Hear It 

Being an IT person, it was expected from me to write something about my IT experience. I spent 11 years into this IT world. I came across various challenges and also came up with my own perspective that what made me to survive this long. You can relate yourself with this post, if you are less experience but lost your job because of performance issue or you are 5+ years of experienced but lost your job because of some organization politics, performance or cost cutting. If you are in any private job then also you can relate yourself with this post. This post is not only for those people who lost their job but for those people as well who are in stress or fear to lose job. Now coming to the point, what is required to keep you in your job. In my opinion, three basic things are required, if you want to survive in IT world.

Knowledge:  Knowledge is the first requirement to be in any job. If you do not have knowledge, you would not be in IT industry or any job. I am B.Tech in Electronics and Communication but needed to study C language to get into IT world. So it is required that you should keep updating yourself with latest technology because Technology is changing very quickly and it is required that we should be updated with latest trends in market.

For example, if you know Relational databases like My SQL, Oracle, but organization is decided to move towards No SQL Databases, then to continue with database field for you, it is required to know No SQL Databases like Mongo DB or Cassandra etc. Try to get Professional certifications whenever you get chance. I personally feel that knowledge of anything, is never wasted.

Attitude: Attitude towards learning is most important in IT world. I have seen many people, who does not want to change their stream. Like if someone is working on JAVA or UNIX, they want to continue or explore options only in these fields. These people may be the first one, who will lose their job, when project in those technologies is not available in the organization. Organizations run with people and people run with organization. Company needs you more than you need organization, that is why organization tries to fit you in some or other project.

To survive in IT industry, you should be flexible and, always ready to learn new technology because “Technology will change but Attitude towards learning should not be changed”.  

Connections: This is also very important to sustain in IT industry. I worked in four organizations so far in 11 years, but I am still in touch with my first company folks. I have seen many people, who leave the current organization and never put efforts to connect with their previous organization bosses or peer. Remember one thing, if you are growing in IT industry, your peers and bosses are also growing. we know very well that “Out of sight is out of mind“. We have heard this statement many times “Pehle batana the yaar, mere paas opening thi, par tumne bataya hi nahi” (You should have told me before, I was having opening but you did not tell me earlier). Also don’t call your ex colleagues or bosses only when you need help. They should not feel like that you call them only in need, that will give a wrong impression. 

Many times, your connections help you to get job during your dark days. IT industry progresses in Sinusoidal curve, so you will see ups and down for sure. You never know, that your friend or your boss is in that position, where he/she can take you in their organization very easily but as you did not have connection, you might lose the opportunity. 

The beauty of private job is that, it is not permanent, so whenever you are not liking organization or people or city, you can switch. Never creep about your organization or peer because it may spoil your image. Try to maintain good image in your circle because it’s very hard to change the perception. I learnt from one of my previous manager, “Either Love it or leave it, don’t creep about it”.