Two questions are likely to be on your mind while considering IT technician jobs:
- Will it pay well?
- Will it be interesting?
The average IT technician salary in the UK is £27,000 and the trend indicates that this will continue to rise over the coming years. Technology is constantly evolving and this requires qualified professionals who can manage the growing demands of IT. Gaining the most beneficial IT technician certifications and experience can have a tremendous impact on your earning potential. A Senior Technical Specialist in the UK can command a salary of £82,500, which is almost double what it was two years ago. This demonstrates the rapidly increasing value of a career in IT.
However, money isn’t everything. Finding fulfilment in your career is a natural human need. It’s essential to find a good balance between living to work, and working to live. Earning your way to a stable and financially rewarding career requires hard work, but there’s no reason why the destination has to be a dreary one. An almost endless variety of jobs are available in the vast world of IT. Becoming an IT technician is the starting point for what could be a career with limitless potential.
7 Exciting IT Career Options
Many IT technician job descriptions fail to reflect the variety of work that this job can offer. Even entry-level IT services technician jobs can have variation. One of the things that attract many people to this field is the wealth of options available. As an IT technician, you could choose to climb the traditional career ladder within an established organisation, apply your skills to the growth of a start-up company, or even take on the challenge of becoming a sought-after freelancer. If you’re looking for ideas on the most exciting IT career options, one of these may be perfect for you.
1. Ethical Hacker
Being an ethical hacker is like being an authorised vigilante – for the good guys. Your job is essentially to use your skills to assist an organisation in protecting itself against cybercriminals by staying one step ahead.
To follow the ethical hacking career path, you first need the certifications and experience required to become a cyber security expert. This will ensure that you have the necessary skills to try to breach systems and penetrate organisational networks. In doing so, you’ll reveal security weaknesses and unprotected entry points. Organisations will use this information to address these issues and improve their defences.
Sometimes you need to think like a criminal to catch a criminal.
2. Video Game Designer
If you’re highly creative and have a good foundation of computer knowledge, then you may be well suited to follow this alternative IT career path. Video games are an enormous and fast-growing market. It’s predicted that the global video game industry revenue for 2020 will exceed the £123 billion mark. Video game design is specialised software development that involves designing characters, locations, game levels, art, puzzles, and much more.
As a video game designer, you can significantly boost your employability and earning potential by gaining leading coding certifications. There’s also a variety of options within this career as you can choose to focus on a particular format such as PC, console, mobile, or web-based games. There’s no doubt that this industry will continue to flourish, and a career as a video game designer means that you could too.
3. Digital Detective
Digital detectives are forensic investigators who specialise in analysing and solving IT-related crimes. With the relevant cyber security training and experience, a digital detective can earn as much as £70,000. Not only is this a well-paying role, but it can have high levels of career and personal satisfaction.
There is also the opportunity for almost endless variation in this particular role. One day you may be helping to prove the innocence of an employee accused of leaking insider information. Another may see you gathering evidence against a predator guilty of sexual harassment.
The roles and importance of digital detectives are not limited to the corporate world. These cyber sleuth superheroes have the skills and knowledge required to assist in criminal cases on a public safety level. From exposing threats to national security to bringing murderers to justice via forensic evidence, digital detectives make the world a better and safer place for us all.
4. Cruise Ship IT Support
When starting your career as an IT technician, you probably didn’t imagine that you could work on the open seas. Working in IT doesn’t limit you to working in a traditional office or a home office. If travelling and visiting exotic destinations is something that appeals to you, you should consider a job as a cruise ship IT support technician.
Cruise ships rely on an array of complex IT systems and networks. The ship not only depends on these to operate, but technology has enhanced many aspects of the cruise ship industry. Some of these include:
- Wearable identification cards and room keys that resemble smartwatches
- Apps that enable everything from reservations to remote check-ins to on-board purchases
- Digital maps and intelligent navigation similar to GPS
- Interactive terminals to book activities, make dinner reservations or find information
With end-to-end technology controlling and managing almost every element of the cruise ship industry, becoming a cruise ship IT support technician is a realistic and attainable career goal.
5. IT Technician at CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN (the acronym is derived from a French term), may not immediately jump to mind when you’re beginning a career in IT. But it should. Not only is CERN the birthplace of the World Wide Web (WWW), but it’s also considered to be “one of the most highly demanding computing environments in the research world”.
CERN’s network connectivity is provided by over 50,000km of optical fibre. Both internal and external network communications are crucial for the work conducted by this organisation. The maintenance of such a vast network alone requires a high number of skilled professionals. A record-breaking amount of research data is also stored by CERN and is considered so valuable that it can never be deleted.
Whether you’re a qualified professional or a student, a career-enhancing opportunity at CERN would be the experience of a lifetime.
6. Entertainment Industry Technician
One way to increase your chances of an exciting career is to work in an exciting type of business. The entertainment industry undoubtedly falls into this category. Film studios, record labels, TV and radio stations, and event companies all require the services of IT professionals.
Many of the associated roles will require additional qualifications, but a solid foundation in IT is an advantage. If combining creativity and IT skills appeals to you, then these are just a few of the career options you could consider:
- Sound Engineer
- Recording Studio Technician
- Video Production Specialist
- Content Producer
- Music Producer
- Film Editor
- Animator
- Special Effects Artist
Entertainment industry technician roles typically offer a good balance between financial rewards and exciting career opportunities.
7. SpaceX IT Services Technician
For the space buffs out there, this career could be, quite literally, out of this world. The future of space travel is one of the most intriguing topics of our time. It wasn’t all that long ago that the world watched in wonder as Neil Armstrong took mankind’s first steps on the Moon. Now the notion of civilian space travel seems close to shifting from fantasy to reality.
SpaceX has numerous projects on the cards at all times and each of these needs qualified IT professionals to make the universal dreams come true. Whether supporting trips to the Moon or enabling humans to inhabit Mars, a career as a SpaceX IT services technician is an opportunity to reach for the stars.
As you can see, IT has become entwined in almost every industry imaginable and truly has something to offer everyone. Our ever-growing family of success stories can attest to the life-changing power of investing in valuable qualifications. There’s virtually no limit to the fascinating and inspiring career options available to you if you pursue relevant IT certifications.
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