New technologies, new opportunities
Global companies always have vision about where they would like to be in three, five and even ten years in the future, how they are going to get there, and how technology fits into that vision. As a college student you should also have a vision about where you like to be in the next three, five and ten years, how you are going to achieve it, and what skills you need to acquire. If you want to work for those global companies, you need to align what they need and what you can offer. How do you know what they want? All you need is read more technical articles, job market and economic trend and plan your career appropriately. If you do not read then you will not know about demand and supply then you will miss a lot of good opportunities. But how many college students do read this valuable information?
As Information technology graduates you know how to develop software, but do you know that companies would pay you more if you also know how to program robots and wearable devices. Do you know that you can get much more if you know about cloud computing and Big data analytics? Do you know that you can get more if you have skills in mobile development, especially in healthcare or m-health? Do you know that by having computing security skills, you can travel and work in many countries? There are many good opportunities all over the world, and some college students are reading about these opportunities and acquiring skills that can help them to get the best positions and maximum salary. But how many college students know about this?
According to a report in 2014, more than 70% of companies are moving their infrastructure and applications to cloud computing. There is a shortage of graduates with these skills. The question is do you know something about cloud computing? Have you read about cloud computing? Since cloud computing trend will accelerate in the next few years and create a lot of cloud computing related jobs, do you know about it? Last month a hiring manager told me: “During job interviews, I asked ten graduates about cloud computing but only one knew something about it. Of course she was hired with the highest salary.”
Many students believe since they know Java, Ruby on Rails and Python, why do they need to know about others? Of course they can get software development jobs but they will stay in that job for a long time since their knowledge is limited to programing. I often asked my students: “Have you wondered why some graduates from the same program, the same school receive different salaries, even they are hired by the same company? The reason is some only know programming when others know more about other applications of technology in the business.”
In today’s interconnected world, the effective creation, distribution, and use of Information Technology are essential to every business. Information systems facilitate, and promote the relationships between businesses and consumers, buyers and suppliers, connect people socially via multiple networks etc. By understand these relationships and effectively manage the flow of information is critical to all businesses. In this global economy, every company is collecting and analyzing data to ensure the competitiveness of the company‘s operations. As the data is getting larger, changes faster, and come in as structure and unstructured, it is difficult to process them using the traditional database approach. A new approach called “Big data analytics” is created. Big data is a term used to describe the exponential growth of all types of data, from business transaction to video data, from social media to sensors data. All of these data must be collected and analyzed for decision making. And faster and better decisions can lead to operational efficiencies, cost reductions, reduced risk and higher profits. The software industry reports that Big data will create 1.9 million new jobs in the U.S. alone by the year 2020 and over 4.5 million new jobs worldwide. Since this is a new technology, not many people know about it, so this is the best time to read more and learn about it. But how many students are reading about Big data?
The Wall Street Journal reported that in the next few years, wearable devices will be as popular as mobile phones and create more opportunities for people who have knowledge about it. Many companies will be looking for graduates that could work with wearable devices to deploy, manage and maintain them as well as people who customize and support the applications that will make wearables useful within their specific organizations. As students, do you know something about this? Are you planning to learn about it?
According to an U.S. government report, artificial intelligence and robotics are becoming multi-billion dollars sectors within the technology industry with a huge impact in healthcare, transportation, logistics, customer service and home maintenance. Of course, graduates skilled in this area will be in high demand with the very high salary. But how many students know about it? How many of them are learning about programming robots, integrating robots with businesses?
However, the highest demand of them all is in the area of computing security. According to an industry report, there will be at least over 50% growth in information security specialist positions between 2012 and 2022. The reason is obvious: all new technologies are requiring and demanding a strong security program. For all opportunities in social media, mobile, cloud computing, big data analytics, robots require to have robust security programs in place. But there is not enough school that teaches about computing security and it opens a huge opportunity for people who know something about it.
Today technology is being built into almost everything. That means there are many job opportunities for college graduates who understand the applications of these technologies into businesses. To know programming is the basics, graduates need to know the application of technology into many sectors and broaden their knowledge to keep up with changes. The world is continued to change and technology will change faster but only a few qualified graduates who are smart enough by read more, learn more will receive the best offers. I always advise my students: “To succeed in this changing world, all you need is read more.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
