The Most Common IT Careers You Should Check Out

Chances are good that when you think of someone holding an IT degree or working in the technical field, you think of them sitting behind a desk writing code. A good portion of the time, you?re right. However, there are still many other things that IT pros?do that you may not know about.

Information Technology Manager

IT managers typically hold MBAs or business/technology degrees. They?re in charge of the business side of technology. They put people on teams, set goals and do everything a typical manager would, except that they also need to know very high level information about what the team is doing. Since the best managers can fill any position in the department, IT managers are required to know what their team is doing so they?ll know how to help them achieve it.

Technical Writer

Technical writers marry IT knowledge with a writing skill set. They write the manuals and instruction guides that most users toss aside until they realize they need to know what?s actually happening with their product. The main component of a technical writer?s job is to be able to understand high-level information and write it clearly enough to tell users how to use it.

Technical writers are often considered the representatives of users in the process since they?re seen as the experts on how much the average user can understand. They?re often English or journalism majors, but those with an it degree and a strong knack for writing should look into it as well.

Systems Admin

The ultimate IT clich?, sysadmins can be found either at their desk writing programs to help employees or at employees? desks, helping them figure out how to use those programs. When you?re sitting at your desk and your computer won?t turn on, chances are the person you call is a systems administrator. They?re the custodians of the IT world?if something breaks, they fix it.

Systems admins need IT degrees and heaps of long-suffering to deal with less than technologically minded peers. Sometimes explaining how to use a new program to someone who doesn?t know how to save a Word document is enough to test the patience of a saint, so sysadmins need to be able to rise above personal frustrations. They also need to be able to explain things easily, so like technical writers, they have to be able to clearly communicate.

Programmers

Programmers rarely write code from scratch anymore, but they do need a full understanding of the different programming languages so they can tweak designs and make small changes. They?ll also need to be able to understand what users want and how to make it happen. They need to be fully immersed in the IT field and up on the latest technology. The best programs come from programmers who understand exactly what users are looking for, but it?s not as important that they intimately know how much a user can handle. Often, they?ll have other people around to test the user end. Programmers consistently have IT degrees since they?re the backbone of the computing world.

3 thoughts on “The Most Common IT Careers You Should Check Out

  1. Pingback: The Most Common IT Careers You Should Check Out
  2. Like and agree with the list of jobs you have listed. Clearly, systems admins and developers will be hot jobs for years to come. However, I do disagree with the statement about most IT managers having an MBA. I can’t recall any IT Managers with an MBA – most go into the biz dev, marketing, or product management side (i.e. you don’t need an MBA to be an IT manager).

  3. I’m a programmer and I’d say the main thing is to have work you have done (preferably for paying clients) to show any potential employers. I’d also say you should actually enjoy programming! I can’t imagine how much of a nightmare my job would be if I didn’t enjoy writing code.

    A job I always thought might be good would to be an IT technician at a school so you get all of the school holidays.

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