Careers in Information Technology

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Careers in Information Technology
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Picture This
New Wave Enterprises is a newly-established
manufacturer of surf and snow boards. Their
innovative designs and effective marketing have
caused the company to grow dramatically and to
outgrow their current information systems. New
Wave has big plans for the future, including a
foray into eCommerce they want to market and
sell all their products over the web. As a key
feature, they want to allow prospective customer
to design their own boards on-line using a
standard web browser like Netscape or Internet
Explorer.
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What do IT people do?
Business Needs
Systems Analysts System Architects Project
Managers
IT Roles
Programmers Graphic Designers
Business People
Technical Solutions

• IT professionals
• Interface with the business to understand what
  needs to be done with a computer system
• Manage the process of developing technical
  solutions
• Design computer systems that meet the needs of
  the business
• Develop (program) the computer system

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Types of jobs you can do with an IT degree

• Programmer/Software Engineer Write the code
  necessary to implement an information system. An
  Information Systems program should give you the
  skills you need to be a professional programmer.
  The most popular languages today are C and Java
• Systems Analyst A critical role on any large
  information system implementation. Systems
  analysts are responsible for working with the
  actual users of a system to understand what the
  requirements for the system are (what the system
  must be able to do). Systems Analyst also work
  with programmers to ensure that they understand
  what programs must be written to meet the needs
  of the users.

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Types of jobs you can do with an IT degree

• Web design/graphics designer Web designers
  build web sites for organizations. For example,
  web designers often build web sites for online
  stores (like Amazon.com or ebay.com). Graphics
  designers are responsible for the look and feel
  of web sites and other systems.

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Types of jobs you can do with an IT degree

• Architect Architects are responsible for
  determining how best to meet the needs of users
  through the use of technology. Good architects
  are highly sought after.
• Project Managers Project managers do the
  planning for information systems projects. They
  make sure that the information system gets
  delivered to the users on time and on budget and
  manage the team that is delivering the system.
• Network and Communications engineers Design,
  build and maintain the networks that allow data
  to be passed between computers

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What should you learn in an IT program?
Analysis and design knowledge How do we
determine the technical solution that an
organization needs?
Business Knowledge How do organizations work?
Technical Knowledge How do we build the
technical solution?
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Where Can You Work?

• Virtually all organizations depend on information
  systems to run day to day operations and need
  skilled information systems professionals. Our
  graduates find rewarding careers in a wide
  variety of organizations both large and small.
• Typical starting salaries are in the 50k-60k
  range and the sky is the limit in terms of the
  top of the salary scale. Recent graduates of
  the St. FX Information Systems programs have
  started their careers at
• Sobeys
• Statistics Canada
• Accenture
• Shell Canada
• Imperial Oil
• IBM
• Deloitte Consulting
• Many, many more.

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Demand for IT jobs is huge. and growing
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