It’s 2020. The world has been rocked repeatedly, the most noticeable blow coming from the Covid-19 global pandemic, which has caused business worldwide to close. People around the world are being asked to stay inside and shelter-in-place.
Office spaces that once used to buzz with warm paper rolling off copiers, printers, and fax machines are now closed. The phones that used to ring with calls from our customers, colleagues and bosses are no longer ringing. The constant tapping of keyboards hammering out productivity is there no more. And, of course, all of those coveted coffee pot conversations with our coworkers that we truly didn’t know just how much they meant to us until our offices closed. For some of us, they closed for good.
Many Americans and people around the world were laid off or furloughed until it was safe to return to work. Others were fortunate enough to remain employed and started working remotely. Living room sofas became our desk space. Kitchen counters became our own semi-private conference rooms as we learned the ins and outs of Zoom calls. Our husbands, wives, parents, siblings, children and pets became our new beloved coworkers.
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All of these major changes have left many wondering just what it might take to finally make that switch into the career they have always dreamed of. Well, if you fall into this category, and that career you have always wondered about is inside the booming, resilient world of the tech industry, then you are in luck.
Gone are the days when tech professionals had to earn a bachelor’s in computer science or information technology through a four-year university, or even a two-year program at a community, city, or technical college. Instead, many newly minted tech professionals learned their programming skills through short-term, intensive programs called coding bootcamps.
A coding bootcamp can teach you all the coding skills you need to know, taking you from no experience to a professional programmer in less than a year. Moreover, the schools that host these bootcamps offer different formats, including full-time, in-person classes, part-time, online, and even self-paced courses. If you are a busy professional, parent or committed community member, you can learn programming skills at your own convenience, from the comfort of, well, anywhere.
Even better, many bootcamp programs offer flexible tuition payment programs like deferred tuition payments or even income-sharing agreements that allow students to sign up, enroll, and complete their program with a signed agreement that they will repay their tuition cost after they have started their new career as programmers in the tech industry.
Yow know how to learn your new skills and where to learn them. Let’s take a look at what you might want to do with them once you get there.
Software Engineering
Software Engineers design, build and maintain the software that we use every day. From office-geared software like word processors, spreadsheets, presentations and accounting to software everyone relies on like that of financial institutions, ATMs and checkout registrars, all of the technology applications that help to improve our lives run on software that was built by Software Engineers.
Embedded Systems Engineering
Embedded systems engineering is the process of designing, building and maintaining the software the powers stationary, stand-alone systems like ATMs and self-checkout registrars. If you have ever worked inside the restaurant industry, then you are familiar with point-of-sale (POS) kiosks. These POS stations run on software that was designed and built specifically for them.
QA Engineering
QA Engineers are responsible for writing, reviewing, testing and maintaining the software that is built by Software Developers. They ensure that all of the programs run and function as they are supposed to. These programming professionals are also in charge of finding and fixing any potential bugs reported by users.
The software engineering field is experiencing one of the fastest growth rates in the entire industry, with an expected job growth of 21 percent by 2028. Software Engineers can also make a handsome salary, with national averages for experienced developers above $98,000. The national average for entry-level positions is $50,000 a year.