As part of my day to day, I’m quite often asked for career advice by those around me. This post has been niggling at my brain for a bit, and my pc’s died, so without video games, lets talk getting in/moving up in the industry :)

Lately I’ve had plenty of questions from people either trying to break into, or get out of(move up from) a junior role.

Incase there’s any confusion, here’s some prefixes used to signal these are:

• Assistant
• Associate
• Apprentice
• Adjunct
• Junior
• Trainee
• Provisional

So we’ll discuss those wanting to get into the industry, aswell as those wanting to move up.

I can’t get into the industry

Unfortunately right now, there are not many junior roles available, atleast in the IT industry. Rising interest rates, and the layoffs from last year are still affecting the industry, most organisations wanting to increase output are opting to hire seniors and above to try and avoid training & getting up to speed time, aswell as hoping for more output.

My advice to those trying to get in at this time, concentrate on adding on some pertinent industry relevant certifications, and after each certification, build a project that will demonstrate your knowledge.

This will also let you have more items to discuss during the interview process, helping control the flow of the interview and talk about things you’re passionate in, aswell as answering questions about something you’re familiar with.

If you flick back through my previous articles, I’ve discussed job hunting tips, projects you can do, things to study. Happy to answer any questions if you’ve got any.

How long should I be a junior for?

I believe someone dedicated to moving up should be aiming for 1-2 years.

The thing to take into account is that junior roles, the expectation is to increase your independence (requiring less hand-holding, shadowing, training etc) along with your job specific knowledge (tech stack/experience in the role etc).

So I find doing that usually involves just continuing study. Keep learning, whether it’s doing certifications, building things, reading things, whatever it takes. As long as it reduces the time required to perform your tasks, and the load on your seniors to assist you completing tasks, you’re on the right path.

Where it gets tricky is that if you’re at the same level for 2+ years, you really need to think long and hard about whether you are able to advance where you’re at, or whether a relocation to a different workplace will get you the promotion.

Now I’ve seen both strategies work tremendously, or fail spectacularly for people. It really depends on your situation.

TLDR

Keep building those skills is the long and short of it. In either situation, keep working on yourself, keep learning, don’t stop growing. You will get there in the end.

If anyone has questions, either shoot me a message on LinkedIn, or just reply to the LI post.