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3 most common skills to build to get noticed in IT

Most of you would have come across a situation where sometimes you feel ignored or not recognized by your manager. We feel inferior and think that our efforts are in vain. We feel that we do not get noticed even though we put in our extreme efforts, time and energy.

Have you ever thought about why it happens? What could be the reasons that we are not being identified or noticed that we are one of the key persons within the team?.

Some people think that managers are biased. Some think that managers exploit our efforts but don’t notice our work. Some think we are not shown off, or well presentable.

Although some of the mentioned points can be true, have you ever thought if we need to introspect and identify the gaps that we are missing?

This post will clarify all these and explain the 3 key skills that most of us forget to put into practice and need to build to get noticed in IT.

You will certainly find many tips on the internet but most are distracting or non-relevant to our job in IT.

Some of the common notable questions in your mind relevant to this post are.

Ways To Get Yourself Noticed At Work in IT
How can I be noticed at work positively
How do I start getting noticed in a team
How can my manager consider and prioritize me

Speak to get noticed

The first and foremost skill that we miss applying at our workplace is “Speaking”. Most people speak to our colleagues or managers in more personal aspects but people fail to speak at the core professional times.

So what are the key professional times that people fail to speak? Let me list it down below.

Internal Team meetings
Daily stand up calls
Client calls and meetings
Key stakeholder meetings
Quarterly or yearly announcements

Most people are afraid to speak in crowds. They fear or are shy that people feel bad about them if they ask anything silly or non-relevant.

Let me tell you something. Most of the meeting hosts want any meetings or conference calls to be more interactive. It is a way of acknowledging them. They feel good if people ask questions in their meetings.

No question is silly as long as you don’t understand or want to know more about it. However, learn how to ask something like say you wanted to know a specific topic to be repeated that was already discussed, then ask in such a way that “I know that you already shared this with us but sorry I missed understanding this specific point. Don’t mind could you please elaborate on it”

Ask references if you hesitate to repeat a concept or are not able to catch up to the point say that “Could you share with us a document or any reference material that you explained so that we will go through it and come up with any questions?. That will really help us”

Most of the meetings end with asking for any questions. Never miss that. It allows speaking and asking questions to get noticed.

Don’t ask just for the sake you need to ask something. Your questions should be logical and meaningful. Use your senses to ask sensible and interesting questions.

If you would like to share your opinions or feedback, do not hesitate. If you think sharing an opinion in public is disrespectful, then share it one-to-one with your manager or colleague. If you are interested, click on ‘Fear of sharing knowledge. Why people think so’

If you would like to explain your side of the coin, then ask for permission to buy a few mins to express it. Be respectful and professional while you share your opinions in public as that shows your courage to speak in public.

Speaking is an often neglected skill. Use it as a practice to build it and get noticed and identified.

Write to get noticed

Writing is another important skill that most of us miss to get noticed. Quality writing always makes you stand out from the crowd.

“Email writing” is one of the most sought skills that you should learn to get noticed and identified by your colleagues and your manager.

I have seen many people write emails but fail to address the point. Learn the art of email writing. If you are interested to learn about job mailing, click on ‘How you should write best job application email‘

Professional emailing is the art of writing to grow yourself in the field of IT. Here are some quick tips for email writing.

Identify the intended audience for your email. If your receipts are technical, then you mention the technical aspects of the content. If it’s a non-technical team, then you need to tweak the mail in such a way that general audiences can understand.
Start with a structure. Always start with a little background of the subject if you start a new email thread, followed by the context in the next paragraph and conclude with your inference or next course of action.
Write in simple English. You don’t need to use sophisticated words or great vocabulary. Just enough to write in simple English that should be enough to communicate your thoughts.

I have written a few sample email templates in a short ebook that may help you.

Listen to get noticed

Another key skill that most of us forget is “Listening”. In fact ‘listening’ is a most important skill than ‘speaking and writing’ to get noticed by yourself for what you are.

You should pay key attention to others and listen to what others speak in the calls and meetings. If you fail to listen and understand the context then you will go wrong in all aspects. So don’t be hurry to speak, first listen.

Keep your ears open so that you understand what’s going on around you either in the team or company. That really helps to identify any opportunities or to take key decisions in your life.

Be a good listener to get things done correctly. Most successful people are good observers and listeners. They first listen rather than speak.

Summary

I hope this article should have shed some light to identify ourselves within the team and get noticed by the manager. Our work certainly speaks the most but it is critical to speak, express and communicate as well to grow in the field of IT.

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