Most people enter IT through the same door - a support or help desk role - and then branch into one of five tracks: networking, systems and cloud, security, software, or data. Where you land decides your ceiling. Software developers had a median wage of $133,080 in May 2024 and a projected 15% job growth through 2034, while information security analysts sit at $124,910 with a striking 29% growth, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Computer and IT occupations as a group paid a median of $105,990 - more than double the $49,500 median across all jobs.
Here is the short version before the details:
- Start at the bottom on purpose. Help desk and IT support teach you how real systems break, which is the knowledge every senior track depends on.
- Pick a track within 1-2 years. Networking, cloud/sysadmin, security, software, and data each have different ceilings and different certs.
- Certs open doors early; experience and a portfolio carry you later. The CompTIA A+ to Network+ to Security+ sequence is the standard on-ramp.
- The fastest moves up are sideways into security, cloud, and AI-adjacent work - the roles with the strongest growth and pay.
This guide walks through where to start, the five tracks and what they pay, the certifications that matter, and how to choose between them.
Where almost every IT career starts
You rarely walk into a senior IT role. The common entry points are help desk technician, IT support specialist, and field service technician. These jobs pay less - roughly $45,000 to $60,000 at entry with a CompTIA A+ certification, lower without one - but they are not a waste of time. They are where you learn how an organization's hardware, accounts, and networks actually behave under pressure.
What you do day to day: reset accounts, troubleshoot connectivity, image laptops, walk users through fixes, and escalate the problems you can't solve yet. What you're really building is pattern recognition. A senior engineer who can diagnose a network outage in minutes usually got that instinct from a few thousand support tickets.
One caveat for 2026: the BLS projects roughly a 3% decline in computer support specialist roles through 2034, and a similar dip for network administrators, as cloud platforms and managed services absorb routine work. The entry door is still open - it's just narrower than it was, which is exactly why you should treat support as a launchpad and not a destination. Plan your next move from week one. If you're aiming at internships first, our guide on how to find IT internships covers the on-ramps for students and switchers.
The five major IT tracks and what they pay
After a year or two of support, you branch. These are the five tracks that hold most IT careers, with median pay figures from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (May 2024) where a direct occupation exists.
| Track | Typical entry role | Mid/senior roles | Median pay (BLS, May 2024) | Outlook (2024-34) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Networking | Network support technician | Network administrator, network architect | ~$96,800 (network/systems admin) | -4% (upskill into cloud/security) |
| Systems & cloud | Junior sysadmin | Systems engineer, cloud engineer, DevOps | ~$96,800 base; cloud roles higher | Mixed; cloud demand strong |
| Security | SOC analyst | Security engineer, security architect | $124,910 (info security analyst) | +29% (much faster than average) |
| Software | Junior developer | Software engineer, staff engineer | $133,080 (software developer) | +15% (much faster than average) |
| Data | Data analyst | Data scientist, ML engineer | $112,590 (data scientist) | +34% (fastest in this list) |
Networking
This track is about moving data reliably - switches, routers, firewalls, VPNs. You'd start as a network support tech and grow toward network administrator and eventually network architect. Pay scales with experience: entry network admins start near $76,000 and 15-plus-year veterans reach about $112,000, per Coursera's network administrator salary breakdown. The honest read for 2026: pure networking is shrinking as a standalone role. The people thriving are the ones who layer cloud networking and security on top.
Systems administration and cloud
Sysadmins keep servers, identity systems, and infrastructure running. The modern version of this job lives in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, which is why "sysadmin" increasingly means cloud engineer or DevOps engineer. There's no single BLS line for "cloud engineer," but cloud skills consistently command a premium across infrastructure roles, and the DevOps subset is among the better-paid mid-career tracks. If this track interests you, the questions in our DevOps interview questions guide and the AWS interview questions guide show what employers actually probe for.
Security
Cybersecurity has the best demand-to-supply ratio in IT right now. You'd typically start as a SOC (security operations center) analyst and grow into security engineer or security architect. The BLS puts the median information security analyst wage at $124,910 and projects 29% growth through 2034 - one of the fastest of any occupation it tracks. Many security pros come up through networking or sysadmin first, because you can't defend infrastructure you don't understand.
Software development
Software engineering has the highest median pay on this list - $133,080 - and the most direct path that skips traditional IT entirely. Plenty of developers never touch a help desk. But for people coming from support or networking, the cross-over is real: scripting and automation skills bridge the gap. Roles run from junior developer to senior, staff, and principal engineer. For salary expectations by level, see our software engineer salary guide.
Data
The data track splits into data analyst (reporting, dashboards, SQL) at the entry end and data scientist and machine learning engineer at the senior end. Data scientists had a median wage of $112,590 and the fastest projected growth in this entire list at 34%, driven by AI and analytics demand. Analysts often start adjacent to a business team rather than in core IT, then specialize.
Certifications that actually move you up
Certifications matter most early - they get your resume past the first filter when you don't have years of experience yet. The most common on-ramp is the CompTIA trifecta, taken in order: A+ then Network+ then Security+.
| Certification | What it proves | Typical roles it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| CompTIA A+ | Hardware, OS, basic networking and security fundamentals | Help desk, technical support, field service |
| CompTIA Network+ | Network configuration, troubleshooting, management | Network admin, network support, systems engineer |
| CompTIA Security+ | Core security concepts; often required or preferred | SOC analyst, junior security engineer, sysadmin |
After the core, the path forks by track, as Coursera's CompTIA certification path overview lays out: infrastructure adds Server+, Linux+, and Cloud+; security adds CySA+ (defensive) or PenTest+ (offensive); data has Data+. Beyond CompTIA, vendor certs carry weight in their lane - Cisco CCNA/CCNP for networking, AWS/Azure/GCP associate and professional certs for cloud, and CISSP for senior security. CompTIA's own career explorer maps roles to the data, AI, networking, cloud, cyber, and tech support pathways.
A blunt note: most CompTIA exams take 30-60 days of focused study if you already have some exposure. The cert gets you the interview. After two or three years, hiring managers care far more about what you've shipped, broken, and fixed than which badges you hold.
How to choose your track
There's no objectively best path - there's the one that fits how you like to work. Use these signals:
- Like solving live problems and talking to people? Support, networking, and security operations reward that.
- Prefer building things over maintaining them? Software and cloud/DevOps lean that way.
- Drawn to patterns, numbers, and "why"? Data is your track.
- Want the strongest growth and pay trajectory? Security and data lead on growth; software leads on median pay.
A practical rule: match the track to the work you'd do for free on a weekend. The person who tinkers with home servers usually thrives in cloud; the one who reads breach post-mortems for fun belongs in security. Information technology as a field - the study and use of computers and systems to create, store, and move information - is wide enough that the right fit exists. Your job is to test a couple of tracks early rather than guess.
One more reality check before you commit: a degree or cert in tech isn't an automatic job anymore. Even computer science graduates face a real entry-level squeeze right now - our look at the computer science unemployment rate explains why the first role is the hardest part, and why how you job-hunt matters as much as what you studied.
Frequently asked questions
What is the typical IT career path? Support or help desk first, then a specialized track - networking, systems/cloud, security, software, or data - then mid-level and senior roles within that track. Lateral moves into security and cloud are the most common upgrades.
Which IT career pays the most? Software developers have the highest median pay ($133,080 in May 2024), followed by information security analysts ($124,910) and data scientists ($112,590), per the BLS.
Do I need a degree for an IT career? Not always. The CompTIA A+ to Network+ to Security+ path can get you into support and networking roles without a four-year degree, though software and data roles more often expect one or a strong portfolio.
What's the fastest-growing IT track? Data science (34% projected growth through 2034) and information security (29%) are the fastest, well ahead of the average for all occupations.
The part most career guides skip
Picking a track and earning a cert gets you ready. It doesn't get you hired. The IT job market in 2026 is crowded enough that the candidates who move fastest aren't the ones with the most badges - they're the ones who reach the hiring manager directly instead of submitting application number 200 into an applicant tracking system.
The fastest path into a role is rarely the apply button. Articuler helps jobseekers find the actual hiring manager behind a posting using semantic search across 980M+ professional profiles, build a Playbook on what that person cares about, and send a personalized note that gets a reply - instead of disappearing into another ATS.