It
all started when I advised my younger brother not to join IT industry
instead to start looking for other sectors like merchant navy where
he could earn more money. To my surprise, my brother refused to
accept my advice by saying, “I may earn a lot of money there but I
won’t be happy. Technology is my passion and I love to spend time
on computers.” His reply provoked my thinking and I ended up writing this blog.
Fortunate is the man who has found his passion at an early age. Now, he can
build his career fearlessly following his passion.
If
you are planning to build your career in the Information Technology
or the IT industry, you may have to think over a few points before
you finalize your choice. It is better to think twice than to repent later.
- Would you really love to spend all day "Working" on a computer?
If you want to join an IT company only because you think it will pay
you big then you might have to rethink on your career choice. Not all
companies pay handsome cheques to all of their employees. I really
wonder if there is any company which pays high to each of its
employee. "IT industry and rich employees", is arguably a myth. I say
arguably because there are employees working in IT sector who earn
big bucks, but they are few and far between.
Your pay cheque depends on many factors like – your employer
company and its turnover, your skill sets and their demand, your job
location, current market and trend, etc. Moreover, it is very rare
that a fresher gets a good pay cheque. Nonetheless, there are
exceptional cases. These are those entry level employees, who have
exceptional educational history from renowned institutes or
universities, and/or those individuals who are perceived by their
potential employers to have knowledge and skills that are rare and
would prove to be an asset to the organisation in the long run.
If you think IT means easy money then you should better rethink. You
may not be lucky enough to start your career with your dream pay
slip. Big packages in IT are like cherries on a birthday cake; not
all get them.
If you love computers, like to work on it all day, like to use your
computational and logical abilities, love trending technology, then
IT is apt for you. Choose a career where you would be happy though
you feel you might earn less.
- Where would you fit yourself in the IT industry?
The industry of Information Technology is as vast as all of the
oceans put together. Also, it is so deep that its depth cannot be
measured. There are more of the unexplored than the explored. Even if
you get into this industry, you need to be very clear where you
desire to work. Slogging days and nights in the area where you lack
interest would achieve you nothing.
The industry of Information Technology has many jobs to offer you.
Moreover, the jobs are trending over the time periodically with the
advent of new technologies. Though you would find majority of jobs
revolving around the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), they are
not all. There are more where you can fit yourself into.
You have to discover your strengths & weaknesses, likes &
dislikes as early as possible. If you think you are creative, can
crack puzzles and can come up with solutions to the problems, you can
opt for design and development. If you think you are critical, love
to break what others build and can find flaws in their solutions, you
can definitely be a good tester. Then there are many support
activities where you may need to face customers, patch the gap
between two or more teams, handle databases, work on customer
locations, resolve others’ problems, etc. These jobs are still very
generic and each of them has many specialization options. For
instance, development can be computer application development, web
application development, mobile application development or even
embedded systems development; testing can be system testing,
end-to-end testing, user acceptance testing, mobile testing and so
on.
Apart from these SDLC jobs, you may find many more career options
like digital forensics, technical writing, project management, data
analysis, data warehousing, cloud computing, big data, research &
development, sales etc., which might interest you. The IT industry
also has scope for other areas like HR, Finance, Learning &
Development, Visa Cell, Hospitality Management and many others that
are very much required across all the industries.
It is for you to make the right choice. Making an early right move to
your genre can help you reach the top with fewer difficulties.
- Do you posses keen interest in learning new technologies?
How do you react to the news which says a new Operating System (OS)
has been launched in the market? If you yawn over it then IT is
definitely not meant for you. If you have interest in knowing what’s
new in this OS that is not present in others and are eagerly waiting
to use it then you should probably go ahead.
Being curious about the ever evolving technology is very much
essential for both your survival and growth in the industry. To be
honest, if you stop learning new things after you are employed in the
industry, you would be a goner. “Never stop learning” is
the mantra of this industry.
If you have been an avid observer of the technological changes that
have happened so far, you must have noticed that these changes are
more frequent today than they were 10 years ago. Besides, the rate at
which the technology is changing now might be much slower than it
would be 10 years from now.
If you want to make your career big, you ought to keep up with the
pace of the advancing technology. Reading tech-news daily, browsing
Internet for new technologies, downloading open sources, freeware or
trial versions of your choice of technology, and trying it for
yourself are some of the things you should be doing regularly for
keeping yourself updated.
Believe it or not, people who often show interest in learning new
things grow faster in this world than the rest.
- Are you ready to work in pressure?
In today’s competitive world everyone has to be on their toes
irrespective of their industries and domains. IT world is no
different. In fact, it is one of the industries where the environment
is often nerve-racking.
The causes of work pressure are manifold and the way it is induced in
different people is different. The reasons may be – fear of missing
deadlines, working away from the family, inability to manage multiple
tasks simultaneously, inability to balance between work & life,
badgering superiors, unhealthy relationship with co-workers, etc.
Although some of these factors may be seen more in the IT industry,
they are kind of homogeneous and could be found across all the
industries. You cannot run away or completely eliminate these
factors. Over the period, you need to learn the art of of dealing
with them.
I have seen many individuals who have succumbed and opted to quit.
Even worse were those who never did attempt fearing the problems. One
thing is for sure, wherever you go, whatever you do, whether you
opt to do it now or in the future, you cannot be certain that you
would not undergo such coercions; there are no easy escapes. If you
like something, you should fearlessly go for it as long as you are
legitimate.
Surviving and
growing in the IT world is no child's play. You need to have interest
and love for the technology, zest and appetite to learn new things,
and courage to withstand unpropitious situations.
Do not jump into
a profession only because you think there is a lot of money involved
in it. If in the future, there is a drift in the labor economy that
is unfavourable to your job market, you would have nothing to
motivate yourself to continue with it.
“Choosing a
career based on your perception of income it generates is like traveling in a vessel just because it is strong enough to hold you
and not because you have a desire to travel”.
Be calm, reassess
your career options, evaluate your strengths and weaknesses,
ascertain that you have interest in what you would do or at least
ensure that you can develop interest in it and then make your choice.
Hope this article
helps you to make a better career choice. All the best, and soar high.
