Tips for Starting a Successful Business

A Realistic Approach To IT Stardom

13 October 2016 by Brianna Cole

The Information Technology (IT) industry holds lots of promise, but this information is public and barked everywhere from the schoolyard to blue collar workshops around the world. The good news is that, even years after the initial rush, there's still a demand for work in many areas for many different reasons. When stardom doesn't seem reasonable enough, or if you have the sense to take a good job instead of waiting on a great job, here's a bit of IT industry insight to bridge the wage gap.

Get Rich Schemes May Be Slower, But You Can Still Thrive

University degrees aren't a job placement guarantee. That may have been the case when there was plenty of work for multiple tiers of education, but as job shortages and economic downfall cripples worker choices--even if there's a slow recovery--a degree isn't always the way to go. For some, the degree may be required to get into a dream job field. If you're just trying to get some money and increase your skills, the IT industry is ready for you.

The IT industry is a bit different from other careers regardless of the economic situation. As a new field, many IT professionals before the 2000's were able to get into their jobs without a degree simply because Computer Science was--and still is to an extent--misunderstood. It wasn't just lucky overnight millionaires who made it big during the Dot-com bubble; many people made respectable wages for their education level by getting into a field of creation and service that just didn't have enough people.

There may be some woe and despair because overnight millionaires need even more novel ideas, but you can still make a good dollar without investing in a degree immediately. It's all about comparing the entry level effort in retail, warehouse stocking, fast food and other lines of work to the kind of work available in the IT industry.

Well, what kind of work does the IT industry have?

Various Fields, Disciplines And Chances For Advancement

At this point, it comes down to a lifestyle choice. Do you hate your job, or simply don't see a way up in your current field of work? Are all of your jobs easily replaced and with no real, marketable skills that you could sell to a new company?

That's the difference between the IT industry and other entry level fields requiring a degree. Look into general IT fields like technical support, where you learn a system and help customers solve their problems on that system. You could be a system administrator who handles the IT infrastructure of a company as either a leader, single person administration for small business or as part of a bigger sysadmin team.

Networking is its own discipline that only handles how data is transferred, and your only regular customers are other IT professionals. If you want to protect from threats such as viruses, network attacks or information theft, there's an entire cyber security industry spinning off from the general IT industry.

Pay varies at the bottom, but the point is that these skills are in demand due to the relatively young age of the IT industry and the number of businesses needing employees. Towns lacking techs due to bigger cities taking all of the talent, and there are many work-from-home jobs that can negate some of the cost of living problems if you already live in your ideal area. Best of all, many IT businesses train or reimburse for certification and college courses.

IT temp agencies like Nesco Resource can help you find a fit, so contact a staffing professional.

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