About digital careers
What is a digital career?
Technology is constantly evolving and changing the way we work. Over the past decade, technology has helped create jobs beyond our imagination.
Today, a digital career is about much more than just a job in IT. There's more to a digital career than you would think and digital professionals work in places you might not realise.
Organisations everywhere are accelerating their digital transformation and skilled professionals are needed to meet the demand. Digital professionals work in interesting and innovative jobs, designing and delivering solutions to real-world problems.
Digital careers now exist in almost every sector of the economy, including:
- healthcare
- agriculture
- education
- finance
- media
- retail
- telecommunications
- manufacturing
- public services provided through the government.
Digital professionals are some of the most in-demand roles in Australia right now. It’s estimated that nationally, an extra 250,000 new digital workers will be needed by 2025.1
To address this the Queensland Government developed the Digital Professional Workforce Action Plan 2020-2024, which outlines an $8 million investment to boost the number of Queenslanders skilling and re-skilling for the expected upsurge in digital jobs.
A job in digital can open the door to a secure, well paid and respected career in an exciting and fast-growing industry. Growth and demand in digitisation is creating great opportunities for people to establish varied and fulfilling careers. There's never been a better time to consider choosing to work in the digital area.
Benefits of a digital career
A digital career offers many benefits, including:
- high demand—there are currently more digital jobs than qualified people to fill them
- choice of roles—there are diverse roles on offer in all sectors of the economy
- great pay—high demand means well-paying jobs are available
- choice of employers—employment is on offer in various industries and with large global companies right down to small to medium local businesses
- autonomy—you can be your own boss and start your own business providing a digital service to other organisations and companies
- leverage your existing skills—if you're already familiar with working online, with software, coding or social media, you can build on your existing knowledge
- flexibility—work remotely with flexible hours from anywhere in the world. All you need is an internet connection and a laptop.
Types of digital careers
There's a role in the digital workforce to suit every type of personality. Digital professionals work in creative roles, have broad skills, collaborate in teams and design innovative solutions to problems. They come from all walks of life and have all kinds of interests.
A digital career can take you beyond the mundane into the exciting worlds of cyber security, analytics, gaming, digital marketing, design, social media management and more.
High demand digital roles
- DevOps engineer
- Cloud architect
- Product manager
- Programmer analyst
- AI architect
- Systems analyst
- Network administrator
- Software engineer
- Blockchain engineer
- Information security analyst
- Data scientist
Learn more about digital careers and find a role to suit you:
- ICT career options and pathways in the Queensland Government
- UNIQ You—Connects high school girls (and their guidance and career officers) with industry advisors from sectors currently under-represented by women.
- Women in Technology—Provides a community to support women in all fields of science and technology.
- Digital Technologies Hub—Links to resources to help teachers, students and families learn about digital technologies.
- Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) Capability Hub—A capability academy that focuses on skills management and deep engagement between individuals, community peers, and academic thought-leaders.
- CSIRO Digital Careers—Supports teachers and encourages students' understanding of digital technologies and foundational skills.
- Council of ICT Associations—Represents and advocates for the major ICT-related associations in Queensland.
- Future Skills Organisation—Get involved to build digital skills journey pathways that meet employers’ and employees’ needs.
1Australia's Digital Economy: Digital trends are reshaping jobs