NO IT job after 2 years of ordinary degree

Hi,

I just happened to come across this post and want to offer my advice. To give a bit of background into where I am coming from, I finished my degree in Computer Science a little over 2 years ago and am now working in a fantastic job where I have been able to progress quickly and really cut my teeth with cutting edge technology in the IT industry. One of my current responsibilities is working with the HR department on interviewing Graduates and Junior Support Techs. There are some key things that immediately strike me when I am reading a CV - and I urge you not to underestimate how important your CV is.

1) Never lie on your CV - if you make it through to interview, we will know if you have lied on your CV. Just tell the truth, you may not have a lot of experience in the IT industry, you are graduates after all, but just try and get across your passion for IT and technology. Most of the time we are just looking for passionate people with a willingness to learn and drive to succeed.

2) Lay it out nicely, don't bunch the text together. If I come across a CV that is just one big block of text without being split into nice sections, I can't be bothered to read it.

3) Tailor your CV to the job you are applying for. This is so important, a CV is not just a generic document you write that fits all jobs. It's obvious when a CV has been written generically.

4) Triple check your spelling and grammar! Nothing is more off putting when reading a CV than poorly constructed sentences and bad spelling.

5) Remember you are trying to make yourself stand out. This doesn't have to be because of experience or technical knowledge, your personal interests count for a lot here too. One of the main things we look for are people with great personalities.

That's just a few things that come to mind and if you get through to interview stage with a company, remember that some of the most important things you can are express that you are passionate about IT and willing to learn. These are some of the main things we look for in candidates, if someone can express that then we know we can teach them the technical stuff.

Something else that I feel is worth mentioning is that I personally feel like my Computer Science degree was poor at preparing me for work in the industry. Side Note... When I was at University I took my 3rd year out to do a placement year - which I would highly recommend - as I did Java Software Development and hated every minute of it. This did help me greatly when looking for a job after my degree as I knew more what I wanted to do. In my current job I work with a number of core areas:

Networking and Security (these are distinctly different)
Storage
Virtualisation
Windows Technologies - Exchange, Lync, Windows Server etc.
Backup Technologies
Environment Monitoring and Reporting
Cloud Platforms - Amazon Web Services etc.

The main thing I found is that the ONLY one of these areas I even touched on in my degree was Networking, and that knowledge gained did help me but things like Virtualisation (VMware/Microsoft Hyper-V) are so key in the industry now you just have to know what they are about. Now I know at University you might not get the chance to see specific vendor stuff as they aren't allow to teach it, but you certainly can look it up in your own time. I love it when I interview someone who can talk to me about this stuff even at a basic level as it shows that are interested and have done their research. Almost every grad/junior has Networking on their CV but I guarantee if you can put some stuff from these other areas on your CV you'll stand out.

Read the Register website, it has all the latest Tech news from the different sectors I've listed and will keep you up to date.

Look on VMware's website and see what services they offer, there are free training modules you can do.

Overall, good luck! Just try and convey your passion and interest in your CV and you will be successful. It's a great industry to be in right now Thanks for reading if you got this far!