Four steps to becoming a New Zealand IT hero

Many New Zealand IT professionals fear moving out of their comfort zone. However, having a successful IT career is about more than ticking boxes at your annual performance review. It’s about taking risks, grabbing opportunities to grow and surrounding yourself with a great team from which you can learn and develop.

So how do you take the initial steps to commence the journey to accelerate your IT career? This post identifies the four key steps all IT heroes setting out on their journey will experience along the way. Don’t worry – every hero reaps reward in the end.

1. Yearn for something more

The first thing you need to identify is what motivates you. This will help you to understand how to accelerate your IT career in the right direction. It might come as a surprise, but often we are not as motivated by money and status, as we are by the intrinsic motivators of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

• Autonomy is the desire to be self-directed, to manage your own time. If you are new to your role or new to your organisation, this most likely applies to you. You desire to move from ‘beginner’ status to ‘intermediate’.
• Mastery is the urge to make progress and get better at something that matters. If mastery motivates you, you might think of yourself as a perfectionist. You might want to craft beautiful code or design elegantly simple architecture.
• Purpose is the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. If purpose is what motivates you, you will be motivated to make the world a better place.

Once you have identified your motivation you can begin your journey pointing in the right direction. However, every hero needs a sidekick or two to guide them along the way.

2. Surround yourself with support

Start looking for people to fill the roles that can drive your career forward.

Ideal mentors are people who you respect and admire because of the achievements they’ve had in their career. Selecting a mentor that has successfully been through the journey you are about to take makes sense. A mentor doesn’t need to be someone that works in the same industry as you, as they should be guiding you around personal development and how that can shape your professional career, rather than advancing your technical skills. Think of the relationship as helping to establish your personal brand.

In addition you need to identify a performance coach. Unlike a mentor, a coach is task-oriented so the focus of this relationship is on concrete issues like closing a skill gap. This means coaching is a short-term relationship as it only lasts as long as that gap is present. Your line manager, your peers, books & webinars and classroom training all could be great choices to fill the role of performance coach on your journey.

Industry networks are highly valuable resources when looking to accelerate your career. Mixing with people that share the same passion for the industry you operate in can open doors to mentorships, coaches, training and career opportunities. Joining an industry body in your chosen field should be top of the list in order to expose yourself to new experiences and make valuable contacts.

Lastly, as you journey into the unknown, you will inevitably pick up more skills from your experiences. Setting a benchmark of your current capabilities means you will have a better sense of your progress. Having a clear picture of your current skill set will also help you identify the capabilities you want to grow. Don’t be a jack of all trades – aim to be a master of some.

3. Commit to change – navigate through trials to triumphs

Stepping out of your comfort zone will be tough. You will experience setbacks along the way, so it is useful to try and identify what challenges you will face, so you can best prepare for them and not let them throw you off course.

• The reality is that if you want to accelerate your career, you have to accept that a level of sacrifice is required in terms of your personal time and monetary investment.
• Failure is inevitable. If you want your career to be on a different trajectory than it is now, you are going to have to try new things and you won’t get them right first time. When you learn something new, and practice applying it, your performance will get worse before it gets better.
• Being knocked back from an opportunity you felt should have been yours (a new project, a new job) will dent your self-confidence. The best solution is to learn from the experience. What could you do better next time? This is also a good time to call on your mentor.

Remember, to guide your through this often uncomfortable process is your mentor, your coach, and the industry network you have built. Progressing through these challenges you will develop a clearer vision for your future, and you’ll know what gets you out of bed in the morning. Most of all, having fought through your trials and successfully accelerated your IT career, you’ll be more confident in your abilities to continue to grow and change.

4. Embrace your new hero status

On completing your journey it is worth taking time to reflect and examine the experiences gained. Success achieved on the hero’s quest can be life-changing, for you and often for many others. Knowledge picked up along the way instils higher engagement, greater job satisfaction, stability and higher performance, resulting in an enriched work life.

Reflecting on the initial motivations that guided you, you will discover that you have earned greater autonomy, mastered a new skill or domain or will be doing more purposeful work. You will now be in a good position to mentor others on their journey and after a rest, you might even be ready to head off again!