According to CompTIA's State of the Tech Workforce UK report, the tech sector employed just under two million workers in 2021, accounting for 6.3% of the total UK workforce (source: Prospects 2023). The future is very promising for Computing graduates – here are some areas in which you could work:
- Applications development
- Computer forensics
- Cyber security and risk management
- Data analysis and analytics
- Games development
- Information management
- IT consultancy (business and technical)
- Software development
- Software engineering (designing, building, developing and testing)
- Systems/network management
- Technical support
- Telecommunications
- Web design/development.
Your job may involve creating applications or systems, solving problems with technology or supporting those who use it. You could choose to work in the “Tech” sector for the big names however you will find your skills are in high demand across diverse range of sectors from central and local government to retail, finance, manufacturing as well as education and health. Opportunities exist with the large, well-known employers as well as with smaller, exciting start-ups and consultancies. Here are some of the occupations that you could consider:
Researching your career options
With such a wide range of careers open to you and a growing industry, it is worth taking some time to explore your options thoroughly by both researching online, speaking to people in industry and getting experience within the sector. This will help you to make well-informed decisions about your future.
Prospects and
TargetJobs offer a great starting point for your online research; you may want to start with these articles:
CW Jobs, one of the job vacancies boards for Computing and IT professionals also contains a helpful careers advice section containing job descriptions about the different areas that you could consider with your degree.
You should also explore information, advice and resources available on webpages of professional associations:
Employment opportunities
Below is a snapshot of what University of Plymouth computer science graduates told us they were doing 15 months after graduation. For some graduates, these roles served as stepping-stones by providing relevant work experience.
- Business Information Systems Analyst
- Business Intelligence Analyst
- CRM Consultant
- Cyber Forensic Analyst
- Cyber Security Analyst
- Digital Investigator
- Firmware Developer
- Graduate Systems Engineer
- Incident Response Consultant
- Infrastructure Engineer
- IOS Mobile Developer
- IT Consultant
- IT Technician
- Java Developer
- Junior Network Engineer
- Junior Support Developer
- Lecturer
- Management Information Manager
- Network Consulting Engineer
- Observation Data Analyst
- PHP Developer
- Security Consultant
- Senior Information Analyst
- Service Desk Analyst
- SME Consultant
- Software Developer
- Software Engineer
- SQL Server Database Administrator
- System Integration Developer
- Technical Project Coordinator
- Web and Software Developer
Employers
*Data is from the Graduate Outcomes Surveys of 2017/18 and 2018/19. Graduates were surveyed 15 months after graduating. Data displayed is for 75 UK-domiciled, first degree, full-time graduates who are working, studying or looking for work.