Is Your Job Strike-Proof?

On Sept. 2, the largest general strike in history happened in India when 185 million workers walked off the job. They were demanding an improvement in the rights of workers, primarily a monthly minimum wage of 18,000 rupees ($268 U.S.) and guaranteed pensions of 3,000 rupees ($45 U.S.). 

There were two surprising things about this strike. First, most people weren’t aware it had happened, especially outside of India. This was because most Indian news organizations refused to cover it. (Almost all Indian news orgs are owned by big business which just happened to be a main target of the protesters.)

The second surprising thing about the strike was who wasn’t there. It seemed as if every sort of worker was involved, including food services, shipping ports, factories, clothing, mining, transportation, insurance, financial, power, steel, oil, education, defense production and even central and state government employees. The one group of workers missing from the day’s activities was information technology (IT).

Probably the reason there were no IT workers is because in India, as around the world, IT is a pretty good field in which to work. In India, IT services and business process outsourcing accounts for almost nine percent of GDP. There are four good reasons why you don’t see thousands of shirt-and-tie wearing IT professionals rioting in the streets:

• Since almost all employers need IT pros, there are a lot of jobs.
• With so many jobs needing to be filled, the competition to hire IT pros leads to salaries that are significantly higher than average.
• The field is constantly evolving with new technologies and developments — you won’t have to worry about being bored.
• There is plenty of opportunity to move up in your career.

Becoming an IT professional is something anyone can do. And with more than 100,000 software and IT services companies in the U.S., there is great need for trained and skilled professionals. With the increase in cloud computing and the Internet of Everything, the demand for skilled IT pros is only going to continue to grow.

Of course the best way to become an IT professional is with a certification. A certification from TestOut is a surefire way to prove to potential employers that your skills and knowledge have been evaluated and approved by a reputable third-party organization, and that when the rubber meets the road, you’ll be able to do the job.

Take care that you don’t end up on a picket line screaming at scabs — get certified today.

About the Author — Calvin Harper is an associate editor for GoCertify and a veteran of the publishing industry.