If your dream job involves a career in tech, the last few years may have been a rollercoaster ride. Last year, hundreds of thousands of employees lost their jobs. Workers at most top companies like Meta, Google, and Amazon were not exempt from layoffs.
This year has been no easier. Figures from Layoffs.fyi show that nearly a quarter of a million tech employees have been laid off this year, and in the last few weeks alone, companies like LinkedIn, Chewy, and NextDoor announced hundreds of layoffs each.
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Do not despair, techies. Not all is lost.
“Despite the layoffs, the unemployment rate has been rock bottom,” says Art Zeile, CEO of Dice—a top tech career marketplace platform. And he’s right: According to CompTIA analysis, the tech unemployment rate remains relatively low, at around 2.1%.
With a few exceptions, tech industry employment has only grown over the last two decades. The recent wave of layoffs has largely been the result of restructuring after companies overexpanded following the pandemic, Zeile says.
“Anytime somebody leaves a big tech company, they find a job within a few weeks,” he tells Fortune. “I always used to joke last year that the only delay in getting their new job was the amount of vacation that they wanted to take.”
“So, structurally, any person that wants a job that has had a tech degree or tech training of any sort, pretty much can get it in the United States. I think that there’s going to be vast pressure even beyond what we’ve seen for more technology workers,” he adds.
But Seth Greenberg, vice president of program operations at Springboard—a tech bootcamp company—does not see a market that’s as easy for those just getting started in tech.
“Right now, it is a particularly challenging market in tech because, given all the number of companies that have gone through layoffs, you have a lot of people in the market who have more years of experience,” he says.
Greenberg emphasizes that it’s more imperative than ever for students to be able to demonstrate hard and soft skill development.
With more ways than ever available to learn tech skills—bootcamps, certifications, as well as traditional degrees—the question remains what’s the best educational pathway to a tech career? It depends. But one thing is for sure, it more than possible to take the nontraditional track and have a successful career because of factors such as the:
- shift to skills-based hiring;
- need for constant upskilling; and
- growing number of in-demand jobs.
Skills-based hiring
Based on the fact that tech workers are in demand, companies have begun looking more holistically at applicants and their experience. Many postings now either do not include degree requirements or have added phrases like “or equivalent practical experience.”
According to TestGorilla’s The State of Skills-Based Hiring 2023 report, 73% of companies are now using skills-based assessments during hiring.
“There’s no question that most companies have loosened their standards; they don’t necessarily require a bachelor’s degree specifically in their job description,” Zeile says. “And more and more over the course of time, because they realize they just can’t find the people.”
In tech, bootcamps are a popular way for students to acquire tech skills—often quicker, cheaper, and with more flexibility. Plus, top companies recognize their merit. Companies like Google, JP Morgan Chase, and Accenture are leading this charge and hiring hundreds, if not thousands, of bootcamp graduates each year. Others, like Amazon and Walmart, have even partnered with Springboard to provide skills training to their own employees.
Greenberg notes that a growing number of companies realize that just because a person has an advanced degree from a prestigious institution does not necessarily make them the best candidate for a job.
More than 58,000 students graduated from coding bootcamps in 2022, based on analysis by Career Karma. That compares to more than 130,000 undergraduates majoring in computer science, according to the Computing Research Association.
If you’re wondering whether a coding bootcamp is worth it, Fortune has you covered.
Need for constant upskilling
According to IBM, the half-life of tech skills was once established to be around 10 to 15 years, meaning skills learned today would be half as valuable in the 2030s. Today, it is widely acknowledged that their half-life is now closer to five years, or even less—especially with the rapid advancement of AI.
This change will usher in an era of lifelong learning, where tech professionals will need to brush up on the latest know-how every few years. For this reason, some education leaders have even questioned whether traditional four-year degree programs should be redefined.
“We will need a lot more tech workers to enact artificial intelligence now that everybody understands that it’s going to fundamentally or in some way change their business model,” Zeile says.
Instead of spending thousands of dollars on traditional degree programs, it could be beneficial to spend a few hundred dollars every few years to not only gain foundational tech skills but also to reinforce them.
Zeile also acknowledged that one downside of a bootcamp program is the less-glaring development of soft skills like communication, collaboration, and problem-solving.
For his part, Greenberg disagreed with this stance, noting that students are still actively interacting with fellow students, potential employers, and career coaches.
“I think that the perception could be that it’s sort of like an isolated, lonely experience, but there’s so much human interaction that you have going through the programs,” he says.
The most important thing for those interested in getting ahead in tech is being able to show ability to break down problems, Zeile says.
“But what these companies ultimately want is somebody that is showing that they can break down a problem efficiently. Now, I would also say I would be open to university programs, to your degree programs, and then boot camps and look at them in terms of all the factors in your life,” he says.
Greenberg says at Springboard, most students are in their late 20s or early 30s and looking for a career change—possibly from accounting, retail, or food service. Others are looking to upskill their existing careers. But collectively, he says bootcamps are great for working individuals who also may have families that need added flexibility in their learning.
Growing number of in-demand jobs
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023, AI and machine learning specialists, information security analysts, data analysts and data scientists are predicted to be among the fastest growing jobs.
This is reinforced by data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which says over the next decade, information security analysts jobs will grow by 32%, and software developers jobs will grow by 26%—both faster than the national average.
Plus, these jobs are becoming available at companies across the industry—not just typical tech firms. Subjects like AI and cybersecurity are increasingly relevant in fields like healthcare, finance, and manufacturing.
And they pay well. According to Dice, the average tech salary was $111,348 in 2022.
“If you have extra time, if you have the inclination, there’s no downside, in my opinion, given that this wave of AI is happening right now, for every technologist in the United States to learn those skills,” Zeile says.
All these factors play into the idea that companies across the board are becoming more receptive to non-traditional education pathways. In some instances, obtaining skills from a bootcamp or certification program may be just as beneficial career-wise as a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
Overall, it depends on what is best for the individual. After weighing costs, time commitment, and goals, it may be easier to make a decision, but regardless of your choice, it likely will not be the end all of learning in your lifetime.
