Welcome to the world of high tech, where you can’t buy a piece of technology without it being outdated before you even free it from the packaging. So it’s no surprise that the U.S. Department of Labor named computer software engineers as one of “the 30 fastest-growing occupations 2008-2018” in 2009.
Valerie Scarlata, Information and Technology Management program coordinator and adviser at Illinois Institute of Technology, explains that the field of information technology and computing never went through the unemployment period from which other industries have been suffering.
“I’ve never had a shortage of job offers – I have a shortage of students that match skill sets,” Ms. Scarlata says.
Not only are there many unfilled positions, but the technology field can also be extremely lucrative. Most students have salaries far beyond those of entry-level salaries of other fields once they graduate, Ms. Scarlata says. She cautions those who have no passion for computing, but may consider an information technology career based solely on stability and salary.
“We see a lot of students who come in and think, ‘This is where the money is so this is what I should do,’ but they’re never going to enjoy their job because the job is 24/7 computers,” she says.
Daphne Anderson, graduate career consultant at Robert Morris University’s Morris Graduate School of Management, says that jobs in technology and computer science are still a reliable path to a career because of the “ever-changing world of technology.”
“Our world continues to evolve,” Ms. Anderson observes, “and technology is one of the fields that has to stay current and, in many cases, several steps ahead of the game.”
Flavia Andrade, an associate professor in the College of Media Arts and Technology at DeVry University, explains that anything that can make life more comfortable, entertaining and safe is in high demand.
“Personally, I believe that jobs in technology are the future, simply because we, the consumers of the world, are constantly demanding technology to advance in terms of usability, convenience and security,” Ms. Andrade says.
A plethora of up-and-coming careers in the field are creating a demand for more specialized positions, including front-end and back-end developers, web designers, database management, web application developers, software developers and information designers, among the many, she adds.
To read the full article written by Kristen Wegrzyn and featured in Today's Chicago Woman, please click here.
