Success Guidelines for an IT Professional Career

What makes an IT Professional stand out above his peers? We have compliled this list from interviewing thousands of IT Professionals over the last 20 years. We would like to invite you to add to this list from your own experiences by commenting on our blog.

1. Be solution-oriented

Look at every task you are given as a product / service delivered by you being the company. Every product has a customer / user that needs to use this and benefit from it. Rather than looking at a job just as a means to an end and being there in working hours. This might require of you to work longer hours than usual at times. Linked to this, every product or service has to be delivered in a reasonable time frame. This definitely also does not mean you have to be a workaholic to be successful, one should live a balanced life so I suggest you should always ensure that you also have enough rest, even if it is between projects delivered.

2. Keep your skills updated

"School is never out for the true professional". This is especially applicable for IT as we have continuously evolving technologies in the IT industry, it is so easy to fall behind. This is also one of the reasons why we have a skills shortage in our industry.

"Rack up those certifications". It is just a fact that employers take IT Certifications seriously. Certified candidates earn higher salaries and are preferred in job interviews. Keep the certifications relevant to your job, updated. (We have a training school in our group - to assist with that : see http://www.getcertified.co.za/ ) .

3. Build relationships.

People are more important than technology, so do not neglect building friendships along the way in your IT career. It is not alone "what you know" - it is also "who you know". Colleagues, bosses, customers / end-users fall into this category. Make sure that while you are delivering the best solutions possible, you are also build strong friendships and remember we are all part of the human race.

4. Specialisation vs. generalisation

Your goal should be to be a specialist in your field, but you should not neglect the basics of a generalist. While being the top guru in your field, do not rely on other people to clean up the basics. For example while being a top Software Developer, it can be very positive to know how to fix your PC (and those of you users in times of need). An end - user looks up to an IT Professional as someone who knows everything.

5. Take responsibility

When choosing tasks on a new project, look at the core skills that will make the project successful. This is not always being a project leader, often a key member in a team plays a critical role when it comes to keeping the customer / users happy. Keep adding happy customers to your list and CV, it will add to you your success.

What does Cloud Computing and Virtualisation mean for the future of IT skills?

One of the most prominent trends in IT nowadays is the move towards Cloud Computing and Virtualisation. In brief this is the concept of business using more IT services on demand via the internet, than in-house.

For Infrastructure needs businesses can now even get hardware functionality by subscribing to such services on the internet. This means they do not have to buy and maintain servers anymore, but can get those and their -operating systems via a Service Provider on the internet. If the capacity gets too small, add some more capacity is done by taking a better subscription.

For Software Applications the model is similar. Businesses can now replace their in-house software packages with subscribed software services from the same vendors. For example an accounting package that was previously used in a company and installed on an in-house server, is now available on the internet by subscription on a monthly or -usage basis by the same company.

This reduces the need for small to medium-sized businesses to maintain their own server and network infra-structure and rather get the same functionality over the internet an a pay-as-you-use basis.

What does this hold for the future of the In-house Techincal Infrastructure Specialist and for the In-house Software Developer ?

Infrastructure specialists will now be needed more to work in vendor environments. Their job skills will be the same as always, although Virtualisation skills and certifications will be more in demand. In such vendor companies, there will be an added need to equip these technicians with people- and sales skills because of the business model of supplying the services to clients.

On the software application side inside a user company, programmers will now need to customise and extract data from such on-line software services. These programmers will need to skill themselves up more on the Front-End side with web and scripting software skills to :


- enable in-house applications with web front-ends 
- use / extract data from on-line software services companies for in-house customisations.

In brief : - technical skills will never become obsolete, there will be more of a shift to where they will be employed. 

At Compuways we are ready to supply the right kind of candidate for every position in an IT environment. Whether it is with an IT vendor or with and IT user. Software Application developers for in-house systems or for vendors supplying web - services. We are able to ensure the right person is matched to the right position in the right company. Our 20 years in the IT Industry has seen many shifts in IT : From Mainframes to PC's, from procedural software programming languages to 4th generation programming languages to Object - Oriented programming languages. From mainframe to mini computers and then to servers. From servers to virtualised servers. There was never a stage where good - solutions-oriented IT skills were not in demand.

Our clients can testify that we are able to provide the right skills at the right time - always!

Look at the big picture when planning your IT career

The IT industry consist of IT Companies and Non-IT Companies. Companies who's main product line is IT Services / products, and Companies who's main product line is not IT, but they buy IT products / services from IT Companies.

We have placed these two types of companies on our websites to categorise the skills in each. In IT Companies we find the position of a 'Consultant' a lot. For example a SAP Consultant in an IT Company will work next to a similarly educated person in a non-IT Company but the nature of a consultant's job is so much more different than that of the 'Business Analyst', that we do have to distinguish between the two.

A Consultant spends his time at client sites, performing an advisory role, whereas an in-house Business Analyst's main priority is the business of his own company. It is often said that a consultant must be prepared to 'live out of his car's boot'.

The skills are mapped out on our home page on http://www.compuways.co.za .

Compuways - 19 years and going stronger

[2009] As South Africa faces a skills shortage, IT recruitment company Compuways CEO reveals his secrets for success in IT recruitment.

Established in July 1990, Compuways the local ICT recruitment and skills specialists celebrates 19 years in IT recruitment in July.

Compuways is the brainchild of Arnold Graaff, and was initially started as a promotion agency for IT contracting freelancers, while he was working as a freelance programmer. The company gained traction when Graaff teamed up with a general recruiter and began focusing on all aspects of IT recruitment, resulting in the Compuways we now know today.

“IT placements compared to general placements are very much skills-based, therefore a lot of effort goes into ensuring the applicant's skill-levels are up to standard,” says Graaff, MD at Compuways.

“Other factors like team type and industry, as well as oriented matching must be taken into account when placing candidates with an employer. All of that needs to happen before we even look at the softer aspects of candidate matching such as culture and personality types.”?

The secret of Compuways success has hinged around the development of an electronic database driven system that firstly categorises applicants and then matches them to positions. Being a computer programmer since 1982 and after obtaining his Hons Degree in Computer Science in 1988 Graaff himself was deeply entrenched in the development of the system, and touts it as a unique contributor to the success of Compuways in the IT recruitment space.

Graaff states that the system provides crucial support throughout the entire recruitment process. In the year 2000, the system was given a Web Interface, in essence automating much of the manual process, and in turn enabling recruiters, applicants and employers to provide their inputs throughout the recruitment process.

“We attribute our success to our ability to deliver the right calibre of candidate to the right kind of company, time and again, and across the whole spectrum of the IT skills base,” states Graaff.

Compuways prides itself on having grown through many IT Industry developments such as ERP, Object Orientation, as well as the Mainframe and Mini's right through to contemporary networks. In the IT industry times and technologies have changed considerably requiring an array of different skills. Throughout its 19 years Compuways has provided top-notch candidates, delivering from learnerships to CIO's, ERP consultants, technicians and developers.

“Compuways has built a strong brand throughout the years and nurtured loyal client relationships - some of our clients are still with us since our inception. I believe our success can be attributed to our taking pride in every placement we make,” ends Graaff.

Be aware of how our recruitment procedure works

To maximise your chances of getting one of our jobs, ensure that your keywords are valid and your profile updated. Here is what we do when we get a new position from a client.

We give preference to our registered members. After categorising the new job, we identify the most important keywords in the job spec. We select all our Compuways Candidate profiles in the same category and those containing the same keywords. We then email it to them.

A job spec can be matched with 1 to 3 keywords in a category. We can unfortunately not match to the detail of salary brackets but we do offer our members a referral bonus if they can refer someone.

If we do not find any of our registered members interested, we then go out to advertise and search on 3rd party job sites for candidates.

Make your next career move wisely

Nobody wants to make a bad career move, neither does anyone want to stagnate in a job that leads nowhere. When considering a new job, one should look at oneself through the eyes of a prospective employer. You can learn about yourself by looking at your past jobs / projects and also by being honest and 'interviewing yourself '.

Looking at your current and / or previous jobs or projects

What am I good at and what not?
What makes me happy and unhappy?
What are my achievements?

When answering the above 3 questions, try to see the big picture. With that I mean how an employer sees it in terms of the running of his department and so in terms of how the owner of the company sees it.

Job and skills categories in IT

I want to use this blog to clarify the different skills categories we have in the IT industry. As you know it is very important to actually match people to jobs and we use these extensively to assist in the matching process. In due course I am going to publish articles about the categories.

I also want to use the blog to chat about anything you want concerning IT recruitment and jobs in South Africa. Please feel free to comment and ask questions.