Is the tech industry still a good career choice?
Updated 2024-09-21
With the layoffs and tough job market in 2024, have you wondered if the tech industry is still a good career choice? If you dig into labor market data, it appears the answer is still yes, at least as measured by workforce growth. From 2024 to 2034, the tech workforce will grow twice as fast as the overall U.S. workforce (Source: CompTIA citing projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Lightcast). Also, tech is the #1 industry if you want a remote job. If you are curious about how to land a job in tech, I have some ideas.
First, the most common question is whether to invest in a tech-focused boot camp, whether for coding, data analytics, cybersecurity, user experience (UX) or something else. This is a very controversial topic, because while there are some success stories of people who leveraged their boot camp experience into a new career, there are many more people who regret their investment in one. It is a tough topic to research because boot camps make inflated claims, but so do universities touting the value of their degrees. For both boot camps and pricey universities, the ROI is questionable. The best strategy is to find recent graduates and find out their job search results. Don’t rely on the statistics published by either schools or boot camps.
If you choose the college degree option, in August 2024, Indeed.com listed the most valuable degrees in tech as information technology, computer science, web development, web design, computer networking, system administration, database management, cybersecurity, software development. These areas are skewed toward more technical areas, but tech companies also need people with expertise in every area of business. For example, Coursera identified ten less technical jobs as business analyst, technical writer, product manager, customer success manager, tech recruiter, sales rep, content manager, operations manager, marketing manager, and financial analyst. Monster published a nice list of non-technical jobs in tech categorized by jobs for analytical people, social people, creative people, and people with leadership skills.
There are lots of ways to gain experience if you are new to tech. You can …
Join tech networking groups to meet people who can introduce you to hiring managers
If you already have some experience, you can use these resources to hunt for tech jobs:
If you are worried about AI in tech, you can research the U.S. Department of Labor’s predictions for the job growth of most job titles. For example, software developer jobs are expected to grow 17% by 2033; data scientists by 36%.
If you are concerned about the tech industry’s lack of work-life balance and/or lack of diversity, that’s valid, and I’ll write about that in another article.
Do you have questions about a tech career? Please send them to me, and I may choose your question for a future article.
