I remember spending my first year not only getting to grips with applying academic theory to the real working world, but also navigating the other elements of being an IT professional that do not get taught and are rarely spoken about before you sit at the desk on day one. 

From my experience over the years, heres ten skills that you’ll be better off developing early on in your IT career.

1. People skills

For most of us, working with others inside and outside of our team day-to-day is a given. It’s really important to practice active listeningwhenever in a conversation or meeting, you’ll pick up on more than the root cause and people will notice you are actually listening and respect you for it. Practice empathy too, for example, it may seem silly someone gets stressed out by a new keyboard, but to them this could be the straw that breaks the camels back after a busy week. 

People will get emotional, and IT is sometimes involved in the cause of that emotion in some capacity. It will benefit you to remove negative emotion from your side when handling someone reacting purely based on emotion. Remain rational, but don’t forget to use some positive emotion for empathy. You’ll defuse a negative situation faster this way.

2. Office Politics

Understanding the unique dynamics and politics where you work can help you navigate the workplace more effectively. I’ll refer to a great article by the Financial Times on this. 

3. Communicate

If you’re a good communicator at work, people will notice. A few things you can do to get better at communicating: 

• As already mentioned, practice being a good listener to better understand your colleagues’ perspectives
• Be clear and concise in your emails – avoid too much technical talk when the target audience is outside of the IT team
• Clarify any doubts or misunderstandings by asking questions – it’s much better to admit you don’t know something and ask to learn about it. Personally I’m impressed when people are open to admitting what they don’t know
• Choose the right communication channel for your message – base this on your organisations preferences, e.g. Teams for quick updates and email for larger projects
• Use positive language to avoid misunderstandings
• Follow up on important conversations or actions to ensure progress is being made

4. Document it all

Up-to-date documentation means the IT team can effectively manage and maintain systems, reduce downtime, and improve overall productivity. Effective documentation helps to promote knowledge sharing and collaboration amongst team members, reducing the risk of knowledge loss when team members leave the organisation. 

Read the available documentation early on, get involved early on by updating and creating docs as you work, and promote a culture of information sharing in the team. 

I used to work with someone who kept a few key things close to their chest, thinking this made them invaluable. Unfortunately in the long run it didn’t benefit them, and it only left us to unpick the unshared knowledge when they left. Share everything you learn with the team through documentation and discussions.

5. Workload

Managing your workload in an IT job can be challenging, especially when dealing with multiple projects and priorities. One of the most important aspects of workload management is to prioritise tasks based on their urgency and importance. This involves identifying critical tasks that need immediate attention and breaking down larger projects into smaller, manageable tasks. 

Set realistic deadlines, delegate tasks when appropriate, and avoid multitasking, it’s just inefficient and you will burnout. 

If you’re joining a team they may already use a project or task management platform, but if not find one that works for you, such as Trello, Microsoft To Do / Planner or something more powerful such as Monday.com.

6. Making mistakes

Mistakes happen. They are an inevitable part of life, and while they can be frustrating and even embarrassing, they can also be valuable learning experiences. Owning up to our mistakes is an important step in the process of learning from them. By taking responsibility for our actions, we demonstrate accountability and show a willingness to learn and grow. 

Analysing what went wrong and identifying areas for improvement allows you to develop new skills, refine processes, strengthen your decision-making abilities, become more resilient for the future and ultimately avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future. 

7. Troubleshooting

True troubleshooting techniques come with time and experience. We all have slightly different ways of approaching a problem, the key is to be methodical. 

1. For every problem start at the start, it sounds obvious but during a stressful time it can be easy to try and jump to a conclusion. That said, do start by considering the easiest causes first. It’s no joke that a reboot or reseating a loose cable solves half of all problems. 
2. Diagnose what’s happening. Collect as much relevant information as possible, including system logs, error messages, and user feedback. Try and see through the symptoms to find the root cause. 
3. Look up solutions based on what you’re seeing – your Google-fu is another key skill.
4. Short-list the identified solutions, weighted by pros and cons.
5. Begin to apply the solution, taking notes and monitoring how the situation changes. 
6. Update any documentation or knowledge base articles, share the solution with the team. 

Check out the Eight Disciplines (8D) method, the Kepner-Tregoe method, and Six Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control) for more information on troubleshooting methods. 

8. Change is good

Many people are often reluctant to change because it can disrupt their comfort zone and require them to step out of familiar patterns or habits. IT can be a large source of this reluctance, it can be one of the main areas that moves fast in a business. 

By communicating openly, building relationships, involving people, listening to their feedback and ensuring there is relevant training, you can bring people along with the change and allow them to see it as a good thing.

You should be a loud supporter of change, have an open mind and get involved in change initiatives. Keep up with the latest tech trends and be sure to try out new tools and processes to see how they can help you and the wider business. 

9. Automate

Automating repetitive tasks can save time, reduce the likelihood of error, and improve overall efficiency. By dipping into some languages such as PowerShell, Python, or Bash, you can create custom scripts to automate routine tasks, monitor system performance, and streamline various sysadmin duties.

10. Down time

No, not servers and services, but you. You need to be able to switch off regularly. Our roles involve a lot of screen time and a lot of bad news – people don’t often call to say “Everything’s working great, thanks!”. 

Turn work notifications off out of hours, or better still don’t instal work related applications on personal devices. 

Get a cheap second phone to use as a work device, you could even get a PAYG SIM and have a work number, that way it can be shared with colleagues while maintaining separation. Spend time away from a screen when not working, your eyes and body will thank you.