Welcome to the Information age! Thanks to tech advances, namely cloud and mobile tech, new opportunities are made available for those who believe that being a frontrunner in tech adoption gives competitive advantages.
Not only for companies, the above also holds true for tech-savvy young people – the tech users, adopters and developers who understand how to use technology to make things work in the business world.
The opportunities offered by tech advances have unearthed a new breed of professional: Citizen developers.
Who is a citizen developer?
In essence, citizen developer is a tech user who creates new business apps solving a particular problem for users using the resources that are subject to the corporate IT’s approval. The apps are made available to a particular department in a corporation, the whole enterprise, or even the general public.
Due to the nature of work, which involve new technology, such as mobile and cloud technology, the majority of citizen developers are between the ages of 18 and 29.
But why is there a rise in demand for a citizen developer? The answer lies in the IT skills gap that has been a headache for most companies.
IT skills gap causes the rise of citizen developers
You see, technology advances rapidly, and acquiring the skills to use such technology requires not only resources, but also company policy and culture that support the adoption.
As not all companies are good tech adopters, they are lagging behind in acquisition of the IT skills for their employees.
The end result is quite devastating: The skills gap causes inefficiency, which results in an average of 20 percent productivity loss. To translate that into numbers, the inefficiency creates 20 percent more expenses for the amount of $1.3 trillion annually; and that’s just for businesses in the United States.
Citizen developers bridge the gap
Citizen developers’ role is to bridge the skills gap with customized apps that help employee-users in becoming more productive.
Learn the facts in this infographic published by the University of Alabama at Birmingham Online (UAB):
Via University of Alabama at Birmingham Online
So, in career perspective, how to capitalize on the trend?
The first and foremost thing to do is to acquire the required skillset.
You can start by enrolling for an information systems management degree. If you are not a self-taught developer, you can also equip yourself with relevant hands-on training.
Secondly, you should get your hands down and dirty, by developing your own apps – something that can help you greatly in your job interview for the citizen developer positions.
To conclude – as always, you need to keep on following the trends, whether you are the potential employer or job candidate. Technology advances rapidly, and opportunities will be made available only if you act on the trends.
Be tech-savvy and information-savvy.