Digital, IT and Cyber Security
Digital, IT and cyber security careers cover a huge range of different roles in IT companies and all other employment sectors, including finance and consultancy, public sector, retail, manufacturing, telecommunications, games and apps development.
While some of these roles will demand technical skills, others may not require a technical degree, so you will need to research roles carefully.
Key resources
- TARGETjobs overview of the technology sectors
- The overview of the information technology sector on Prospects website
- Bubble Jobs blog
Research the sector and keep up with current issues by reading:
- Technology sections of newspapers such as the Guardian and Financial Times
- Bubble Jobs digital careers portal, with career guides and digital job group guides
- IT job profiles on Prospects
- Use our York Profiles and Mentors database to find York graduates working in this sector (search IT under the Job sector heading). Read their profiles and contact them to get advice and learn more about what they do. You may also want to search by relevant department to find graduates working in IT and digital careers across all job sectors.
- Gradcracker sector guides, including IT, and cyber security
- Tech Republic for news, articles and industry analysis
- Computing (free registration required to access articles)
- Computer Weekly includes IT news specific to different sectors
- Working in Government Digital and Data
- Every Woman Tech Hub - help with building networks, honing leadership skills and developing your career
- Out in Tech - the world’s largest non-profit community of LGBTQ+ tech leaders
- Unicorns in Tech - a global LGBTIQ+ tech community that brings together tech talents, companies, and organisations working towards a diverse and inclusive corporate culture
Umbrella organisations and professional bodies
- Chartered Institute for IT
- Institution of Analysts and Programmers
- Engineering Council
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
- European Federation of National Engineering Associations
- Institute of Measurement and Control
- Institution of Engineering and Technology
- Royal Academy of Engineering (includes Ingenia journal access)
- techUK umbrella organisation for the tech sector in the UK
- Chartered Institute of Information Security (CIISec)
- Women's Engineering Society
Media and games industries
- British Interactive Media Associates (BIMA)
- Trade Association for the Games Industry (TIGA) includes news, events, student membership, jobs
- Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE) includes information on the games industry and the UK economy
- Creative Industries games section includes facts and figures about this sector in the UK, and market trends
- Grads in Games includes a student resources section, internships and jobs
- Gamesindustry.biz is a trade publication covering all aspects of working in the computer games industry
- Hitmarker - jobs, news and careers advice for gaming and esports
Cyber security
- Info Security magazine
- Risky Business podcasts
- Inspired-careers
- Cyber Security Challenge UK runs a series of competitions to test your cyber security skills. The site also gives details about typical roles in the sector
AI
- AI is an area of rapid progress. This article from 80000 hours (an organisation devoted to careers with maximum social impact) explores AI safety technical research. See also San Francisco based Center for AI Safety
- UK Government AI Safety Institute and advertised vacancies
- University of York Institute for Safe Autonomy
- The Data City Understand the UK's AI industry through real-time data.
Key skills for work in this sector are likely to include the following (depending on the role):
Technical skills
- Knowledge of programming languages (eg C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, HTML)
- Knowledge of databases (eg SQL, Oracle)
- Knowledge of operating systems (eg UNIX)
Personal attributes
- Technical aptitude (ability to learn new programme languages quickly)
- Communication skills - oral and written
- Career motivation
- Commercial awareness
- Client skills (communication, influence, negotiation)
- Organisation and planning
- Adaptability, coping with change
- self management
- project management
- attention to detail
- methodical approach
TARGETjobs has a useful article on demonstrating the soft skills needed for IT jobs.
See also, Developing your skills - a career in coding.
Work experience is invaluable to help you secure your first graduate job (a summer internship may lead to a graduate job with the same employer). Increasingly, employers are offering summer insight programmes and work experience to students after just one year at university, as well as the more traditional summer internships for penultimate-year students, it's never too soon to start looking!
- Internships and placements
- An internship with York Internships offers great experience through a summer (or occasionally term-time) project; some are based in University departments
- Target Jobs website has a list of companies offering IT insight programmes and internships
- Gradcracker advertise internships, placements and graduate jobs; you can upload your CV and register for alerts
- UK Technology Tracker can help you keep track of technology recruitment programmes
- The Step Programme offers a range of paid work experience and internships
Volunteering can offer you opportunities to develop a range of skills, such as teamwork, communication, project management, and demonstrates your commitment and values.
Initial roles in the industry may be in software development, but if you can demonstrate that you are quick to learn about service management or cyber security, you will find more highly paid and influential roles opening up to you.
The following sites may be useful in looking for vacancies:
- Gradcracker
- Bubble Jobs
- Step
- New Scientist Jobs
- STEM Graduates and STEM Graduates LinkedIn pages
- UK Science Park Association
- IT Job Board
- Jobted
- Technojobs
- Electronics Weekly
- Computer Weekly
- Graduate jobs and schemes in technology: IT and software development (Bright Network)
- Women in STEM events, jobs and blog
- Technojobs career guide
- 80,000 hours jobs board for jobs with positive impact includes IT / cybersecurity / AI related roles
- UK Technology Tracker can help you keep track of technology recruitment programmes
Games development
- Aardvark Swift
- Grads in games
- Trade Association for the Games Industry (TIGA)
- Game dev map (worldwide games development companies)
- Hitmarker - gaming and esports
- List of games industry recruitment agencies
Cyber security
- CW Jobs
- Security Cleared
- CyberSecurityJobsite
- Cyber Security Jobs
- Grad schemes from companies including Accenture, ATOS, PwC, MI5, GCHQ, etc
AI
Find out more about how to make good applications, and the recruitment process.
Use your time at York to develop your skills and experience to help you get a job in this sector. You could:
- Talk to people working in the sector - use York profiles and mentors (search IT and Telecommunications) - and attend our networking and employer events on campus. Make contacts through LinkedIn too
- Get involved with the tech community - look out for hackathons, competitions and games development, locally or online (eg ludum dare). For game developers, build on your skills by using free frameworks, such as Unity
- Join a student society, such as HackSoc or ShockSoc or SWEY (Supporting Women in Engineering at York)
- Learn to code, or enhance existing skills. There are several accessible and free platforms such as Codecademy, freeCodeCamp and Coursera among others
- Consider taking an online course or MOOC to help develop key skills, such as project management or to enhance your digital skills and knowledge
More resources: networks, podcasts and blogs
Find out more about the sector from these multimedia resources
Connect with York graduates on York Profiles and Mentors
- Senior Software Engineer
- Program Manager
- Chief Operating Officer
- Data Engineer
- Tutor of Digital Technologies
- Chief Scientific Officer
- Cyber Security Consultant
Accounts to follow
General
Media and games industry
Cyber security
Keep up-to-date with the sector and learn about the types of jobs available.
Podcasts
- Relevant episodes of our What do you actually do? podcast
- Bringing social media into The Economist, with Adam Smith
- Changing fast: working in agile project management, with Alison Critchley
- Digital archaeologist and entrepreneur
- Flirting with Algorithms, with Harpal Sahota
- From TV to tech, with Vivien Chung
- Historical consulting for video games, with Nicholas Gliserman
- Running a startup
- Starting a Startup, with Phil Daneshyar
- Summer Internship: Make it yours! with Julia Hebron
Blogs
- Bubble - tips and resources blog
- Nesta - the latest innovation from those working in the field
- Moz Blog - a leader in the SEO and digital marketing industry. Their blog provides comprehensive articles on SEO, link building, content marketing, and industry trends
- OpenAI - Offers updates on OpenAI's research, projects, and thoughts on AI's impact on society
- Google AI - Provides insights into Google's AI research and applications, including advancements in machine learning and AI technologies
- The Gradient - Covers research, perspectives, and opinions on AI, often featuring contributions from AI researchers and experts
External webinars
- Behind the scenes of cyber security
- O'Reilly AI Webinars - offers a range of webinars focused on practical applications of AI
- NVIDIA AI Webinars - AI topics including deep learning, data science, and the future of work
You can use Shortlist.Me to prepare for job interviews. Try these interviews with employers working in digital, IT and cyber security:
Find out more about interview prep on the Apply for jobs pages.