Best practices for IT job success (2022)

There’s nothing that compares to the rush of excitement when you’re placed in your next IT role! Now that you’ve secured your employment, you’re likely looking for ways to become a valued, indispensable team member and co-worker. We’re here to cover the top three best practices for new hires in technical roles, and to show you how you can stand out in your new opportunity.

1. Communication is key

Communication is vital to job success — especially in jobs that are extremely technically demanding and rigorous! Communicating kindly and competently with your co-workers and supervisors isn’t a skill that should be overlooked. In fact, in today’s speed-of-light business environment, it’s more valued than ever.

Listening, retention, and comprehension can help you to better manage your project process, and to be a better asset to your team. It also helps you to minimize mistakes as you go through your tasks. Looking to refine yourself in this area? Consider different information capture techniques (such as Notion or old-fashioned pen and paper) to train your brain to retain. When communicating, work to avoid lingo or confusing terms. Speak as simply as you can in order to clearly communicate your point.

2. Commit to your task(s)

While it can be tempting to jump into every project that could use an extra set of hands, try to refrain from doing this to maintain mastery of your time. It’s better to work methodically through a set of related tasks for a single project, rather than continuing to try to juggle across all types of projects. Staying in your zone of genius and committing to deeper and more meaningful work helps you to avoid inefficiencies, to be a consistent expert presence in your department, and simplify the mental burden of work to preserve your mental health.

If you find it difficult to stay on a single task for prolonged periods of time, work to break down your larger task into more manageable bites. Organizational project management tools are great for this, or you can stick to writing your to-dos out for full visibility into your busy work day.

3. Be realistic with timelines

Working in a technical position means that you’ll often be asked to handle complex tasks. Work to avoid the urge to overcommit to unrealistic deadlines. If you encounter difficult deadlines or tight turnarounds, don’t be afraid to ask for a revision, and clearly justify the extension to the project manager. It’s far better, in most cases, to have a complete solution with no errors completed in a reasonable amount of time than a solution that was hastily assembled and untested in order to meet the currently requested project parameters.

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