IT


Finding a job in I.T. is not going to be easy as there are thousands of people like you seeking a job in the industry.

The biggest areas of specialism where work continues to be available is in web programming, web development and coding computer programmes, based as they all are on applications that depend largely on the use of the internet. If you are a computing graduate you may have covered these areas in your degree.

Web development is an umbrella term which is used to cover the work involved in creating and developing websites for the internet or for that matter an intranet. You could be designing a single internet page for a social network or creating a more complex application related to, for example, businesses which depend on their websites to buy supplies and sell their goods. Web development tends to refer to the technical aspects of building a website, rather than the design of the actual pages.

Web programmers write programs in code that enable computers to understand in a series of step-by-step instructions what the user wants it to do next. Programming can create new types of software which will ask the computer to carry out new tasks. On websites, you will simply write computer applications that are utilised by a web browser. The most common codes used here are JavaScript, HTML and PHP.

And, still on the theme of website applications, there has of course been an unprecedented expansion in the use of these by mobile phone companies, where the kinds of jobs noted above are likely to be available but again, demand will outstrip supply.

Mobile phones and tablets now have the ability to allow users to browse the internet, access email, send text messages, listen to music and download a whole host of desirable applications. The latter has now expanded into ‘apps’ for consumers and for businesses. Future development is likely to focus on memory and storage capability, an expansion in the social and business networking functions of phones, and in the way that we teach and learn. All of these areas require people with very specialist (and imaginative) computer skills.

Project managers in I.T. will also continue to be needed, as I.T. now tends to be a function that is carried out across all organisational departments and therefore is seen as a strategic necessity. Other I.T. jobs might include those of business support and analysis, financial recording, internet marketing, network security, and any other professional support services that widely use computers as their main method of storing and manipulating information.

Less skilled jobs in I.T. are those which clearly require less technical knowledge. You could therefore be working in an office in an administrative capacity, using word-processing, database, spreadsheet or drawing tools to carry out your work.

As with many professional jobs, you could set yourself up as a freelance consultant, given that many companies now seek outside contractors to carry out the management and maintenance of their computer systems.

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