This is going to be a bit of an intro to the next couple of posts. We’ve covered keeping your ass in gear. We’ve also discussed easy wins to getting hired. Now we’re going to talk about bigger goals you can set yourself that will take more time, but definitely be worth it.

In no particular order:

Study

While cross industry skills are great, you’re going to need to add some industry specific knowledge into that grey matter to increase your chances of getting hired. There’s a ton of people at entry level you’re competing with, so add certifications and knowledge so you can apply at positions above that, reducing the pool, and increasing your chances.

• Certifications - They give you knowledge, and a badge you can display on your LinkedIn profile. Certifications are great at getting you on a recruiter’s radar to get interviews.

• Free Training - If you can’t afford certifications, there are plenty of free courses online to use for probably any topic you can think of. They just don’t come with the certificate at the end. It’s a way you can get more on your resume without forking over $$ if money is tight.

• Projects - Show off your study with projects. As I said, Certifications are great at getting interviews, projects are great at getting jobs. Once you get the interview with your certification, projects give you something to show off, talk about, demonstrate your successes, failures, thought processes, troubleshooting etc. If you’ve taken my advice from the easy wins article, you’re also demonstrating that you know how to use git & GitHub.

• Soft/people skills - As a newcomer to the industry, you need to realise any interview is going to have a technical and cultural/personality component. Soft skills are something you’ve been doing your whole life, so if you can make sure you ace that part of an interview, you’ve maximised your non-technical chances. This can cover things like communication, critical thinking, leadership, teamwork, work ethic and plenty more. You can practice these with strangers, friends, family.

• Create content - Remember how I said on LinkedIn you need to be active, this is an easy way to do that, that will add value & have people looking at your profile. When you’re learning something, other than projects, another way to demonstrate your knowledge is to teach.

Next week I’ll go further into depth on these. Do you have other suggestions?