Career path for an Information System Management graduate

Question

I'm an Information System Management graduate from a British university. I had many migration in my life. So after my graduation, I moved to Canada and I tried to find a job for more than 3 months but I was not successful. So I went back to my home country and started teaching in a college, however after 2 years of struggling I was not able to live there, so I've decided to go back to Canada.

I made lots of mistakes and was misled by many professionals in my field. So I tried to take a Project Management course and sit for PMP but unfortunately I didn't pass the exam and also I found it very frustrating to find a job as a project manager without required experience. Therefore with my knowledge gained from studying for PMP exam, I applied for project coordinator opportunities.

I went to many interviews but no chance. After two years of wasting time, now I'm very tired and lost and really don't know what to do. Some people advised me to get a job as QA which I don't have any related experience.

I need help and would be grateful if you share your experiences with me.

Answer 1

By reading your question, the first thing that came to my mind is that :

You need to improve your English

Many employers look for people who can communicate well, specially if you are applying for posts like Project Managers as the role usually requires you to write reports, plans etc.

Next, apply for entry level positions from where you can ultimately be a Project Manager. (I assume your career target is to be a Project Manager). For example,

• QA > BA > Project Manager
• BA > Project Manager
• Project Co-ordinator > Project Manager
• Junior Developer > QA > BA > Projects Manager

There are many avenues and it will take some time too. But it is not impossible.

As you have studied Information Systems, my belief is that you can directly apply as a Junior BA or BA without having experience as :

• Business Analysis is directly linked to Information Systems
• Other positions like QA, Project Manager require,
  • Industry Level experience (specially for Project Management you need solid experience in managing IT products and IT people. You cannot be a project Manager in one day) and
  • Special skills (To be a QA, you need to have a solid understanding of SQA concepts which you might have not gained during your university career)

That is just my idea and hope that works for you.

All the best!

Answer 2

You don't want to come across as applying for a job as a last resort. If you are not sure what you want to do, try reading job ads until you find a couple that capture your imagination. Then figure out what you would need to do to be qualified to do that job. From there you can look for more entry level positions that could help lead to your dream job.

I got into the industry because I met someone at a bar who sold me on the idea of testing games for a living. I read the book they used to train their testers before I had the interview.

Answer 3

QA, like any other professional occupations, does not always require related experience.

If you are only looking at an entry level, for example, Junior test analyst or Junior test engineer, especially manual Junior test analyst, you are more likely to land a job than applying for a more specialized role, such as a test automation engineer.

Back a few years, I was qualified as an electrical engineer, but I could not find a job as one. I was working as a fly probe technician with minimum pay; after one year, there was a chance that an electronic company was hiring a testing technician; I applied and they hired me based on my experience as a fly probe tester.

This is how I ended up as a QA tester.

Please also remember, having undergone some kind of training or acquired a professional certificate does not mean that you have the skill to take up that role.

Project Managers are more often hired based on their past experiences, not solely on their qualifications.