How To Sharpen up your IT CV And Why You Have 15 Seconds To Impress

We believe that choosing a career in IT is one of the best decisions a young person can make when entering the world of work.

Although we typically place mid-career professionals at Bristow Holland, I recently teamed up with a long-term client, Paul Martin of SETL, to deliver a talk to the final year students at West Suffolk College. You can watch the presentation here: https://www.istn.org.uk/blog/istn-the-careers-talks

Paul and I wanted to communicate what local employers are looking for when they take on a junior member of staff and how young people can give themselves the best possible chance of getting hired.   Paul spent some time on interview techniques and expectations, drawing on his experience running graduate recruitment schemes in the City. I focused on the need to prepare for employment by performing thorough company research and undertaking extracurricular work. 

The aim was to challenge students to think about what they could bring to the table beyond their qualifications. The reality is that the industry as a whole will create as many opportunities as it can for entry-level staff; employers just need to be inspired to do so by the junior applicants they see and the potential they have. While this is the responsibility of education providers and the students themselves, the industry also has a part to play in making sure that what it wants and needs is communicated clearly. 

The board of the Ipswich and Suffolk Tech Network is focused on achieving these goals. If you would like to support this effort and contribute your skills and expertise or give feedback as a potential employer, please email me at [email protected] or Sam Parnell at [email protected].