I Want to Work in IT – but I don't have a computing degree!

 

This is not a problem: there are many one-year “conversion courses” designed to give graduates from any degree subject an intensive grounding in programming and other IT skills. A few of these are listed below. All kinds of first degree disciplines may be combined with these skills to give you an advantage in career areas such as finance, media, library/information work and law.

Now you wear more computing power on your wrist than NASA had available for the whole Apollo project.

If you don't want to do a postgraduate course, there are a few employers who will train you on-the-job, although graduates in business, science, maths and engineering may be most in demand here. There are also opportunities within IT companies in non-technical roles such as sales, marketing and customer service.

To test your suitability for a technical role in computing teach yourself some VB.Net, Java or Javascript if you haven't done much programming - it would make the first months of an MSc course much easier, and also give you a good idea of your suitability for the course - if you find it easy, you will probably find the course relatively easy, and vice versa. You can  download Java for free from Sun www.java.com/en and there are lots of free introductions to Java programming on the web, or if you preferred an easier introduction, you could try Javascript to get you started and give you some of the syntax www.w3schools.com/JS/js_intro.asp

Employers

Conversion Courses

There are many courses in IT designed for graduates in other subjects: those listed below are a selection, mostly in the south of England , that may be of interest to Kent graduates. This list does not imply any recommendation of these courses. Other courses can be found by searching the postgraduate databases on Prospects www.prospects.ac.uk/links/PGDbase or Hobsons www.postgrad.hobsons.com

 

Teaching There are a number of “subject knowledge booster courses” and conversion courses for graduates interested in teaching a “shortage subject” (including ICT) but who do not have a relevant degree. Details and a searchable database of these courses can be found at http://tinyurl.com/29omr6

Useful websites

 

I was having trouble with my computer. So I called Richard, the 11-year-old next door whose bedroom looks like Mission Control, and asked him to come over. Richard clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem. As he was walking away, I called after him, "So, what was wrong?"

He replied, "It was an ID- ten -T - error."

I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, "An ID ten T error? What's that? In case I need to fix it again." Richard grinned.... Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?

"No," I replied.

"Write it down," he said, "and I think you'll figure it out."

So I wrote it down: I D 1 0 T

 

Last fully updated June 2008