Beggars Can't Be Choosers

One of the bigger issues facing IT professionals is: “the challenge of building experience“.

This challenge exists because employers still require experience for hiring, even when you need their jobs to build experience!

It’s the classic Catch-22: “chicken or egg which came first challenge” that may be solved through internships or full-time jobs.

However, internships are getting increasingly competitive (Read More …) and employers are still insisting on handson experience before making job offers.

Why Internships Are Hard To Get

For a while, internships helped provide the missing handson experience to IT professionals learning new skills or transitioning careers.

Now internships are hard to come by because employers are refusing the burden of hiring or managing interns. And here is the reason why:

1. Productivity: interns need to be managed by experienced employees meaning that productive time will be lost to employers.

   Productive time is lost when experienced workers have to show interns the ropes, supervise or assign work to them.

2. Risk: employers are unwilling to invest in interns because they are more likely to fail at completing their assigned tasks or duties.

   There is also the added risk of redoing the work done by interns when it fails to meet expectations!

3. Money: employers hesitate to pay interns because there aren’t sure of the immediate economic benefits and they refuse to hire unpaid interns because unpaid interns also cost money and time to supervise or train!

How To Build Experience From Scratch … Without A Job

The challenge facing those that fixate on getting experience through internship programs or full time jobs is that of becoming stumped … when they can’t get either.

Really, when it comes to getting experience, the key is to stay flexible, creative or open minded because full-time jobs and internship programs are getting harder to come by.

How To Build Experience From Scratch By Keeping An Open Mind

• Focus on Smaller Projects: don’t fixate on finding big projects because you are more unlikely to get big project exposure with little or no experience.

  Start with smaller projects first, because that is where your current background, skills or experience is likely to be needed or appreciated.

• Build Up Experience Gradually: don’t expect to get a ton of experience in a short time. Instead, spread your efforts at building experience over a longer period of time.

  Overtime, the cumulative effect of all your project based work will begin to show and you will be rewarded for your hard work.

• Don’t Fixate on Money: don’t be too picky about your income when you’re still building up your experience because the ticket to getting paid more money is more experience!

  Start by building your experience first and then work towards a better compensation afterwards!

• Don’t Think Too Highly of Yourself: don’t be looking down on smaller projects because you’re thinking they’re beneath you and don’t be fretting over the size of your role, task or opportunity either!

  Always put your best foot forward and build up your experience at every turn. Because that is how to ensure that you qualify for bigger projects or even a full time job!

• Stay Flexible, Creative and Open Minded: be on the lookout for experience building opportunities that don’t fall under traditional internship or full-time jobs.

  For example, you may signup for unpaid, volunteer work or start your own consulting business (yes, you can consult on almost any subject) or register for Hands On IT Career Training (click here for more information)

Expect that you will always be learning new skills or transitioning careers because of the constantly changing face of technology.

Understand that staying open minded will help you discover more ways to build handson experience without a job or an internship program.

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

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I just received a comment about this blog that I will like to share with you.

nick pagan wrote:
I wrote a long, praiseworthy and complimentary comment on your procrastination
article only to lose it all when I found out that I had to register just to post
a comment.

You make it too difficult to comment and to contribute and it's especially
disappointing after taking 10-minutes to compose a good comment.

You add a barrier to entry and I don't see the value of it. It's really turned
me off of visiting your site again – even though you have good content

Website: www.nickpagan.com

Here is the public apology I would like to offer Nick Pagan and all my
readers who have been unable to post comments to my blog:

Hi Nick:

I am really sorry to hear this. I have had a running battle with automated
spamming engines that post really annoying commercials on my blog.

I would not like to infuriate one more friend and ally like you, so I will
disable the login requirement for posting comments on my blog immediately and
post a public apology to you and everyone else who was affected by this.

Thanks for your understanding and I apologize again for losing your feedback.

To Your Career,

Kingsley Tagbo, IT Career Coach

About The Author

My name is Kingsley Tagbo and I’m a technical expert living in Saint Louis,
Missouri. I write about the training, coaching, mentoring
and personal development of software development professionals including
business analysts, computer programmers, testers, project managers, web
designers, data analysts, report writers, software developers and other
information technology professionals .

My firm, Exacticity, performs software development consulting and training for
clients throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa,
Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. We can take up your project from
inception, analyze and document your project requirements, architect, design,
code, test and deliver your web or windows software projects on time and under
budget. If you are in need of software development consultants or training,
target="_blank"
title="contact the author">click here to get in touch with me.

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here

ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES

• Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training


• SQL Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, SQL + RDBMS Video Training


• Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training


• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

Visit our Shopping Cart