As I started my job at a top tech company in my twenties, I remember talking to some older and wiser higher up and other senior level coworkers. These senior level folks were wanting to grow us newbies and bestow advice to us as we were on our grand career venture. I remember how the highest ranked boss lady sat six of the newcomers down. All of us were very eager entry level coworkers who were talking about our career aspirations and goals. Many of us had tunnel vision of climbing to the ladder, getting promotions, getting raises. As she sat us down, she said to us, “Having goals are great, but remember to have some patience too.” This came across as discouraging at first but having reflected on this moment a lot in my career journey, it really is true that “Patience is a Virtue” and that success isn’t instantaneous.

That being said, I’m sure you didn’t come to this blog to hear about patience. I do think it is important to share that just like with any good meal, a career takes planning and execution, and with both of those elements, it can take time. You rush either the planning or the execution, things could go a miss, important ingredients needed, or even an overcooked or undercooked meal.

Continuing the cooking analogy, here is my recommended recipe to break into a high paying career in IT – C+E+O = Breaking into high paying career.

1. Creds – Education or Experience

2. Entry Level Job

3. Open to new Creds in Tech

Breaking down 1. Creds.

This is the biggest piece of the recipe.

You have to have credentials before you break through the door. I know this is a chicken and the egg scenario but bear with me. Creds (or credentials) can come through two (2) avenues -1. Education or 2. Experience. If you have formal education, you have the sheet of paper that demonstrates your will and dedication to the subject matter at hand. If you have some sort of experience, say you already spent some time in an IT related job, say data entry clerk or a computer repair technician, you have a pretty direct line to having some creds. I know you are thinking data entry clerk or typist is a stretch, but it is closer to IT work than a person who’s only dealt with working in daycare or as a bookkeeper.

Now the biggest thing to remember with creds, and something that helps ease the whole chicken and the egg scenario, is you can always substitute Education with an informal path. This path is very popular in IT and honestly mat be the quickest path to getting what you want out of your career – getting certified!

There you have it - to get creds, you either have to have an 1) an education whether formal or informal, or 2) have experience. Ideally getting to having both of these creds is important for one's success in their career journey, but when starting out, you should focus on one of these creds.

As mentioned, this is the biggest piece of the recipe to breaking into tech in general. But you came to this blog to read about breaking into a high paying tech job.

…Breaking down 2. Entry Level Job

You have to start somewhere and what better place than an entry level job. This can be a very rich and rewarding experience to get see how the nuts and bolts of IT works. Entry level jobs in IT can expose you to the very concepts that you have studied ridiculously hard for and had a tough time grasping then those concepts come together and start to make sense.

I always highly recommended getting an entry job in help desk, as it gives a wide variety of scenarios to deal with and helps refines ones’ ability to troubleshoot and deduce problems at hand.

….Breaking down 3. (Be) Open to new Creds in Tech (Niche Topic i.e., Cloud, Crytpo, Cybersecurity, etc.)

Lastly, after you put together these building blocks of getting your IT Creds, getting exposure in IT with an entry level IT job, the last component – being open to getting new credentials in tech. You ask me, why not start with the credentials you want in the beginning. Sure you could, but you would be limiting yourself quite substantially in IT, as it is a very vast field, as well as to get real in-depth exposure to what the field is like, it is far better to go down the broad generalized path.

Myself for example. I am in the cybersecurity field of IT. If I would have started on that path from the beginning, I do not believe I could have been as successful without the building blocks and understanding of general IT, as well as I definitely would have felt even more Imposter Syndrome than I had when venturing down this path..

By being open to new creds, you can guide and shape your career in IT any which way you want to pivot, enabling you to take on the hottest new tech trends from focusing on Cloud, to IoT, to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Having these types of skills will help make you much more competitive in the industry.

This is truly when you have the ability to break into high paying tech, because you’ll have the C+E+O backing.