If you are reading this post, it means IT has touched your life. Information Technology (IT) has become an inseparable part of human life. From Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, MS Office, Chrome to so many other useful applications and software, there never goes a day when humans don't use any one of them for personal, professional or entertainment reasons.
However what seems to look easy (websites/applications/software) turns out to be the most challenging stuff. Well 'Rome wasn't built in a day'. And that is why we have Windows 8 after Windows 7, Vista, XP or Android KitKat after Jelly Bean, ICS or iOS 7.0 after iOS 6.0, 5.0. As goes the famous saying "The only thing that is constant is change-" by Heraclitus. And that is how what started as basic software/hardwares/devices eventually evolved to sophisticated softwares/groundbreaking hardware/smart devices.
For the common man IT is about email, social networking, cool websites, MS Office and online shopping, however the modern definition of IT encompasses everything which is synonymous to computers, gadgets, electronics, software, hardware, appliances and what not. All the major (big whales in the corporate world) organisations have a dedicated IT team with a big fat budget to keep them rolling. From retail to banks, insurance to manufacturing every big or small organisation relies on IT (be it software or hardware) for their functioning.
Now my experience lies working as a Developer/BA in an IT service provider. So, let me introduce you to how a typical IT service provider is structured and where lies the opportunities for engineers, MBA grads, consultants etc.
Every IT vendor or service provider has verticals which signify the different domains in which they operate. Majority of them have verticals like Finance, Insurance, Energy, Manufacturing, Retail, Telecom, Services, Aerospace, Media etc. Each of these require people with different kind of skill sets. If you imagine each of these verticals as pyramids, at the bottom we have Developers/Testers/Support engineers who are basically engineers/MCA folks just out of college or upto 4 years of work experience. On top of them are Team Leads/Technical Analyst/Business Analyst/Consultants who are a mix of engineers, MBA's or folks with specialised domain knowledge. After this we have Managers/Scrum Master/Architects/Senior Consultants who manage the whole project. Over this there are Senior Managers/Delivery Managers/Principal Architects/Directors who manage multiple projects. Then we have somebody who heads the vertical.
In addition to this some of the IT service provider invest in creating products for different domains. These products are synonymous to products like MS Office, Adobe Suite etc. Companies need to invest a lot of money, time and effort in creating such products. The market already has many such products and it takes a lot of effort and persuasion to find clients to invest in the products, and this is the precise reason behind IT services provider not investing much in products.
If we analyse the business model of IT companies, there is always one vertical which contributes to the major revenues. The money these companies charge to their clients is huge and the salaries they pay is kind of low (I know salary is always low no matter how much you earn!!). For the same reason we have a lot of startup IT companies turning into millions in worth in just a few years.
The skill set required for working in such companies is dependent on the job you are hired for to do. For a developer a language like .Net, Java, Cocoa etc. may come handy and similarly for a consultant the knowledge of a specific domain(s) is required. To conclude if you have a good learnability factor, logical bent of mind, decent communication/writing skills and can handle people, I think you are well suited for IT.
Now my experience lies working as a Developer/BA in an IT service provider. So, let me introduce you to how a typical IT service provider is structured and where lies the opportunities for engineers, MBA grads, consultants etc.
Every IT vendor or service provider has verticals which signify the different domains in which they operate. Majority of them have verticals like Finance, Insurance, Energy, Manufacturing, Retail, Telecom, Services, Aerospace, Media etc. Each of these require people with different kind of skill sets. If you imagine each of these verticals as pyramids, at the bottom we have Developers/Testers/Support engineers who are basically engineers/MCA folks just out of college or upto 4 years of work experience. On top of them are Team Leads/Technical Analyst/Business Analyst/Consultants who are a mix of engineers, MBA's or folks with specialised domain knowledge. After this we have Managers/Scrum Master/Architects/Senior Consultants who manage the whole project. Over this there are Senior Managers/Delivery Managers/Principal Architects/Directors who manage multiple projects. Then we have somebody who heads the vertical.
In addition to this some of the IT service provider invest in creating products for different domains. These products are synonymous to products like MS Office, Adobe Suite etc. Companies need to invest a lot of money, time and effort in creating such products. The market already has many such products and it takes a lot of effort and persuasion to find clients to invest in the products, and this is the precise reason behind IT services provider not investing much in products.
If we analyse the business model of IT companies, there is always one vertical which contributes to the major revenues. The money these companies charge to their clients is huge and the salaries they pay is kind of low (I know salary is always low no matter how much you earn!!). For the same reason we have a lot of startup IT companies turning into millions in worth in just a few years.
The skill set required for working in such companies is dependent on the job you are hired for to do. For a developer a language like .Net, Java, Cocoa etc. may come handy and similarly for a consultant the knowledge of a specific domain(s) is required. To conclude if you have a good learnability factor, logical bent of mind, decent communication/writing skills and can handle people, I think you are well suited for IT.
