Becoming a Skilled Technology Worker

5 Steps to Becoming a Tech Worker

Working in tech can be incredibly rewarding. Not only are there opportunities across multiple sectors and in thousands of different highly-profitable companies, but you’ll be working in many of them at the cutting edge of science and technology. It’s little wonder some of the most sought-after jobs in the world are in Silicon Valley – the home of the tech company. In this piece, we’re going to look at how to position yourself as a valuable tech worker and help you to pick a career path to help develop the skills you need to make it in a tech job of your choosing.

Focus on Education

It should go without saying – in highly-competitive roles in tech companies, you’re going to need a high level of education to turn heads and interest hiring professionals in the halls of Silicon Valley. They’re only looking for the best and brightest to help them continue to surge in popularity across the world. You’re going to have to work hard to be noticed when you eventually submit your resume to their offices. Some educational routes you can take include:

• Working extra hard in high school to achieve exemplary grades
• Getting into one of the best universities in the country, like the Ivy League group
• Spending some of your time studying abroad, which shows international and cosmopolitan skills
• Getting to grips with technology through online courses, qualifications, and seminars
• Taking Masters and post-graduate courses to help boost your knowhow and expertise
• Attending special classes to help to expand your skillset

All of the above should be well within your reach if you’re ambitious enough to foresee a career in technology. Possibly the most essential educational qualification of all, though, is data science. You’ll be working with tech and data every day in a tech role, so studying for an online Master’s in Data Science will help to qualify you in the eyes of large tech companies.

Extra Work

As a young person, the temptation is always to produce the smallest amount of work for the highest yield of rewards. Here, you’ll think of the time you spent in school where you got good grades, but you didn’t apply yourself elsewhere – or university – where you balance working hard with playing hard. But, unfortunately, if you don’t take up any extra-curricular pursuits while you’re learning, you’re unlikely to appear special when you come to submit your resume for inspection at a tech company. You should instead try to:

• Show off your soft skills and build them actively through teamwork and team pursuits
• Take work in part-time jobs as you study – earn cash and to complement your hard work
• Start enterprises, set up websites and blogs, or do other entrepreneurial activities
• Lead small groups at university, like a book group or a coding group
• Look for opportunities to improve your core skills in the tech field

If you’re working hard to boost your resume with the above actions, you’ll be able to talk about these unexpected pursuits in an interview showing you live and breathe tech in an age where singling yourself out in job applications matters a great deal.

Get Experience

Like all jobs in all industries, tech companies are looking for individuals who have at least some working experience in an office, and some experience working in a tech role. They’re ordinarily looking for skilled workers who can hit the ground running, bringing immediate value to their firm. That said, there are plenty of graduation hiring schemes at all of the biggest tech companies, but these are some of the most competitive job placements on Earth. Sometimes, you need experience elsewhere, including:

• Unpaid internships at the companies you admire the most
• Paid positions in part-time or temporary roles, performing tech duties within companies
• Voluntary positions in organizations requiring your skills to succeed
• Time spent working in a job you know will only be a stop-gap before you apply to better roles

Spending some of your time developing your core business and workplace skills can be no bad thing in the eyes of hiring officials at tech companies. This comes recommended for those who wish to build up their experience.

Follow Tech News

The world of technology has, more and more, consumed the world. In the past, you might have been unlikely to find news sections on the major news websites talking about advances and issues in the digital space. Now, these are some of the most-read and most-important articles across the internet. You can get on top of them too, if you consume the right kinds of information from the right sources. These might include:

• Specialist journals, which speak only to those qualified in technology
• Tech newsletters, which keep you abreast of the developments in the tech space
• Company blogs and press releases, especially those released from companies you’re interested in working for
• Forums and message boards connected to your technological passion

All of these sources of information are crucial to help you build the knowledge in which you’ll use to break into the tech sector once and for all.

Contacts

Finally, skilled tech workers often still need a slice of luck to find their way into the most impressive tech companies. Happily, you can help to make your own luck in your career by working steadfastly on building up your network and your contact book as you attempt to find those jobs you’re most interested in. Concentrate specifically on:

• Employees within some of the tech companies you’re most interested in joining
• Thought leaders who might be able to help you find a job in the future
• Young professionals who have extensive personal networks in which you can operate
• Teachers, mentors, and those who have helped you in your career and education so far

By leveraging your contacts, you’ll be able to impress those around you, pull in favors at a moment’s notice, and ask for help with applications to the jobs you want in the tech sector. In turn, this will help you to become a skilled tech worker in the ideal job for you.