What in the world is an IT professional? A guide for students

1. What's an IT professional?

　🤔 But first, what's "IT"?
　✨ "IT professional" defined
　🌈 What are the different types of IT professionals?
　🏢 Where do IT professionals work?
　🆚 IT vs software vs cybersecurity: What's the difference?
　👩‍💻 Do IT professionals need to know how to code?

2. Where can I find internships?

Part 1. What's an IT professional?

🤔 But first, what's "IT"?

IT is short for "Information Technology" and basically means any technology that manages information.

What's information? For schools, information would be things like students' names and their parents or guardians' names and contact info. If you're a company, information might be the names and contact info of your employees and customers.

In the old days, information like this was stored on pieces of paper filed away in cabinets. Companies would have rooms and rooms of cabinets and full-time staff whose jobs were to organize and update this information.

Enter computers (technology for storing information!) and computer networks (technology for transmitting information!). Now all this information can be stored in a lot less space and anyone on the network can update the information without asking someone else to do it.

That's basically IT in a gist – anything that has anything to do with computers and networks.

✨ "IT professional" defined

IT professionals are the tech experts who manage an organization's IT systems. They work behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly, from computers and printers to email and wifi.

Here's how they help:

• Got a brand new job? IT sets you up with a computer, email, and all the programs you need.
• Printer problems? Wi-Fi woes? The IT helpdesk is your hotline to getting things fixed fast.
• New office space? IT plans and sets up the entire network so everyone stays connected.

🌈 What are the different types of IT professionals?

IT is a pretty broad field with many kinds of roles.

• Helpdesk support provide technical support to users, like resetting passwords or troubleshooting computer problems (like issues logging onto work accounts). This is one of the most common pathways into IT.
• System administrators manage computer systems and networks. For instance, a system administrator at a school might install new software updates on all the computers at the school and set up new user accounts for incoming students.
• Security administrators protect computer systems and networks from hackers and other threats.
• Network administrators keep computer networks up and running. Imagine if, say, Amazon's network goes down (meaning computers can't connect to the internet) and customers can't order things. A network administrator would fix the problem and get everything back online.
• Database administrators manage databases, which are like big filing cabinets for electronic information.
• Data center technicians: Maintain the physical data centers that house all the computer systems and networks. Think of them as the electricians and plumbers of IT! 
• Business analysts: Understand the needs of a business and translate those needs into instructions for IT professionals, like figuring out what kind of new software a company needs.
• Project managers lead IT projects to ensure they are completed on time and within budget.

🏢 Where do IT professionals work?

There are two main places where IT professionals work.

1. IT departments at basically any organization you can think of. Smaller organizations (e.g. an independently-run nursing home) may not have an IT department but will have an IT person.
2. Managed Service Providers (MSP): These are essentially IT departments that businesses can hire if they don't have the resources to maintain a full in-house IT staff.

The larger and more complex an organization is, the more IT people they'll employ. That's because large organizations have complex IT infrastructure (networks, servers, software) that requires ongoing maintenance, upgrades, and security measures.

On the other hand, there are small companies that don't have any IT people at all. Fully remote tech companies (like Prosple!), for instance, rely on readily available online tools like Google Workspace for and don't need any IT staff.

🆚 IT vs software vs cybersecurity: What's the difference?

If a company's computer systems were a castle:

• Software developers would be the builders. They construct the castles (software applications) that people use. 

• IT professionals would be the caretakers: They keep the castles functioning smoothly (maintaining networks and fixing technical problems). 

• Cybersecurity professionals would be the defenders. Their job is to protect the castles (software and data) from attackers (hackers and malware). 

👩‍💻 Do IT professionals need to know how to code?

Unlike software developers (who code by definition), IT professionals don't all need to know how to code.

Help desk technicians, for instance, mainly help users with technical issues (think: Susan in finance having trouble connecting to WiFi on her work laptop). They won't need to touch code.

On the other hand, network administrators who manage an organization's computer network will generally know some basic code. 

This is because they handle a ton of devices (think: routers and switches) and manually configuring each device's settings would take forever – not to mention be prone to errors. Knowing how to write scripts that can update the settings on many devices at once saves time and leads to fewer mistakes.

So whether you'll need to know some code depends on the role. But at the end of the day, your job won't be about coding, but about making sure an organization's tech set-up does what it's supposed to do.

Part 2. Where can I find internships?

You can find plenty of internships on Prosple. We have a vast selection of internships curated for students like you. Just filter 'til you find the right fit!