Interested In A Tech Career? 14 In-Demand, Easy-Entry Roles To Consider

Innovation Interested In A Tech Career? 14 In-Demand, Easy-Entry Roles To Consider Expert Panel® Forbes Councils Member Forbes Technology Council COUNCIL POST Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based) May 27, 2022, 08:15am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin It’s a regular refrain in business-focused media: There are simply too few applicants to fill open tech-focused or tech-dependent roles.

The issue isn’t limited to companies that offer tech products or services, either—with most industries relying heavily on automation, the need for skilled, tech-savvy professionals has exploded in recent years. What’s a challenge for businesses can mean an opportunity for those looking for a new role. It’s definitely a worker’s market, and technology has opened up opportunities for those looking for a fresh start—even with minimal experience.

And the opportunities aren’t limited to developers: There are many and varied roles that require heavy use of and comfort with tech tools. Below, 14 members of Forbes Technology Council share a few in-demand, tech-related roles that someone looking for a fresh start could get up to speed in fairly quickly. Members of Forbes Technology Council talk about in-demand, easy-entry roles those interested in making a transition into a tech career should consider.

Photos courtesy of the individual members. 1. Quality Assurance Quality assurance is a relatively easy way to start a tech career, but for less obvious reasons.

The hard skills requirements are indeed lower than what’s expected from software developers. You should, however, contribute with a broader mindset, always looking for deficiencies and blind spots. This goes beyond software: We work with technical engineers who have this mindset despite never working in software development or QA.

– Stefan Gogoll , andagon Group 2. AI Development Nowhere in tech do skills and roles change as often as in data and artificial intelligence. Monday’s breakthrough could be legacy tech by Friday; that’s why it’s exciting! Our world is human, and humans aren’t algorithmic, data-led or intelligently automated.

Understanding problems is more crucial than solving them: Empathy, conversational capabilities and balancing being data-powered with being human will take you far. – Zhiwei Jiang , Capgemini Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify? MORE FOR YOU Google Issues Warning For 2 Billion Chrome Users Forget The MacBook Pro, Apple Has Bigger Plans Google Discounts Pixel 6, Nest & Pixel Buds In Limited-Time Sale Event 3.

IT Help Desk Staffing The help desk of an IT department is a great way for a new job seeker to enter the tech field. The help desk combines customer service with computer skills and knowledge and is a great learning environment. Help desk employees get exposure to every software and tool in the organization and learn basic troubleshooting skills that can help qualify them for the next role in their tech career.

– Dick Wilkinson , Proof Labs 4. Data Analysis Data expertise remains a central position within technology and across enterprises. Equally, data analysis unlocks expertise required within enterprise architecture.

The ability to bring together data on the technology stack, operations and external market view is pivotal. While data positions are within technology, the base skills are tremendously portable into lead business positions. – Dax Grant , Global Transform 5.

Tech Writing Tech writing can be a good start for someone who’s passionate and keen to get into a tech role but hails from a different background and is looking for an early/mid-career transition. One can begin with peripheral user manuals and work toward developing deeper architecture documents. Someone in the role of technical writer who finds they have a genuine knack for understanding tech solutions could then get into testing, support or low-code development.

– Pramod Konandur Prabhakar , Pelatro PLC 6. Digital Marketing Technology is at everyone’s fingertips. I would venture to say most jobs require you to be able to collaborate using technology.

Becoming a social media or digital marketing manager are two possibilities. Being successful in any job requires dedication and focus. These roles can be more intuitive and don’t entail the need to become a developer, much like the nontech, self-made, “influencers.

” – Windy Nicholson , Salesforce 7. Low-Code Development Citizen developers are in high demand: Gartner predicts they will outnumber professional developers four to one by 2023. While they aren’t professionally trained engineers, citizen developers in line-of-business roles are using low-code platforms to solve mission-critical business challenges such as automating business processes at scale and integrating their tech stack.

– Rich Waldron , Tray. io 8. Cybersecurity The need for cybersecurity expertise at all levels is vastly outpacing current market availability.

With minimal experience and investment into a few core certifications (Security+, CISSA and so on), an individual could quickly set themselves up for a new career with almost unlimited growth potential. The same applies to the demand for cloud administrators with minimal experience and an AWS or Azure certification. – Neil Lampton , TIAG 9.

Cloud Infrastructure Development One fundamental area in tech that does not get nearly enough attention from new entrants—and therefore suffers from a thin talent pool—is cloud infrastructure development. Candidates looking to get started with building networks and servers in the cloud can get up to speed with minimal investment using free online training resources and a free cloud account with $200 of credit to start building on Azure . – Husein Sharaf , Cloudforce 10.

Agile Program Management Agile program management is becoming increasingly popular, particularly as an entry-level job. Even if entrants lack the requisite technical knowledge, the rapid insight gained into the entire software development cycle is quite useful in getting started on a career in the tech industry. – Sayandeb Banerjee , TheMathCompany 11.

Data Engineering We are awash in data; it comes in trickles, streams and floods. The early days of the technology transformation of the financial industry saw a great demand for data entry personnel. These days, all the data is already digital, but there is a great need for data engineers.

People with reasonable savvy in working with spreadsheets can move into data engineering, and there is plenty of learning material. – Tishampati Dhar , Aerometrex LTD. 12.

Web Design Web development professionals can easily use platforms such as Wix, WordPress, Squarespace and others to quickly design beautiful websites, even without previous experience and programming knowledge. Fresh Web designers can gain experience in Web development and can eventually gain skills in related fields such as search engine optimization, digital marketing and so on. – Roman Taranov , Ruby Labs 13.

Product Testing Every tech company needs testers. Testers try to put solutions through their paces, break them, use them in unforeseen ways and test their robustness. There isn’t a better or faster way to learn a company’s products, come up with ideas for improvements and learn about the players in the space than to test.

All you need is a curious mind and a desire to break something! – Stephanie Domas , Intel 14. UX Research The best place for a new tech professional to start would be as a user experience researcher. There is tremendous demand, a shortage of supply and a relatively low barrier to entry.

Plus, you can take experience from your existing career and develop a specialization within that vertical. – Brady Brim-DeForest , TheoremOne Check out my website . Expert Panel® Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.