- Over 150,000 people in the United States were employed as computer programmers in 2021.

Software development, computer science, and information technology are careers with many different pathways.

In "The Career Center", we're going to go on the job with an IT entrepreneur, and learn about how early exposure to STEM can help change lives.

- [Narrator] "The Career Center" is made possible by General Motors.

(video game themed music) And by these supporters.

(video game themed music) And by viewers like you, thank you.

(video game themed music) (video game themed music) (indistinct classroom chatter) (video game themed music) (car engine revving) (video game themed music) (keyboard keys clicking) (birds chirping) (indistinct classroom chatter) (bell ringing) - Ms. Pisani, I was on a job shadow a few weeks ago, and I spoke to some people there.

And I think I wanna pursue a career in information technology.

- I know how important art and design are to you, so what brought about this change?

- Well, art and design feels more like a personal hobby.

I don't think I wanna pursue a professional career in it.

- That makes sense.

And I'm really glad that you're thinking about this and that you had that opportunity, so that it's bringing you to this new conclusion.

I have some videos about work in IT that might give you a sense of what to expect.

Let's take a look.

(dynamic instrumental music) (bright instrumental music) - My name's Kinsley.

I work at Facebook as a software engineer.

The goal of Facebook is to make the world a more open and connected place.

I work on the save for later team, which lets you save cool things you find on the internet, like videos, posts, things like that, so you can come back to 'em later.

I like working at Facebook 'cause I have to work with a lot of smart people.

I get to work on something that over a billion people use on the planet.

I just enjoy work with my coworkers.

Having diverse team members is also important, 'cause especially at Facebook, where you're trying to make a product for the whole world, you can't have just a single set of people, you wanna represent the people you're trying to serve.

You may use Facebook one way, but someone could be using it completely differently.

Or people are in different situations, so not everyone has the newest smartphone.

You might have to remember that there's some people in other countries and lower end devices, you have to make sure it works for them.

All that kinda sort of scratches that problem solving part of my brain.

So I get to come in and just sort of think about how to do something, then get to see if my idea works or not.

(laughs) Computers are really good at telling you really quickly if something's gonna work or not.

(Kinsley laughs) Probably my first job I remember wanting to have was I wanted to be an astronaut.

I went to this summer program when I was in third or fourth grade, and someone there taught me how to use this old programming language called HyperCard.

And with that, I made a really basic game where you built a little ship and flew it across the solar system.

After that, I sort of just played around with computers a little bit.

And I was lucky my high school had a programming class, so I'd got to learn more about programming there.

A career in tech is attainable by anyone.

All you really need to get started is just a computer.

You don't have to start large, you can do something super small.

I made a game that only I ever played, or when I was in high school, I made a program only I use that would help me solve my math problems.

(chuckles) Computer science are definitely a creative medium.

There's not one way to solve a problem, so it's up to you to sort of come up with, given your constraints, to come up with a creative solution.

But probably the best way to get started is just you can try emulating something you like, like an app you or a game or something.

Make something just for yourself, there's nothing really stopping you.

(bright instrumental music) (dynamic instrumental music) (mouse clicks) (dynamic instrumental music) (cheerful instrumental music) - Ah, always a good question.

What are you guys thinking?

I, let me think about this.

Ah, ah, ha.

I love computer science 'cause I can build something from start to finish and make it do something.

I'm always one of those that has hand movements and stuff, I don't really sit still.

I'm really curious, I look unique.

I like to fidget.

(cheerful instrumental music) I also love the fact that anything I do does have a lot of impact.

(cheerful instrumental music) I'm a software engineer.

I work on our payment fraud detection team.

Effectively, we catch bad guys.

Anytime that you tap buy on your Android app, or anytime Google accepts money, we're there to make sure that they don't get away with stealing money from our users or Google itself.

We call them fraudsters, by the way, that is actually the official name.

Fraudsters.

We improve our systems, they're approving their systems.

They're engineers too in a lot of ways.

And so they'll have this infrastructure that's attacking us, and we'll have this infrastructure that's stopping them.

And so it's like that.

You get to wake up every day and kind of go like, "I'm gonna catch some people that are bad.

Yes, got one."

(Tess clicks her tongue) Yeah, guys.

It's both exciting, frustrating, and terrifying all at the same time, which is the way that life has gotta be, I think.

(keyboard keys clicking) When I was 12 or 13, I do remember the first time I made one of those little LEGO MINDSTORMS actually just move.

It had a little puzzle piece interface you could do, and you just take these puzzle pieces and can tell it move forward, turn left, do this, kind of do this again.

With just a few commands, I can have this little robot run around the room and search for light.

Once I got that going, it was kind of you started to expand from there.

Then what a four loop is, you know what these other things are.

And then from there, I was able to kind of move on.

There's a little bit of breaking your brain to sort of think like a computer, 'cause you are, in a lot of ways, it's like learning a new language.

You have to kind of go, "Okay now I get it.

I can now think in that way."

Stick with it, there will be a point where you're kind of like, "Whoa, I got this now.

I think I actually understand how this works."

(dynamic instrumental music) - Ms. Pisani, what's the difference between coding, IT and cybersecurity?

- That's such a good question.

So let's start with IT, that stands for information technology.

And with information technology, it's really about how computers work and how they talk to each other.

Cybersecurity is related, and people who work in cybersecurity know about how computer systems work, and they look for potential attacks or threats that might impact a network of computers.

Coding is related to all of these things, and it's sometimes referred to as computer programming.

So people who code use different computer languages to design websites or applications.

We had a student who recently went on the job with some IT professionals, let's take a look at what they learned.

(dynamic instrumental music) - [Sam] Computers are part of our daily lives, and the world is more connected than ever before.

However, this connectivity comes with a price.

Connected systems are vulnerable to cyber attacks.

The computer guy in Sterling Heights, Michigan, stands on the front lines of digital defense and helps protect companies from potentially devastating threats.

Today, I'm meeting with Roman Golshteyn to crack the code of this exciting field.

Tell me, what are we looking at here?

- So Sam, we're looking at a traffic monitor for one of the devices that we use to protect our clients' networks.

This one happens to be protecting my home, it's a firewall, but we use this device to protect our clients big and small.

Right now, we're looking at all of the traffic in real time that's going into my house or out of my house.

I know there's a lot of information here, so let me kind of organize it for you so you can see what's going on.

So think of it as different columns.

So we have a column that's telling us is this traffic allowed or is it denied?

Then from which IP address to which IP address.

So an IP address, actually, is an address of a device that's connected to the network.

And then it's telling us which port it's using, and port basically is like which door?

- Some of these are red, what does that mean?

- Red means that this particular traffic has been denied for one reason or the other.

Basically, we have a device that's either in my home trying to go out to the internet, and it's not allowed to go there for whatever reason, or somebody from outside is trying to get in.

So what I would do in this case, I would filter this just by denies so I can look into it a little bit further.

Now, I'm filtering this traffic monitor by everything that's been denied.

And by looking at this, I can see that there are some devices that are outside of my home that are trying to get in.

They're probably scanning my device to see if there are any open doors that they can use to get into the network.

Interesting fact is that I'm not unique.

This is happening to everybody.

It's happening to your router at home, it's happening to companies big and small.

It's happening all the time, and it's up to us as IT professionals to put these devices in place to keep our clients protected against cyber threats.

- It was interesting to see the firewall in real time.

There was so much data flowing back and forth, and some of it could have bad intentions.

I can see now why cybersecurity is such an in demand area of IT.

Cybersecurity is becoming more important.

Can you tell me about that?

- So there are really three areas that we really wanna focus on protecting.

First is sensitive data, then we wanna focus on business continuity.

And lastly, we wanna focus on protecting critical infrastructure, such as power grid and water treatment plants.

- What are the consequences of an attack?

- We wanna protect sensitive data, because sensitive data includes health information, financial data.

If a threat actor gets a hold of that information, can be very detrimental.

Focusing on business continuity, a threat actor can bring a company to a halt, and can really cause operations to stop.

And lastly, of course, protecting critical infrastructure.

If there is an attack on power grid or a water treatment plant, it would really affect millions of people.

- Roman was enthusiastic about this profession, and the important role it plays in society.

I wanted to know more about his motivation, and uncover any advice he might have for aspiring IT professionals.

What made you wanna go into IT?

- For me, it was definitely innovation.

I'm a geek at heart, so I love the idea of playing with new technology and seeing what it can do.

I love meeting with my clients, finding out what kind of issues they have, and then coming up with solutions to those issues using technology.

- What should someone know before entering this field?

- Something that everybody should know before they're entering IT, it's going to be a never ending and continues learning.

IT is evolving at such a fast pace that you absolutely can never stop learning.

So as long as you're prepared for that, IT may be a great career choice for you.

- What kind of education does someone need to get into this kind of work?

- There are degrees that somebody can pursue.

Somebody can also pursue various industry certifications, but what I know that employers are really looking for is practical experience.

So focusing on getting an internship would be important, or focusing on getting an entry level job.

Once you're in, you will get the opportunity to look at IT from kind of from within, and really dial in on what kind of role within IT you would like to pursue.

And once you're in, I would highly, highly recommend to network with other IT professionals.

- What are some common misconceptions about IT careers?

- Some people think that if you wanna be in IT, you're going to be working by yourself in a small office with lights off, and you're just gonna be coding away on a computer.

Where others find misconception feeling that they're gonna be stuck working with a large group of people.

Truth of the matter is that they're both right and they're both wrong.

IT is such a vast field that offers a lot of range of opportunities, that if you like to be working by yourself, you can do that.

If you wanna work with a group of people, you can do that.

But in addition to working on systems, IT offers a lot of opportunity for creativity and creative problem solving, thinking outside the box.

- [Sam] Thank you, Roman.

I learned that IT plays a larger role in our lives than I expected.

With all types of specialties in numerous job opportunities, there's a chance you'll find your niche.

Whether you're powering up your career for the first time or giving it a reboot, a career in IT might be right for you.

(dynamic instrumental music) - Brooke, there are so many groups and organizations that are dedicated to help people find jobs in IT and coding.

- Do you know of any here?

- I do actually.

I just saw a video put out by the Detroit Area Pre-college Engineering Program, or DAPCEP.

They'd be a great organization, and I know there are other organizations we can get you connected to.

(dynamic instrumental music) (mouse clicks) - My name is Michelle Reaves.

I'm the executive director for the Detroit Area Pre-college Engineering Program, better known as DAPCEP.

DAPCEP is a 47 year old nonprofit.

Our focus is encouraging, motivating underrepresented students to pursue STEM degrees.

We do this in a variety of ways through various out-of-school time learning experiences.

From Saturday programs, summer camps, one-time engagement, all around making an excitement for students to understand the importance of STEM.

One of the things that we try to teach students is that STEM is everywhere.

We want the students to understand that the real skill behind any of the STEM careers is your critical thinking skills, your ability to problem solve, your communication skills.

And so we lay the foundation in those various skill sets that gives them a wide variety of classes to choose from.

- I started in the fourth grade, I went fourth grade all the way through high school.

And DAPCEP is the main reason why I'm an engineer today.

It exposed me not only to careers in the STEM field, but it also exposed me to colleges in the Michigan area.

It was my first time understanding that everything we touch or interacted with was engineered, and I just kind of knew, well, I'm good at science and math, this is what I think I wanna do.

- DAPCEP's programs are really good in the sense that they're all really hands on.

So in all of our programs, students have to build some sort of project and actually be able to display it to other people, and that's an essential skill.

We get to sit down with our students and work with them as they're building out these really cool programs.

- It's not like school when you just sit there and listen to somebody talk.

It's you could do something when they're talking, to have something to do.

So all these teachers, they've been really good.

They've helped me ask my questions, because I really haven't been good with asking questions.

So they've got me asking more questions.

These critical thinking skills could help me down the line in the future.

- Some of the skillsets you learn with working in STEM is the critical thinking, the problem solving.

Those skills are so important because it gives you the ability to navigate various jobs.

- I think one thing that's really unique to coding is you're messing up all the time, right?

It's like when you coding the right piece of code, it rarely works first time.

When you encounter an error, that's not a statement of, "Oh, I'm not capable of doing this.

It's a statement of, "Oh, I reached a boundary of something that I can do.

It's now an opportunity to push past that."

As long as our students continue doing that, they'll be ready for whatever careers or for whatever opportunities are available in IT and tech moving forward.

The college degree and those qualifications get you into the door, but to continue pursuing this career, you have to continue learning.

And that's really, at the end of the day, the most important skill to pursue your career in tech.

- Definitely the common thread of all engineers that I've met is curiosity.

Either wanting to know how something works, what the process is, how it's made, what it's made out of.

We always are curious and consistently asking questions, and then we like to problem solve.

Get involved in if your school has a robotics program or any AP classes, and just find niche clubs that actually wanna tear stuff down, take it apart, build it, make it new.

I want people to know that STEM careers are one of the most fulfilling jobs you could have, or careers you can have.

Once you're technically sound and you can solve problems, then you can manage people, and you can manage those problems.

It's one of the greatest foundations you can have for a very long fulfilling career.

- I think any student can really be successful in STEM if it's something that interests them.

When you think of pursuing a STEM related field, one thing to keep in mind, it's going to be hard work, but it's fulfilling work.

If you have the the natural curiosity, it's going to be exciting.

Because what you're doing a lot of times with a lot of STEM positions, you're problem solving.

That's what they do.

And so there are going to be some long days, some hard days, but you will solve some of the world's greatest problems.

(dynamic instrumental music) - Does everyone who works in IT go to college?

- Well, Paige, around 50% of people who work in IT have a bachelor's degree or higher, but that means that 50% don't.

- If they don't have a degree, what do they do?

- Well, a lot of people will get certifications in specific areas, and use that to get their first jobs.

And then as they grow their career, they'll get more certifications to grow their skills.

- So how is a certification different from a degree?

- You can get certifications even if you have a degree.

And then IT certifications are really important, so you probably will.

But you don't need a degree to get certifications.

You might start off by getting a CompTIA IT Fundamentals+, or ITF+ certification.

That tests your basic understanding of just the fundamentals.

- So how do certifications work?

How would you get one?

- So, entry level certifications like ITF+ are just a test.

So you study for the test, you sign up for the test, you take the test.

And if you pass, then you get your certification.

And I can help you find out information for all of that.

But higher level certifications may have different requirements.

So it may be a prerequisite, and that could be other certifications, or it could even be a course or some kind of training.

- Why would you get a degree?

It sounds faster to get a certification.

- That's a good point.

So if you want to just work in IT at junior level positions, then certifications might be all that you need.

But if you wanna move up into senior roles, or even some kind of manager position, then you'll definitely need a degree.

So you can start with certifications and get a degree while you work.

Or you can be working on your degree, get some certifications, and possibly work part-time as you earn your degree.

It really all depends on what you're looking to accomplish in your career and how you wanna get started.

So I wanted to show you my next video about 21st century skills.

And I think since we're talking about computers and information technology, this will work really great.

My next video is all about information literacy.

Let's take a look.

(dynamic instrumental music) (mouse clicks) What do you do when you've got a research paper to write?

These days, you probably do an internet search, and cross your fingers that you'll get some good results.

But when that search list populates, how do you know which sources are the best and most trustworthy to use?

How do you tell what biases it might have?

And then how do you make sense of it all, and use the facts and data being presented?

What we're really talking about here is something called information literacy.

Hi, I'm Andrea Pisani.

I work with students every day to help them explore their passions and make great futures for themselves.

Let's talk about the skills everyone needs to make it in the 21st century, 21st century skills.

As defined by the American Library Association, information literacy is a skill that helps us to recognize when information is needed, and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.

Basically, it's the ability to know when you need more information, how to know if the information you're looking at is truthful and useful for your needs.

And then once you have the information, the proper ways to use it, including citing your sources to avoid things like plagiarism.

So why is it important for the 21st century?

Imagine you're trying to plan a dinner party and you go online to search for recipes.

You find a great one for a veggie lasagna, and follow the instructions exactly.

But when it's time to eat and you open the oven, it doesn't look like any lasagna you've ever seen.

And when you take a bite, it tastes worse.

What happened?

That's where information literacy comes in.

Understanding how to evaluate the credibility and accuracy of the information you find online, you can avoid making bad lasagna.

Or making other important life decisions.

With information literacy skills, you'll be able to sift through the clutter and noise online and find the information you're looking for.

Information literacy is like a giant filter for your brain, only letting the good and useful stuff in, and keeping the garbage out.

It is important to know that information creation is a complex process, and it's important to understand how it all works.

Just like cooking a meal, you need the right ingredients, a good recipe, and the right tools to make a great veggie lasagna.

It isn't fast or easy to get all of that together.

Information creation requires time, effort, and expertise.

It's important to understand the steps involved in creating information so that you can evaluate the information and determine if it's reliable.

Information has value.

It can be used for education, influence, and negotiating and understanding the world.

It's important to understand that information can be wielded by powerful interests in ways that can marginalize certain voices.

Think of information like money.

Some people have more of it than others, and they can use it to their advantage.

And sometimes information has monetary value.

So it's important to understand the value of information and how it can be used to make informed decisions.

Information literacy is also a highly valued skill for employers.

With information literacy, employees can find the information they need fast.

It saves time and resources.

No sifting through pages and pages of irrelevant information, or worse, false information.

With information literacy, employees can present ideas that are well-informed, researched, and credible.

Who wouldn't want that in an employee?

Okay, we know what it is, we know why it's important for the 21st century, so how do we improve our information literacy skills?

Read up on how to use keywords and filters to find what you're looking for.

"Best veggie lasagna recipe."

(cow bell rings) Check multiple sources.

Get in the habit of checking multiple sources.

Are there differing opinions on what you're looking for?

Take a look at all sides, and understand the biases and reasons behind the information you're reading.

(cow bell rings) Consider your source.

You wouldn't take dental advice from your friend who has a lot of cavities, right?

You're going to take dental advice from your dentist.

(cow bell rings) Look for evidence, dig deep and get to the truth.

(cow bell rings) Don't be afraid to ask for help.

If you're having trouble finding good information, don't be afraid to ask for help.

Librarians and experts in various fields are always happy to help you find what you're looking for.

Information literacy is a powerful skill.

It is a key skill in learning how to teach ourselves.

It helps us filter out the noise of our digital world, understand multiple viewpoints, and become truth seekers.

- Ms. Pisani, I would like help looking for an organization to help me with my first steps in a career in IT.

- No problem, Brooke, I can help you with that.

And if you want to learn more about careers in coding or IT, visit our website at mifutureofwork.org/Coding.

There you'll find videos, resources and more to help get you on your path.

See you next time in "The Career Center".

- [Narrator] "The Career Center" is made possible by General Motors.

(video game themed music) And by these supporters.

(video game themed music) And by viewers like you, thank you.

(video game themed music) (video game themed music) (gentle musical tone)