IT jobs? Oh, the kind where people sit in formal clothes and type away things on their computers, or the kind where people wear black hoodies and sit in front of their fancy computers looking all sophisticated? These are usually the two stereotypical images of jobs in Information Technology that come into our minds when we think about it.

IT jobs have always looked intimidating and many of us were hesitant about choosing Information Technology as our career path. There are a lot of myths about this industry which we listen to and go “IT? No thanks.” 

Is it really that scary? Not really. In this article we will look at some of the myths surrounding the IT industry.

You have to be an expert in coding

There are jobs that require coding in IT; there are jobs that do not require coding too. Even if some jobs require coding, you don’t necessarily have to be exceptional at it. And for jobs like business analyst, project manager, and market research analyst, you do not need coding skills. Coding would just be a brownie point for many IT jobs.

So, don’t let coding be a barrier to your IT career. If you wish to learn coding, you can learn it while you work as well. It’s just a five-finger exercise (or maybe 10).

You need an advanced degree for a job in IT

Bro, if you ask anyone about any career, they will, many times, just tell you that you need an advanced degree. No, you don’t. What you actually need are the skills and the desire and passion to learn and develop. I do not wish to imply that an advanced degree is useless, but rather, the lack of an advanced degree should not hold you back from going for a job in the IT sector, or any other field for that matter, if you have the skills and passion.

According to a study conducted by LinkedIn, IT technicians “are 5.1-times more likely to list only a high school or Associate’s diploma compared to the average job.” Many companies hire people based on their skills, including companies like Netflix. 

You can’t use your creativity in IT

Now, that’s a huge myth. First of all, you can use your creativity anywhere if you are bold enough. Secondly, jobs like Content Creator and Web Designer mostly depend on creativity. The myth about IT being a dry field with absolutely no room for creativity and a career where your creative abilities just stagnate as you devote your life to some boring and mid jobs, is absurd.  

Innovative Forecasting, for instance, is a job in which you predict or forecast the future technologies with the results of your studies, observation and ability. There are a lot of jobs that allow you to nurture and nourish your creativity like Animator, Social Media Manager, Video Game Designer and more.

You will not have a life outside work

Work-life balance is important regardless of the sector or job you work in. It is true that sometimes IT jobs require prolonged hours of work in a stretch, but it is not a given for all jobs. In some scenarios, say, you are building a startup, you might have to put a lot of work into it, but that does not mean you will never have any life other than that. 

A lot of companies in the IT sector are very flexible. You can take breaks and maybe go out to watch your kid’s cricket match, pick up your groceries etc. Many companies value quantity over quality and you can have a good work-life balance in IT. Information Technology is also one of the sectors which allows remote work to a very vast extent.

There is no support for women in IT

IT is a male dominated sector, like many others. According to AnitaB.org, the percentage of women in Information Technology was 28.8, which is low. However, there has been a significant rise in the number of women taking up jobs in IT in the past decade. Women have always been in Information Technology since its beginning. In 1941, Hedy Lamarr filed a patent for frequency-hopping technology, which was a forerunner to the Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth networking technologies that are currently utilized by billions of people across the world.

There are a lot of support systems available for women to stand against the work place discrimination, pay gap and other issues in the workplace in IT. There are organizations that work for the wellbeing of women, helplines within the company and more to encourage women in IT. Besides, there are even coding platforms just for women, like Create & Learn, Girls Who Code, Code.org etc.

The “advice” is that you should not dismiss a potential career option due to some myths and stereotypes. Research about whichever sector you are interested in and decide carefully. Like we saw earlier, many intimidating matters we know about IT are simply myths that resurface occasionally to scare people away. With passion and hardwork, you can reach anywhere, in Information Technology too.