About Information Technology (IT) Workers

Maria and Spencer are both in their early 20’s. Maria recently completed her bachelor’s degree in English; Spencer dropped out of college after a few semesters. If asked to speculate on Maria’s and Spencer’s occupations, perhaps you would guess as writer and waiter?

But it might surprise you to learn that Maria is a computer systems analyst and Spencer is a computer programmer. Maria, while majoring in English, took several computer-related courses and gained experience working in a computer lab.

Spencer, although not formally enrolled in a degree program, took courses at a community college and earned certification in a programming language. Both benefited from the flexible training requirements for individuals hoping to work in information technology, which is identified by the acronym "IT"

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, known as BLS projects 8 out of the 10 fastest growing occupations thru the year 2010 will be computer related. For this reason, future IT job seekers and IT workers need to know about the variety of ways to prepare for a career in information technology, and internet-technology.

Following are details on how these IT workers are defined, IT workers information focusing on available training, which ranges from certificates to advanced degrees.

Most information technology workers (about 2/3, had a bachelor’s or higher degree. 48 percent of IT Workers held a bachelor’s degree, while 18 percent also had a master’s or higher degree.

This chart below depicts the educational background of IT Workers:

The number of IT workers with some college but no college/university degree is rapidly increasing; about 16 percent of IT workers were in this category. Anecdotal information suggests that many people attend community colleges not to earn degrees but to take computer-related courses in hopes of getting a job or update their overall skills.

This information is from the Current Population Survey. For purposes of this article, IT workers are considered to be those employed in 12 computer-related occupations, including computer programmers, computer systems analysts, computer hardware engineers, and database administrators. Additional information is available from Training for Techies: Career preparation in Information Technology, by Roger Moncarz, Source: Occupational Outlook.