Career Path and Job Seeking in IT

Hi all,

As you all probably know, the requirements for jobs, especially in IT, are growing inadequately. But how do you know when to apply and where? What are the things you should take care of? And, how to make a great salary? Let us dive into this:

When to apply?

A typical mistake I see over and over again is that people start searching when it is already too late. Completely frustrated or demotivated from the current job or, even worse, already quit and sitting in the notice period. And now?

Now you are under pressure to find a job in no time.

What usually happens is that applications go out to the first potential jobs, and you will be sitting in interviews, totally stressed, with the pressure of getting the job. Then, the negotiations start, and you will be in a huge favour to make compromises. That doesn't sound in your service, or? So - when is then the right time then?

Well - the answer is easy.

The right time to search for a new job is when you are actually not searching.

Knowing that you have a great job, and there is no pressure to transition jobs within the next months increases your confidence in every discussion. You can ask for significantly higher salaries, as these would be needed to make your move and go into interviews without stress.

I had a mentor once who recommended me to send out a few applications on a yearly base.

Not to find a new job. But to keep my CV updated, to always know about my market value, and to continuously train interviews and negotiations. And sometimes - out of coincidence - I would face a jewel that I would have missed.

Don't settle too early, and not for too long.

Oh, I can already see all the comments in front of me like

"David! How can you make a recommendation like this?"

But it is true. Many people and especially employers will always try to convince you to stay for a very long time, especially early in your career. You will be faced with quotes like "loyalty is important" or "you need to grow gradually" and "first you need to acquire some experience". It is something that has been used in the past where people started to work in a single company and worked there forever. But the critical question is:

How loyal will the employer be towards you?

Will he be throwing out people at the moment he did not have a good year? Is your company letting you grow and come up with the right career path? Are you able to internally apply for the next roles in your career path or maybe to a different path, increasing your seniority and experience? Do you continuously receive the training you require to grow?

And here the last question:

Are you able to negotiate for your market value?

If you made it very optimistic to the last question, then you are already one of the lucky ones. But here it ends. The answer to the previous question is:

No - you will almost never be able to negotiate for your market value by staying long at a single company.

It is even worse. Take a look at the following picture and this article for further context.

Sitting in a company might provide you some salary increases from time to time. Usually, I hear much frustration that these are always tough to get, require strong negotiation skills, and sometimes they will not be provided. But usually, you will never get close to your market value.

More clever companies create performance environments where a flexible bonus is given out based on KPIs, and promotions can be gained with continuously high KPIs providing you relative salary increases between 5-10%. The overall issue is that your market value increases exponentially within the first 10-15 years. Starting with 20-60k after study or apprenticeship and then proliferating up to 100-300k, based on experience and technology.

In the above-shown picture, the salary increases with job transitions are calculated with 10%, which is far behind reality. Usually, you can expect increases between 15% up to crazy 40% and more by moving to a new company and applying for the next step in your career ladder.

But this is not all. There have been studies that you need to do these big jumps as early as possible in your career because you will always move upwards relative to your current salary. If you missed doing the significant increases in the first 15 years, you will very likely never reach the same wage compared to a person with a similar skillset who did it. Check also this article for further context: "The Fastest Path to the CEO Job, According to a 10-Year Study".

Overcome the laziness of staying

That all being said, one typical issue I have seen a lot is that people don't change because of laziness. I mean - the most crucial thing in your career life is to find a job that makes fun and satisfies your passion. But there are these people that simply stay, no matter how high the frustration is - , and it is not always laziness. Many times it is better explainable with a secure feeling and habit.

But I have to find clear words here:

Sitting in a job that does not do anything in your favor and you don´t like, is just - stupid.

I got to know many people who were unhappy with their jobs and roles, but they were not courageous enough to take the next step, because they were extremely risk-averse.

You have to be courageous!

Find the roles that match your profile and career path.

There is, unfortunately, much subjective interpretation regarding roles and seniority levels on the public market. Let us start with the seniority levels that tend to be given:

Entry: Associate, Regular (without any additional title), Junior - e.g., Junior Developer, Customer Engineer
Mid: Regular - e.g. Software Developer
Experienced: Regular, Senior - e.g., Consultant, Senior Consultant
Leading: Lead, Lead Senior, Principal, Staff - e.g., Lead Consultant, Principal Engineer
Executive: Chief, Senior Principal, Office of the CIO / CTO, Fellow - e.g., Chief Architect, Senior Principal Program Manager, Architect - OCTO

The thing that you will need to ask when applying for the job - what is the interpretation of the company regarding these seniority levels? Sometimes, Principal Architect is the highest seniority in the architect career ladder, and sometimes it could also be the Chief Lead Architect. Also, ask for the career path. Some companies stop at Senior roles and don't provide further career goals.

Unfortunately, there is also nothing like standardized role names. Usually, you have different career tracks, meaning either with people management or not, technical-focused or business-focused, and even cross-functional roles. The primary question you need to answer in IT at some point in time:

Do you want to become a manager?

In some career paths, the role name is also an indicator of maturity. Here some examples:

Software Developer vs. Software Architect
Engineer vs. Architect
Project Manager vs. Program Manager
Specialist vs. Consultant
Associate vs. Consultant vs. Partner
Manager vs. VP vs. Director
and many more.

Become familiar with those and set yourself the right career path with milestones in between.

Always reach for the stars.

In the same bucket goes this tip. Knowing which career path you are following is excellent. Now you should always challenge yourself. Avoid horizontal changes, use diagonal ones instead. Don't always stay in your comfort zone and try to step up with every move you do. And - don't hesitate.

When reaching to the stars, you will not always fulfil all the requirements, but you don't ever need to, as you will grow with your challenges. Apply for the significant changes.

Apply for the right jobs and not only the right company

The next step is to find companies you want to join. A typical misconception of young professionals is to only focus and aim for jobs at the so-called FAANG companies.

These are still companies, you will need to work and not everything is as shiny, as it seems to be from the outside world.

Another typical error done by many people is to apply for the right companies but not for the right roles because these roles are currently not available. Well - you will be running through the toughest interviews in IT - you definitely want to make sure that you are not just wasting this opportunity by applying to a job outside of your main skillset. Set up alerts and wait for the right roles!

Find the companies you want to join.

Sure, it is excellent if you can land a job at one of the FAANG companies, but there are more options. A typical next step is to search on your job page of choice, e.g., here on LinkedIn. This is an excellent start to check which companies are actively promoting and searching for people.

But a better recommendation is to check the company career pages directly. On top of the already identified companies that are actively searching for people, you can find many renowned large companies by having a look through the S&P 500, DAX 30, Nikkei 225, and especially NASDAQ.

Another great option is also to validate growing startups. Here it is essential to take a look through the news and check for VC investments. If you are lucky, you can join a ramping up moonshot and will be able to learn a different working culture.

The right job, but too high requirements? When in doubt, apply.

Many of us have seen the trend for more but also higher job requirements. The following one is a great example:

You cannot believe how often people have reached out to me and asked if they should apply or not, as they did not fulfil the requirements. I usually tend to counter that with two frank questions:

What is the worst thing that can happen, if you apply?

What is definitely going to happen, if you don´t apply?

Exactly, - ignore these (bullshitting) requirements, and apply. Most of the time, they are part of a tricky negotiation tactic to explain to you in the interviews that you are not fulfilling all requirements and, therefore, your expected salary needs to be decreased. The next time this happens, be confident:

If you are getting the job, then you are getting it. You will need to fulfill it the same way, as someone else having all these skills would need to do it. Also, if there would be a better application on the table, you would very likely not receive the offer.

Don´t let yourself get tricked.

Create a reasonable CV and demonstrate your value.

After finding some opportunities, you need to put much effort into your CV. In short, the implication of your CV is to receive the invitation for the interview. It is a brief description of who you are, but more importantly, on what your value is and why you should be hired.

Therefore, demonstrate your value! Demonstrate your passion!

Try to add objective metrics and impress with extraordinary. I already wrote an article covering this topic some time ago - check it out. The following session contains the most important tips:

Negotiate confidently

Negotiation is usually a topic of itself, but I will introduce some regular things.

Typically, the first person to share an expectation is the one who loses.

The best recommendation is to have clear insights into the salaries of the company or already having competitive offers on the table that you could share. Both things are not always easy to get and, usually, you will be asked many times for a salary expectation. Regularly, this is already done the first time directly in the application form.

My recommendation,- don't share it, as long as you can avoid it.

If you need to enter it in the form, don't enter a number.

If you are being asked, counter-ask what the salary range for the role is.

And, if you still need to share a number, there are two ways on how you could play it. Either you play the negotiation bingo and provide a significantly higher amount than the wage you have in mind where you would directly sign the contract.

Or, be the honest fun-killer and share your current salary, and explain that you would need a significant increase (or at least the same wage) to let you move without headaches.

The first strategy usually requires a lot of supportive arguments and insights into salaries. It is especially recommendable the earlier you are in your career life.

The second approach you can take when you are already happy with your salary and don't want to discuss too much. Either you are worth it, or not, and this is the point you make. The following article includes some more tips in this regard, especially if you have many options on the table: "How I negotiated a $300,000 job offer in Silicon Valley."