The IT industry is amongst the fastest growing industries in the world. Over the last two decades, the tech industry exploded and began expanding exponentially. Today, it’s not showing any signs of slowing down.
In fact, the growth of the IT industry and its adoption into various other industries is only increasing. This exponential growth has presented a gold mine of opportunities that attracts millions of people from around the world every year. But a large number of people that are initially attracted to a career in IT shy away from ever getting into IT due to a notion that it’s too difficult and so they might not cut it.
Today, I’m going to highlight to you just how easy getting into IT can be. But first, let’s answer a burning question,
Why are so many people afraid to get into IT?
The fear comes from a misconception that coding is extremely difficult and only the ultra-intelligent can manage it. There is an idea that you have to be born as a talented coder in order to be a successful one. Or the idea that you need to be a maths wiz to be any good at coding.
These ideas are often spread or reinforced in many schools. The entry requirements to study IT are set unnecessarily high. The IT that’s taught is often outdated by at least a decade and the teaching methods are focused more on theory delivered from massive textbooks even though IT by its very nature is a practical subject.
Intimidation is also the cause of many people turning away from a potential future in IT. Opening an app or website or playing a game and not knowing the first thing about how any of it works might lead you to feel overwhelmed. However, once you understand the basics, it’ll all make a lot more sense.
Is coding really that difficult?
The simple answer is “no”. Once you get the hang of it, it is a lot easier than you’d think. It’s like learning to walk. You start by taking your first step. Initially you might be a bit wobbly, but over time you’ll get more and more confident on your feet. After a bit of practice, you’ll learn to jog, then run, then sprint.
With coding, the principle is the same. You start by learning the basics and writing your first line of code. From there, you slowly build your way up. Eventually you’ll be developing full scale apps, websites or games and it’ll seem like second nature to you.
IT varsity we once had a particular student a while ago who barely knew how to use a computer when he started with us. After his first month with us, he had already developed a complete mobile app from the ground up. After about six months with us, he took on a role as a mentor, helping some of our other students that had just started. In just six months’ time this student went from having almost no knowledge on how to use a computer, to mentoring other students and helping them get into app development.
So, if you’re interested in getting into IT, don’t be intimidated or let a bad experience in school throw you off. Get started by first learning the basics and slowly building you way up from there. Don’t let the end goal intimidate you. Just work on taking the first step. And that goes with anything in life.
