One way IT professionals can maximize earnings and remain marketable is by jumping into emerging industries and learning hot technologies. But job seekers often refrain because job postings request previous experience, even though few candidates meet the criteria. When you face that, keep in mind that a job posting is really a wish list. While some might wait for the requirements to change, assertive job seekers are knocking on doors and accepting offers - without having prior experience. When job demand outpaces supply or management favors an injection of external expertise, the window opens for well-positioned career changers, and even recent grads, to win hot jobs. For example, the healthcare and mobile app industries are currently hiring technical outsiders with the right mix of transferable skills and experience. While timing may influence your success, follow these steps and you'll be poised to win a hot technology job.

• Research the market: Study the job requirements to ascertain your transferable skills and experience and identify any gaps. Fill as many gaps as possible through training courses, college classes, mentors, peers, reading materials or hands-on experience. Your research should include meetings with current employees and informational interviews with managers and in-house recruiters. In addition to providing valuable information, these contacts can open doors or facilitate introductions that could lead to an offer.
• Adapt your resume and bio: You'll need a functional or blended resume to change careers, one that highlights your transferable skills and experience. Point out your newly acquired knowledge and examples of your adaptability to show that you can succeed in a new environment.
• Rub shoulders: Spend time with people in the industry so you seem like an insider during interviews. Pick-up the lingo, study competitors and read about the trends. If your personality doesn't jive with clinicians or you don't display a passion for building hot apps, you won't convince a hospital or a mobile development firm to give you a shot.
• Apply directly and network: Successful candidates take matters into their own hands: They cold call and network their way to a job. Once enough workers have been trained and job growth subsides, employers will be able to back-fill positions by posting them and accepting experienced candidates from recruiters. By then, the IT movers and shakers will have moved on to new opportunities.

-- Leslie Stevens-Huffman