Discovering Your Superpower in the IT Jobs World
When most people think of “IT jobs,” they conjure up images of a person hunched over a glowing screen in the far reaches of a darkened room, muttering in a dialect that is only understandable to computers. They may have seen movies or TV shows in which the “tech guy” is an eccentric genius and saves the day by typing angrily on a keyboard. While there is always some truth in the “genius” part (IT people are very smart!), the truth is that careers in information technology are much broader, more human, and more fun than these stereotypes describe.
To think about IT not just in terms of computers and code, but as the complex interdependent ecosystem that is essential for our world to function. It is both the invisible (and sometimes very visible!) structure that operates our current world, from the app that orders your morning joe to the complex technologies that guide airplanes, keep hospital records, and connect you to family across continents. And the people doing the IT jobs? They are the architects, the builders, the troubleshooters, the defenders, and the innovators of this emerging landscape. They are not like ‘lone wolves’ but rather remarkable.
Unplugging the Screen: Finding Your Footing Amid the Career Differences in IT
This may or may not resonate with you: When someone says “IT jobs,” what does it mean? For a lot of people, it conjures up an image of a lone coder/digital JavaScript visualizer, typing furiously with only the glow of multiple screens and the harsh sound of the keyboard as a conversational partner while muttering under their breath like the genius weird character in a movie. Sure, there’s a hint of truth to the “genius” part (IT people are indeed geniuses!), but the vastness, variety, and humanness of careers in information technology are much larger than what these representations provide.
Think of IT not simply as the guts of your computer or the wifi that (from time to time) connects you to the world, but as the vast, delicate, almost invisible nervous system of our modern way of life that gives us everything we take for granted in our wired world. This infrastructure powers everything from the app that gets you your groceries to the life-saving systems in hospitals. Everything that happens can be visualized as an app running on the global wireless mainframe – from applying for a loan or buying stocks to sharing cat videos with your aunt living in another country.
People working in IT create the diagrams, they hack together solutions, troubleshoot, and solve problems, on the systems you are tapping into.
