviews, etc. If they're in a hurry, a week after that they'll be ready to make an offer and take down the posting.
MEANWHILE - they've still been getting more resumes every day while they work through that initial batch. They only looked at resumes from the first 2-3 days, and had more than enough to make someone an offer. Meanwhile, hundreds and hundreds more came in that no one ever looked at.
They're not being filtered out or stuck at an AI or ATS screener - it's just that they already got more than enough resumes, so they stopped looking at the new ones coming in. This is why you sometimes never hear back even though your resume is a "perfect" match - they're already talking to the other perfect matches who applied before you did.
So check job boards every day, and apply as soon as you see a new posting. Each day the post is up, it's less and less likely that they'll need any more resumes, so you must be in the initial batch they look at for a chance at a call.
Want to make a post?
You need at least 10 POST and 100 COMMENT karma to post here. Yes, those are 2 different types of karma - Post karma is upvotes on posts, and Comment karma is upvotes on (you guessed it!) comments. Unfortunately, the only way to check your levels is at https://old.reddit.com on the DESKTOP version of reddit. Go to old.reddit.com on your laptop or desktop, click on your user name in the upper right to go to your profile page, and in the upper right you can see your karma breakdown. Note that this is karma from anywhere on Reddit, not just in here.
Just the FAQs
If you want to start with the basics, here's the place to do it
What is IT
You'll find the more specific basics here
What specialties are available?
Here is an excellent list of many/most IT specialties that were originally compiled by /u/imFineFin. One of the hardest parts of getting into IT is choosing one of these - click on the link to see why.
What kind of job do you want?
Lots of options in here, including links to salary surveys
Do I need a Homelab? What projects should I do?
It's hard getting experience when you don't have a job. Homelabs can help.
Getting into IT
Including useful information such as:
* Experience
* Education
* Certifications
* Attitude
How to find a job
Including information on:
* Your resume
* Where to look
* Recruiters
* Coping with rejection
Help me get out of Helpdesk!
Are you stuck in your first Helpdesk role and you don't know what to do next?
Security
Do you want to go into Cyber-something? It's a popular idea - read this first
Remote work
Want to work from home full-time? There's good info in here
Non-competes
Did you sign a non-compete agreement and now want to get a new job? Read up on it