The IT industry is experiencing a shortage of personnel and is ready to give a chance to specialists with a humanities education
In 2019, about 40,000 new jobs will appear on the German IT technology market. As Deutsche Welle reports, this forecast is given by Bitkom, the German association of digital economy enterprises. Are IT companies ready to hire specialists without specialized education?
A few years ago, Lyubov Sugak moved to Berlin. In Kaliningrad, she studied at the Faculty of Service and Tourism, and after university she worked in marketing. By the time she moved to Germany, she already understood that finding a job in her field would be very difficult.
"At first, I tried programming through free online courses to see if my brain could absorb this information," Lyubov says. Then she took courses at a Berlin school that provides basic skills in a short time. After just three months, she received a certificate as a web application developer. After training, Lyubov quickly found a job.
Since spring 2018, she has been developing web applications for controlling production processes at Relayr. During interviews, she was not asked about her specialized education; what mattered more to the employer was how she handled the test assignment.
Alina Verbenchuk also managed to quickly acquire new skills. She went from studying Chinese to working at the London office of YouTube. "Courses do not require large financial and time investments. After university, there is often no opportunity to sit at a desk again," Alina Verbenchuk believes. Alina now heads the Verbetcetera project, which helps people change their careers and move into the IT world. According to her, specialized education is needed, for example, in machine learning: without fundamental knowledge, it will be difficult to compete in the labor market.
"I completed a master's degree in business, and while working, I began to realize what skills I was missing," Alina says. Her advantage when finding employment in Europe was the Russian language. She worked with the company's partners from Eastern Europe, and after deepening her knowledge in IT, she was able to discover other career opportunities for herself.
It all depends on the position, explains Juliana Petrich, head of the education department at Bitkom: "If specialized skills are required, for example, in developing complex software, it will be difficult to find a job without the appropriate education." At the same time, she notes the advantages of humanities graduates – creativity, the ability to look at a problem from different perspectives. Such skills are in demand in forecasting, consulting, and organizing the work of IT enterprises.
The path from moving to Germany to a position at Google's Munich office took Tatyana Reifferscheid several years. She now works as a technical writer, compiling documentation for programmers and clients during the development of new programs and systems.
Tatyana has a degree from Minsk State Linguistic University. But she decided to give up a career as a teacher. After retraining, she got a job as a tester at an IT company. A few months later, she prepared the first technical documentation for her employer and realized that this was her calling.
Despite successful work experience at home, Tatyana could not find a job in Germany for a year. Then she decided to complete a master's degree in applied linguistics in Bielefeld and Zurich. It was there that she learned to program and delved into technologies at the intersection of linguistics and IT.
With a German degree, it was easier to find work. Tatyana admits that the knowledge gained at university came in handy, but among her colleagues there are also many linguists, philologists, and journalists without a technical background. There are even those who previously studied music. As practical experience shows, not everyone in the information technology field has a specialized education.
Some obtain "nanodegrees," which are a kind of certificate. In the US market, they are playing an increasingly important role. In Germany, according to Juliana Petrich from Bitkom, they are also gaining popularity among employers. However, she emphasizes that German employers still rely heavily on the presence of a specialized diploma. Without it, it will be difficult to overcome bureaucratic barriers when applying for a work visa in Germany.
Currently, companies in the information technology industry are negotiating with the government to have certificates taken into account when issuing visas to IT workers. They are also advocating for lowering German language requirements for foreigners.