1. Brendon Hatcher
Technical Director: BrilliantWeb

2. Key messages
 The IT world is diverse – find your own place
 The IT world is changing – try to keep up
 Your IT education is your responsibility – schools can’t
keep up with the changes
 There are things you must do NOW in order to secure
your IT career
 If you don’t understand something in this
talk, research it!

3. Information Technology is a
very diverse field…
My grandson
works in
computers

4. Huge changes
are sweeping
through the
industry

6. Traditional career paths
 IT support
Hardware, software, users
 Networking
Connecting everything together
 Programming
Working as part of a team making big commercial
software on behalf of a company

8. More recent career paths
 Web site development
Building web sites for clients
 Web application development
On the web, but not a web site…
Project Management
Customer Relationship Management
Document Libraries
2010

9. Software as a Service
 Applications in the cloud (on the Internet) not desktop
 Usually accessed via a web browser
 Pay a subscription rather than a licence fee

11. Mobile app development
 Android, iPhone, Blackberry
700,000

12. Programming possibilities
 Working together
– Online collaboration
 Standing on the shoulders of giants
– API makes things possible
– Tiny code, low price, huge sales volume
 Low barriers to entry
– API well documented
– Support for developers
– Ecosystem of users to market to

13. Explain collaboration

14. Explain API

15. New business models
 Donation ware
 Freeware
 Freemium models
 SaaS

16. Explain new markets

18. Paper Camera
 Android App
 Turns everything you see into a sketch or cartoon
 R16 to purchase
 1 – 5 million downloads
 R2.6mill – R12.9mill after costs

19. Joomla Content Editor
 Set of formatting tools for editing a page of text on a
web site
 $20 per year for as many web sites as you want to build
 Developer lives on income
 In the UK!

20. Cache cleaner

22. Get coding
E.g. Mobile app development
1. Learn an API, any API (Android is a good start if you
know JAVA)
2. Participate in an open source / collaborative project
3. Create and manage an open source / collaborative
project

23. DoodleKids
 Made by 9 year old boy
 100 000 downloads (free app)
 My kids love it
 100 reviews and comments

24. Gather resources
 Learn to engage with the developer and user
communities online
– Code
– Support
– Understand your future clients
– Start identifying needs you can fill

25. Portfolio
 Internship
 Documented learning
 Demonstrable output

26. Focus
 Its not about technology, it is about the application of
technology
 Identify use cases
– Who needs what?
– Why do they need it?
– What will they do with it?
– Can they already get it?
– If so, why don’t they
– If not, can I make it?

28. Credits
 Brendon Hatcher is the compiler of this presentation
 The presentation is released under the Creative
Commons Licence – Attribution, Non-commercial, No
derivatives
 If you don’t know what this licence means, find out
about it at creativecommons.org

29. IT & Marketing
 Option 1: Interface between IT & Marketing
– Understand both worlds
– Operate between them
– Scoping, project management, analysis and reporting
 Option 2: Make stuff happen
– Implement the technology behind social media interactions
between companies and customers

30. Application specialists
 Application has enough users (online) to make a small
support business financially viable
 Staff know a particular application really, really
well, and charge for:
– Scoping
– Installation / configuration
– User support
 Great Internet-based business

31. Technical sales
 A sales career driven by a passion for technology
 Some IT products can’t be sold by people who don’t
understand them
– E.g. Customised solutions

32. Super, all-in-
one, really
huge program
made by one
company
API + core features +
documentation + support