{"id":12411,"date":"2020-08-14T21:50:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-15T01:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=12411"},"modified":"2020-08-18T14:35:08","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T18:35:08","slug":"careers-in-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/careers-in-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Complete Guide to Top Careers in Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What qualifies people for technology jobs within and outside of government? What are the options for careers in technology? Does hiring in tech take account of specialties, certifications, and other experience?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Careers in technology have a broad range of options. In <em>Permanent Record<\/em>, Edward Snowden discusses the options for technologist roles. His careers in technology included work as a government contractor and employee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn more about careers in technology, hiring in tech, and how certification and freelance fits into the bigger picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Careers in Technology<\/strong>: Options<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Technologists have a few career options if they want to specialize:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Software developers\/programmers.<\/strong> These people write computer code.<\/li><li><strong>Network\/hardware specialists. <\/strong>These people physically set up wires and servers.<\/li><li>Systems technologists. These people work with the big picture of computing. They work with software, hardware, and networks. More specifically, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/job-titles\/\">job titles<\/a> are:<\/li><li><strong>Systems administrators\/sysadmins. <\/strong>These people are responsible for maintaining an entire system. When it breaks, they fix it, and they slowly make it better as a whole over time.<\/li><li><strong>Systems engineers. <\/strong>These people solve a problem by inventing a new system to address it, or by massaging existing solutions into something custom.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hiring in Tech: Certification for Careers in Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In the early 2000s, professional industry certifications were becoming a requirement for hiring in tech.<\/strong> Job postings were starting to require official accreditation from companies like IBM and Cisco if the job was working with their products.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Microsoft Certified Professional series certifications were the most prestigious for careers in technology. There were a few options and the highest certification was Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), with which you\u2019d get a starting salary of $40,000. It wasn\u2019t an easy certification to get, but it also didn\u2019t require you to be a genius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were more general certifications as well, that didn\u2019t have to do with specific companies\u2019 products. You could get \u201cA+ Certification\u201d for serving and repairing computers and \u201cNet+ Certification\u201d for networking.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Though these certifications were becoming an industry standard, they weren\u2019t necessarily an indicator of skill, and they changed as the industry invented new ones.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Freelance: A New Career Path<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Careers in technology are changing. During the dot-com boom, when a large company wanted a stronger Internet presence and a website, they\u2019d hire a PR firm or ad agency. The PR firm or ad agencies didn\u2019t know much about the Internet, only enough to write a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/job-role-vs-job-description\/\">job description<\/a> for a web designer. They\u2019d post this on a freelance work portal and mom-and-pop companies would put in bids for the job.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mom-and-pop companies were so competitive that they priced their services very low. Additionally, the companies had to pay a cut to the work portal, so it was hard to make any money. Companies also didn\u2019t get any credit\u2014the PR firm or ad agency would claim they\u2019d done the project. It was easy for clients to take advantage of mom-and-pop companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What qualifies people for technology jobs within and outside of government? What are the options for careers in technology? Does hiring in tech take account of specialties, certifications, and other experience? Careers in technology have a broad range of options. In Permanent Record, Edward Snowden discusses the options for technologist roles. His careers in technology included work as a government contractor and employee. Learn more about careers in technology, hiring in tech, and how certification and freelance fits into the bigger picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,34,30],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-12411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-communication","category-work","tag-permanent-record","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Your Complete Guide to Top Careers in Technology - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What are some careers in technology? Learn more about hiring in tech, and how certification and freelance fits into the bigger picture.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/careers-in-technology\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Your Complete Guide to Top Careers in Technology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What are some careers in technology? Learn more about hiring in tech, and how certification and freelance fits into the bigger picture.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/careers-in-technology\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-15T01:50:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-18T18:35:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/permanent-record-careers-in-technology.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1188\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"690\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/careers-in-technology\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/careers-in-technology\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Your Complete Guide to Top Careers in Technology\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-15T01:50:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-18T18:35:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/careers-in-technology\/\"},\"wordCount\":503,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/careers-in-technology\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/permanent-record-careers-in-technology.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Permanent Record\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Career\",\"Communication\",\"Work\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/careers-in-technology\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/careers-in-technology\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/careers-in-technology\/\",\"name\":\"Your Complete Guide to Top Careers in Technology - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/careers-in-technology\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/careers-in-technology\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/permanent-record-careers-in-technology.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-15T01:50:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-18T18:35:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"What are some careers in technology? 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