Andy Itzinger spent his days running a 30-seat pub in London. From managing a team of 10, to managing the financial costs of owning a building, to being friendly with customers and recommending his favorite beers, Andy Itzinger was sure to be on point. good place.
However, after smoking was banned in London pubs and his clientele dwindled, he decided to return to a career in technology as a computer developer. Although it’s been an unconventional career in the tech industry, Andy Itzinger now works at Vertiv as a product manager.
Surprisingly, he finds that many of the skills between running his bar and being a product manager in IT overlap. “From an operational point of view, as the owner, I had to forecast demand to ensure that the pub was well stocked with food and drink, and that everything was available and ready to be consumed,” explains- he. It’s not that different from forecasting the demand for technology. “The skills required in both roles are good advisory service delivery, market knowledge, industry experience and quality products. »
Professions that recruit
Andy Itzinger is just one of many workers who have branched out into the tech industry, which continues to grow rapidly and provide new job opportunities.
According to a 2021 study by PwC Global, 77% of workers are ready to learn new skills or completely retrain in another field. And the tech sector is definitely an area that needs workers: the Computing Technology Industry Association predicts that 177,705 new workers will be hired in 2022, which represents growth of more than 2% for the sector as a whole.
Olivia Hall was a freelance writer of film reviews before becoming a software developer at the Software Institute. So she started looking for a career change when the pandemic hit and remembered that she loved developing websites. “When I was doing my journalism degree at university, we took a module on digital platforms. In this module, we created our own websites using WordPress, but we also learned basic coding skills,” she explains. “We did some basic HTML and CSS, and at the time I thought that was really fun. »
Looking back on that time, she started looking at different coding boot camps, eventually finding one that was affordable for her. But most importantly, she loved coding and saw herself as capable of making a career out of it. “When I first started learning to code, the instant satisfaction of being able to write very simple code and immediately see the results on screen is a really amazing feeling,” she says. “It’s a simple thing, but it’s so much fun. »
The desire to learn
The desire to learn is the number one element when it comes to changing industries in mid-career. “You have to look at where you want to work in the tech industry, so you have to have a bit of passion, in my opinion, for what you want to do, whether it’s cybersecurity, remote management , engineering,” says Andy Itzinger. “Then it’s about matching your skills to the needs of the job, which may involve putting in extra work, going back to school or getting an online qualification. »
And it’s not just about learning to code. Some of the key soft skills (or skills useful across multiple industries) in the tech industry include customer service, sales, marketing, and communications.
According to Olivia Hall, when changing careers like she did, it’s important to remember that no one knows everything, especially in an ever-changing industry like tech. “It’s impossible to know everything, and you may feel overwhelmed by the amount of information you think you need to know,” she warns. “But when I arrived, I realized that being able to communicate effectively with others was a massive boost, because it allows me to ask for help when I need it, and to understand tasks and what ‘I am asked to do. »
The skills needed to enter the tech industry are becoming more common as technology permeates our daily lives. “It’s such a big industry, and we need people to be trained in those skills,” says Olivia Hall.
Source: ZDNet.com