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A study recently released by the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) revealed that the highest-paying “hot jobs” will be in the field of Information Technology, a sector of industry which practically didn’t exist 25 years ago.
In this age of outsourcing, low-level IT jobs like data entry are usually sent to offshore locations with cheaper labor, and skilled IT jobs such as technical support and programming are outsourced to places like India and the Philippines where skilled labor is becoming increasingly available. Despite this, confidence is still high that in the next ten years highly-skilled jobs that focus on business process and direct client interaction will continue to grow significantly and will be the among the best paid in the industry. The average median wage for jobs that are most in demand in this sector is $71,470.00, more than double than that of the national average. Information Technology is expected to grow 26% in ten years and jobs in this sector are expected to pay more than in other fields.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 70% of IT professionals have Bachelor’s degrees or higher. Ironically though, as Information technology is a new industry, majority (66%) of IT workers hold degrees in non-IT related fields. This shows that having a quality post-secondary education, regardless of the field of specialization allows individuals to excel in their chosen careers even if their formal education is in an unrelated discipline.
Majority of new IT professionals are holders of associate and bachelor’s degrees in various Information Technology degree programs. BS in Information Technology, being the most common can be augmented with various online certification courses for hardware and software.
The continuing growth in the IT sector has also prompted forward-thinking Americans to shift careers to where the grass is greener. Distance learning and online universities allow career men and women to earn a degree online while still employed in another sector of industry.
According to Sheila Danzig, Executive Director of online education portal degree.com; “The shift to IT has been amazing. The best paying jobs in IT are looking for degree holders with expertise in IT Architecture, IT Security, Project Management and Business Process Modeling. We are expecting many Americans in other fields to start on cross-training by enrolling in online IT degrees. Likewise, IT professionals are looking for additional certification through online courses to supplement their credentials.”
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