Date Published March 27, 2025 - Last Updated March 27, 2025
We often see this headline, “level up your IT career,” but many of us experience a disconnect when we attempt to translate this into actionable steps that can lead to upward career progression.
While there are many pathways to success, I’d like to share some fundamental practices you can implement to ensure that you maximize your likelihood for career progression.
Never stop learning
Lifelong learning skills are a must in today’s fast-paced IT world. It’s one of the best ways to inspire confidence in your abilities and to maintain your career momentum.
This may take the form of pursuing certifications specific to your current career focus. Gaining industry certifications demonstrates to your current and future employers that you aren’t comfortable with career stagnation and allows you to demonstrate self-motivation.
Lifelong learning should take the form of pursuing education and certifications in areas that extend beyond your current area of career expertise. One of the most valuable skills that successful leaders and individual contributors can develop is curiosity. In the workplace, curiosity can lead to innovative solutions and creative problem-solving.
Leave your comfort zone
You’ve heard the saying, “With great risk, comes great reward,” but does that advice apply to your personal IT career growth? Absolutely!
Regardless of your current career path, your future career progression will necessitate taking on new challenges that you may not currently be equipped to handle. When faced with new and unfamiliar challenges, the successful employee is often the individual who chooses to leave his or her comfort zone and address the challenge, remains curious and works toward a solution.
Tackling new, unfamiliar challenges involves many risks. The most daunting? Fear of failure.
But failure provides an opportunity to learn from mistakes, build resilience and encourage the innovation that leads to the betterment of your company or organization. Only by leaving your comfort zone and risking failure can you expect to receive the reward of IT career progression.
Leaving your comfort zone is not a one-time effort, but a career-ranging practice for leveling up your IT career. Career progression is determined by your ability to be noticed based on the work that you do. Being noticed means standing apart from the crowd. Allowing yourself to leave your comfort zone and the comfort of “the pack” is often one of the first steps toward meaningful career progression.
Network like your career depends on it
Developing strong relationships, with IT peers and leaders in and outside of your organization, has many tangible benefits for career growth.
Obvious benefits from forming networking relationships with leaders in your industry is that these connections can provide valuable advice, mentorship and support when you are facing new career challenges and obstacles. Additionally, having strong networking relationships with leaders in your organization can help to increase your visibility when new opportunities arise both within and outside of your organization.