Making the decision to change career in your 40s may seem daunting at first, but there’s no better time than now to take action. If you’re feeling underappreciated, or perhaps you’re already making the maximum salary in your current role with no room to grow, switching careers can help boost your earning potential, and gives you the opportunity to place yourself in control, where your talents will be acknowledged and respected.
A career in Digital Technology (tech) could be the answer if you’re looking to change careers quickly and at a relatively low cost, with the added benefit of future-proofing your job prospects.
A career relating to digital technology is an excellent choice for adults looking to change careers. The tech industry has most of the highest paying jobs for career changers due to the skills shortage and demand for tech trained individuals. With businesses placing increasing value on technology as a result of the pandemic, nearly half of IT execs (45%) say their company is actively recruiting for tech-based role (TECH HQ, 2020). Additionally, this means that there is a wide range of roles available, and a choice of exciting companies and brands to partner with in your career path.
Tech welcomes everybody – The industry as a whole, and all companies working within it are crying out for diversity and are actively looking to hire people from all backgrounds who can bring new ideas. Additionally, you may be surprised at how many skills you have already that will help you enter this growing industry. Skills like; problem solving, creativity, communication, organisational skills, and teamwork.
One of the quickest and easiest ways to switch to a career in tech is to learn how to code and become a junior developer. Some great reasons to train to be a developer are:
No experience necessary
- Starting a new career is exciting but it can be intimidating if you don’t have any training or experience in your new chosen field. There aren’t any specific requirements to becoming a developer – you just need to be committed to your training. You don’t need to have a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics background to retrain
Relatively low cost of training vs great starting salaries
- It’s reasonably priced to retrain (with numerous options for funding) and it’s a job that offers market-leading salaries. Tech roles pay 44% higher than market averages, with senior developers earning around £65k+ (starting salaries for _nology graduates are £28.7k on average)
Software Developers are more in-demand in the world than any other profession
- New job openings for developers are posted faster than new developers are entering the market. Therefore, as a retrained developer, you’ll be needed by lots of companies in many different industries and for varied positions.
A future-proofed skillset
- Coding is a highly transferable skill which will open many doors for you within the tech industry.
Since the covid pandemic more than half (55%) of non-tech workers are considering or beginning the process of moving into a tech-based role. Nearly one in ten have already made the leap with many undertaking online tech training courses to develop their skills. (Tech HQ, 2020) The prospects in tech for people considering retraining have never been better.
If you’re interested in switching to a career in tech, you might want to join one of our informational webinars on how to take the leap, or take one of our coding taster sessions.
More information on our self-paced flexible coding course can be found here.