Archive for November, 2009

A round up of the average salaries you can expect in the top ten most advertised IT roles followed by a Plan To Change Your Career:

Developer £35,000
Analyst £36,000
Consultant £50,000
.NET Developer £34,500
Architect £62,500
C# Developer £39,000
Project Manager £50,000
Business Analyst £45,000
Web Developer £30,000
Support Analyst £32,000
Source: itjobswatch (sept 2009)

Plan Your Career Change – Identify Your Strengths

It’s often easier to pick up your faults than to see what you are good at. Take a step back and think about what motivates you. You will usually be best at what you enjoy as this will hold your concentration. Still unsure? Ask your friends — they will often have a more objective opinion than you do and as an active observer of your life it may be clearer to them.

Get Help

Don’t try to go it alone — you are going to need help every step of the way. There are many different areas of IT that you could go into and some you will be better suited to than others. Speak to someone who knows the industry to get an idea of where your skills and abilities could lead you. Make sure that you have someone to go to for help as there will be many challenges along the way that you will need support for.

Set Realistic Goals

Don’t expect to be in a high level IT role with in only a few months. Look at what you would like your end goal to be and then to break it down into smaller chunks that can be reached in a measurable time-frame. Concentrate on one topic or qualification at a time, and then see how you can use that to your advantage to achieve your end goal.

Make Your First move

Taking the first step towards a new career can be daunting and scary, but it doesn’t need to be. Choose something small as your first step. Do a stock-take of things you do and don't like in your current role or enquire about training so you know what your options are. By making your first move new ideas will come to you and it will become clearer what your next steps should be.

Source:  National IT Learning Centre
 

See your models immortalised forever in Lego!

OPEN auditions are being held at The Lowry Hotel (Manchester) on 27 November 2009 for a position as model builder at the new LEGOLAND Discovery Centre.

Faced with millions of LEGO bricks when they arrive, auditionees will need to show how skilled they are at building LEGO models by creating an animal model in just fifteen minutes. The successful builders will then pass to the second stage of the auditions when they will need to create a famous face out of LEGO.

The audition aims to find a potential model builder who is skilled enough to be responsible for developing new features, exhibitions and building new models as well as working with the thousands of children expected to visit the attraction.

Neil Crittenden, general manager of LEGOLAND Discovery Centre said: “We are holding open auditions to find the most talented and enthusiastic model builders. It is an unusual job available and we hope to meet some LEGO fanatics from the North West. We are looking for someone with a great sense of fun and though that holding an open audition would be the ideal way to find the perfect candidate.”

The exciting new role will be based at the unique indoor attraction opening in March 2010.

Described as stepping into the biggest box of LEGO in the world, the attraction will host a unique MINILAND, which the successful model builder will need to create and maintain, as well as a number of other features including offer an exciting themed ride, a tour of a LEGO factory where children can help make their own LEGO brick. Plus there will be lots of opportunities to create their own models, race LEGO cars and areas for birthday parties.

The auditions will be held in meeting room seven and eight from 10am – 5pm at The Lowry Hotel in Manchester.

IMPORTANT – PLEASE NOTE:

Auditionees need to register in advance by emailing register@legolanddiscoverycentre.com