If a technology study and career path is calling your name, you’re in luck.
Future tech jobs in Australia are set to boom, with the Tech Council aiming to have one million jobs in this sector by 2025.
It’s a huge goal, but we’re already super close! Currently, there are 861,000 STEM peeps employed in tech, working as everything from support specialists to software developers. The overall aim? Hold on to your hats because this is pretty exciting – to make Australia a global tech hub with all the Silicon Valley vibes.
And we can totally do this. According to the Tech Council, the technology industry generated a massive $167 billion in the 2021 financial, equivalent to 8.5 per cent of GDP (or gross domestic product). That makes tech equivalent to the third biggest industry in Australia, pipped at the post by mining and finance. Tech jobs have also grown more than twice as fast as average employment in the last decade.
So how can you help the Tech Council achieve big and boost technology in Australia? Get into tech, of course! Here’s a list of amazing career paths to consider.
An “engineer at heart”, Anna is a site reliability engineer at Google in Sydney, responsible for the effortless performance of products like Google Photos. She has an arts/engineering degree from the University of Queensland, and says if you’re planning to study computer science at uni, to go where the most challenging problems are and keep pushing yourself.
Tara Tjandra – Full Stack Developer
As a graduate full-stack developer at Atlassian, Tara‘s custom emoji creation has resulted in a company messaging code with customisable emojis. She has a Bachelor of Computer Science from UNSW, and was also a summer scholar at NICTA before landing a dream gig at Atlassian.
Mahonri Owen – Robotics Engineer
Passionate about helping people, Mahonri is drawing on both STEM skills and Māori knowledge to develop a brain-controlled prosthetic hand. He had a PhD in Engineering (Mechatronics, Robotics and Automation Engineering) from University of Waikato – and is also a doctoral researcher there!
Louise is Careers with STEM’s digital content strategist. She has a journalism degree from the University of Technology, Sydney and has spent over a decade writing for youth. She is passionate about inspiring young people to achieve their biggest goals and build a better future.