Hey there! I chose to talk in this article about how to choose your path in Information Technology because in the last year some friends and acquaintances asked me how they should start in programming, or information security or computer science in general. As I worked in many fields so far, like help desk, network administrator, system administrator, programming, some cyber security, I thought I can help clarifying a little.

So I will try here to give a general view of the fields included to make it easier to choose one path for somebody that want to get his foot in IT and doesn’t know how to start, which field is more interesting for him/her, etc.

Like all of us know, IT is every day more and more part of our life, in more fields: traveling, communication, learning, cooking, security, and many more (I would say that every domain of our life have at least something to do with computers).

Information technology, as is defined by Wikipedia, is the application of computers to store, study, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data, or information, often in the context of a business or other enterprise. In less scientific words, it refers to everything that have something to do with computers (and I’m not talking just about personal computers and notebooks and servers, but also smartphones, tablets, all kind of chips, I’d say everything that have a kind of processor who make some calculations).
But don’t worry that it seems still complicated to grasp the complexity of “IT”. It would become clearer when we will talk about some of the fields and subdomains of it. To get started, I would first divide it in 4 major functions of IT and in each one I would give some career examples you can pursuit, and I hope it will give more light of the subject:

1. Infrastructure

Is the systems that provide the foundation for all operations (most part it refers to the physical equipment). Some careers that you can choose here:

System admin – I’d say that is kind of all-in-one job, because you will have to combine all kind of skills like: requirements engineering, reliability, logistics, coordination of different teams, testing and evaluation, maintainability and more. Some of your responsibilities: manage and monitor all installed systems and infrastructure, install, configure, test and maintain operating systems, application software and system management tools, ensure the availability, monitor and test application performance, maintain security, backup, and redundancy strategies. So, as you can see, it’s kind of a big field of expertise, not really a good place to start. If you want to be a system admin, I would recommend going first for a help desk role.

Network admin – install, support and manage the networks and computer systems that keep information flowing. They implement and maintain network hardware and software, troubleshoot network problems, and ensure network security, availability & performance standards. Some trainings that you can use to become a network admin are: CompTIA Network+ and Cisco CCNA (currently version 6) and Cisco CCNP.

Help desk – provide technical support and troubleshooting for the end-users who need assistance with their computer hardware or software. You can do it in-house (for internal employees, on-site) or you can do it remote (I did this a lot for friends or for some colleagues that used to work in remote places. You need to have a deep understanding of the hardware and software that the company uses, and you have to have good communication skills because your time will be spent working with the end users and you need to understand them and help them understand you and the solutions you offer. Actually, is a good way to get into IT, because you will get in touch with almost all other paths, so you can choose more knowingly the next steps.

2. Development

Is the creation of the software that enables workflow and drives automation. Is the process of programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing that any software has to go through until it reaches the final version that can be given to the user. So, it includes all the steps between the idea of the desired software through to the final version of the software. There are 2 big paths in programming:

Web developer – build the web pages and web-based software. Can include: collecting or creating web content (copy, images, videos, etc.), planning web site structure and navigation, coding the actual web pages, then testing and optimizing the website for optimization. The first technologies that you will need to know/learn are HTML, JavaScript & CSS, to be able to build some basic websites and applications. But to go PRO you have to get some knowledge also in the server-side programming language, such as PHP, Microsoft .Net Visual Basic, or Java to develop more complex applications. Also, as almost any application need to work with data and databases, you will need to learn some basics about MySQL or Oracle.

Mobile application developer – I don’t think I have to tell you what it does, maybe you tried it yourself, with so many tools available. The big languages you need to learn (you can choose any of them) are Java (for Android apps), Kotlin (beginning with this year, is the official language that Google supports for Android apps), Swift (for iOS), Objective C (for iOS). You will need also some basic knowledge about databases (how to create, get data from, put data in, make a query, etc) and the services of the iOS or Android, but you will learn this along the way. There are technologies like Xamarin that offers a single language – C#, class library, and runtime that works across all three mobile platforms of iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, but this is more complex that I want this article to be.

3. Cyber Security

Contains the technology, processes and education needed for safe operation. In my opinion, this function will grow a lot in complexity and importance as more and more objects in our lives are connected to internet or at least some kind of network. Also, the amount of personal data collected by companies, financial institutions, etc. grows every day and the risks involved are growing too. In my opinion, every person should have at least some basic education in this field. Some of the professions in this field are (there are many more specialities):

IT Security Specialist – is the most complete role in cybersecurity and provide an in-depth understanding of cyber security threats, technologies and countermeasures to ensure the security of computer systems. This includes installing and configuring security software to prevent attacks (antivirus, firewall, etc.), educating employees on data security, monitoring and protecting against network breaches, and responding to cyber-attacks with the appropriate countermeasures. Some trainings to get there: CompTIA Security+, Cisco CCNA Security, Cisco CCNP Security (Note: for all paths you will need some basic skills first, like CompTIA IT Fundamentals and A+, some MCSA trainings, Cisco CCENT).

Security Software Developer – develops security software and integrates security into applications software during design and development

Security Architect – designs, builds and monitors the implementation of network and computer security for an organization. One of the first thing he needs to understand are the internal rules of the company and how he can modify them to be more secure.

Penetration Tester (white hat hacker) – tests for and exploits security vulnerabilities in web-based applications, networks and systems. You will use penetration tools – existing ones or some that you will create – to simulate real-life cyber attacks.

4. Data

It is handling of the management and analysis of information to provide insights, meaningful data for us to use to understand the world. I can’t even begin to understand the amounts of data that are generated and stored in these days: when I was working as a system engineer a few years ago, one of the challenges was to plan a storage big enough to contain all information generated by the company I was working for (and they were about 100 users) . As IBM says, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every day. Another study says that almost 1.8 Zettabytes of data was generated from the dawn of civilization to the year 2003.In 2011, it took only 2 days to generate 1.8 Zettabytes of information.
Just reading the numbers seems bigger than we can understand, but the bigger challenge will be to analyse the data to extract those information that we need. An here comes in the play these fellows:

DBA – Database Administrator – organize and manage a company’s data. A balance of technical, business and communication skills is critical to a database administrator’s ability to provide solutions for the firm’s problems and projects. The learning steps to become a DBA: a degree in computer science (base level), database management, computer information systems (CIS) or a related field of study. To go beyond necessity, I think some business degree will help a lot.

Data scientists – mine and analyse data from a range of sources, including customer transactions, click streams, sensors, social media, log files and GPS plots. Their mission is to unlock valuable and predictive insights that will influence business decisions and spur a competitive advantage. The learning path is almost the same as for the DBA.

Data visualization – the primary goal is to transform the data in statistical graphics, plots and information graphics that communicate more clearly the conclusions of a collection of data. In my opinion, is one of the most interesting paths. One language that will help, if you choose to give it a try is R (I didn’t forget some letters 😊 ).

There are lots of other careers out there, in IT, like Robotics engineer, Graphic designer, Video game designer, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Specialist, etc. but I wanted to give a quick view of the directions you can follow when you get started in IT.

So, How to choose your path in Information Technology?

After going through all this, you should have some roles that sound interesting enough at least to go further researching about them. My advice is, if you have more than one, to put them on paper and write for each one the reasons why they appeal to you (as many as you can find, not just based on what you read here, but making some research of your own). This will give you more clarity. And don’t worry, you can always change your mind if you find that your choice is not what you like to do forward.

Hope that it helped you to have a clearer image and you will choose easier the way you want to go in your career. If you liked this article or you have a comment or a suggestion, please do so.