The point of performing these tasks for an organization is to ensure that the company or institution they work for has access to the technological resources that can help it solve large-scale logistical problems that may arise as part of the organization’s daily business. This career often is of interest to students and career-changers because of the excellent compensation it typically brings with it. In addition, there are several types of entry-level roles that are typically accessible in markets hiring IT workers. This position can also provide excitement in one’s daily life because one encounters many different challenges along the way. Often, workers find the IT problems they run into uniquely stimulating to tackle and resolve. Depending on the context, IT professionals can also gain satisfaction in their careers because they are serving a larger organizational purpose in their role of helping a business’s technological operations run smoothly.
Many professionals in all industries are familiar with the term “IT” insofar as it is used to refer to the department in a workplace or school that takes on the responsibility of resolving issues with computing equipment. It’s certainly true that information technology departments are charged with the tasks of investigating and fixing issues with the hardware and software a company employs in its daily business. And indeed, they do conduct the maintenance of a company’s networks and networked devices. And yet, the IT field goes far beyond this type of work. In fact, the IT field has three main areas that IT professionals may be asked to work within. Someone who wants to get a job in IT should make sure they are competent to work in any one of these areas. Fortunately, the IT classes available to you in the New Jersey area can help you become skilled in any and all of these realms.
The aspect of IT described above, the one that you are almost certainly familiar with, is called IT operations. This term indicates responsibilities such as technical support and network maintenance. IT operations specialists also spend their days working with communication protocols, security testing, and device management.
There is a second area of IT that few people outside the profession of information technology know about. It is referred to as IT governance, which means the policies and processes that a particular organization chooses to implement in order to ensure that its IT workers the functions of its hardware, software, and networked systems. These policies and processes are designed to make these resources do the most they can to serve the specific technical needs of that organization. That is to say, IT workers must be aware that they do operate in a vacuum. Their role is not just to tinker with individual pieces of technology. Rather, their role requires being aware of the mission set for their company or organization. They also need to periodically consider the question of how they can best support those goals through their daily work maintaining the company’s technological resources.
Some IT professionals focus on a third area. Their work concerns an organization’s hardware and software infrastructure. The role of someone who works with hardware infrastructure entails setting up and maintaining crucial devices. This refers not simply to individual computers, but also servers, routers, and phone systems. Software infrastructure work consists of installing and maintaining critical programs that are central to the organization’s success. In this way, IT professionals who work with infrastructure have the opportunity to support the organization’s technological and computing needs. It’s essential that IT professionals learn widely applicable skills with software infrastructure. They must do so before they enter the workforce if they wish to be fully competent as an IT worker. They need broadly useful skills because which particular softwares are essential will change a lot, depending on the needs and mission of the organization and how it goes about accomplishing that mission. In fact, even the types of software that are vital to a single organization may be used to perform a wide range of tasks. For instance, one company might use software infrastructure for everything from data storage to graphic design to coding support and beyond, thus requiring its IT workers to be able to work with any kind of software.
Best IT Classes & Schools in NJ
One advantage of living in New Jersey while seeking to study IT is that, depending on the area you live in and how much of a commute you can fit into your schedule, you may be able to attend in-person courses in New York City. If you prefer in-person courses, you have more potential options open to you in New Jersey than in other areas, including in-person study at such well-known New York area tech schools as Noble Desktop and General Assembly.
#1: General Assembly—Software Engineering Bootcamp
New Jersey residents have the opportunity to attend General Assembly’s software engineering bootcamp either in-person or live online. This bootcamp provides students with fluency in a variety of stacks and frameworks. The course begins with the fundamentals of software engineering. The next unit covers front end development, before the course moves on into the more challenging full stack suite of IT responsibilities. Students then explore front end frameworks and APIs. During the course, they learn how to apply the most important concepts in object-oriented coding. They learn how to use JavaScript, including how libraries like React can help them achieve more with this language. Similarly, they explore how Django can help them do more with the Python programming language. And they explore how third-party APIs can serve a variety of purposes within coding.
Key Information
This full-time bootcamp takes four months. No prerequisites are expected. Tuition costs $16,450. Payment plans and loans are available, as are discounts and scholarships for qualified students.
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Students say that this General Assembly bootcamp is “definitely worth the time and effort.” They are “satisfied with the investment” that they made in taking the course. The classes are “fun” and “engaging” because of the “creative” instructors, who do “a wonderful job” of teaching this course.
#2: Noble Desktop—Software Engineering Certificate
For those who are excited by the idea of a more in-depth education, they could consider pursuing Noble Desktop’s certificate in Software Engineering. The program is capable of making a student with no previous knowledge of the field into an excellent software engineer. The course starts with a unit on front end development, beginning with HTML and CSS. Students also learn about why it is important to use Git for version control, and how to do so. Then they learn all about the fundamentals of JavaScript. In terms of front end development tools, they also explore how Flexbox and Grid can help them in designing appealing user interfaces.
The section that follows maintains an intensive focus on development using JavaScript. Students acquire fluency with the language’s fundamental coding concepts, such as datatypes, loops, and variables. The course also encourages them to learn how a number of powerful tools—including React, Node.js, Express.js, and MongoDB—can serve their coding projects by helping them achieve more challenging aims and produce more powerful programs in a JavaScript development environment.
Python, also an essential language for software engineers—especially if they focus on data—is covered in the course’s third unit. Students’ Python journey begins with the lexical syntax of this language, which is fundamental knowledge for developing in Python. They then explore the language’s central features. Some of these include custom functions, dictionaries, and sorting algorithms. They also become well-informed about the data manipulation capacities it offers by using SQL to query databases. And the course covers how to use APIs for mining public internet data. To conclude their Python studies, students learn how to use the Django web framework for automating tasks and creating models for querying.
At the close of the course, Noble offers its students help with career preparation. The primary product of this unit is the portfolio of projects that students have developed in the course, which they can use to show their skills on the job market. The school also helps students in their career journey by providing feedback on resumes and LinkedIn materials, as well as preparation for interviews and general guidance for the job search.
Key Information
This is a full-time, 20-week course. There are no prerequisites expected. Tuition is $10,995. Students may set up a payment plan if desired.
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Students who register for a Noble course are sent a proprietary workbook from the school. Famous for its small class sizes, Noble prioritizes individualized attention to students from its expert instructors. Students who wish to retake a course they have completed may do so for free within one year.
According to graduates, their studies at Noble were “a very worthwhile investment.” Noble’s “excellent” teachers “keep you engaged” in the classroom, with the result that students “learned tons” in the course.
#3: Certstaffix—Administering Microsoft SQL Server Databases
At Certstaffix, students taking the course on Administering Microsoft SQL Server Databases, become familiar with the primary responsibilities held by a Database Administrator, and they build the skills they’ll need to perform the necessary tasks for that particular role. To begin with, the course teaches them methods for installing SQL Server instances. They learn how to configure the databases stored on an SQL server, as well as the server’s settings. They also become well-versed in how to monitor an SQL Server’s performance. They then add skills in the field of database maintenance and protection. Their studies include how to control whether and to what extent users have the ability to get access to the data inside an SQL server. After they have completed this Certstaffix course, students will be able to demonstrate to potential employers their qualifications to plan, deploy, administer, and maintain SQL Server databases.
Key Information
This full-time course is a five-day sequence. It has no prerequisites. The cost of tuition is $2925.
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Former students of Certstaffix say that the classes are “easy to follow” and “amazing.” The instructors do “a wonderful job” in the classroom, and graduates would “definitely recommend” this course.
#4: Careerist—Manual QA
The Careerist live online Manual QA course introduces students to the career field of quality assurance (QA) testing. The purpose of this course is to provide students with the skills that are needed to perform it successfully in an entry-level position. The course starts with an exploration of software QA’s fundamental concepts. Students then learn about and practice QA testing, both for web and mobile platforms. They learn about software testing environments, test cases, and bug reports. The course also explores the larger realm of how devices communicate with servers, as well as more advanced testing practices that may come up in career settings. The final unit of the course provides students with job market preparation for a search in the QA field.
Key Information
This 15-week course is part-time at six-eight hours per week. It has no prerequisites. For tuition, students can pay either $6100 upfront or a total of $6950 if they secure a payment plan.
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Careerist is attractive to many students because of its 100% money-back guarantee. The school’s promise is that in the event that students don’t find a tech job within the first year after completing the course, the school will provide them with a full tuition refund. To help them find that tech job and get hired, the school also provides career support for every student. Its career services include resume feedback, mock interviewing, and personalized career coaching.
Graduates of this course found it to be “a life-changing experience.” Some students began with “zero technical background,” and this course was able to provide “a fast track into the tech field” for them through Careerist’s “valuable” and “accessible” instruction.
NJ Industries That Use IT
The principal industries in New Jersey include pharmaceuticals, life sciences, financial services, manufacturing, tech, transportation and logistics, clean energy, and media.
Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly applying technological solutions to their business challenges. It can help them deliver a better patient experience by making detailed information more accessible and granting easier communication between the company, healthcare professionals, and patients. Companies also use technology to distribute information about their work more generally, both for specific drugs and to target investors in their work. And tech solutions can help these businesses improve their actual product as well, as with the recent innovations in drug delivery systems. Checking a medicine’s authenticity is also easier today thanks to technological verification techniques. Most recently, companies have been using artificial intelligence (AI) to increase production and effectiveness of new drugs.
The processing side of information technology is especially critical in the life sciences field. This is because scientists need the processing capacity of their devices to be reliable when they perform critical tasks such as—for example—modeling DNA or designing replacement organs for transplant patients.
Another industry in which security is absolutely vital is that of financial services. Hackers or scammers constantly try to gain access to financial services companies’ customers’ financial data, and if they are able to get through, the risks to the company can be severe. That means banks and brokerages will need high-quality security systems in order to protect their customers’ data against these cyberattacks, making cybersecurity specialists indispensable employees at a financial services company.
Computers and networked devices are used in the manufacturing industry to design new products and come up with new systems to assemble them. Another important use for technology is to inform workers if something has gone wrong with the manufacturing process. These problems need to be identified and addressed swiftly. If they go unnoticed and then become worse, it can not only slow productivity, but also damage inventory or even pose a danger to workers. To maintain this vital monitoring equipment, manufacturing companies need competent IT professionals.
The relationship between the tech industry and information technology may seem entirely obvious, in that the tech industry produces the hardware and software that information technology specialists install, maintain, and fix. However, there’s a less obvious relationship as well: even tech companies have IT departments, and these departments are essential to their operations. When the computer a developer is coding on breaks down, they cannot fix the hardware themselves, or possibly even the coding environment they are working in. They need someone they can call, especially if it does turn out to be the hardware that needs fixing. It’s also important to note that if you are ultimately looking to break into software development or a similar field, doing excellent IT work for a tech company is a great way to get noticed.
In transportation and logistics, too, information technology is vital to successful business operations. Functions it serves for this industry include improving efficiency, tracking products on their way through the supply main, and automating processes to reduce labor costs. Also, for customers who want information about the items they’ve ordered as they make their way through the system, IT helps transportation and logistics businesses provide a better customer experience.
Digital technology plays a central role in the growing clean energy industry. Companies can create digital models to identify the best ways to store and distribute renewable energy. These models can also help them ensure that the supply of clean energy resources remains stable. Until recently, problems of storage, distribution, and supply were a major hindrance to replacing fossil fuel energy sources with clean, renewable ones. Digital technology is helping close that gap and promote a more sustainable energy system in the future.
In the media and entertainment industries, digital technology provides critical platforms for product distribution, including streaming and social media, as well as livestreaming and other forms of digital performance. Social media has also stimulated the development of a new type of entertainment personality, the “influencer” or “content creator” who makes videos and posts them to TikTok or Instagram for the enjoyment of their followers. More controversially, artificial intelligence is also a potential digital aid for media creators.
IT Jobs & Salaries in NJ
Those based in New Jersey who want to become IT professionals have a wide range of possible career specialties they might choose to pursue. The entry-level roles open to IT workers seeking jobs in the area include, among others, IT Technician, Support Specialist, and quality assurance (QA) tester. In the event that, through your studies, you have gained more specialized knowledge, there are further roles that may be open to you. Possible careers for you might be IT Security Specialist, Systems Analyst, Network Engineer, or Cloud Systems Engineer. Are you interested in roles that involve administrative responsibilities? If so, you may want to consider seeking out a career as a Database Administrator or Web Administrator.
An IT Technician is the usual title of the person at your company that you call when your work computer is having issues. This person’s job is analysis and diagnosis of computer issues. Their daily tasks can also involve maintaining hardware and installing software. The average salary for an IT Technician in New Jersey is $70,000 a year. Support specialists differ from IT Technicians in that they typically operate behind the scenes. The specific role of a Support Specialist is to assess and solve larger hardware or software problems within the infrastructure of the business. Depending on the particular situation, they may work for that business directly, or they may be employed by an IT contracting firm. In New Jersey, Support Specialists make $55,000 a year on average. Quality assurance (QA) tester is another role where entry-level IT workers are typically welcome. A QA Tester’s job involves assessing software to make sure it is fit for an industry-standard level of use before an organization adopts it. New Jersey’s QA Testers make an average of $90,000 a year.
Students who choose to do an intensive bootcamp or complete a full certificate in a particular topic may find that their studies qualify them for a more specialized role. One such role is IT Security Specialist. This type of IT professional has the responsibility of protecting the customer data, intellectual property, and other digital assets that belong to their employer or the business they are contracted to. An IT Security Specialist in New Jersey can expect to make $115,000 in an average year. Another specialty that someone who has pursued more in-depth studies could think about pursuing is systems analysis. That term refers to the process of identifying infrastructure problems and then finding ways to solve them, in order to streamline a company’s technical operations. New Jersey-based Systems Analysts make about $85,000 a year on average. Such graduates may also want to consider the role of Network Engineer. This title refers to the person responsible for maintaining and improving the computer network at a company or organization. In this role, workers must constantly pursue the optimization of such networks, continuously improving them so they can better serve the particular technical needs of a given business. The average annual salary of a Network Engineer in New Jersey is $105,000. If one finds oneself particularly intrigued by cloud computing, one may decide to specialize in it by becoming a Cloud Systems Engineer. Cloud Systems Engineers are responsible for managing and improving an organization’s use of the cloud to store and process data. A New Jersey-based Cloud Systems Engineer will make about $125,000 annually.
Some students may be interested in assuming the unique responsibilities of an administrative role within IT. One such career option is database administration. Database administrators are experts in diagnosing and solving complex IT issues that may affect an organization’s data, especially its storage and security. A Database Administrator working in New Jersey makes about $80,000 a year. Another administrative role one might find rewarding is Web Administrator. Their suite of administrative responsibilities involves dealing with networked systems. They work to maintain the infrastructure that supports these networks. In New Jersey, this career provides an average annual salary of $95,000.