Careers in ICT

The facts

The ICT industry is constantly growing and so are employment opportunities. The 2009 Job Outlook report by the Australian Government stated that the employment growth for ICT professions to 2012-2013 is expected to be strong and recent newspaper reports have also highlighted a growth in jobs in the sector and rising salaries. The IT category of Australia’s leading online job site, www.seek.com.au, consistently has more vacancies than any other category. The demand for qualified ICT professionals is both local and international.

Types of work

Software designer, hardware engineer, multimedia designer, enterprise architect, system security specialist, network analyst, games developer, IT consultant and web developer are just a few of the diverse career options that ICT offers. Employers increasingly seek ICT-trained people who possess a combination of business, problem-solving and interpersonal skills, who can communicate effectively and develop relationships with customers, suppliers, business partners and within teams. ICT skills are readily transferable from one employer to another and ICT is ever-evolving with jobs being developed to meet needs created in a wide range of new areas. Some of these aren’t even identified as yet, so the industry needs people who are flexible, creative and unafraid of change.

Where UQ ICT graduates are now

• Mandy Ross studied Information Technology and is now the chief information officer at Wotif.com
• Emily Pearce studied Multimedia Design and is now an Interaction Designer for Flight Centre
• Ben Appleton studied Software Engineering and now works as a technical lead/manager for Google Australia
• John Ngui studied Information Technology and now works as a business analyst for Suncorp
• Anthony Massingham studied Multimedia Design and is now Actionscript Programmer at BlueDog Training
• Mark Wakabayashi studied Information Technology and now works as a software engineering researcher at UQ