How to make a career change into tech

Thinking about a career change into tech? Shifting fields doesn't mean wiping your professional slate clean.

If you've spent years managing projects, working with customers, solving problems, analysing information or coordinating people, you already have skills that technology employers use every day. Your task is to combine that experience with the technical knowledge required for the role you want.

Table of Contents

1. Is tech a good career to move into?
2. Is it too late to make a career change into tech?
3. How to get into tech with no experience or without a degree
4. What if you already have a degree and industry experience?
5. What are different career paths in tech?
6. What skills do I need to get into tech?
7. Starting a career in tech: Your first steps

So, how does a career change into tech begin? Start by choosing a target role, identify the qualifications and skills it requires, then translate the experience you already have into the language of that role. From there, you can build the technical capabilities and evidence employers need to see.

Is tech a good career to move into?

For many career changers, yes. Technology offers a wide variety of career paths, competitive salaries and opportunities to work across almost every industry.

Australia's demand for skilled technology professionals extends well beyond traditional software companies. Banks need cybersecurity specialists. Retailers need data analysts. Healthcare organisations need digital systems. Government departments need technology professionals. Almost every modern organisation relies on technology in some form.

Demand for professionals will only increase. IT spending in Australia is projected to reach $146.85 billion in 2025, an 8.7% increase from 2024. According to the Tech Council of Australia, cybersecurity, AI and cloud roles are growing at 15% to 22% annually.

Areas seeing particular demand include:

• Cybersecurity, including security analysis and architecture
• Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning
• Cloud computing and infrastructure
• Data engineering and data science
• Software engineering and development
• Technology business analysis

Tech is the highest-paid sector in Australia, with median salaries roughly 33% above the national average. In a starting role you might expect to make $70,000 to $90,000, while mid-career professionals commonly earn $110,000 to $160,000 or more.

Tech roles also consistently lead other industries in hybrid and remote work availability. Many companies actively recruit beyond capital cities and across time zones.

However, entry-level positions can be competitive, and employers increasingly want evidence that you can apply what you've learned. A qualification can help, but so can practical projects, a portfolio and demonstrated technical skills in areas such as programming, data or cloud technologies.

So, is tech a good career? Yes! But the more useful question is which part of tech is a good fit for you?

Is it too late to make a career change into tech?

Definitely not. In fact, being further into your working life can give you some advantages.

You may already know how to manage competing priorities, communicate with senior stakeholders, work with difficult clients, understand commercial pressures and contribute to a team. Those capabilities take time to develop, and they're useful in technology workplaces too.

The median age of software and application programmers is 38 according to Jobs and Skills Australia.

A later-in-life career change does involve trade-offs, though. You might accept a short-term salary drop to get your first role. You may need to study while managing work and family commitments.

Planning can make those challenges more manageable. Flexible and online study can let you learn the skills you need without immediately leaving your current careers. Our Technology courses offer different study options including online learning, giving you flexibility around existing commitments.

How to get into tech with no experience or without a degree

You can get into tech with no experience! Just because you have no experience in tech doesn't mean you have no relevant experience.

Employers generally want evidence of three things:

1. Skills
2. Ability to apply those skills
3. Enough knowledge to perform the role

You can build that evidence through study, practical projects, certifications, independent learning and a portfolio. Your existing skills can also point you towards particular roles.

• Stakeholder communication: If you're experienced at gathering information, managing expectations and communicating between different groups, business analysis, product or technology project roles may be a natural fit.
• Project coordination: If you've managed timelines, budgets, people or deliverables, you may be able to translate that experience into technology project coordination, agile delivery or project management.
• Customer insight and process improvement: If you understand customer behaviour or regularly improve processes, you can explore user experience (UX), product, business analysis, or data roles.

You don't necessarily need a university degree for every technology job. Many successful tech professionals are self-taught or work their way up from the bottom.

However, an accredited qualification can give your learning structure and depth. It can also provide a recognised credential when you're applying for jobs and help you demonstrate that you've developed knowledge beyond a handful of individual technical skills.

Don't assume that going back to university means starting at the beginning. Previous study and relevant professional experience may be considered through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). At Torrens University, eligible prior learning or experience may count as credit towards a course.

What if you already have a degree and industry experience?

Then you're not starting over. You're adding a credential to what you already do. If you already hold a bachelor's degree and have built a career in an industry such as finance, health, logistics, marketing or engineering, a postgraduate qualification can be the quickest way to make your technical capability visible to employers.

The Graduate Certificate of Information Technology covers programming, software engineering, software development and security fundamentals across four core subjects. It has been codeveloped with ICT practitioners and structured to align with Australian Computer Society guidelines.

If you already know which specialisation you want, there are more targeted options, including the Graduate Certificate of Cybersecurity and the Graduate Certificate of UX Design.

What are the different career paths in tech?

“Working in tech” can mean very different things. Finding the right entry point depends on what you enjoy, what you've done before and what you'd like your working day to look like.

Software development

Software developers design, build, test and maintain applications and digital systems. The work suits people who enjoy logical problem-solving, building things and continually learning new tools.

People coming from analytical, engineering, finance or other structured problem-solving backgrounds may find some familiar territory here. A common entry point is a junior developer role, while IT support or testing experience can also provide useful exposure to technical environments.

The Tech Council of Australia lists Junior Software Developer salaries at approximately $70,000 to $100,000, although salaries vary considerably by location, organisation and experience.

Data and analytics

Data professionals turn information into useful insights. Depending on the role, your day might involve cleaning data, writing queries, building dashboards, identifying patterns, or explaining findings to decisionmakers.

This path can suit people coming from finance, marketing, research, operations or other roles where they've already worked with numbers, reporting, or evidence. Junior analyst positions can provide an entry point, with opportunities to progress into areas such as data engineering and data science.

A Data Engineer's average salary ranges between $110,000 to $200,000, while a data scientist could make $110,000 to $190,000.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity professionals help organisations protect their systems, networks and information. Day-to-day work can include monitoring risks, investigating potential threats, improving security controls, and helping colleagues understand safe practices.

People with backgrounds in risk, compliance, defence, auditing and problem-solving may find that their existing mindset transfers particularly well. IT support and service desk roles can also help build foundational knowledge before specialising.

The Tech Council of Australia identifies cybersecurity as an area of strong demand, with salaries increasing substantially as experience and specialisation grow. The salary range for a Cybersecurity Analyst or Architect is $100,000 to $246,000.

UX and product design

UX and product professionals focus on how people interact with technology. They research user needs, identify problems, test ideas and help create digital products that are useful and intuitive.

This can be a strong option for people from design, marketing, customer service, communications, psychology, or research backgrounds because understanding people is just as important as understanding the product.

Common entry points include Junior UX Designer and product design roles. The Tech Council of Australia lists a broad salary range of approximately $85,000 to $170,000 for UX/UI designers across different levels of experience.

What skills do I need to get into tech?

The exact skills depend on your target role, but successful technology professionals usually combine technical knowledge with strong human skills.

Technical foundations

• Basic programming concepts: Understanding how software works gives you a foundation for development and other technical roles.
• Data literacy: Knowing how to interpret, organise and communicate with data is useful across analytics, product, business and technical roles.
• Cloud and cyber fundamentals: Modern organisations depend on connected systems, so understanding cloud environments and basic cybersecurity principles is valuable even if you don't specialise in them.

Human skills

• Teamwork: Technology is rarely created by one person. You'll need to collaborate with people who have different technical and business expertise.
• Agile ways of working: Many technology teams work iteratively, testing ideas and adapting as projects develop.
• Communication: Being able to explain a technical issue clearly to a non-technical colleague can be just as valuable as solving it.

Practical experience helps bring these two skills sets together. Our Technology students apply their learning through opportunities such as live industry projects, industry briefs and placements, depending on their course.

Starting a career in tech: Your first steps

Feeling overwhelmed? Don't stress. Here's a quick rundown on how to start a career in tech.

1. Assess your career fit and choose a direction. Don't aim for “tech” as a whole. Research individual roles and consider which ones match the work you enjoy, the lifestyle you want and your existing strengths.
2. Audit the skills you already have. Look at your career through the eyes of a technology employer. Write down projects you've managed, problems you've solved, systems you've used and measurable outcomes you've delivered. You may have more transferable experience than you realise.
3. Pick a study pathway. Compare what employers expect in your target role with what you currently know. Don't assume you need a full degree, you might just need a short course or diploma.
4. Build a portfolio and network. Use assessments, personal projects, industry briefs, internships and other practical work to build evidence of your skills. Start meeting people in your target industry too.

There's no one-size-fits-all timeline. Someone moving from project management into a technology project role may have a shorter transition than someone moving from a completely unrelated profession into software development. Studying part-time rather than full-time will also affect your timeline.

Remember to allow for the job search itself. Getting a qualification doesn't automatically mean you'll step into a new role the following week. Internships, industry projects, professional networking and referrals can help you get into a role faster. Most importantly, you don't need to treat a career change as a leap into the unknown. It can be a series of deliberate steps.

If you've already built a career, you know how to learn, adapt, work with people and solve problems. Moving into technology is about adding a new layer of capability to that foundation.

Explore our Technology courses and degrees to see which pathway could suit your goals and experience, or speak with a Future Student Advisor about your study options.