2011 Issue

26 Present Employment Summary As we look towards the future of technology job growth, it is both fascinating and important to understand current employment informa- tion. Within the last several decades, we have seen entire industries rise on the cusp of technology, almost within a blink of the eye, bringing with them a proliferation of new high- tech careers. For example, just 10 years ago, the term social network was certainly not a part of ev- eryday language, nor was it the powerhouse behind so many of today’s development and technology positions. A quick search on the keyword social networking on careers.com yielded over 4,000 open positions. As another example, it is only within the last several years that we’ve begun to commonly hear terms such as mobile app develope r or mobile architect – again, a similar search on careers. com yielded over 7,000 open positions for these fresh and growing areas. As this is by nature a highly dynamic field of engineering, it brings with it an array of job functions that range from highly technical to administrative. The following sections outline present career and salary information regard- ing 10 of the most prevalent computer and technology careers. All data included in the following section was extracted and compiled from the US Government’s Occupational Out- look Handbook, 2010-2011 Edition. From this information we can see several important factors. First, we see that there is great diversity across the various career paths, allowing for many career possibilities. We can also note that the financial reward provided by these careers is quite high when compared to the national per capita income of approximate- ly $22,000 and the national median household A Look at Computer and Technology Careers Jeremiah Jones As technology continues to penetrate and permeate the lives of people across the globe, the need for skilled professionals to create, manage, maintain, and distribute technology has steadily increased. This article provides a summary of present technology career projections for growth within this highly critical field of engineering. continued on page 40 Figure 1. Figure 2.