It seems at every business conference or event, specifically those focused on startups or tech you always meet two types of people, the “business guy” and the “tech guy”. The business guy may be the person who goes out and gets funding for the company and markets the business to customers or users. The tech guy, as the name implies is the guy with the technical skills who actually creates the product, which in many cases nowadays can be entirely online.
The “business people” of the world may have been able to get by in the past without knowing HTML, CSS, JavaScript or any other basic computer/programming languages, but we live in 2012 where one of the primary ways we communicate is online. These computer languages aren’t necessarily a technical skill anymore, but rather they are essential if we want to communicate with others. There are now several programs and popular content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress and Joomla that limit the need to use these computer languages but basic knowledge is still necessary.
Many will argue that they can always hire a web developer like they would an accountant, lawyer or other specialist but most websites today are expected to be interactive and require continual maintenance. Not knowing these basic computer languages is almost like having to hire a translator to be able to communicate with others. For those that work in large corporations and there is division of labor it is likely you won’t ever have to manage your company’s website, but for the majority of us that work in a small business environment keeping an up to date website is one of the most important ways to communicate with customers.
Some of the best career opportunities are to work with early stage startups and grow professionally with the company as it expands and potentially even goes public. The large majority of positions available to work with startups though require specialized knowledge and at a very minimum basic computer languages. Even though most business schools at universities don’t require basic computer language classes there are several private companies that have excellent courses online. Some great sites I’ve found to learn computer languages are Tutsplus, Codecademy, Treehouse and Udemy to name a few. You can decide which is best for you depending on what new skills you want to learn and which program you are most comfortable with. Some of these even offer free trial versions to help you decide.
Even though it appears the unemployment rate is finally going down, the reason for such high unemployment and income disparity is because of the few people that have the necessary technical skills in demand. Learning new and relevant technical skills is a never ending process especially in such a rapidly evolving economy and job market. Besides basic computer languages other technical skills that are in high demand is search engine marketing, app development services for Android, Apple, Facebook and other major platforms, tracking analytics for websites and many other skills that weren’t necessary just a few years ago.
One of your greatest fears should be not having relevant technical skills needed in today’s labor market. At first glance it may seem as if we have a limited amount of technical skills, but that’s just because we often take what we know for granted. I’d recommend writing down a list of technical skills you’ve accumulated over the years because this is what allows all of us to command above average pay. Perhaps after taking a couple of the courses mentioned above you can add some new computer languages to your arsenal of technical skills.
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