A good salary is only one measure of a "good job".
But it's often the huge deciding factor when you're making future career decisions.
With this in mind, the following tech jobs are set to be some of the best paying in 2016. Prepare your eyes to water.
Robert Half recently published a report predicting the state of tech careers in 2016. The American HR firm is the world's first and largest specialized staffing firm. Some of its findings may not come as a shock to you. But once you see the size of the salaries on offer, I take no blame if you decide to change career paths right away.
Just in case you do decide to pursue one of these lucrative paths, we've included a few links to resources and courses that'll help you pursue those tech careers.
Chief Technology Officer ($147,500 — $229,000)
A Chief Technology Officer (CTO) doesn't have a clear job description. Their main role is to oversee the technology within an entire organization. They must view the organization's current technology from a practical stance. And they must make crucial technological decisions that support the goals of the company.
If you love technology, have great people skills, and want to develop technological and business knowledge, this could be a long-term aspiration for you. Unfortunately, there's no set career path. You need to develop the experience, skills, and personal attributes required, along with opening yourself up to as many opportunities and people as possible.
Resources
Achieving Success As a CTO — A comprehensive PDF on what it takes to be a great CTO.
CTO Vs VP Engineering — Brad Feld clears the confusion between these two positions.
Carving Your Career As a CTO — To stand a chance of ever becoming a CTO, keep these tips in mind.
Senior Web Developer ($111,250 — $154,000)
A Senior Web Developer is more than a glorified Web Developer. They are the ones who have proven their worth in the trenches with tenacious team management skills and ideas that solve big problems.
As a Senior Web Developer, you'll oversee the development of large-scale websites or web applications. Tasks include user analysis, designing UX and UI wireframes, recommending solutions to clients, managing schedules and teams, and ensuring deadlines.
Resources
Senior Web Developer Job Description — Take a look at this sample job description for a fuller understanding of what's involved.
Become a Web Developer From Scratch — This Udemy course has been studied by over 60,000 people, showing you how to become a skilled developer even if you've never programmed before.
How To Pick The Right Programming Language To Learn — Knowing the right programming language is an important step to landing a quality job. Find out which you should be studying here.
Mobile App Developer ($115,250 — $175,750)
With the mobile industry bursting at the seams, the demand for Mobile Application Developers is huge. This is exactly why developers with mobile specializations can demand such high compensation for their work.
Help organizations succeed by utilizing mobile to its full potential. Employers will be scrambling over each other for you to help them in this marketplace.
Resources
Your Next Job: Mobile App Developer — A detailed look at the responsibilities of this role.
How To Become a Mobile App Developer — A brief look a few routes you could take to become a professional Mobile App Developer.
Top Mobile Development Blogs To Follow — Before committing, follow these blogs for a while to make sure it's something that excites you.
Big Data Engineer ($129,500 — $183,500)
Big Data Engineers collect the right data so Analysts and Data Scientists can use this data. They work with systems architects to build, maintain, and test big data solutions. They create large scale processing systems, and understand how data can be stored.
Without these engineers, Data Scientists wouldn't have any data to work from. As an expert in Big Data platforms such as Hadoop, you'll be a desirable hire for companies looking to make use of Big Data.
Resources
The Rise Of The Big Data Engineer — Understand the job responsibilities, and how this relates to other members of an organization.
Big Data Engineer Profile — Read a full career profile of Big Data Engineers.
Skills All Big Data Engineers Should Learn — A comprehensive list of skills, courses, books and qualifications for pursuing this path.
Data Scientist ($109,000 — $153,750)
"Data Scientist" is a broad job title, largely synonymous with "Data Analyst". The responsibilities involve techniques to gain valuable insights from many different kinds of data. For you to do well, business acumen will be extremely handy.
It's a multi-faceted job, often starting with studies in Computer Science. The role itself will require you to get to grips with statistics, data modeling, analytics, math, data wrangling, and data visualization among many other skills.
Resources
Becoming a Data Scientist — We published this article a few months ago, which gives a comprehensive overview of what qualifications and skills you'll need, along with where to learn those skills.
Online Data Science Degrees -- There are a ton of places offering (paid for) online data science degrees. This is a list of many of them.
Network Architect ($120,000 — 175,000)
The people who design computer and telecoms networks/systems are "Network Architects". Very roughly, these architects plan blueprints of complex networks that perform as needed. Once those designs are completed, these networks are then (usually) created by Network Engineers ($96,000 - $138,750).
The usual route Network Architecture is a degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering. There are other civil routes into the profession, too. With the relevant qualifications, you'll be required to work as an engineer (in the field) for a number of years, before turning your hands to architecture.
Resources
Everything You Need To Know About Home Networking — If you can read to the end of this article with a sense of excitement about the network you could build in your own home, you could well be a budding Network Architect.
Networking Tutorials For Beginners — This Udemy blog posts goes through the basics of networking, while including links to several useful online courses.
Architect Certifications — Read up on the certifications available from Cisco. These are widely accepted in the industry, and are said to be "the highest level of accreditation achievable".
Which Path Would You Take?
These are just a few of the high paying careers that were mentioned in the Robert Half report. There are many others in there, which may interest you if none of the above do the trick. And if you'd love to work in tech without being too techy, there are several non-techy choices available.
Remember, however, that working in tech isn't always what it's cracked up to be. Along with this, salary is only one component of a fulfilling career. Respect, making a difference, and being challenged and passionate are all-important in finding a career you love. If you can envision having all of these components in one of these careers, by all means, you have my blessings!
Which of these career titles inspires you? If you are already on one of the career paths above, how is that going, and is there any advice you would give to our readers?
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