Full Careers
In search of computing career.?
Hello, Im finishing up my grade 12 year next year, and am frantic about my career (I have no idea what it may be yet). I've been looking everywhere, I juggled aviation, to physiotherapy, to carpentry work. My real joy is the computer. I use it for games, chatting, etc of course. But I love figuring things out on it, I would love to get into programming but I've heard its a very hard market to get into. My goal would be to support myself with a comfortable lifestyle and still have time for personal things besides work. If you have experience or know of careers with good hours, good pay, and are interesting, could you list some out? I would really appreciate any advice. P.S. I live in Canada, Ontario, if it matters for job market figures...
Public Comments
- Most office jobs have a computer for your use. I recommend software testing or quality assurance. Those are industry buzzwords that mean that end users view the products.
- Here's a few different areas you can look into: computer technical support, network administrator, network technician, LAN technician, computer repair microsoft administrator Most community colleges have 2 year programs that can give you training and/or certification for any or all of these jobs. You'll want to look at certifiacation in networking (Cisco certification) or Computer & Network Security, Server administration (Microsoft certification) or database administration (SAP or Oracle). These types of programs will get your foot in the door of the computer and network industry, but there a lot of people taking these programs now, so the market might get a little saturated. Look for areas in world where there are lots of software or hi-tech companies in populated areas, as these will be the markets with highest concentration of these types of jobs. You can make a pretty decent living doing these types of jobs, but you'll have to start at entry level, pay your dues and do grunt work for a couple of years, so don't expect big bucks right off the bat. For more advanced careers you can look into computer science, computer programming or computer information systems (CIS) programs. These are 4 year degree programs and require a high degree of math and programming skills. These programs can lead to very high paying jobs and are in high demand, but can be very competitive because there are a lot of very smart people that go into these programs. Whatever you do you need to realize that the computer and networking world is in constant change so you will continously need to be reading, training and learning new skills that will keep your value high. Processing and learning new skills is a valuable skill you will need to master. But don't over do it or burn yourself out, because you can be sure that no matter how smart you are, there's always someone smarter. Hope this helps.
