IT Professions: Selection Tips

IT, digital - these words have firmly entered our lives. They are associated with various fields of activity - journalism, genetics, law, economics. Blogs on the topic of IT are invariably popular, especially when the author is both a journalist and an IT specialist. And more and more young people choose this profession, dreaming of both stability and high earnings. But there are a lot of specialties in IT, their descriptions, requirements and tasks are completely different. Let's try to figure out what exactly is in demand on the labor market today.

As in any other field, IT has both advantages and disadvantages. Let's talk about the pros first.

• High salary. She is really high - a professional “starts” at 100,000 per month, and this is not the limit, if we talk about Moscow and St. Petersburg. In regions, “prices” for programmer services are lower, but demand is steadily growing.
• The ability to "grow" professionally. Related professions are constantly appearing, requiring new skills. In addition, the specifics of the industry provide a certain degree of freedom of choice: a person can either be a freelancer, or work in a small company, or try himself in a huge corporation.
• The likelihood of remote work. A free schedule, no need to sit in an office and obey the rules of the internal work schedule, the ability to work from anywhere on the planet where there is Internet is very attractive to many people.
• The ability to see and understand the results of their work. Unlike many professions, IT specialists can clearly see what they did, what happened as a result - not an abstract “service provision”, but a concrete expression.
• Programmers are a special community whose members are very fond of their “chosenness”.

By cons include the following circumstances.

• The need to have large-scale knowledge in mathematics, logic, physics, programming languages. We need an analytical mindset, the ability to think outside the box.
• Constant need in expanding and deepening existing knowledgeKeeping track of new programming trends.
• Stress resistance at a high level. After all, repeatedly have to destroy everything done and start again.
• Proficiency in technical English. First of all, it is necessary for those who wish to work for foreign companies and receive high income.

The IT sector is perhaps the industry whose professionals are most in demand, while their number is constantly growing. So it was in the past few years, it continues and will continue. To date, requests have been received by blockchain experts, as well as experts in the field of artificial intelligence. But there are other, no less popular professions in this industry that have only come to the Russian labor market, but are developing with leaps and bounds, because information technology is the most important component of everyday life and the future.

Of course, the professions in the field of IT and Digital in our country are absolutely the same as in the world. The most sought-after specialists working at the junction of the two areas, multilateral and multitasking. In general, multitasking is the key word for a highly professional IT specialist, because if he is not familiar with the basics and programming languages, the latest discoveries, and trends, he does not constantly develop, then he will not be a specialist in demand. The list of the most popular professions related to information technology is presented below.

This is not a computer man! It sounds absurd, but the programmer does not need a computer to write codes. And he does just that - creating source code for programs. The program is the general name for anything: a laptop operating system, video games, smartphone applications. Program codes are written not in words or numbers, but using special programming languages.

There are a lot of them, but the most common and demanded are hardly 10. The programmer independently chooses the language in which he will work. The choice depends on what task you need to complete.

The business is built on the continuous improvement of the quality of products, whatever they are - games for the computer or firmware for the phone. The tester is one of the specialists in ensuring this quality. Unlike those who plan, design and create a product, testers check the results of work on how they meet the requirements established initially. Testing can be conducted with respect to the product as a whole or its component parts in order to identify errors or bugs in the development.

Testers are divided by specialization into those who test security, performance, usability. Testing can be either manual or automated. In most companies, young employees are engaged in product testing, that is, this is the kind of work with which you can start your activity in digital.

Thanks to system administrators, all computer equipment, local network, and software in the organization run smoothly. Network security is also his area of ​​activity.. Perhaps it is the system administrator who has the broadest range of responsibilities, he also participates in the purchase of computer equipment or its necessary components, and collects computers, and controls how they work, and can repair or replace if necessary, as well as configure software .

He must be able to work with all the software that is installed in the organization, and also monitor the timely installation of updates on it. It can be said that this indispensable person is the link between technology and the people who work on it.

This person manages projects that include analytics of the requirements for the information system, development of concepts, how data will be integrated, the interaction between components in firmware and hardware, development of technical and design documents. It is the system architect who organizes and coordinates the work of the project team, controls the timing and development process, and he is also a mandatory participant in the implementation, testing and maintenance of the entire software and hardware complex. This is one of the most promising professions, since it is predicted that within 5 years it will enter the top five most sought after.

Analysts are people who can structure and process arrays of information, highlighting the need and the most important thing. Those who can understand what big data resources are talking about get big and very big salaries. System analysts are involved in organizing and overseeing the automation of the company or institution as a whole or its specific department.

Its functions also include the development of a system consisting of a set of computer programs that are designed to increase the efficiency of business processes, participates in the writing of technical tasks for those who develop these programs, and also participates in testing and receiving the finished product.

UX Designer - a person who can make the interface of anything convenient (provided that he is professional and good in his work). He knows how to process a user request in such a way that as a result, a website, application or blog is convenient for use. Nowadays, the number of pages on the Internet and social networks is so great that even with interesting and useful content, but at the same time an uncomfortable interface, users will look for other sources of information. therefore the specialist who is able to fix the “bugs” in the design and make it comfortable to use is very much in demand.

Application developer for mobile phones and other devices - a very popular and continuing profession. It is in demand both among large companies and consumers. A mobile developer is a person who can afford to work "for himself", that is, engage in freelance work, concluding one-time contracts with customers to develop applications for their needs.

In Russia today, applications for processing photos and videos shot on a mobile phone’s camera are unusually in demand, and they are becoming more and more unusual and perfect. Games are always popular, modern graphics allow you to develop them at a new level.

A project manager is a person who accompanies a project from the moment of an idea to its full implementation and implementation. He is responsible for how successful the project will be.To do this, he assembles a team, the actions of which are controlled by the project. He sets tasks and delegates authority as part of their implementation. The project manager monitors the deadlines by which this or that task and the project as a whole should be completed. Upon completion of all tasks within the project within the prescribed period, he reports on this to the customer.

An IT marketer is another promising profession in which it will not be easy for a simple marketer. There is not enough knowledge of the market and the laws of its development, it is important to focus on network advertising, to know how social networks work, how to place advertising in such a way that it "works". Now the need for these specialists is very high.

Artificial Intelligence Specialists - people whose activity is how interesting, so mysterious. It is believed that robots will very soon enter densely in people's daily lives, and such an industry as machine learning will become no less developed. Therefore, a data analysis specialist or data scientist will be in demand even more than now.

Smart homes, companies and manufacturing are also the work of IT professionals, namely Internet of things engineers. These people organize daily routines into understandable algorithms, ordering the space that surrounds people. In the domestic labor market, this is a completely new profession, therefore, it is still ahead.

Cloud service integrators have no difficulty understanding how the cloud works.. They set up “clouds”, help optimize the information that is stored there, and also look for a balance between how to make the process high-quality and at the same time inexpensive.

Before choosing a profession in favor of programming, you need to think carefully about this decision. Are you ready to work on the code every day, writing out hundreds of its lines? And then, upon discovering an error (bug), start all over again, completely redoing the work? But then the result of your work will be a website or a mobile application, which is very cool. There used to be an opinion that girls cannot be IT pros, but now this is already an outdated opinion. Yes, there are much fewer girls in IT, but they still exist and sometimes achieve very significant results.

It is easier for beginners to find a place for a tester, for this it is enough to get an intern in a large company. But if you see yourself as a professional earning large sums of money, you need to develop further. In the coming years, according to experts, mobile developers (they are still in demand), Big Data analysts, cybersecurity experts, as well as those involved in information protection will be in demand. Of course, in each of the above, there are several more areas of activity.

For example, a mobile application developer can work on either Android or iOs. Both that and another are equally demanded and paid. Therefore, it is better to make a choice based on personal preferences. As for the language in which you plan to program, here you need to rely not on taste, but on statistics. Now most relevant are Swift, PHP, C #, C ++, Java. If you are a beginner, choose a simple popular option, for example, Java or C #. You can quickly earn good money on both of them, especially if you have chosen the right training courses - with a lot of practice.

Even IT and Digital professionals will not say exactly which is better - courses or higher education. They agree on one thing - the more practice, the better. If you plan to connect your activities with web development, select courses that are organized on the basis of IT companies.In this case, training will become your practice, and with a high probability you will get a job - in case of successful studies, of course.

If you are interested in data science, here you need a specialized education. Knowledge of the subject area is required, and it is as complex as a similar higher education. And, of course, continuous self-education is one of the key components of a qualified programmer.

See how to become an IT professional from scratch in the next video.