IT Workers Will Thrive in the AI Era

Many students will be looking at a career in IT, but given how quickly tech moves and the arrival of Chat Gpt and co, there is a suspicion that the AI is coming for all the jobs so what’s the point of studying IT? 

Well one person who thinks fears of the AI taking over completely are slightly exaggerated is Craig Costello. The recently minted QUT IT professor would know, he has recently returned to Australia following years in the cut and thrust of the US tech scene working in cybersecurity.

He says, “In my - admittedly biased - view, a career in IT is one of the safest bets to make if one is concerned about the effects of AI on future job security. Just like almost any other field, improvements in AI capabilities will threaten certain domains of the IT industry.

“In contrast to many other fields, however, AI growth will also widen the landscape of opportunities for techies. IT graduates and professionals tend to have versatile skills and be willing to pivot within this broad landscape; those who additionally have a basic knowledge of AI are only setting themselves up for more success down the road.”

The future IT worker is probably going to need to be adaptable, AI is big right now, but IT is a broad church and opportunities in many areas abound.

“AI is the booming area right now, and virtual reality (VR) is another, but the third area that comes to mind is the one that is closest to my heart: cybersecurity. The need for strong cybersecurity capabilities is higher than ever, particularly here in Australia. Cybercrime in Australia has increased by 60% since 2020, and the subsequent demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals has increased by 80% in that same period,” he says.

An education pathway for a student thinking about an IT career should be predicated on a student’s passion and interests.

“Whether it’s IT or not, do whatever it is that interests you the most. It’s no use trying to predict which field/major/topic will make you the most employable in the future, chances are you’ll be wrong anyway. You’re going to have the most success if you do whatever is most interesting to you.

“If it is IT you want to do, IT is for ‘doers’ - the most successful IT careers belong to the practitioners i.e. to those who practice. Studying the field can be done in many ways, whether at school or university, online courses, boot camps or on the job. Reading as much material as you can is never a bad idea, but rolling your sleeves up and practising - and failing and practising and failing - is the key to a successful IT career.”

Now more than ever are many ways to access a successful tech career, degrees are not the prerequisites they once were.

That being said, a structured degree can be a great way to explore different areas of IT to find where a student fits best and ensures they are job ready.

“As the field is always evolving, so too are the possibilities! Interestingly, QUT have just introduced three new future-focused majors (Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, and Human-Centred Design) to their Master of Information Technology to meet industry’s demand for these skills!,” says Costello.

“I’m still a firm advocate for the university route because of the breadth of the field that students are exposed to. This gives most future techies the best chance of finding out what they are most interested in and where their talent lies. There are also increasingly more part-time or “earn-while-you-learn” options that can give some students the best of both worlds.”

There is an ongoing shortage of tech workers here and it is only getting more acute. The why of it lies in how many see IT, it’s for boys and nerdy ones at that. It isn’t.

“Branding is partially to blame. I think many Aussies still have the antiquated view that IT is just for nerds and is not as sexy as other career choices. Nowadays I don’t see this view as present in Europe, Asia or the Americas.

“There are also some other lingering stereotypes that don’t help. The recent ACS Digital Pulse Report 2024 found 1 in 4 Australian parents believe that tech careers are better suited to boys than girls and that only 10% of school-aged children are interested in tech careers. Maybe 30 years ago being a techy meant staring at MS-DOS code through coke-bottle glasses for 16 hours a day. But nowadays the field is so diverse, and people have successful tech careers by applying all kinds of talent. Some of my most successful colleagues in tech are far from being maths whizzes. Nowadays good communication skills - not something we traditionally ascribe to a techy - can be a far more powerful tool than programming talent.”

A career in IT begins with how technology is taught schools from primary on to high school.

“In my view, more important than teaching any content is giving students as many opportunities as possible to discover what they're passionate about. And you can't be what you can't see. My road to becoming a cryptographer began in high school when I first saw a cryptographer talk about what it is: a 1-hour topic taste from an outsider proved more valuable than anything technical I was ever taught. Passionate IT professionals will jump at the opportunity to share it with students. While it's impossible to show students the breadth of the IT industry, the odd taste of what's on offer can go a long way,” says Costello.

A career in technology is international but there are differences between how the profession operates in Australia and overseas.

“As you can imagine there is a cultural differences between Australia and the states. For its population, Australia has a strong global standing in terms of its start-up statistics, but it is incomparable to the size and scale of the US.

“The venture capitalist (VC) culture in hubs like Silicon Valley is something to behold. VC firms place huge bets on ambitious projects with small chances of success because they only need a small fraction of the start-ups they invest in to succeed,” Costello says.

“Then there’s the attitude to work. I once saw a meme about the difference between a European out-of-office reply “I’m away camping for the summer, email again in September” versus an American out-of-office reply “I have left the office for two hours to undergo kidney surgery, but you can reach me on my cell phone anytime”. In my early 20s, that aggressive culture was one thing I liked about working in the USA, but nowadays I’m happy to be in Australia where, although we enjoy hard yakka, there’s no shame in having an out-of-office reply like the first one.”

Future techies looking to pursue a career in the field should have a look at the QUT website.