This week we have a guest post by Artur Meyster the founder of Career Karma. He covers how the tech industry is evolving as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and which jobs in the industry are now in high demand.

The tech industry has been booming for a while now, but it has soared to new heights due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is one of the very few industries that have continued to grow despite the harsh economic downturn brought on by the pandemic—it is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

The tech industry’s continued growth makes sense when you consider that the entire world that once worked inside offices—where computers were all plugged into the same network, and IT support was only a few cubicles away—is now doing so remotely. Make no mistake, remote-work is absolutely the future of work. Productivity and employee satisfaction scores are at an all-time high. The only thing lacking is solid programming professionals.

Those Uncle Sam posters of World War II might as well be posted around the Internet right now, but instead of soldiers for war, the country needs programmers to make sure our work can continue long into the future. Interestingly, this war analogy works, especially when you think about the unprecedented new waves of sharp, bright-eyed, and well-prepared programmers that are being honed into top talent through coding bootcamps.

Coding Bootcamps

The world is in desperate need of programmers, and if you feel inclined to answer this call, then there is really no better place to learn how to code than through coding bootcamps. Two and four-year degree programs have become clunky and out of date, and out of touch when you consider that the student loan debt crisis in America is hovering at 1.6 trillion dollars.

Coding bootcamps allow career switchers to learn their new coding skills in 2 to 4 months, which coincidentally is the same length as a boot camp for the military. You, of course, won’t be going into combat, or maybe you have already seen some as many military vets find a civilian home inside the server rooms of the tech world. Instead, a coding bootcamp will take you from no prior coding experience and turn you into a pro at any number of possible tech career options, from web development, mobile development, product management, and cybersecurity. You can expect to work your tail off, but you will be done in just a few months, and will most likely have a job waiting for you when you graduate.

The Future of Student Loans

Coding bootcamps have also single-handedly reinvented the student loan, which is, quite frankly, broken in this country. Through an income sharing agreement (ISA), you can focus full time on your short-term education, and have enough money to cover your bootcamp tuition, as well as pay your bills. The reason an ISA is so crucial in a country with 1.6 trillion dollars in outstanding student loan debt is that the repayment for these new loans is based entirely on the bootcamp grad’s salary after they finish their program. While they do require that bootcamp grads actively seek work, the repayment doesn't start until a job is found, and then the actual monthly installments are based around the salary from that job. The reason coding bootcamps, like Springboard, offer an ISA is because it allows for your improved economic situation to do just that, improve your situation, not just pay back the coding bootcamp.

The future of work needs more programmers, and if you are willing to answer that call, then now you know how to do it. Let’s talk about a couple of tech specialties that are needed the most in the future of work.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity has always been important, but now that the entire world is spending a much larger part of their day online—for example, streaming services have seen an average user spend eight more hours streaming content per day since Covid-19 began—the need for skilled cybersecurity professionals has increased as well. 

As an in-house cybersecurity professional for a company, you will spend your day building and maintaining the security infrastructure that protects your company and your customer data from malicious third-party access, also known as cyber-attacks. You will also spend time hacking into your own work to make sure that it is air-tight.

Digital Marketing 

Switching gears from protecting companies to selling them, there is a large demand for digital marketers. As a digital marketing professional, you will be in charge of the design and development of a company’s website. Oftentimes, digital marketing companies handle website creation and management for their clients. Everything you see on your screen right now has been built by a digital marketing pro. By learning how to code, you can become one of these pros.

A big thanks to Artur at Career Karma for putting this interesting post together! Career Karma helps people become software developers by matching them with bootcamps and providing support. Check it out: https://careerkarma.com/