IT Industry

2.1 Information Age

Congrats! You're living in the Information Age. Everyone gets it, it's pretty obvious. But what does that actually mean? What opportunities and prospects does it bring? Let's take a quick look back.

The 20th century was the Industrial Age. Across the globe, thousands of factories and plants were established, power stations and nuclear plants were built, humans flew into space for the first time, and rovers were sent to Mars...

The biggest companies were focused on manufacturing and electronics. In the 80s, Japan almost surpassed the US in GDP and nearly became the world's largest economy. Japanese cars, electronics, ships, phones, and even gaming consoles (!) were recognized as the best in the world.

The largest fortunes and companies were created in manufacturing. General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen: if you worked in "the industry," you had a great career and fantastic prospects.

The oil sector was raking in billions too. But, firstly, oil needs to be extracted and refined, gas liquefied, and LNG terminals built. And secondly, the demand for oil is a result of the rapid development of manufacturing, particularly the auto industry.

Space, rockets, and technological singularity seemed so close. It felt like just a little more time, and we'd have flying cars, humans setting foot on Mars, and the slowest airplanes being supersonic. But none of this happened. Something went wrong.

Japan never became the number one economy. Nobody landed on Mars, even though it's been 50 (!) years since we landed on the Moon. Commercial airplanes are getting slower and slower. And there are no flying cars in sight. So, what happened?

2.2 Information Revolution

In the 80s, the personal computer revolution happened, and in the 90s, the internet (web) appeared, changing the world forever.

First, geeks moved to the internet, then the youth, and now even an 80-year-old grandma checks the summer water shutdown schedule online 🤦‍♂️.

Now, not just everything, but absolutely everything happens online! People learn, work, relax, and date on the internet. In the US, for example, 60% of married couples met online.

If you're looking for a partner, head to the internet; need a job, go online; want to study, get online. You can still die offline, but don't forget to clear your browser history! :)

As Time magazine wrote 10 years ago: "If you're not on the internet, you don't exist." And that was 10 years ago, before the pandemic! (Not sure when you're reading this, maybe it's more correct to say before the First Pandemic?! 😅 )

Over 2020-21, many cultural patterns changed: first, employees started working online, then their management, and finally top-level executives joined in. And many really liked it.

So, in the coming years, we will witness an online revolution in work, where someone from Georgia could work for an American company while sitting in Fiji. Maybe that someone will be you :)

2.3 IT Companies in the 21st Century

Ten years ago, there were 5 largest IT companies: Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon. Today, these are simply the 5 largest companies in the world. IT companies are the largest and most expensive because they don't have millions of customers, they have billions!

Billions of people use these companies' products. And if a billion clients bring in $10 a month each, that adds up to quite a tidy sum. That's why IT companies are worth not just a lot, but a whole lot.

They're worth not billions but trillions of dollars.

Imagine a company worth a billion dollars. Is that a lot? Yeah. What about a company worth 10 billion? That's already a whole lot. And a hundred billion? Gigantic sum.

At the time of writing, Microsoft was worth 3 trillion dollars. That's 3 thousand billion dollars.

• Microsoft — 3,343 billion
• Apple — 3,182 billion
• Nvidia — 3,113 billion
• Google — 2,183 billion
• Amazon — 1,919 billion

Amazon, in its poor fifth place, is worth only 1,919 billion dollars. And you still don't want to be in IT?

By the way, many IT companies pay their employees not only salaries but also stocks. For example, Amazon could pay a Senior Software Engineer a $200k salary per year. And another $100k in stocks. In three years, those stocks might be worth $300k, so you, working as a programmer at Amazon, could be making up to $500k a year. And you still don't want to become a programmer?

Internet companies grow super fast because they don't need to open new branches—everything happens online. Uber doesn't own a single car and is worth $104 billion. AirBnB doesn't own properties, but it's worth $105 billion. Booking doesn't own hotels, yet it's worth $133 billion. Folks, get into IT: great vibe, amazing prospects…