By Victoria Tse, Shelby Clark, & Lynn Barendsen
If there is any field where we might expect technical expertise to dominate conversations about career readiness, information technology would seem to be it. Coding languages, technical knowledge, systems, software, and networks all matter. And yet, when we spoke with IT students and employers as part of our Good Work Value Alignment Study, both groups repeatedly returned to the same point: technical knowledge isn't enough. As one employer told us:
“You can be technically brilliant, but if you can't communicate effectively or work with others, it creates frictions and slows everything down.”
So what is a university education good for in IT—and what might be missing?
College provides an important foundation
Students and employers generally agreed that universities provide important theoretical and technical foundations. One employer even observed:
“I've noticed that new graduates generally have stronger theoretical knowledge and tech skills more than before, and many are very curious and eager to learn…”
Students also described college as a place to practice collaboration. Group projects required them to navigate different personalities, resolve conflicts, and complete technical work with other people, all experiences they saw as relevant to the workplace.
The credential itself mattered, too. Students described a college degree as an entry requirement for many IT jobs and worried that without one they might never have the opportunity to demonstrate what they can actually do. At the same time, they recognized the credential's limits. As one student put it:
“I feel like no one's going to hire you just based off a college degree.”
Knowing the concept is different from solving the problem
Employers were especially likely to identify a gap between theoretical understanding and practical application. One described a graduate who had the academic background but struggled when asked to apply it:
“In that case, the individual had the academy background, but they lacked practical hands-on experience. They understood concepts in theories, but when it came to actually configuring devices or troubleshooting real network issues, they struggled.”
This doesn't mean theory is unimportant and in fact, participants described it as foundational. The problem arises when students have too few opportunities to practice what happens when the textbook problem ends and the messy real-world problems begin.
Capstones, internships, and hackathons can help
Students were particularly enthusiastic about experiences that approximated professional IT work: capstones, internships, hackathons, clubs, certifications, and other opportunities outside traditional coursework. These experiences introduced real or realistic projects, teams, deadlines, industry professionals, and problems without predetermined answers. Students also gain mentorship from industry professionals through these experiences, whose career paths differ from their professors and can provide students with more industry-specific guidance.
Employers wanted more of this as well. One recommended:
“I will just focus on integrating more with life project-based experience into training programs. So instead of just learning concepts, students should regularly work on particular projects that simulate real business problems.”
Students also wanted more specialized pathways. IT encompasses cybersecurity, UI/UX, web development, systems administration, IT management, AI, and many other areas, yet some students felt they encountered those possibilities too late or had too few opportunities to specialize.
And then there's AI
Students were also preparing for a field changing almost as quickly as they could learn it. AI came up frequently in student conversations. One student described it as increasingly relevant even for entering the profession:
“So I think the main thing is like AI is kind of raising the skill floor, I guess, of like what you need to do in order to get hired.”
Yet students described very uneven preparation for using AI. Some professors were skeptical, some programs offered little training, and students recognized that the technology could change faster than formal curricula. That makes adaptability and continued learning especially important. One employer explained:
“So the field is constantly evolving. So a willingness to keep learning and stay curious and adapt is very critical and very, very vital.”
Students shared their fears of AI shrinking the IT job market as they prepare to enter the field. Their response to this looming dilemma is to embrace AI and to continue to evolve with their field, but many feel unprepared to use AI in their future work.
What should better preparation look like?
Participants' recommendations point toward stronger connections between academic and professional learning: more capstones and internships, industry mentorship, specialized tracks, career counseling and interview preparation, certifications, hackathons, and trainee programs after graduation. The takeaway isn't that universities need to choose between academic and vocational education. Students and employers valued the academic foundation. But they also wanted more opportunities to connect that foundation to the situations graduates will encounter at work.
If good IT work requires technical competence, collaboration, adaptability, communication, judgment, and continued learning, then preparing students for good work requires more than helping them know the right answer. It requires giving them opportunities to figure out what to do when there isn't one.