Emptylemon - IT careers information for students and graduates

Emptylemon for students and graduates

Get your IT career off to the best possible start

About to embark on your IT career?

As you may or may not be aware, there is much more to gaining your first job in IT than completing your degree. Job seeking in the IT sector is a difficult task with many pitfalls. Awareness of the tricks used within the sector is essential in any successful job search, in order that you can avoid them and use your time and experience as effectively as possible. There are three main things that you should be doing in order to improve your chances of finding your ideal job.

1. Be wary of IT recruitment agencies

For many years, IT recruitment agencies have been a necessary evil for many people. Although there are some good agencies, many use unsavory tricks in order to add to their list of candidates. We wrote about this subject in the EmptyLemon Blog post, You Should Avoid Most IT Recruitment Agencies.

Any job applications made to an agency advert are sent to the agency, not direct to the employer. This means that:

You are never sure who the employer is.
The full salary that the employer is willing to pay (agencies often take a large cut).
Whether the advert is a genuine opportunity or just a way for the agency to add candidates to their database.

By being aware of the tricks used, knowing which questions to ask and knowing when to hang up the phone, your job search experience becomes more streamlined and ultimately more successful.

You should also sign up for an account with EmptyLemon as we are a direct employer job board. We do not allow IT recruitment agencies to post vacancies on our site, so any job application that you make through us will be sent directly to an employer, not via an agency.

2. Write a great CV

A well written CV is essential in successfully securing your first IT position. Read our ‘Ensure Your CV Gets You An Interview’ article for 9 tips that will vastly improve your chances of getting your foot in the door.

3. Join in the conversation

We are in the process of growing the number of graduate opportunities on our site and whilst we do this, we also provide a number of places in which IT professionals can connect. A large number of jobs are filled through networking, so increase the size of your contacts list to widen your networks. Whether you are ready to start your job search or not, engage with our groups and social media accounts to network with other students, graduates and established IT professionals.