Tips for Landing IT Jobs

July 2009 Sun Inner Circle newsletter How to weather the economic storm Improve performance and cut costs with Flash-based SSDs Share: Inner Circle Subscriber Center Get the content that meets your interests and needs: » Update your profile. Not a member? » Join now. Print-friendly page Contact Sun

Hello Inner Circle readers,

This issue will be hitting the airwaves soon after a whole new class of graduates has finished college and started pursuing jobs. So I thought I'd focus this month's letter around the questions and concerns I'm hearing from this sector.

In the last four months we've hosted several student groups at our Sun briefing center. Additionally, I participate on boards and trustee forums to advise local universities on curricula. What I've noticed lately in both of these forums is a stark concern from students who are emerging from some of the best universities in the world. They're worried about securing the meaningful jobs they targeted when they began their educations. And similarly, I get the same questions from my own staff and people I mentor within the company. People want to know how to find the next job or promotion opportunity.

What occurs to me is that right, wrong, or indifferent, expectations were set in the late 1990s around the high-tech industry and the ability of engineering and computer science students to get virtually any job they wanted. That fantasy has evaporated, and as we saw with the dotcom bust in early 2000, the supply of qualified candidates surpasses the demand. I believe there is still an overabundance of technical talent. So there is a big onus on graduating students and existing professionals to differentiate themselves in the market.

Take a look at where the industry is headed — and take advantage

The advice I've been giving is that if you are a graduating student, consider where the industry is headed with things like cloud computing and virtualization and understand what some of the underlying technical necessities for those industries will be. For a long time, I've believed that we are moving toward a services-based industry. Along with that will come demand for non-traditional IT roles such as security, vendor management, legal and contract skills, and program management. So if you have an opportunity to develop those skills while still in school, take advantage of it.

As you start interviewing for positions, there will be hundreds if not thousands of people applying for each opening. Recruiting managers will look at your resume as a first blush, but will really look to extracurricular activities to get a better sense of your interests. Get involved in community programs or other industry-related communities. Become active members of those communities to demonstrate areas that are of personal interest to you as well as your academic studies. For many universities, a 4.0 GPA is simply the minimum requirement for being considered as a freshman. Admissions officers want to be dazzled with all the extracurricular things you did for your community and otherwise. The same is true on your way out. You may graduate with a 4.0 GPA from a top school, but employers want to know what else you've done.

Be careful about what you post on the Web

A third component that I remind people of (although the generation graduating today certainly gets it) is to build their online community presence with tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo and others. At the same time, remember that your online personality can be a double-edged sword. You don't want to misrepresent yourself or your interests. If recruiters, search agencies and hiring managers find your profile on the Web, it can be a big benefit, but it can also be a detriment if you are reflecting things that hiring managers don't want. So the method is to be careful and conscious of what you are posting on the Web, but leverage that channel as part of your job search.

Also very critical is your human network. This is always the most valuable resource when it comes to job searching. Those in IT may tend to be more introverted and it's not always easy to reach out and build that personal network. Be sure to leverage friends, family connections and industry relationships as you begin that job search.

Understand the outsourcing and offshoring landscape

Lastly, you need to look at what's happening in the industry from an outsourcing and offshoring perspective. If the type of work you are interested in is largely being outsourced by multinational companies to India, China and elsewhere, obviously that will reduce the potential for jobs. Be a student of the industry and you'll be able to pinpoint the best opportunities for your interests. Don't give up, the right jobs are out there. Even in Silicon Valley, which is suffering a serious unemployment rate, we are seeing people landing some challenging, fascinating jobs. It might take a bit longer, but keep pushing.

One final note about job searching has to do with geography. For example, if you live in the Bay Area, don't presume that you're going to find work in the Bay Area. The markets today are truly global. Work environments are global and economies are global. As uncomfortable as it may sound, all of us, when faced with a new job search, need to broaden our target base from the comfortable to the exotic.

A good friend of mine who worked in Singapore took it upon himself to learn two languages — Japanese and French — as a means of expanding his job search to the rest of Asia and Europe. He became so fluent in French that he landed a job in Paris and moved his family from Singapore to Paris. I can't imagine a greater example of someone with the personal initiative to expand their target base. You never know, you might find a job in Paris, Montreal, San Diego or Singapore. The IT work of tomorrow is going to be everywhere.

Enjoy your summer. May it be prosperous and fulfilling.

Bob Worrall
CIO, Sun Microsystems
cio@sun.com