How can a beginner get into their dream IT company? Features and valuable advice from a recruiter

Today, more and more young professionals want to work in the IT sector. This is driven by the high demand for these professions, relatively high salaries, and growth prospects. Often, specialists enter IT after radically changing their career direction. Is this really the case, and how can a beginner join their dream IT company?

Maria Berezhnaya, Head of Recruitment at the IT holding Kazdream and Director of the recruitment agency Pro People

How the IT sector is structured

The main difference between IT recruitment and any other field is that we do not have a large volume of candidates. In most cases, recruitment turns into headhunting. For every developer, there are simultaneously up to ten job openings and five offers, not only from local companies but also from European, American, and CIS countries.

Working in the IT sector is not instant income but painstaking labor, continuous self-education, and self-improvement. This is because the world of technology is changing and improving rapidly. Therefore, we always pay attention to the interest shown by a beginner or an experienced specialist coming for a job. A person who is passionate about their work and eager to learn is immediately noticeable during interviews.

It is difficult but possible for a beginner to get into their dream IT company. However, one must be ready to learn quickly. Even an experienced specialist with fundamental knowledge and a non-standard approach will need to devote considerable time to learning.

About in-demand professions in the market

Generally speaking, there is no oversupply of IT specialists. Any good IT professional is worth their weight in gold. However, currently, we most often experience a shortage of DevOps engineers, developers who write in Go and Python. Also, today, the field of data work is popular: Data Science and specialists in machine learning.

Professionals working in IT but not engaged in programming are highly valued in the market: project managers, UX/UI designers, business analysts, and IT lawyers.

Currently, representatives from other professional fields are showing increasing interest in the IT sector. For example, our holding employs medical professionals, builders, historians, geographers, and chemists. There is even one milk technologist and a specialist in fashion and clothing design. And they work quite successfully.

What to know to get your first job in IT

Here, it is necessary to understand exactly who we are talking about. If we are talking about IT students, then the technical base provided by the university is sufficient. I can only recommend completing internships at companies to see how teamwork unfolds on commercial projects. Try your hand at various small projects and gain experience by the time you graduate. I also advise maintaining your GitHub: upload your academic projects. For designers, this can be Behance, where you can create your portfolio. When creating a resume, simply attach a link to the relevant resource.

If we are talking about people who are retraining and coming to IT from other professions, you need to carefully choose courses because not all of them are equally useful. Additionally, study information on external resources.

If you are a Junior specialist, then work experience is not so important. You may be asked to complete a test assignment or invited for an internship first. For those at the Middle level and above, without commercial work experience, there is nowhere to go.

From my own experience, I can say that a correctly composed resume is already half the success. Your resume should be structurally clear, detailed, and reflect your experience, with tasks and the technology stack you have worked with described. It is important to attach a portfolio and contacts, and then the probability that your resume will be noticed among others increases.

I recommend maintaining your LinkedIn profile: attach all certificates to the page, indicate work experience, and write articles. This will help you develop your personal brand, because IT recruiters often "meet" candidates on this platform.

How to quickly master a new specialty

Everything depends on your personal learning pace. Some people need only a couple of months to complete courses, work in a team, and quickly raise their level of knowledge, while others may sit for years without achieving proper development. Currently, the first option is more common.

If we talk about courses and certificates that we pay attention to, they should be specialized and substantial training programs. For example, for Java developers, these are Oracle's own certificates; for network engineers, Cisco training is important. Online courses like "Become a cool developer in a month" do not fit. Also, I always pay attention to which companies the candidate has worked for: whether our technology stack is similar, what projects were there in terms of scale. Therefore, when mastering a new profession, pay attention to company requirements.

About salaries in IT

Everything depends on the position, company, and programming language. On average, for beginners in the IT sector, salaries range from 200,000 to 300,000 tenge net. If the specialist is at the Middle level and above, then salaries average from 700,000 to 1,000,000 tenge.

In general, I advise reading and studying more to have a solid knowledge base. Collect a portfolio and post your projects on specialized platforms.

Do not be afraid of internships and start completing them from your first year of study. And most importantly, communicate more with experts and attend thematic events where the community in your field gathers.