Moving Beyond the Job of General Programmer

May 23rd, 2008 • Filed Under

In order to compete in the tight IT job market, you must have multiple skills in the different areas of the discipline. The online IT degree program you choose should cover most areas one would need to know in order to gain entry into it plus be prepared for a career path that would lead to IT management. The person thinking of entering the field of IT needs to get an education that focuses on specific modern specializations. General IT technologists and programmers are becoming something of the past. Specialization is the name of the game now. Let’s look at how an online IT degree prepares you to move beyond the role of general programmer which is required in order to get the best opportunities in this field:

An online IT degree can prepare you for certification exams. When you earn certification in one or more areas of information technology, you give yourself a competitive advantage in the field. Certification is offered by companies like CompTia, Sun, Oracle, and Microsoft. But these certification exams take significant studying to pass and this is where an online degree program in the information technology field can prepare you. In some cases, the courses might even give you most of the preparation for a certification exam.

An online IT degree can cover much more than just software development. Information technology is much more than programming these days. Set your sights beyond being a programmer because salaries have dropped in that field and many jobs have been shipped overseas due to globalized outsourcing. Your online degree program in the information technology field will more than likely cover some programming because knowledge of it is crucial to understanding the big picture. But the days of getting a job as a programmer and sitting in the corner to code are gone. The information technology skills that get the jobs today are those in networking, information security, wireless technology, and database management.

It is important to continue your education even after earning your online IT degree. You will find that you earn your online IT degree one year and just ten years later the information is technically outdated. When companies form or change their business because of new innovations with information technology, they seek IT specialists with the most current skills. You may want to get your online bachelor’s IT degree and then later pursue a master’s degree.

Your online IT degree can prepare you for the world of mobile technology. People don’t want to sit in front of their computers at home if they can help it. That’s why they like to get news, sports, weather, and e-mail on their cell phones. This is also why they prefer to do SMS (Short Message Service) messages. Mobile technology within the domain of information technology is a specialized field where if you get educated through an online IT degree program, you should be in a good position for some of the best opportunities in the near future.

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