If you don’t work in IT, this blog post may seem like an oxymoron. The idea that a programmer in software engineering or a security consultant in information technology needs creative skills probably feels counterintuitive. But technology professionals need to be highly creative and use that energy and experience in a number of ways to advance their careers, improve their productivity on the job and the digital products they create.
Here’s what may surprise you about the link between creativity and a career in IT.
Do Computers Make You Less – or More Creative?
In the summer of 2018, Raconteur came out with an article questioning whether computers were killing the imagination. The article suggested smartphone technology entertains people and keeps them too busy to allow for creativity while social media “provides an echo chamber for what we think.” However, the minds behind these tools are the programmers that created the coding algorithms that power digital disruptors as varying as video games and software-driven medical devices. Workers in technology fields solve problems in a variety of ways, creating a vast array of digital products that have changed us culturally and reshaped our lives.
The article pointed out that not only are developers creative in their problem-solving but also in how they use data. Data analysts may seem like number-crunching nerds, but in fact, they’re the creative drivers behind strategic decisions that shape a company’s profit and loss. It’s the job of data engineers to interpret numbers in a way that helps companies move forward.
CMO says technology and creativity go hand in hand. For people seeking a new career in technology, creativity can actually help drive your professional success. Programmers and other technologists are intellectually curious and natural problem-solvers; these skills can help them find better jobs and upward mobility in the tech field.
Creativity Can Benefit Your IT Career
Creative thinkers have both the drive and ability to improve, a skill necessary both for developing new iterations of software code, but also to troubleshoot hardware and software problems. It’s creativity that helps people in cyber-centric fields dream up innovations like artificial intelligence – and then build it.
Creative thinking is beneficial to all types of career paths, but particularly in technology where it’s likely that the next innovation hasn’t even been imagined yet. The limits of software and hardware are in fact, creative limits. Creativity can help you solve new problems, look at things outside the box and discover new trends, all skills crucial to success in the technology field.
Solving problems with software or hardware takes creative muscle. Tech Bullion uses the example of Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-born engineer who created a number of technologies related to wireless communication and power devices, X-ray experimentation, radio remote control and more than 300 other patents for his inventions. The article concludes, “Creativity, and innovation are the driving force behind the success of any business.”
Put Your Creativity to Good Use in High Tech
To put your creativity to good use, consider a role in the field of high tech. Our teams’ design, manage and deliver technology solutions in a variety of fields. Contact us today.