Connect In Person
If you have professional meetups for anything related to tech in your area, I would recommend going. You never know what the benefits could be down the road. Maybe one person you met could become a future employee referral for an open position at their employer. Practicing our soft skills is also very important!
Maintain a LinkedIn Account
Having a solid network of your peers will likely do more for your career than having a plethora of active certifications. LinkedIn is no replacement for building strong connections in person, but it does help.
One time, I messaged a recruiter on LinkedIn after applying to a job that he had posted. I had a job offer from them within a month.
But don’t just listen to me! The staff at LinkedIn recently posted a blog post discussing best practices for profiles. There’s some very good advice here.
20 steps to a better LinkedIn profile in 2024.
Connect With Me
Always feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. Don’t be scared to message me. I’ll be glad to offer any help you may need with getting set up on LinkedIn!
Online Communities
It wouldn’t be tech if it wasn’t revolving around the Internet!
CertStation on Discord
There are many people out there like yourself who are working hard at getting certified. You can connect with thousands of fellow tech students on the CertStation Discord server. This is an excellent community full of ambitious and accomplished professionals. All experience levels are welcome.
SpiceWorks
I love this site. I should be more active, as I am only an Anaheim pepper (level 3). It’s a forum centered around IT, and the more you respond and post, the more points you gain. The more points you gain, the spicier you become. It’s a fun progression system. It’s not as active as it once was, which is a shame. But we could change that. Here’s my profile.
Subreddits
I don’t use Reddit, but I’m aware that they have some very popular subreddits centered around tech careers. /r/ITCareerQuestions is the big one. There’s also going to be one for everything under the sun in IT. I don’t think this is better than LinkedIn, but it is more candid. On LinkedIn, you can see how experienced someone is. It’s usually impossible to do this on Reddit. So maybe don’t listen to everything they say.