Databases drive much of the intelligent computing used in many industries today. At its core, a database is an organized collection of data or information that is structured in such a way that it can be pulled, compared, and presented in a new context.

Data can be anything from a file, a photo, or sound recordings, to the health records of a hospital patient including date of birth, medicines, dosages, and insurance numbers. Electricity providers using data to keep track of customer billing, usage, and technical support. Airlines use databases to maintain passenger lists and share these with government agencies, customs groups, and tie passengers to the tag codes put on their luggage.

How a database operates or what system it uses is based on the database model it supports. Relational databases became popular in the 1980s and store data as rows and columns in a series of tables. Most of these systems use SQL (structured query language) for writing and querying data. In the 2000s, non-relational databases became popularized, called NoSQL because they use different query languages that were generally faster but somewhat less consistent in results and designers had to overcome the prior acceptance of SQL. Over time, both have survived and SQL databases are better for multi-row transactions, NoSQL are better for unstructured data like documents or less structured sources.

Database information feeds everything from song playlists, to school records, to weather data, to inventory management. Databases need to be maintained and adapted over time to keep up with current technology or applications, so those managing underlying data systems must maintain their education and skills as technology changes.

Find out more:

• What is Database & SQL?
• Database History

Career paths for an IT professional can place graduates in positions around the world, in just about any industry, including biomedical, construction, defense, distribution, education, entertainment, environmental, finance, informatics, and sports.

The following is just a sample of some companies, in addition to government agencies, which employ information technologists:

• Amazon Web Services
• Apple
• Chevron
• Dell
• Facebook
• Google
• Intel
• Johnson & Johnson
• Lockheed Martin
• Mass General Hospital
• Microsoft
• Oracle
• Texas Instruments
• UPS

For most engineering and computing careers:

• a bachelor’s degree is required
• a master’s degree may be recommended for those specializing or interested in management
• students may also start with a related associate degree and then move on to a bachelor’s when they have settled on a degree path.
• many students are required to participate in a co-op program while at university to gain real world experience in their chosen field.
• education doesn’t really stop…engineers need to stay current as technology changes and materials and processes improve over time many professional societies offer certificates and coursework to support continuing education for their members.

For information technology, there are associate degree programs which can be starting point to a career. At the undergraduate level, examples of courses for information technology include internet networking, information modeling, storage and retrieval, java technologies, UNIX, information and computer system security, managing configurations, web programming, managing the cloud, mathematics for business analysis, and applications in artificial intelligence.

It is important to select an engineering degree that has been accredited to meet basic standards.  Find out more and browse TryEngineering’s global database of accredited engineering and computing programs.