Uncertainty. The word that best defines what our world has experienced in the past two years. Specifically in the UK, even before the COVID-19 pandemic had struck, Brexit, growing trade disputes, and decarbonisation were already beginning to carve a significant impact on many industries and regions. Then the pandemic, with its relentless shutdowns inspired hybrid works that did the needful, breaking down decade old existing systems.
Amidst all this, what was that one constant that saw us through these turbulent days?
Change. Our
ability to learn, adapt and most importantly, alter ourselves with changing
times.
While the COVID-19 crisis and the new hybrid working models accelerated a need for newer work skills, more things have been impacted than just social, emotional, psychological frameworks. Employment in the UK, for one, took one of the worst hits across industries. According to a report published by Office for National Statistics, unemployment rates across the UK hit an all time high at 6.9%, for three months ending January 2021. Another study established that while the worst impacted were industries dependent on contact and direct interaction like airlines, food and health industries, the IT sector remained more or less untouched.
Securing a job has never been easy. Even in a pre-covid world, a majority of freshers have suffered the frustration of applying for a multitude of job posts, only to be rejected repeatedly. Most of us only know too well the depression of receiving cold, indifferent, automated rejection mails that follow our earnest, time consuming job applications. Blame it on educational institutions that shirk their responsibility, when it comes to getting their graduating students hired via successful placement drives or the industry’s depleting recruitment standards and absurd requirements, securing a good job post and getting paid well has always been a challenge.
Data collected in November 2020 proved that on an average, an individual spends (wastes) almost 10-20% of his life applying to companies, and almost half the struggle of a professional life is not centered around sustaining a job but around securing one.
In such a cutthroat competition, the odds were never in a fresher’s favour. And in a post-Covid, world, where each industry has begun to expect more and more unjustified work experience from freshly graduating students, things have only grown nastier.
And this is where changing, adapting to current needs comes in handy.
Why the IT sector can be a solution
While it is impossible to escape the inevitability the pandemic brought, there has been no doubt that IT has been one of the most unscathed sectors. In the wake of digitisation and WFH culture, while most industries experienced a sharp fall, the UK technology industry has largely stayed afloat, with hiring in the IT sector being the least impacted. Globally too,
the IT sector was the least impacted in terms of overall profitability.
While many industries struggled to adjust to the new WFH norms, the ability to work remotely was more or less a cultural norm for many IT job profiles pre-pandemic. So while many traditional sectors, with higher contact necessities, perceived this as a kind of a ‘new-age’ philosophy, most technology units were better prepared in this regard..
That being said, everyday working life is just one aspect of the whole business. The IT industry’s rise during the pandemic has a lot to do with many other phenomena at play.
Chronically under-staffed, the IT sector had been going through rapid advancements, which meant that jobs were being created far faster than business could fill them. It comes as no surprise when statistics also reveal how the skills-scarce tech industry has seen a major influx of skilled workforce during the last few months. The influx of skilled workforce from
a myriad of backgrounds has worked marvelously for both the parties: businesses now could have their share of talent and job seekers with the right skills can have their pick of the roles. But it is especially in countries like the UK that the tech industry has truly grown, at far higher rates than the rest of the world.
How can you transition to a tech career?
While transitioning from a non technology background to a core IT sector was near impossible in the past, AWS has changed all that to an extent where millions have been able to make a successful transition. Today, AWS with its certified courses in cloud computing, another highly demanded skill set, has not only made it possible but exceptionally easier for people coming from any background with any skillset to transition to the technology sector.
If you too, like so many others, have dreamt of transitioning to the stabler tech industry and have been stalled in your plans due to a non technology background, AWS can help you achieve those goals and reach a secure employable rate.
Read our article on ‘Cloud Computing as an Excellent Career Option’
to understand more about how to transition to a sustainable tech career.
