MYTHS ABOUT BEING IN THE IT FIELD

With the burgeoning population of IT professionals in the world currently, certain myths about being 

in the IT field was bound to arise. Some have died out with time and some of them continue to hold 

a place in people’s minds. We try to cover a few here, hoping to dispel such lack of clarity and…

1. You need to understand technology before entering the field. That is a total lie. IT is like any other career. Like doctors are taught how to be doctors once they start studying for it, the same stands for this field too.

2. A bachelor’s degree is the mandated requirement for an entry-level job opportunity. Again, no. There are professional certificate courses available for students to pursue which provide equal knowledge and skill related to IT.

3. Always choose the recruiting company that offers more pay. NOPE. Most techies know that a bigger salary does not always mean a better job profile.

4. The IT field is a boys’ club. It’s true that there are more men in the field than there are women. But, this does not mean that the reason for such an anomaly is that women are less knowledgeable and/or qualified than their male counterparts. A woman who is capable and possesses the required knowledge will be afforded the same treatment as any other IT professional.

5.  It’s all maths and science. No it’s not. Programming may require some algebra, but for other careers, even a passing acquaintance with mathematics should get you by with ease.

6. There is no people interaction involved in the field. The general perception is IT departments are all filled with pale, acne-faced, skinny people who have no social skills and don’t need them too. In reality, this career too, like any other, needs a balanced combination of skill and personality.

7. Working in the USA is better than working in Indian IT companies, With the IT doom of 2000 there is a very small pool of highly qualified professionals available in the US and they normally get better jobs than Indian consultants do.

8. IT means Java, C#, and nothing else. There is so much more to the software industry than just that. Programming is an art and not a straight-jacket formula applied in just one or two languages.

9. There are no outstanding entrepreneur opportunities such as Facebook, Google, Amazon.com, or Microsoft left in CS and IT. Actually, existing technologies continue to evolve and new technologies continue to appear at an incredible rate. And a major chunk of credit still goes to able entrepreneurs and start-

10. Tech careers are unstable and insecure. Of course, like any big part of the economy, some tech jobs do change. But the fact remains that for the past five years, unemployment among tech professionals was less than half that for overall workforce.