Employment opportunities

One of the main characteristics of informatics graduates, besides those inherent to the discipline, is that they are not restricted to a particular sector or professional field. In fact, of the 115,000 IT professionals employed in Catalonia in 2007, 60,000 were employed by companies in the IT sector, and 55,000 by companies in other sectors.

Among non-IT businesses with the highest number of IT professionals, the following sectors stand out:

• Service companies
• Industry and construction
• Education, research, healthcare and welfare
• Financial institutions and insurance companies
• Public administrations and defence
  

IT companies are mainly involved in the following activities:

• Program development
• IT advice and consultancy
• Technological support
• R&D
  

More specifically, informatics graduates tend to hold posts as specialists or as middle or senior managers. They therefore pursue careers that reflect the specialisations taken and the course work completed at the School. Indeed, as graduates gain experience they take on posts with greater responsibilities. This trend is more pronounced in the non-IT sector, in which practically one in two IT professionals holds a middle management or senior management post. It should also be highlighted that a greater proportion of women hold such posts than men.

Outside education and research, the most common employment opportunities are as follows:


Senior management

• Information systems managers. They are involved in the strategic decisions that affect information systems, ensure that communication flows between technological and business departments, take responsibility for projects to implement applications, set up technological infrastructure, draw up budgets and manage the human resources in their departments.
• Development managers. They are responsible for the development of applications, supervise one or more project managers, speak to users through their project managers, and devise technical and quality policies.
• Production and operations managers. They are responsible for technology infrastructures and platforms, manage budgets, guarantee the availability of information systems, work in close collaboration with the development department to accurately forecast IT infrastructures that may be required and ensure that new applications are properly implemented in systems.
• Heads of IT. They carry out most of the tasks described above in small- and medium-sized businesses. They draw up a business’s systems plan, organise the IT department (equipment, programs and human resources) and work in coordination with the rest of the departments in the company.
  

 
 
Middle and technical management

• Project managers. They are responsible for the overall management of projects in terms of technical specifications, financing and deadlines, interact with users, take part in user training programmes and oversee the implementation of applications.
• Functional analysts. They take part in the functional analysis of users’ needs, draw up technical specifications and take responsibility for the development of applications.
• Heads of department. They ensure the coherence and progress of all IT projects, manage the deployment of new applications and their maintenance, and supervise teams of project managers, functional analysts, etc.
• Consultants. They work for consultancies and/or business advisory services that assess the functional and/or technical needs of their clients, and they set up customised programs and training sessions for users. 
• Database architects. They devise, develop and integrate a company’s database.
• Heads of quality, methods and procedures. They define and implement development standards, coordinate development teams, define quality indicators and their implementation, and put test and quality control procedures in place.
• Systems architects. They devise the technical and functional architecture of information systems.
  

  
Technical management

• Database administrators. They develop and build databases, ensure they work properly, establish access authorisations, take part in the installation of data warehouses and DSS, and are responsible for the integrity of data and backups.
• Heads of network systems. They define system requirements and the architecture to be put in place as a result, install systems and networks, develop small specific applications and monitor technological issues.
• Heads of information systems security. They guarantee the security of information systems, are responsible for the physical security of equipment, carry out any tests or audits required and conduct awareness-raising campaigns.
• Heads of microcomputing. They organise and manage network equipment, define the local network, are responsible for microcomputing and office systems, and organise training for users.

The courses taught at the FIB lead to the most widely recognised informatics qualifications by businesses in the country. Almost all of our graduates find employment. Most expressed their satisfaction with the training they had received and its relevance to their jobs.

IT graduates can be found in every sector. By way of example, we asked some of our past students to tell us about their careers.