Choosing a career in ICT

Addressing students at the Careers Fair at Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary in Naxxar, Gatt said that late teens is an age of listening and questioning. He referred to two role models whom the students could relate to – Bill Gates who at their age would have never imagined would build Microsoft, and the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, who followed their dream to attain the highest level of success in their ICT pet-projects.

“There is no better decision than an informed one,” Gatt stressed. “Students at this stage should ask questions and evaluate various possibilities before committing to a vocation.”

Gatt explained that one cannot decide to proceed or ignore a career in ICT if s/he thinks that the only post in such an industry involves sitting in front of a computer all day, coding. “Jobs are growing rapidly in this sector, creating new opportunities for people to access a huge range of cutting-edge careers” he said.

“From film to finance to pharmaceuticals, there are employers looking for people with the right ICT skills. In fact, more than 60% of people working with technology have jobs outside the traditional ICT sector of software development in ICT firms”.

Explaining the four main IT streams, Technology Building (eg. software development), Technology Servicing (eg. system administration), Technology Implementation (eg. business analysts) and Technology Governance (e.g. strategy consultancy), Gatt illustrated different opportunities within each sector.

Gatt went on to say that not all roles within the four main career streams involve coding and developing – some tasks go beyond that and require intelligence, creativity and innovation. In whatever one does, s/he must do it with fervour and willingness to learn more.

“Technology is dynamic, always changing and improving, and one needs to make his/her job irreplaceable (by a robot) through intelligent opinions and ideas. People must enjoy doing what they do in order for their career to flourish,” he stressed.

Courses at the University of Malta, MCAST, private institutions and vendor-specific private education warm up their students to an ICT career, a sector which is promising in our country. Various foreign investors are settling down locally, providing even more job opportunities to the local workforce.

This in addition to the many promising local IT firms, such as ICON itself which in turn are looking outwards for increased market share. “While the future might look good, students must first learn what the ICT sector involves, evaluate and match their own skills and passion, and push themselves to grow and prosper,” Gatt concluded.