IT & Technology jobs for young people: guides, pay and how to get in
Tech has a reputation problem at the bottom rung. Everyone assumes you need a computer science degree, three years of experience and a bedroom full of servers before anyone lets you touch a keyboard professionally. Look at who's actually doing the work and the picture changes fast. Huge numbers of people in UK tech came in through a service desk, an apprenticeship at 18 or a folder of small things they built for themselves. No degree. What the industry screens for at entry is a specific kind of brain: curious, patient, stubborn about problems and willing to read the error message properly instead of guessing.
It's honest work rather than glamorous work, mind. Your first year is likely to be password resets, ticket queues, swapping a monitor that turned out to be unplugged and explaining the same thing kindly to someone who's already frustrated. That's the apprenticeship whether or not it's called one. It also happens to be the fastest education in how computers really break that anyone has ever invented, which is why the people who stick a year on a helpdesk end up everywhere afterwards - networks, security, development, data. The ladder in tech is unusually steep in a good way. Very few industries pay this well this quickly to people who started with nothing but interest.
The seven guides below cover the whole run, from a blank CV to picking your route.
How to get your first tech job with no experience - the pillar guide. What hiring managers genuinely screen for, where entry-level tech jobs actually hide and how to apply so a human reads your name.
What do entry-level tech jobs pay in the UK? - the legal age bands explained, what really moves a tech wage up and why the pay arc here is steeper than almost anywhere else.
Tech jobs explained: what you'd actually do all day - service desk, junior developer and field engineer shifts walked through honestly, myths flattened, who thrives spelled out.
Tech CV and cover letter example for school leavers - a one-page CV skeleton built for tech, a worked cover letter and the mistakes IT managers see every single week.
10 common tech interview questions (and how to answer them) - the questions tech interviews really ask, what each one tests and how to build answers you won't lose to nerves.
Tech jobs you can get at 16 (and at 18) - straight talk about a thin year, what 16 and 17 are genuinely for and everything that opens the day you turn 18.
Apprenticeship, college or straight in? Routes into tech jobs - the three doors compared honestly, with the verified qualification names and three questions that settle your choice.
Read whichever guide answers your biggest worry first. Then remember that reading about tech is the one activity in this industry that teaches you the least - building something small, breaking it, fixing it and applying for a real vacancy will teach you more this week than a month of tabs. Our board refreshes around the clock with entry-level roles from UK employers who genuinely train from zero. When you're ready, browse live tech jobs and get your name in front of someone while the advert is still warm.