Success at work is a combination of hard work, determination, and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. It is not something that comes easily to everyone, but with the right mindset and approach, anyone can achieve success in their chosen field. In this blog we will take a look at key things to consider for achieving success at work
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Linux provides multiple package management tools to simplify the process of package installation and upgrades, in this blog we look at RPM and YUM, and how they can be used for package management on Redhat flavour linux distributions
10 best entry level tech jobs and skills required to get hired
In today’s world of technology, IT is the most flourishing field. In fact, industry body NASSCOM has recently pointed out that before the pandemic, Indian IT companies were reporting annual growth rates of around 6-7%, which have now increased to around 15-20%. [1]
IT industry is one sector which is growing very fast worldwide. It helps to provide jobs and opportunities for professional success. It can really be a source of quick employment, opportunities in all sectors, numerous career paths, and well-paid salaries. Here we describe the 10 entry-level IT positions while you search for a job.
It is important to note that some roles do provide entry-level positions but some of these are specialized roles and generally companies do look for knowledge of systems and networks as well as prior experience, so it is a good idea to start with roles 1-5 and then opt for the other roles based on your interests and experience.
1. Help Desk Technician
Help Desk technician forms the first level of IT support, a help desk technician provides technical support/assistance, whether on the phone /in-person/ or remotely. When an employee/computer user (within the organization or at a client’s end) has problems with hardware, software, or a network, they call on a help desk to assist. As a help desk technician, your main responsibility is to receive the requests and be responsible for responding to email, chat, or phone queries, and offering technical support to customers using the tools available.
The title for the role may vary, help desk technicians may also be called, help desk analysts, desktop support, service desk technicians, etc. collectively referred to as help desk positions. Many IT professionals start their career in help desk roles, it is a good position to consider if you don’t know where to start in IT, you get the necessary exposure to the domain and as you gain experience and knowledge you can further decide your career path.
Skills required: Help desk roles need basic IT / Troubleshooting skills, normally organizations don’t as for certifications. Even non-IT graduates are eligible for these roles. You will need good communication and process handling skills for these roles.
2. Technical Support / IT Technician
Technical Support roles are similar to help desk technician in way that they also support the technical issues faced by end users, but while help desk job is to support user issues, technical support works on actual technical issues that cause the problem. Technical support is a trained person who has the knowledge of operating systems and networks and is able to troubleshoot the issues that arise due to them.
IT technicians can also be called IT associates, IT analysts, or IT specialists. Some companies may have IT technicians do help desk work as well. This position is a very good start to enter in IT sector jobs and later when you gain experience, you can enter other fields such as network administrator, DBA, or IT security specialist.
Skills required: Technical Support / IT technician roles need to be from IT background, companies seek good knowledge of operating systems, Networking, and in some cases SQL as well. Good communication skills and troubleshooting skills are also needed for this role.
3. Application Support Engineer
Application support engineer role is similar to IT Technician, as they also need to work on technical issues, but in this case in addition to the general operating system and network issues they actually support the applications issues as well which is a product of the company or for which company offers the services.
Here in addition to the operating system and network knowledge, additional knowledge on SQL, HTML, and Scripting may also be required, the organizations also provide product-specific training to those who join in these roles. Similar to IT Technician, this position is a very good start to enter in IT sector jobs as this provides the necessary exposure and once you gain experience, you can enter other fields such as network administrator, DBA or IT security specialist.
Skills required: Companies look for candidates from IT backgrounds with good knowledge of the operating system, Networking, and SQL. Apart from these companies also seek knowledge in web technologies. Good communication skills and troubleshooting skills are also needed for this role.
4. System Administrator
System Administrator is a very important person in the organization as he is responsible for the smooth working of the IT systems on day-to-day basis. He looks after servers, network performance, security tools, operating systems etc. Unlike tech support roles system administrator roles are more specialized in ensuring systems within the organization function smoothly. Their roles can overlap with the Network Administrators.
System Administrator’s should have full knowledge about hardware and software and have plans to resolve any issue. They should also have good communication with management employees so that they can reach out to them whenever required. This role also provides opportunities to grow, as you gain experience and expand your skill set you can advance to roles like systems engineer or systems architect.
Skills required: Companies look for candidates from IT backgrounds with experience and sound knowledge of networking. Companies look for certifications and associated degrees. Good communication skills and troubleshooting skills are also needed for this role.
5. Network Engineer / Network Support Engineer
Network Engineer / Network support engineer role is similar to technical support role, but the focus here is limited to networking knowledge and troubleshooting of network / “network device” related issues, In a way, this is a more specialized role.
Here you need limited knowledge of operating systems, and hardware but sound knowledge of networking concepts and specialized certification for any of network hardware vendors like cisco is needed., and they support the technical issues in the network or network devices.
Skills required: Companies look for candidates from IT backgrounds with experience and sound knowledge of networking. Companies look for certifications and associated degrees. Good communication skills and troubleshooting skills are also needed for this role.
6. Database Administrator
Database Administrator is responsible for the business aspects of the organization. They manage and maintain company databases. They monitor the database performance and take corrective action, address any issues related to the database, and ensure security and backup of databases as per company policies.
It is a specialized role generally companies look for experience candidates, basic knowledge of operating systems, networking, etc is also required as databases are also a part of the systems. Database is offered by different vendors ( MS SQL, Oracle etc or NoSQL databases or opensource database like mysql and postgresql). Companies either look for skills in a specific database technology or in some cases general skills across databases.
Skills required: Again, this is a specialized role and companies do look for experience and IT background with solid knowledge of systems, operating systems, servers, cloud technologies, and networking. Apart from this companies look for the ability to program in high-level languages like python, knowledge of microservice architecture (Docker, Kubernetes) ability use Devops / CICD tools
8. Information Security Analyst
In this era when everything is online and tech-based, a lot of companies have faced the problem of breaches. An Information Security Analyst is a person who helps to protect you from such issues.
Their job is to detect the different aspects of security like network security and software security. He also makes sure that data is available to the authorized people in the company. They conduct security audits, are responsible for conducting security assessment tests, and coordinate with key stakeholders to ensure remediation activities are performed.
Skills required: This is a specialized role and companies do look for experience and IT background with strong knowledge of systems, operating systems, servers, cloud technologies, and networking. Apart from this companies look for a sound knowledge of penetration testing principles, tools and techniques, knowledge system and application security threats and vulnerabilities, and skills in scripting languages.
9. Cloud Engineer
Cloud Engineer is someone who deals with cloud computing. This includes managing, planning, architecting, and monitoring cloud systems. He should also know how to implement the best practices to deploy an application on the cloud.
Sometime back cloud computing was considered a luxury but today it has become a necessity. There is a lot of scope and high salary in this field.
Skills required: This is a specialized role and companies do look for experience and companies not only look for skills in cloud technologies (AWS, Azure, Oracle) but also the knowledge of operating systems, networking, and fundamentals of hardware (cpu, storage, RAM etc)
10. Web Developer / Software Developer / Mobile Developer
Requirements: Ability to program / Experience with programming languages. Associate, bachelor’s, or master’s degrees may be requested.
Web Developers / Software Developers need programming skills, and depending upon the role the expertise may wary. Web developer roles in generally attributed to those building websites, whereas software developers build the applications/ software products and applications, with a lot of businesses having their web portals as their prime products these roles also overlap.
Skills required: Companies look for skills in front end technologies, back end technologies or full stack developers, with proficiency in programming languages. For web development, you will need skills in HTML, CSS, and Javascript while for backend you will need skills in python, Ruby or PHP. For software development, you will need skills in programming languages like Java, C++ etc . While for mobile development you will need skills in specific mobile app development languages
Learning on the job / Learnability
How you learn while working makes a lot of difference in your journey towards building a great career in tech. Even if we assume you got the right education in your school or college but it will never be possible that you acquire all the skills during your education.
As you grow in your career you have to continuously become proficient in what you already know and also learn new skills. Further, tech jobs come in all different shapes and sizes, even the same role with the same KRA in two organizations will require a different skill set to succeed.
It becomes imperative once you start working to understand the needs of the role and start learning, not every skill and expertise will come in the form of an official training assignment, you have to learn the art of acquiring skills and knowledge from daily events and experiences.
Learning itself has multiple theories around it, once you are on job it will be a combination of listening, seeing, reviewing, practicing, and it starts with curiosity and a can-do attitude is a must. Your ability to form questions from daily problems and then seek answers, will be important, for example, you were unable to solve a problem but a colleague or senior was able to do it, so the first thing is curiosity and the attitude that what was the case that you were not able to close but there were? The second would be to actually know the solution and how they figured it out. The third would be to understand the solution using any reference material physical or online, and the last would be to actually apply it.
Another way learning happens is when you stay with the problem until it is solved, this may require additional efforts, especially when you are designing or developing something, work-life balance is important but these are crucial situations that can make all the difference in whether we were able to learn something in totality or not when we stay with the problem till the end and arrive at the solution, it really helps us to connect the dots, and fill in the gaps in our concepts, and yes it makes a huge difference to our confidence and helps to build the right attitude.
When you implement something (a solution, a process) and complete the feedback loop, you can also learn a lot, as compared to when you are only a part of the implementation. When you are able to see the impact, take the feedback, and then correct things as per feedback, you are able to see the cause and effect and this helps in building a deep understanding of the problem and solution which leads to real learning.
Your curiosity in learning something new will allow you to seek new skills which may not be a part of your KRA but complementary to it, learning these skills to some level helps to do your job better, and even open opportunities for you to progress further. For example, for a tech support engineer, learning programming concepts will help you understand what is happening around you better, you will be able to communicate with right artifacts and terminologies, helping you reach solutions faster, it does not only help in improving your concepts but also provide you visibility across the teams.
In a nutshell, learning on the job or your learnability skill will be a key differentiator on how you perform and grow in your career, like other skills it is also a skill that has to be developed as you go along in your career. This doesn’t only impact your initial career but this allows you to have a deeper understanding of the work you do, helping you build and long and lasting career in Tech Industry..
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Author
Nikhil Ahluwalia
Founder Upspir
Nikhil has over 16years of experience in the industry, before starting UPSPIR he was heading the support, services, and delivery function at Exotel. and he has vast experience in managing and leading technical support and delivery teams, With Upspir he aims to take his passion of developing and mentoring people to next level by sharing his experiences and learning with those who want to build their career in the tech support domain.