6 In-Demand IT Careers in the Philippines
The amount of data, websites, and apps in the world is only ever-growing, so the demand for IT specialists is not going anywhere anytime soon. Here are the 6 professions that are especially promising in the Pinoy market. The best news: you can acquire most of them in several months. And some of them are not even about programming!
The Careers We’ll Talk About
Full Stack Web Developer
Mobile App Developer
Data Analyst
UX Designer
Web Designer
Project Manager
Full Stack Web Developer
Average salary: ₱731,208 / year
Main skills: HTML5, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, Node.js, Python
How long it takes to learn: 3–12 months
Web developers create websites: from very simple ones, like landing pages, to very complex, like Facebook or Amazon.
In order to understand what a “full stack” is, you need to know how websites operate. Any website has a front end — this is what users see: the layout, buttons, and fields. And there’s a back end — the databases that store all the information on the website: texts and images. You as a user do something on the front end, e.g. press a button. That information is sent to the back end, which sends some information back, e.g. shows a photo from its database.
Some developers specialize in working with only the front end (interface) or the back end (databases). Those who can do both are called full stack developers. Basically, a full stack web developer is someone who can create a website from scratch and make it work.
Here’s what web developers do on a day-to-day basis:
Writing code. This is the biggest part of a developer’s job. Simply put, they tell the computer what to do in a language that computers understand. HTML5 and CSS are used to program the front end, while JavaScript, Python, and PHP are some of the languages used for programming the back end. A full stack developer should know how to use them all.
Overseeing other people’s code. Like any text needs editing, any code needs a review. Closer to the middle level of their career, developers oversee their colleague’s work to make sure that it’s understandable and compatible with other parts of the code.
Learning constantly. Technologies are changing, and developers have to keep up, e.g. learn to use new programming languages and frameworks. Sometimes it will require attending classes, workshops, and bootcamps — or conducting them yourself.
Developers often write code using code editors like Visual Studio that help with intelligent code completion, debugging, syntax highlighting and other aspects of the code. Source: Visual Studio
Mobile App Developer
Average salary: ₱729,703 / year for Android and ₱850,050 / year for iOS
Main skills: Kotlin, Android Studio, Android SDK for Android and Swift, Xcode, iOS SDK for iOS
How long it takes to learn: 4–10 months
Mobile app developers create, debug, and maintain mobile applications — the apps on your phone.
Oftentimes, mobile developers focus on one operating system: the iOS, which operates on Apple devices, or Android. Specialists who create apps for many platforms are called cross-platform developers.
It’s also common for mobile developers to work specifically with a certain kind of apps: mobile games, educational apps, banking apps, etc.
Mobile developers, much like web developers, write code, review other’s code, and work on business goals with their teammates. But here’s what makes this profession special:
They are focused on their platform (iOS or Android). This may be a good thing as you don’t have to worry about learning every new technology. On the other hand, it limits your mobility: it’s not easy to shift from iOS development to Android or vice versa.
They get more feedback from users. A web developer may never know what users like or dislike about their app. But app users do not hesitate to write reviews in app stores. Those can be hurtful — or very rewarding.
Xcode is a comprehensive tool that helps iOS developers write code for an app and see the result in real time. Source: Apple
Data Analyst
Average salary: ₱408,714 / year
Main skills: SQL, Python, R, visualizing instruments like PowerBI
How long it takes to learn: 8–12 months
Data analysts work with data — any information a company knows about its clients, contractors, or processes. Analysts process it in order to help the business become more efficient.
Let’s say there’s a food delivery service. It has to deliver orders in time — but sometimes, it fails to do so. To solve this problem, a data analyst may come into play. They can analyze the data about the orders and see a pattern — e.g. that each Friday night people place more orders than at any other time. The analyst then presents these findings to managers and they decide how to deal with the problem. Of course, this is a very simple example; usually analysts solve much more complicated problems.
Data analysts can forecast whether a new project will pay off, find out at what stage an online store is losing customers, estimate the potential demand for a product or service, help the bank to improve its borrower assessment, etc.
To accomplish all of these tasks, a data analyst typically does the following:
Gathering data: Analysts often collect data by conducting a survey, buying a pre-made dataset, or collecting information about visitors on a company website.
Cleaning and preparing data: Raw data might contain errors or duplicates. Data analysts usually run the “cleaning” processes to make sure that the dataset isn’t skewed. Usually, these processes are automated through software.
Modeling data: At this stage, analysts create and design the database structures. Basically, they choose how to store data, how to establish relations between data categories, and work through how the data actually appears.
Interpreting data: Analysts search through the dataset in order to find trends and patterns that will help them to answer their questions.
Presenting the result: Last but not least, analysts present and explain the results of their findings to management. Data analysts should be able to write reports, put together visualizations like charts and graphs, and present their findings to interested parties.
Here’s what an analytical report may look like. Data Analysts don’t have to be experts in graphic design, but the ability to put together a decent-looking graph is an advantage. Source: DashThis
UX Designer
Average salary: ₱538,396 / year
Main skills: Figma, Adobe Suite, HTML, CSS
How long it takes to learn: 3–8 months
UX stands for user experience. Basically, it refers to everything a person feels when using a website or an app: whether it’s user-friendly, understandable, and generally nice to work with. If you ever recommended an app to a friend because it was so great to use, it means that the UX designer did a really good job.
UX designers are wide-scope professionals. They are involved in all aspects of a product’s development, including design, usability, and even branding and marketing. UX designers work on user’s interaction with a product and are responsible for identifying new opportunities for the product and business.
On a day-to-day basis, most UX designers are responsible for such things as:
User research: UX designers identify user behaviors, their goals, needs and “pain points” — specific problems that the product can solve. To conduct the research, UX designers use such tools as interviews, online surveys, focus groups and A/B testing.
Analysis and persona development: A persona is a fictional representation of a perfect customer, which helps you understand his needs, goals, and behaviors. Each persona should represent information about the potential “type” of user, such as their income level, consumer tastes, motivations, location, etc. Persona development helps UX designers understand which elements of a product are the most important and helps them to start planning the user flow.
Design: At this stage, the UX team creates site maps, wireframes, or prototypes in order to get a better idea of what the final product will look like.
User testing: To understand how good the prototype is before building the actual product, the UX designer lets users interact with it and make notes on their behavior.
Wireframes are screen drafts for an app. UX designers use them to create a user-friendly layout and flow before investing time in beautiful graphic design. Source: Medium
Web Designer
Average salary: ₱391,135 / year
Main skills & qualifications: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Figma, HTML5, CSS
How long it takes to start: 4–24 months
Web designers create the visual interface for websites. This may range from choosing colors and fonts to using complex animations and special effects.
This job combines creativity with technologies: web designers have to create aesthetically pleasing interfaces while keeping in mind the technologies that will make them work. So you have to know color theory, typography, and composition along with browser specifications, HTML, and CSS. That is why if you choose to become a web designer from scratch, your education can take up to two years.
Web Designer and UX Designer: What’s the Difference
These jobs are similar in the way that they both create interfaces that are nice to use. But there is a difference in the approach.
UX design focuses on the user. It’s all about studying the users’ habits, pain points, and needs. The main skill of a UX designer is empathy, the ability to get into other people’s shoes. In this case, it’s even more important than creating beautiful compositions. Plus, UX is not limited to the web: UX designers work on apps and even real-life objects that have interfaces.
Web design focuses on the product and the client. It’s a more applied job in the sense that web designers create the actual interfaces that people will use. Of course, a good web designer keeps the user in mind when creating an interface, but that’s just one of the aspects they work on.
A web designer’s tasks usually look something like this:
Talking to the client to understand their needs. Many clients are not experts in website building and cannot visualize what they want their site to look like. It’s the designer’s job to ask the right questions to meet the client’s needs.
Prototyping. For complex websites, designers first create a prototype — a simplified version of design to make sure that it’s what client needs.
Designing. Most often, a designer draws the interface in a graphics editor like Figma or Adobe illustrator and later passes it on to a web developer to implement. But they also have to be familiar with web development tools to understand what’s possible to do.
Getting comments from the client and making revisions. This is something you have to be ready for. Normally, it takes several rounds of revisions to get to the final result.
A web designer visualizes what each page of a website will look like. The arrows show where the buttons take you. Souce: Xfive
Project Manager
Average salary: ₱558,176 / year
Main skills: Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Miro
How long it takes to learn: 4–6 months
Project managers coordinate the work of other specialists to make sure that the task is completed on time. They also communicate with the client and control the project’s budget.
Creating a website or an app may involve dozens of people: researchers, designers, developers, QA engineers. The project manager’s job is to make sure that all of them know their tasks, have all the resources they need, and are able to meet the deadlines.
Managers don’t have to know how to code or design, but some technical background is an advantage as it will allow you to understand other team members better.
Here are the typical tasks of a project manager:
Meeting with the client to understand their needs. E.g. The client needs a website. What features should it have? What should it look like? When is it due?
Decomposing the need into concrete tasks for specialists. For a website, the manager will probably have to tell a designer and a developer what the client wants.
Creating a plan with deadlines for each task — while keeping in mind all the vacations, possible delays, and dependencies.
Organizing regular meetings to get progress updates from specialists.
Presenting the final result to the client. This may include explaining the technical decisions made and receiving feedback.
A Kanban board is a way to organize and oversee all tasks in a project. A common tool for creating a Kanban board is Trello. Source: Atlassian
To Sum It Up: 6 In-Demand IT Careers in the Philippines
Full Stack Web Developer — creates websites from scratch.
Mobile App Developer — creates apps for iOS or Android.
Data Analyst — looks through data to get insights on how to make the business more efficient.
UX Designer — makes apps and websites more pleasant to use.
Web Designer — creates web interfaces.
Project Manager — coordinates IT teams to achieve the result on time.