Technology Jobs - At The Heart Of The Digital Age

Living in 2010, its easy to take somethings for granted. Not just the important things - food, shelter and warmth - but the little things - entertainment, information and communication. These qualities have come to define the digital age, and its all thanks to people in technology jobs. Practically every type of technology job is aimed at improving the day to day working or personal life of people in the developed world. Technology recruitment is the fuel that keeps modern society running, providing both the developers of technology and the support staff who keep the rest of us on our feet. It's easy to forget that just one generation ago, computers were the size of rooms and a mobile phone was something out of Star Trek. That a database consisted of hundreds of index cards and corresponding filing cabinets. That life was, in short, much slower - not because you had less to do, but because everything had to be done physically. Its only thanks to the hard working people in technology jobs that today's marvels are possible - and are even commonplace. Leaving aside the wondrous applications many of us take for granted, the people behind the technology are tragically unacknowledged. For many, technology jobs seem unglamourous. However reality is far different from the 'great man', lone inventor style of history that popular culture loves to embrace. The truth is that every piece of technology, in every stage and aspect, is the product of a much more complicated relationship. Ask yourself, who created the internet? The answer is that it was the work of thousands of different people in different technology development teams across the world. Originally, it started as a research program from the US department of defence, as a communications network between technology institutes and universities in America. The transformation from this to today's world wide web didn't come in a single moment, but in a gradual process that was the direct result of the work of people in technology jobs. This wasn't just software developers and researchers, but hardware technicians, communications engineers and coders. How the splintered communications networks of companies, governments and universities grew into the internet is a long story that doesn't need explaining here. But it serves as a useful illustration of the nature of working in technology and the nature of technological advances. The people working on the various projects often had very little idea about the effect they would have on the world, and those outside had even less. The same could be said for any of the other gadgets that have become central to our life. The iPhone is the combination of technology developed for flat-screen televisions, desktop computers and (of course) mobile phones. Digital television was only possible because of the work of developers for computer-based video software such as MPEGs or .avi's. Computers themselves only came about because people wanted to build a better counting machine! Whilst they may seem arcane and obtuse to the rest of us, technology jobs have had an effect on the world unlike any other form of profession in the last century.