While much of the US economy has languished since the financial crisis of 2008, the Information Technology (IT) community has thrived. This is especially true for those people who have skills in areas such as mobile, the cloud, social networking, robotics, and 3D printing, all of which are exciting and expanding parts of the IT world.
According to research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the forecasted growth rate in employment from 2010 to 2020 for software developers is 30 percent (the average salary is over 90,000 dollars). Roles such as database administrators, computer systems analysts, and computer research scientists are estimated to see growth rates of over 20 percent.
IT companies realize that technology is about more than just making core functions more efficient, such as enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, marketing automation, and human capital management. They understand that there needs to be technology embedded in products as well. Yes, your refrigerator will probably be connected to the Internet one day, if it isn't already. Or consider that your car will have 3G too.
This is why the famed Internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen believes that "software is eating the world". According to him, "More and more major businesses and industries are being run on software and delivered as online services—from movies to agriculture to national defense. Many of the winners are Silicon Valley-style entrepreneurial technology companies that are invading and overturning established industry structures."
Great, right? Absolutely. But if you want to maximize your career in the IT industry, you need to go beyond just having the right skill set. It is vitally important that you pick the right segment of the market to focus on.
Hey, what if you had a job as an IT developer at Borders or Kodak? Well, it may have been an interesting experience, but now you might be without a job and benefits. Instead, what if you had worked at companies such as Under Armour, Starbucks, or LinkedIn? No doubt, you would have experienced the exhilaration of high growth and innovation. Besides, your equity options will have been worth much more.
Understanding an industry will help an IT developer with their job. With the rise in cloud computing, companies are effectively offloading processes. This means less demand for employees that handle routine tasks, infrastructure, servers, and hardware. Instead, the focus is on looking for business uses for technologies. So again, an IT developer's understanding of an industry will certainly be a huge help.
The good news is that there is an enormous amount of information available. Of course, this is one of the many benefits of the Internet. But there's a problem: information overload. You'll quickly realize that you could spend weeks and weeks reading the latest information about an industry. It's overwhelming.
To be successful, you really need to focus on the important parts. What are the key drivers? What are the challenges? Is the industry growing? What are the danger signs?
When you have a good feel for the goals of your research, then things will get much easier, which is the main goal of this book.
Chapter 1, Researching an Industry, will give you information on how industries are classified and defined, giving you the first steps in the process of your research.
Chapter 2, Questions to Ask About an Industry, will show you how to critically assess different industries and draw out the issues that will be important to you both professionally and personally.
Chapter 3, Finding the Right Information, gives you guidance on how and where to look for the information you need.
If you are an IT Professional and want to find out more about the best industries to work in today, this book will give you the basics on what questions to ask and how to research your job market. As the world of IT becomes an essential part of any business, today an IT professional could find themselves working in a range of industries and sectors. The question is—which one makes sense for you?
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
New terms and important words are shown in bold.
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