Too typically, recruiters and IT managers deal with new rent candidates that tick particular bins corresponding to formal training, certifications, and work historical past. Whereas these are all essential elements to a level, solely concentrating on these traits won’t get you the very best candidates in my expertise. As a substitute, what I’ve discovered is that the very best staff are those that really benefit from the work and are hyper-curious about how particular applied sciences perform at a granular degree.
Curiosity: Why Is It the ‘X Issue’?
Anybody who has ever hung out on the earth of IT engineering or help is aware of the significance of analysis. Too typically, IT employees will run up towards vendor, marketing consultant, or colleague statements like “this device can’t do this,” or “that’s not an choice.” Nonetheless, there are those that go the additional mile relating to researching a digital device or service to grasp exactly what can or can’t be achieved. To those folks, they see it as a problem and can search out-of-the-box concepts relating to determining an answer to a particular enterprise drawback that may be solved with expertise.
Even when an answer can’t be discovered (which is usually the case, given the restrictions of applied sciences), that further little bit of curiosity that drove this particular person to place in further analysis can have a deeper understanding of the expertise platform or service and may leverage that sooner or later. Moreover, it exhibits that these are the varieties of staff which might be adaptable to alter and are prepared to work on technical duties which may be exterior of their consolation zone. Thus, when issues come up, it’s extra probably that these are the employees you’ll have the ability to lean on to discover a resolution.
I’ve personally spent numerous hours taking place varied expertise rabbit holes in pursuit of technical options which might be both not well-documented and even thought-about by the expertise creator. Whereas on the floor many of those ventures seemingly have been fruitless, trying again, I really feel that such a curiosity sharpened my skill to suppose via advanced issues. This finely tuned talent can then be utilized to different features of IT that can be related to the enterprise, together with troubleshooting and IT structure.
Selling Curiosity on Your Resume
Whereas it’s unlikely that recruiters will cease keying in on particular technical expertise and certifications as their predominant technique of figuring out certified candidates, job seekers ought to work to seek out methods to incorporate mentions that recommend they’re passionate and interested in expertise. A technique that I’ve discovered works properly is to incorporate a few examples of an enterprise expertise I’ve labored on and the way an issue was solved in a singular approach. This can be a state of affairs the place I mixed a number of applied sciences collectively, the usage of a brand-new characteristic that was not well-documented or one other distinctive implementation technique.
The purpose is to let or not it’s identified that I used to be sufficient to transcend what others could have finished to discover a resolution. The hope is that these studying these “curiosity use instances” will develop into curious themselves — and that curiosity could be sturdy sufficient for my resume to bubble to the highest.
IT Roles The place Curiosity Is Paramount
Whereas curiosity is a trait that’s fascinating throughout all IT disciplines, the function of engineer or architect is the place it shines probably the most. In an ideal world, architects would use best-practice implementations which might be outlined by the expertise developer. Nonetheless, contemplating how vastly totally different one IT infrastructure is from one other based mostly on enterprise objectives, finest practices can not at all times be adopted. Thus, artistic methods of integrating new expertise options are sometimes required. It’s on this house the place curious minds work finest — and enterprise leaders could be clever to hunt people who excel at it.
What to Learn Subsequent:
InformationWeek Wage Survey: What IT Professionals Earn
The 2021 IT Job Market: What a Yr
Transitioning IT Careers: How (and The place) to Stand Out Proper Now
