Here are a few must-go to places if you want to get a foot in the IT door.

1. Join an Internship

Companies, especially large ones, want to hire graduates. Students want to get work experience. The result is an internship program that connects recent graduates with companies eager to fill in roles. Internships are of all forms, and can have a wide array of tasks to complete to filter out candidates before letting them progress into getting work experience. When going through internship programs, try to scout out companies you're interested in and signal your intentions to them to maximize your chances of success.

2. Join an accelerator

If you have an entrepreneurial bone in you, you might enjoy an accelerator where you build products in a short span of time. However, be aware that this requires a significant amount of technical skill on your part. 

3. Knock on company doors

Seriously, this one is hard to do. Barely anyone does it, and that's why you should do it. You can talk to the receptionist of a small company and ask to speak to someone in HR. If you get lucky you can jump the line to an interview.

4. Go to Meetups

Employers go to Meetups because they're interested in a topic. But if they meet someone they think is talented and get along with, they may be open to referring them to a job opening. You can be as discrete or loud as you like. Show your passion for the industry and you're sure to pull a few glances. People go to Meetups when they're interested in a topic, or if they're looking for a job. Be the former, show off your interest in a subject and attract an Employer. You can also watch the mating patterns of birds on Planet Earth to get more insights.

5. Send out cold emails

This is done a lot by marketers, but not so much by students looking for jobs. Once again, it's hard. Your open rate may be as low as 1%, and you risk embarrassing yourself as a nuisance. But let's be honest, no one cares whether you send out one email, or no emails, or one hundred emails. The benefit of a cold email is like a referral, but you may have to craft the email slightly based on who you're sending it to if you want to entice them to open it.

6. Ask friends to introduce you

Unlike the options above, this one usually only works once per friend. If a friend recommends you to an HR person and you end up being a bad fruit for whatever reason, they probably won't want to recommend you again. So, use this option sparingly, and only if you have honed in and have confidence in your next steps.

Depending on your country, referrals are an excellent way to get your foot in the door. If you go into an interview without anyone knowing you, you are the same as any graduate off the street. But if you know someone in the company who is able to refer you, your odds jump up massively. Google prefers hiring from referrals. The logic being, you are the five closest people around you. So, a small part of an existing successful Employee is instilled in any referral Employee.

Referrals are good but Nepotism is bad. and there's a fine line between the two. In New Zealand, we are one of the least corrupt countries in the world. This means we're not legally allowed to hire people because of an external preference unrelated to the job; such as race, height, gender, or anything that can segregate you from someone else. But let's be honest, people hire people they want to work with. Hiring a tech genius who has the personality of a wet sock usually doesn't work well in the long run. Having someone that you can socially bond with contributes far more to the congruence and efficacy of a team. So, despite the legality, we inevitably prefer to employ people who are similar to us in one way or another, and given a wide enough net, every external factor is not so external, and it can be argued, indisposable to professional success.

7.  IT Recruiters

You remember those people lounging about on LinkedIn looking for the next Mark Zuckerberg? They slide into your DMs offering you a job here, and if you're here, they offer you one there. If you're looking for a job, you can try letting a tech recruiter know, chances are they'll be foaming a the mouth at the prospect of another juicy candidate.

8. Change you gender

Sometimes, if all else fails, you can change your gender on your passport.

https://www.govt.nz/browse/passports-citizenship-and-identity/changing-your-gender/change-your-gender-on-your-official-id/

Good luck and best wishes on your journey into the IT industry, and may your toes not be jammed by a door slamming shut!