The technology industry is a vibrant marketplace of jobs and opportunities with a range of option to those entering college and looking to pursue a career in this field.
Technology Industry Careers
Here are 10 useful tips for choosing technology industry careers:1. Be Prepared For Obsolescence
Whatever you learn are taught in college will probably be partly or completely obsolete by the time you get near technology in industry. The technology industry is generally so fast moving that items that are invented today are superseded by newer improved versions in no time at all. The lesson is not to focus on learning about too specific a technology as a new one will overtake it. The exception is that some technologies are long-lasting cloud computing for example, or electric circuit design – knowing which they are, is a tricky prospect though sometimes!2. Find A Niche
The latest technologies are protected heavily so if you want to work at the leading edge, you will have to find a niche career and possibly learn a lot of the technology details on-the-job; colleges are unlikely to have access to such new technologies except in those that have funded research departments. Not all have that luxury.3. Realize The Technology Industry Isn't For Everyone
The careers in this field tend to be relatively fast moving and constantly evolving as new innovations come along. Those who prefer a more sedentary pace and a longer term prospect must look to the technology giants for a career. Those interested in exciting business ventures might prefer technology start-up companies. These expand fast and tend to have very steep promotion curves for those companies that survive the first year or two – these are precarious careers though and dependent on technological and marketing success of often new unproven products.4. Know That Computer Programming Is A Lucrative Career Prospect...
...but unless you are really happy to sit and pore over lines of coding – some of which can take months to write, then this may not be the career for you. If you like to program a little and tinker about then many web-programming careers are a lot more appropriate. There still a lot of code but it is a different process to that of mainstream programming in C# or other languages that create more complex software. This is not to say that programming is mundane – far from it – there are many other activities related to coding that are nothing to do with line after line of programming, including graphics and animation work to name just a couple.5. Check Out Trends Using The Internet
Computing technologies such as cloud computing are rapidly taking over the world of storage and networking. These emerging technologies will become mainstays of the Future; these experts in the future will be paid very well for their knowledge and experience.6. Avoid Trying To Go It Alone With A Technology Project
...particularly software development. Collaboration and interaction with others makes for far superior and more robust products. Get help wherever necessary – you will be surprised as to how much help is available free. Raising money for a project is a particularly arduous task – don’t expect investors to come rushing to your door, they have many fish to fry and your project needs to be something special in most cases to get any interest.7. Don't Spend All Of Your Time Programming
Those with programming skills need to be wary of spending all their time programming and none with the sales/marketing that will be required when the job is done. A launch delay while you start a marketing campaign simply allows competitors to have the same idea and get there first so make sure you have a viable business plan that starts from the day you write the first line of code.8. Choose Technologies Related To Your Training
If you are already pre-trained in a niche and simply moving towards the technology industry for a change of career, you can get on very quickly when you choose technologies that are related to your other training. For example, if you worked in security or government post and like investigation work, a career working in a data recovery services might suit you. If you worked in a hospital as a nurse, working in the healthcare software might be your thing. It really helps if you can do this because the learning curve is much shorter.9. Stay Up-To-Date
Make sure you stay up-to-date with the technologies you are trained in otherwise you will get passed by when a younger person turns up with less experience but more knowledge about leading edge technologies. This does not necessarily mean nipping back to college every few months although some training courses may be required; it can simply mean keeping up to date with the latest developments in the technology area you work in – read the journals of the industry, try out new coding techniques – whatever it takes to stay ahead!10. Learn Something New
Learn a number of related technology skills rather than just a single programming language or a single type of circuit design; most large technology companies have a broad spectrum of jobs and functions they need to fill – the more you are able, the more opportunities you can pursue! Now that you've found out more about technology industry careers, which one will you choose? Photo Credit: ShutterstockFrom Your Site Articles
