Many careers are currently available in British Columbia, and across Canada and the United States. Increasing demand for skilled IT workers is being fueled both by growth in the industry and increasing retirements as the "baby-boomers" leave the workforce. In many job categories, the growth rate for IT jobs in the next five years is expected to be twice the general growth rate - leading to excellent opportunities for those with an interest in the area.
There exists a tremendous variety of career and life opportunities for anyone with a strong interest in IT. Some of the common choices currently include:
- webmasters, web managers, web designers, and web technicians
- database administrators and data architects
- system and business analysts
- system programmers and system testers
- hardware and software engineers
- network administrators and network technicians
- computer and network operators
- user support and technical support analysts
For those interested in a research or academic career, there are many fascinating fields of study, including:
- artificial intelligence
- bioinformatics
- circuit design
- computational complexity
- computer networks and wireless communication
- databases and data mining
- distributed and parallel programming
- human-computer interaction
- object oriented computing
- real time systems
- robotics
- software engineering
For detailed descriptions of the different occupations, and for BC forecasts of expected growth in each area, please visit the Workfutures BC website.
Growth forecasts for Canada and the United States are available from the Software Human Resource Council (for Canada) and from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (for the U.S.A.).
For current high-tech job opportunities on Vancouver Island, please visit the VIATeC Job Board.
The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington hosts the following videos:
- A Day in the Life (about Computer Science careers)
- Power to Change the World (about the nature of Computer Science)