How To Get a Job in Tech [Infographic]

Matthew Gates 4m 984 #jobintech

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

Do you have what it takes to get a Job in the Tech World?

The Information Technology (IT) industry is a booming industry, with many jobs going unfulfilled each year, and many more companies creating new positions and looking to fill those positions. Those positions are not easy to fill, as many people do not meet the requirements, are not experienced enough, or simply lack the basic skills the company is looking for. Having knowledge and information about programming in high demanded frameworks or knowing unique information and having the skills in being able to learn new things quickly will give you a complete edge over everyone else. This is complimented greatly by a college degree in Computer Science or a related field.

Some of those positions companies are seeking and what they are willing to pay is quite a reasonable salary, if you are seeking employment and looking to make a lot of money doing it.

Best Paying Positions:

1. IT Management — $112,386
2. Information Architecture — $111,098
3. Project Manager — $100,143
4. Security Analyst/Architect/Engineer — $89,620
5. Software Engineer — $89,419

However, before you hit the books and head off to college, you may want to begin learning the basics of programming languages right in the comfort of your own home beforehand to see if it is right for you. Starting off with basics, moving to more advanced languages, and then practicing and even programming as a freelancer may give you all the experience you may need for companies to hire you. While the majority of companies would look upon you in favor if you did have at least a 4-year college degree — a great personality combined with experience and perseverance may get your foot in the door, even if you may have accept lower pay and work your way up.

Begin learning Team Tree House today which will teach you the basics and advanced stages of coding to help you get on your way to a successful career in technology.

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How To Get a Job In Tech

What You Need To Know To Land a Job At Google, Apple, or Facebook

Nearly 1 in 4 young professionals wants to work at Google.
Fewer than 1 in every 250 applicants will ever end up working there, but with the right skills and the right approach, a coveted Google job could be yours.

TECH JOBS: THE LAY OF THE LAND

Best Paying Positions:

1. IT Management — $112,386
2. Information Architecture — $111,098
3. Project Manager — $100,143
4. Security Analyst/Architect/Engineer — $89,620
5. Software Engineer — $89,419

Tech Hotspots:

1. Silicon Valley
   Average Salary: $99,028
2. Washington, D.C. / Baltimore
   Average Salary: $89,149
3. New York
   Average Salary: $87,298
4. Boston
   Average Salary: $86,782
5. Seattle
   Average Salary: $86,168
6. San Diego
   Average Salary: $85,617
7. Los Angeles
   Average Salary: $84,551
8. Houston
   Average Salary: $83,625

Top 4 In-Demand Developer Skills

Growth between the 1st quarters of 2010 and 2011.

1. 1. Android 302%
   2. Cloud 221%
   3. iPhone 220%
   4. Javascript 88%

The Job Scenes at Google, Facebook, and Apple (as of September 2011)

Google

Total Openings: 706
Non-software engineering

Total Openings: Hundreds
Software engineering

Sales, General, and Administrative – 306
Engineering Operations and Management – 277
Technical Sales and Support Engineering – 63
Product Management – 41
User Experience – 19

Applications received per year: 1,000,000

Hires per year: 1,000 – 4,000

What Google is looking for:

1. 1. 1. Software engineers: Google always, always, always has openings.
      2. Team players: Employees are interviewed and hired by teams, not single managers.
      3. Creative minds: Google “Google interview questions” to see what we mean.

Facebook

Total Openings: 330

Sales and Business Development: 57
Software Engineering – 55
Communications, Public Policy, Product Management, Growth and Analytics – 38
HR & Recruiting – 35
Technical Operations – 31
Online Operations – 30
Legal, Finance, Facilities, and Admin – 28
IT and Security – 24
Platform and Product Marketing – 21
Design and User Experience – 11

Applications received per year: 250,000

What Facebook is looking for:

1. 1. 1. Builders – People who have built their own apps, or launched products or organizations.
      2. Frequent FB users.
      3. A reference from inside the company.

Apple

Total Openings: 1,353

Software engineering – 280
iPhone engineering – 217
Operations – 193
Facilities, Marketing, Legal, HR, Finance, Retail Corporate – 172
Hardware Engineer – 155
Sales – 92
Applications and iPod engineering – 88
Information Systems and Technology – 79
Applecare – 77

What Apple is looking for:

1. 1. 1. A reference from inside the company.
      2. Active members of Apple’s Developer Program.
      3. A passion for Apple’s products and design.

How To Land a Job

Pick the Right Area of Study

Though computer science is the obvious choice of major for most people looking to enter tech, there are several areas of specialization that are in demand right now, many of which you can pursue a master’s degree in:

Technical:

1. 1. 1. Data mining
      2. Artificial Inteligence
      3. Competitive Intelligence
      4. Web Analytics and Statistical Analysis
      5. User Experience

Many majors can land you non-technical jobs in tech as well:

1. 1. 1. Business and Product Management
      2. Social Sciences
      3. Technical Communications

Resume Do’s and Don’ts

Google, Facebook, and Apple all use recruiters. If you’re looking for a job in tech, optimize your resume for recruiters searching databases.

General
√ Do Include the word “resume” — this is often part of recruiters’ searches.
X Don’t Spell the correct way (résumé). In searches, most recruiter don’t use the accented é.

Experience
User descriptive verbs and nouns and specific numbers.

√ Do Say you increased software sales by 24% over 6 months.
X Don’t Say you greatly increased sales for a variety of products.

√ Do Specify that you have experience in testing web-based applications and reporting platforms.
X Don’t Just mention you experience with QA (Quality Assurance).

Education
Certain misspellings and inconsistence are a good idea, as long as they’re for the sole purpose of showing up in search results more often.

√ Do Spell out your title in different ways.
If you have an MBA, write it as:

1. 1. • M.B.A.
      • MBA
      • Master of Business Administration
      • Masters in Bus. Admin.

X Don’t Consistently refer to your MBA as an MBA.

Created by MASTERSDEGREE.NET

Matthew Gates is a freelance web designer and currently runs Confessions of the Professions.
This infographic further explores getting a job in tech with some of the major companies.

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