IT Career Resource Guide
Find the information you need to get an information technology degree and start your IT career.
The Internet is a classic example of the power that information technology has to transform the world.
In the early Nineties, the Internet was a loose connection of university and government systems that traded data at glacially slow rates. By 2006, the Internet had exploded into almost every home in America, Asia and Europe, bringing news, video, music, and instant connection to a global audience, with it creating a huge wealth of IT careers.
As both the Internet and computers in general become an increasingly integral part of modern business, information technology has become a crucial mainstay of the business world as well. From the programming that creates the software that runs, analyzes and organizes data to the database and network administration that allows companies to effectively process and share information, information technology is inextricably linked to almost all major business dealings.
Information Technology: Fueling Growth
Not anyone who's a little handy with computers can succeed in an IT career, however; the knowledge and application skills that come with education and experience in the field are highly valued. Perhaps not surprisingly, businesses have found that successful use of information technology requires knowledge. You cannot throw IT solutions at a problem without a well-thought-out plan. You cannot drive success with random IT patches. You can not restructure a company with amateur programming. In today's business world, IT specialists are in high demand because they have the knowledge to help a company successfully exploit the tools of information technology.
A Brief History of Information Technology
Information technology began with the invention of the first alphabet, over 5,000 years ago. Ever since, people have looked for faster and more efficient ways to share and store information. Electricity revolutionized data storage and transfer. The telegraph, and later radio and television, enabled the instantaneous transfer of information across vast distances. Combining paper punch cards with electrical machines gave rise to one of today's IT giants, International Business Machines (IBM). World War II saw a massive leap forward in information technology, as governments funded the development of vacuum tube computers to crack enemy codes and to develop atomic weapons.
The vacuum tubes in computers gave way to transistors, transistors gave way to integrated circuits, and the punch cards of early computers were replaced first by magnetic tape, and then by disks. So here we are, connected by fiber optic networks, and running machines on our desktops that outperform the computer that controlled the Apollo spacecraft by several magnitudes.
Exponential Growth, Exponential Power
Information technology is governed by Moore's Law, which states that computers will double in power and effectiveness approximately every two years. No other professional field must deal with this level of change. A rapid pace of change allows the development of applications that were undreamed of a decade ago. Each new generation of computers expands the possibilities of information technology, and lays the foundation for continued expansion.
This exponential growth also carries a price: a specialist with an IT career has to consider the future with every project, because the future is always breathing over their collective shoulder. Information technology specialists must be committed to always expanding their knowledge base in order to maintain their relevance in the work place. Merely treading water is not enough; the successful information technology specialist is always swimming to the horizon.