I did it the hard way. Job hopping! I’m in IT without a degree (I have certs now but didn’t when I started). I have years of experience because I took entry level positions but had gaps in my knowledge due to not having a formal education. I started finding jobs that I had 80% of the know how from previous employers specifically. The pay would always be low for what I was doing, but it was a trade off since I had things to learn. I had to look for companies that weren’t willing to pay top dollar for IT so they’d be willing to ignore my lack of experience on some things.
After landing the job, I’d focus on that 20% specifically for resume bullet points. After 1 year (very important to stay for at least 1 year!), I’d evaluate. Sometimes I’d jump ship taking along with me any references, promotions (job titles are important folks), and certs I could along the way. Sometimes I’d stay longer than a year depending on what was happening. The pay was never right so I knew I wasn’t going to stay.
Most of these places were small to medium sized, toxic, unprofessional, and had high attrition rates.
After years of that, I started landing positions mostly based on the network I built of professional references. I have professional friends that help me out that are higher up on the latter and I have ones that I help / bring up with me that are below me on the latter.
Being honest, this was not the easy way by far and I don’t even know if you could still do what I did.
Today though, I have steady employment working for a large organization. My pay is good but not great. I’m not rich but I can make rent and have some left over for savings working only 40 hours a week. Really that’s all I ever wanted! I’m still working on my career but I’m happy I don’t have to do it while killing myself to not starve anymore!
I did it the hard way. Job hopping! I’m in IT without a degree (I have certs now but didn’t when I started). I have years of experience because I took entry level positions but had gaps in my knowledge due to not having a formal education. I started finding jobs that I had 80% of the know how from previous employers specifically. The pay would always be low for what I was doing, but it was a trade off since I had things to learn. I had to look for companies that weren’t willing to pay top dollar for IT so they’d be willing to ignore my lack of experience on some things.
After landing the job, I’d focus on that 20% specifically for resume bullet points. After 1 year (very important to stay for at least 1 year!), I’d evaluate. Sometimes I’d jump ship taking along with me any references, promotions (job titles are important folks), and certs I could along the way. Sometimes I’d stay longer than a year depending on what was happening. The pay was never right so I knew I wasn’t going to stay.
Most of these places were small to medium sized, toxic, unprofessional, and had high attrition rates.
After years of that, I started landing positions mostly based on the network I built of professional references. I have professional friends that help me out that are higher up on the latter and I have ones that I help / bring up with me that are below me on the latter.
Being honest, this was not the easy way by far and I don’t even know if you could still do what I did.
Today though, I have steady employment working for a large organization. My pay is good but not great. I’m not rich but I can make rent and have some left over for savings working only 40 hours a week. Really that’s all I ever wanted! I’m still working on my career but I’m happy I don’t have to do it while killing myself to not starve anymore!
Well congrats on the place you’ve managed to get to. Thanks for sharing