Information technology has now become the pervasive background of our lives, slowly becoming a crucial enabler of core functions like catching up with friends, shopping, looking for a job, travelling, or even finding a life partner.
As more of the world migrates online, we can see trends like high street stores such as Walmart, Target and BestBuy being overtaken by Amazon, an ecommerce retailer that started as an online bookstore.
Even in Nepal, where we are only just seeing a few ecommerce retailers, and paying by credit card online is still an impossibility, Information Technology is quickly gaining a stronger foothold in our lives.
For those young people who are training for the jobs of the future, an IT degree is extremely attractive. IT is a field that will put you on the global market, as remote work and contract work are viable options and companies compete for talent worldwide. Whether you are looking to stay in Nepal or leave, a degree in IT will make you highly competitive in the job market.
However, with the pervasiveness of IT, there are a wide variety of jobs in this sector. With IT jobs ranging from network engineering to hardware, to game design to cybersecurity, it can be difficult to choose what to study. Even at the Bachelor’s level, colleges have started to offer a wide variety of programs. To help you, we have put together an article on the differences between the 3 major Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology: the BIT, BIM and BSc CSIT.
Apart from formal education, there are many other ways you can hone your skills in IT. Bootcamps where you learn specific programming languages are one avenue. For example, Techrise runs a coding bootcamp where you can learn Ruby on Rails programming. You can also be a WordPress guru and create a career building themes, plugins and cool features. It is pretty easy to get started, you can join the very helpful WordPress community in Nepal. Other ways of starting out is to just learn by doing. Pick a problem, start hacking away at it, and learn along the way. You can use platforms like Github to see what others have done and share your own work. An internet connection is all you need to get to the core of the action, and participate.
Network technician or engineer is another credential which could also open up a lot of employment opportunities for you. These professionals configure the information systems in homes and offices, and you usually need a basic certification to get started. A certification from Cisco as a network professional could be the next step in your career to working for an internet service provider, or in looking after the network of large offices.
You don’t just have to go into the job market with an Information Technology degree either. If you would rather go the way of entrepreneurship, there are many resources to help you. You can start by reading our article on IT Startups in Nepal, and get a sense of what has already been tried, and where opportunities exist.
In addition, a lot of jobs in journalism, research, or education are requiring increasingly sophisticated technology skills. And there are opportunities to study, debate, legislate, and otherwise chart the future of information technology in fields as varied as law, medicine, policymaking, or philosophy.
For our launch, Sujhaab Chautaari has focused on this important field, and aimed at bringing your resources to help navigate it. We hope you find it useful.
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