There are so many different levels of IT jobs. At the base, you have those who try to troubleshoot computer problems, either for a company or at a call center. Though you may be in a low-level position now, following this guide will show you just how easy it is to advance your career:

 

Continually Update Your Computer Language Knowledge

Even if you don’t use computing language regularly in your job, if you have the skill you don’t want to lose it. Stay updated, keep trying new projects, and keep your skills as sharp as possible. Learning computing languages is the hardest step. Staying on top of new editions, changes, and trends is far easier in comparison.

 

Tackle Personal Projects to Push the Limits of Your Skills

No matter where you are at in your career, there is nothing stopping you from making your own pet projects. These pet projects, if good enough, could even be launched and sold to buyers around the globe, making you a decent passive income or setting the foundations for your own company.

 

Either way, these pet projects are how you keep your skills sharp and how you develop your expertise in computing languages. No matter where you go in the computing science industry, computing language is one of the foundations you will need to advance.

 

Know Which Career Path You Want

If you are ready to move on from your low-level IT job, then the best way forward is with direction. Know what job role you want. Thankfully, computer or data science is something almost every business in every industry needs so you can further customize later to work in something you are interested in, doing what you are good at.

 

Instead of worrying about what industry or type of company you want to work for just yet, you will instead want to know which career path you want to get involved in.

There are many, of course, and the same job role will mean different things to different companies. Still, when it comes to possible career paths, the top three are definitely:

 

Data Science

Data analysis is one of the most important components to any business, especially international organizations, or enterprise-sized businesses. Raw data is impossible for our brains to understand. We use pattern-based recognition to contextualize the world around us. It would be your job as a data scientist to create, facilitate, and produce these patterns in ways that are actionable to your employer.

 

Software Development

Software development is another big one when it comes to where you can take your low-level IT job. Instead of just workshopping other software programs or fixing bugs as they come along, you will be creating custom solutions to the biggest businesses in the world. Some roles might even have you work on their product, allowing you to contribute to some of the most influential programs of our time.

 

Cybersecurity

In the next five years, hackers will cause trillions of dollars in loss for companies. This is both from direct theft through ransom and through lost revenue and trust. Cyber security is one of the priorities of every business and the larger a company becomes, the bigger a target they will be to hackers.

 

Specializing in cybersecurity will allow you to work almost everywhere and be paid very well for your efforts.

 

Invest in Higher Education to Kickstart Your New Career Path

If you really want to kickstart your career and launch into a well-paid job, then you need to do more with your computer science background. You need an online Computer Science Masters. These Masters build on the foundations you already know and allow you to specialize and really launch your career.

 

The Institution

When choosing a degree, you will first want to look at the institutions, and specifically the departments. It means nothing if one university is ranked higher, if its biggest selling point is its art program and not its computer science. Look for the top department, then the top institution.

 

The Degree

The degree itself is critical, so always explore and compare the courses you will be taking to ensure that you get the most out of your degree.

 

The Foundation

A good degree should also offer foundation courses, just in case your existing prerequisites don’t match up perfectly with their requirements. This allows more than just computer science majors to specialize and direct their careers into high-paying computer science roles.

 

The Specializations

The only way to really advance your career at this early stage is to specialize. Data scientists, software engineers, cyber security specialists — they all have a deeper understanding of their area and are invaluable to businesses.

 

There is no point trying to stay generalized because the workload will be difficult enough in a specialization.

 

How to Make the Most Out of an MSc in Computer Science

 

If you want to make the most out of your MSc in Computer Science, then you will need to:

 

• put what you learn to practice
• use your institution’s assets
• invest in career development/connections
• save documents of interest for later
• translate curriculum into how you learn best

 

Ways to Advance Your Career During Your MSc

Unless you are working while studying, you will want to take the time to intern, shadow, or even start your own company so that you can put what you are learning to practice and build up your resume in the specialty of your choice.

Adopt Lifelong Development as Practice

Above all, however, you need to adopt learning as a lifelong practice. Computer science in all fields is one of the fastest moving industries in the world. You need to stay on top of it all by attending events, workshops, and conferences when you can. You will want to invest in further courses or literature. Do whatever you have so that you always have the most up-to-date knowledge.

You always want to be the best, which in this case means just knowing the latest in your field so that you don’t get left behind.