How to make money in IT if you don't know how to write code

1. IT ‑ recruiter

If you are interested in working with Human Resources, you can make IT your niche and help companies find talented developers. You will have all the goodies of working in an IT company without the need to understand the code. Of course, you have to learn the basic hardware: an IT recruiter must know that Java is not an abbreviation for JavaScript. And also - to constantly monitor changes in the software and technologies of the company: if the set of programs changes, the requirements for candidates are the same.

IT firms often care about the level of employee satisfaction with various aspects of work. This also falls on the HR department. Let's say you write tests and metrics to understand that the productivity of the team will increase if there is a new coffee machine in the meeting room. And if you grow to a Senior Recruiter, you will be able not only to recruit employees, but also to plan how the company's staff will expand.

2. Product Manager

Creating something new in IT requires creativity that borders on insanity and a cool mind to calculate costs and benefits. The product manager has all this - the person who completely develops the concept of a new product. He analyzes the market and customer requirements, correlates costs with potential revenues, tests hypotheses and sets deadlines. At the same time, it is enough for him to have an idea of ​​IT-processes without deep knowledge of the way of their implementation. There is a technical team for this.

On the other hand, a product manager must understand users well and be able to look into the future. But rely not on intuition, but on market trends. This requires knowledge of economics and product success metrics. In addition, a product manager knows how to present a product in such a way that everyone believes in it and understands exactly how it needs to be implemented.

3. Test Engineer

To prevent the software from going to customers with errors, it needs to be probed from all sides before release. This is what the testers do. They put fresh designs through various tests to see if a program does what it should, and if it accidentally does something that it shouldn't. To do this, they draw up test scenarios for the terms of reference, and then compare them with the real work of the software.

Test engineers have a rough understanding of how the code is executed. But they really well know something else: how the program should be executed from the user side. If there is a difference between the desired and actual functionality, they indicate to the developer all the discrepancies, and he already finds a technical way to fix bugs. The task of the tester is to make repeated tests and make sure that the bug has been fixed and the rest of the program's functions are not broken.

4. IT systems consultant

The programmer must understand what business problem the IT solves. But if he plunges into the problems of the economy, he will not have time to develop. In addition, it can be difficult for developers to communicate with clients: some speak the language of business, while others speak the language of code. To come to an understanding, they need an intermediary - an IT consultant. He delves into what the business wants in as much detail as possible and draws up a task for the developer.

The consultant must understand the technical limits of the program. But he doesn't have to deal with the code directly. It is much more important for a consultant to have improved communication skills and be able to analyze information in order to listen to the client and find a clear solution to his problem. Even when he himself has a rather vague idea of ​​what is needed.

5. Data analyst

IT companies do not make any decisions without prior analysis. Taking information and extracting useful meaning from it is the main task of a data analyst. He notices trends, structures, isolates, deduces hypotheses and tests them in practice. Will the business benefit if this data changes? And if others? The analyst finds answers to these questions and presents them clearly to those who do not understand the data.

To do this job well, you need to understand the dynamics of the IT sector. And also - own tools that make it possible to make calculations, graphs, presentations. Therefore, the skill of working with numbers and large arrays of information will be great for you, but you will not have to learn to program from scratch.

6. Project manager

Implementation of IT projects is a profitable and responsible business. The final result is not the responsibility of the developers who wrote the program. The quality of the project is guaranteed by the one who led it - the project manager. In this profession, you need basic leadership skills: assemble a team, set tasks, plan deadlines and budget. In addition, it is important to be able to get people to work and create a comfortable atmosphere.

Understanding the specifics of IT plays an important role: the manager must know what competencies are required for different tasks. But managers do not go into the code itself, even if a former developer starts to lead projects. The project manager must correctly plan the strategy and tactics so that there is no need to check every step of the team members.

7. Data journalist

This is also a kind of data interpretation, but not for the company, but for the readers. Data journalists understand IT processes enough to be able to communicate them clearly. They explore the world of hardware and software, find useful insights and share them in a simple and fun way. Data analysis requires technical tools, for example based on the Python language. But this is not the same as full-fledged coding, it is rather a small set of algorithms that you need to learn how to execute.

Other important skills of a data journalist are quite humanitarian competences: skillfully expressing your thoughts in writing, adding lives to stories about numbers, making infographics. Many IT companies hire data journalists on their staff to talk about new developments and technologies with their help.