I started working at Team Up in November 2019 and have been dealing with IT terms every day since. I won’t pretend that the beginnings were easy. When I went for my onboarding in Lodz, Poland, on a day of training on IT issues, I was not laughing at all. It seemed to me that someone is talking to me in a completely foreign language. First conversations with candidates – black magic. I asked them about their knowledge of various technologies, although despite the training on this subject, I did not feel confident in my knowledge in this area. Every interview was a huge stress for me.

Over time, however, it turned out that the terms are starting to get more familiar, and from project to project I felt more and more confident in interviews.

Thanks to the support of the team and exploring the topic on my own, I managed to get to the point where conversations stopped stressing me out and started to be fun.

What helped me?

Interviews with candidates.

Each interview, regardless of the project, is an opportunity for me to learn from the candidates – it is mainly thanks to them that I can find out more and more. They are certainly not closed-minded people. They are willing to talk about technologies, as long as you honestly admit that you are not a technical person and you do not fully understand some issues.

Support from teammates.

Don’t be afraid to ask. Each of us was once at the beginning of the road, and each of us is still learning. It is worth taking advantage of the experience of others – they can not only explain concepts that we do not understand but also suggest practices that worked well for them in similar projects.

Deepening the knowledge on your own.

We are lucky to live in times when sources of knowledge are available at our fingertips. Many times I found myself reaching for the Internet or books in order to broaden my knowledge of not only IT concepts, but also recruitment itself.

Sources that I think are particularly noteworthy:

• A handy dictionary from CodersLab
• DevSkiller and their approach to IT concepts
• For those who are unfamiliar with IT terminology, I also recommend my colleague Peter’s entry, which explains many issues in a very accessible way.

Participation in briefings with hiring managers.

It is a direct source of knowledge about expectations for particular roles and their technological context – if only you have the opportunity to be a part of such a briefing – I recommend it 100%!

Admitting to myself that I’m not perfect at what I do.

This seems to be the hardest part. We always want to perform at our best and it’s hard to admit that we don’t know something, especially in a new environment. This was true in my case as well.

It wasn’t until I realized that the trick is not to know everything right away, but to be open to learning that the successes came!

So sometimes it is worth to “let go” and give yourself permission to make mistakes, because they teach us the most.

After a year of working with IT, do I feel completely competent in technology? Of course not. Probably what I know is a drop in the ocean of frameworks, tools and platforms. But I am sure that this industry is a never-ending prospect of development. I have never regretted entering this world, even though it’s not easy sometimes!

And how was it in your case? Did you enter IT recruitment with ease or, as in my case, was it a jump into deep water? Let me know, I am very curious! Feel free to discuss with me on priv or by email: k.sobestjanska@teamuprecruitment.com 🙂 I’d love to hear from you!