Information technology is a vast field and it can often seem like once you pick a specialty, you’re stuck there for the duration of your career, even if you feel burned out or you find yourself bored to tears at your workstation. If you are feeling stagnant and want to make a change, programming skills can be your ticket to a new path.
The Demand For Programming Skills Is Continuing to Grow
The demand for developers continues to skyrocket as technology takes over every aspect of our personal and professional lives and that demand is far outpacing supply. According to Code.org, there are 607,708 open computing jobs in the US alone, but only 42,969 students graduated in computer fields in 2016. This means that employers are paying a premium for programming skills and talented professionals with a solid work history in the tech field can make a lucrative switch to programming.
Companies of all sizes in every single industry around the world need to employ development talent, and regardless of what products or services those companies produce, the core programming skills they look for are the same. Professionals that focus in on specific tools and languages like C#, .NET, Java, PHP, Python, or Ruby on Rails will find themselves in high demand.
This demand is what has made coding boot camps so popular in recent years. Organizations aren’t necessarily looking for a specific degree – they need specific skills – and camps allow people to spend several weeks of intense focus honing those skills and ready to hit the ground running upon graduation.
Programming Can Make You Better At Any Job
If you don’t see yourself devoting your career to programming, learning critical coding skills can actually make you better at whatever field you do focus on. The skills you need to program are highly transferable and make you a more well-rounded candidate:
- Automation: Sick of dealing with repetitive tasks? Program your system to do it for you and save yourself (and your company) time and money.
- Creative problem solving: Coding teaches you how to approach problems in a new way. Rather than focusing on the “right” or “wrong” way to solve a problem, you learn that there can be myriad ways to achieve the desired result.
- Attention to detail: Programming requires strict attention to detail. Learning how to hone in on the smallest of details makes you more accurate no matter what you’re doing.
- Decomposition: Decomposition requires the programmer to break down a big project/task/problem into several smaller projects/tasks/problems and solve them one at a time. This is a valuable skill that can be applied to nearly any problem.
- Communication: Even if you decide not to pursue a career in coding, “speaking the language” of coders makes you an invaluable member of any tech team, allowing you to act as a bridge between developers and other members of the team and non-technical members of the organization.
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