Breaking into tech is more competitive and more possible than ever. Companies are hiring entry-level candidates from a wider range of backgrounds, but the criteria they use to evaluate those candidates have also evolved. It’s no longer just about where you went to school or what your GPA was. Hiring managers today are looking at a combination of verified skills, practical experience, certifications, and the soft skills that signal you’ll thrive on a real team.
If you’re preparing to apply for entry-level tech jobs, understanding how you’ll be evaluated is one of the most important things you can do. This post breaks down exactly what employers are looking for and how you can make sure you’re positioned to get hired.
The hiring process for entry-level roles has shifted significantly over the past decade. Automated applicant tracking systems (ATS) now scan resumes before a human ever sees them.
This means entry-level candidates need to clear a technical filter before they have a chance to make a human impression. Keywords tied to tools, platforms, and certifications matter more than ever on a resume.
Once a candidate clears the initial screen, hiring managers typically evaluate four things in sequence:
Resume and credentials, portfolio or project work, a technical or behavioral interview, and references or reputation. The weight given to each category varies by company size and role, but all four show up in some form across most tech hiring processes today.
What’s changed most is the declining weight given to credentials alone. A traditional degree in computer science or information technology used to be the primary filter.
Today, it’s one signal among many. For employers hiring for roles in IT support, cybersecurity, networking, and software development, demonstrated skills often matter more than the institution that issued your diploma.
It might seem like technical knowledge is the whole ballgame for entry-level tech roles, but hiring managers consistently say otherwise. Most tech companies expect to train new hires on their specific stack, tools, or internal systems.
What they can’t easily train is attitude, communication, or work ethic. That’s why entry-level candidates are evaluated holistically, with technical skills serving as a baseline rather than a ceiling.
Employers want to know: Can this person solve problems they haven’t seen before? Can they work with a team? Can they communicate what they’re doing clearly enough for a non-technical stakeholder to follow?
Entry-level candidates who check the technical boxes but can’t work collaboratively tend to wash out quickly. Experienced hiring managers know this.
This doesn’t mean technical skills don’t matter. They absolutely do, especially for roles that require specific certifications, proficiency with particular tools, or knowledge of frameworks and security protocols.
The point is that technical skills get you in the room. Everything else determines whether you get the offer.
One of the most significant shifts in how employers evaluate entry-level candidates is the increased weight given to practical, hands-on experience, even when that experience didn’t come from a traditional job.
Projects, labs, capstone work, and simulated environments have become legitimate proxies for on-the-job experience, particularly in IT and cybersecurity.
For entry-level candidates applying for IT support or helpdesk roles, showing that you’ve built and troubleshot a home network or set up a virtual machine demonstrates the kind of applied knowledge employers are actually looking for.
For cybersecurity candidates, completing labs in vulnerability assessment or incident response, even in a controlled academic environment, shows you can do the work, not just describe it.
Portfolio projects serve a similar function for software development candidates. A GitHub repo with documented projects tells a hiring manager far more than a bullet point on a resume that says “proficient in Python.”
It shows the candidate knows how to scope a project, work through problems, and deliver a functional result.
At CIAT, every program is designed around applied learning. Students complete labs, simulations, and real-world projects throughout their coursework, not just at the end, so they graduate with a portfolio of work that speaks directly to what employers are evaluating. CIAT’s structured approach ensures that students build practical skills as they learn, making them job-ready from day one. This continuous, hands-on experience helps bridge the gap between being an entry-level candidate and becoming a first-day-ready hire.
Certifications have become one of the most reliable signals in entry-level tech hiring, and for good reason: they’re standardized, third-party-verified, and tied directly to the skills employers need.
For tech roles in IT support, networking, and cybersecurity, certifications such as CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, and CySA+ appear in more job postings each year. They appear both as preferred qualifications and, increasingly, as requirements.
Hiring managers appreciate certifications because they reduce uncertainty. When a candidate has passed a Security+ exam, the hiring manager knows that the person has demonstrated a defined body of knowledge. Entry-level candidates who often lack extensive work history and certifications provide a credible baseline that simplifies the evaluation process for those with no prior tech experience. Earning a certification before applying can be the difference between getting an interview and getting filtered out. It signals initiative, proves technical competency, and often satisfies ATS keyword requirements simultaneously. Online programs that bundle certifications into their curriculum, rather than treating them as optional add-ons, give students a measurable advantage in the hiring process.
CIAT’s programs recognize what employers need from new hires. Students graduate with industry-recognized certifications incorporated into their degree program and benefit from unlimited exam retakes. This means that every student has the opportunity to earn credentials before graduation, building confidence and increasing competitiveness in the job market. These built-in supports help keep students on track and give them a real hiring advantage.
Tech employers consistently rank problem-solving ability among the most important traits they evaluate in entry-level candidates. The reason is practical: technology changes fast, and the specific tools a candidate learned in school may be outdated in three years. What doesn’t become outdated is the ability to approach an unfamiliar problem methodically and work through it.
In interviews, this shows up as scenario-based questions, live troubleshooting exercises, or take-home challenges designed to see how a candidate thinks, not just what they know. Entry-level candidates who can walk through their reasoning, articulate the steps they’d take to diagnose a problem, and recover gracefully when they hit a dead end tend to outperform candidates who can recite facts but freeze when something unexpected happens.
Online courses and structured lab environments can help candidates deliberately develop this skill. Working through simulated incidents, debugging unfamiliar code, or troubleshooting a misconfigured network in a learning environment builds the same cognitive muscle that employers are testing for, especially when those scenarios are designed to be challenging rather than confirmatory.
Communication is a hiring criterion that surprises some entry-level tech candidates, especially those who chose tech partly because it seemed more about individual technical work than teamwork or conversation. The reality of most tech roles, especially in IT support, SOC environments, and software development teams, is that communication is constant and consequential.
Employers want entry-level candidates who can explain a technical issue in plain language to a non-technical user, write clear documentation, and participate constructively in team environments. They’re also evaluating candidates for coachability, the ability to receive feedback, ask good questions, and adjust quickly. These are transferable skills that candidates from almost any background can develop and demonstrate.
In interviews, communication is being evaluated from the first moment. How a candidate describes their background, frames their experience, and explains their thought process during a technical question all contribute to how hiring managers assess fit. Entry-level candidates who treat the interview as a technical test and nothing more often miss opportunities to demonstrate these softer, but equally important, qualities.
Perhaps the most underrated criterion in entry-level tech hiring is learning agility, the demonstrated ability to pick up new skills, adapt to new tools, and continue growing after you’re hired. Employers know they’re hiring candidates who don’t yet have all the experience the role might ideally require. They’re betting on whether you’ll close that gap quickly.
Evidence of learning agility shows up in several ways. Candidates who have earned multiple certifications, completed online courses beyond their core curriculum, or taught themselves a new programming language signal that they’re proactive learners. Entry-level candidates who can point to a specific moment they struggled with something new and worked through it, whether in a lab, a project, or a course, give hiring managers something concrete to evaluate.
This is one area where online students and candidates from structured academic programs often have a built-in advantage. Completing a rigorous online program while managing work, family, or other obligations demonstrates exactly the kind of discipline and self-direction employers are looking for. It’s not just what you learned, it’s the proof that you can learn.
The entry-level tech candidates who get hired aren’t necessarily the most technically advanced in the applicant pool. They’re often the ones who did the most to close the experience gap before applying. That means earning relevant certifications, building a portfolio of real or simulated work, and articulating clearly what they know, what they’ve done, and why they’re ready.
If you’re preparing to enter the tech workforce, the most valuable thing you can do is enroll in a program that treats your career outcomes as part of the curriculum, not a bonus. CIAT’s IT and cybersecurity programs are designed specifically for students who want to enter the workforce ready to be evaluated and hired, with certifications, labs, and career support built in from day one.
Most employers today prioritize demonstrated skills — especially verified certifications and practical project work — over degrees alone. A traditional computer science degree still carries weight, but it’s no longer the only path to a competitive application. Candidates with certifications and a strong portfolio can be just as attractive to hiring managers as degree holders, sometimes more so for specific technical roles.
Yes. Hands-on projects, virtual labs, capstone work, and simulated environments are widely recognized by employers as practical experience, particularly in IT and cybersecurity. What matters is that the work is documented, relevant to the role, and something you can speak to confidently in an interview.
Very important. Certifications like CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+ appear on a large and growing share of entry-level job postings. They provide hiring managers with a standardized signal of technical competency and help candidates clear ATS filters. For candidates without formal work experience, certifications are often the most direct way to demonstrate job readiness.
Communication, problem-solving, and coachability are consistently ranked highest by hiring managers. The ability to explain technical issues clearly, work collaboratively, receive feedback, and adapt quickly to new tools and environments all factor into how employers evaluate entry-level candidates beyond their technical knowledge.
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