A career in IT is not as bad as it seems
This week’s assertion from IT training body Computeach that studying for a computer science degree may not be the best route to an IT career is unashamedly self-serving in encouraging young people to study for specific vocational qualifications - preferably those offered by Computeach.
But its also overlooks the fundamental problem facing most 16- to 18-year olds – few of them have the slightest clue about the job they actually want to do, though most have a pre-conceived idea about those that they would rather avoid.
I did a straw poll of young people moving into both university and sixth form education recently to see how many planned or would consider a career in IT.
The results were predictable – none of them. Only a tiny percentage would ever consider doing an IT-related job for a living and only then when the door had already been closed on pretty much every other career option they could think of. Though you have to say, working with animals or children, being an artist or photographer, and doing something in the media, don’t exactly inspire confidence in young people’s ability to hammer out a coherent career plan.
As a teenager I didn’t plan to work in IT either. I wanted to be either a fighter pilot or a journalist, and yet strangely, via a career in IT first, one of those scenarios did eventually come true - and no, I didn’t write this from a deck chair in between sorties from Biggin Hill airfield.
So what exactly is wrong with IT as a career? Actually very little when you consider it objectively. It’s still relatively well paid in comparison to lots of other jobs, and can offer distinct advantages when it comes to flexible working - particularly if you are a programmer or other project-based worker that can safely jet off to India or Australia for a few months every year in between gigs.
People who work in IT are not geeks, just normal people earning a living in the best or most comfortable way they can – no more or less a spod than their counterparts working in sales, marketing, administration or finance. IT as a whole remains a dynamic, intellectually-challenging career that supports the growing reliance on computer systems by all organisations. And there are only so many IT jobs that can be exported to India or China, with plenty left for home-grown talent to fill.
Young people may not know it yet, but they could eventually settle for a lot less.