Page 48 - Careers & Stuff 2021

jobs requires some type of credential, certificate or license.”
One quickly growing area that is somewhat of an exception, however, is Grasley’s and Collins’ sector — financial technology, or “fintech” for short — which is close behind health care and construction in its immediate demand for jobs. In fintech, the need for prior certification is less critical than the need to be able to perform a task, no matter how you obtained that knowledge.
Fintech
Financial services, a field once
limited mainly to banking, has been transformed perhaps more than any other by digital advances, although banking is still the lynchpin of fintech in Delaware, with several major banking firms located here. But in recent years the sector has sizzled,
as startup companies and technology entrepreneurs have created whole new fields within fintech, such as digital currencies, instant payments and money transfers, automated trading in markets and digital asset management.
As of July 2021, the website Ziprecruiter alone lists 40 fintech openings in Wilmington, with an average salary of $106,091.
“It’s an exciting industry at an exciting time,” Collins says. “Many new companies are well-funded and are willing to compete for job candidates.” In many startup companies, even relatively junior employees may be offered “skin in the game,” as Collins
puts it. “Equity is often part of the employment package.”
But as Grasley is eager to point out, banking is not being left behind, either in employment needs or in aggressive recruiting. “We have need for technical skills all across all lines of banking,” she says. “Companywide, we have a team of more than 50,000 technologists,” engaged in everything from electronic payments and cybersecurity to machine learning and cloud development.
These jobs also have portability across five states, Grasley says, including Delaware, as all are primary Chase operational centers.
“Job candidates who know how to write computer code are particularly in demand,” Grasley says, and it doesn’t much matter “whether they are self- taught, went to a coding camp or took classes at a community college.” Once on the job, Grasley says there are opportunities for additional training and movement between departments.
Health Care
In a state until recently dominated
by chemical and automobile manufacturing, it may be surprising to note that the largest private employer in Delaware is a health care system — ChristianaCare.
“The main job opportunities at present are for patient care technicians and medical assistants,” says Pamela Ridgeway, ChristianaCare’s chief diversity officer and the vice president of talent & acquisition. “We call
PAMELA RIDGEWAY
everyone here ‘caregivers,’ but these are positions that provide direct care for patients.”
Both recent high school graduates and people transferring from non-health care jobs may still be hired immediately, even without prior certification, for some ChristianaCare positions such
as medical assistant. “They can ‘back into’ our system,” Ridgeway says, with
a paying job at the same time they
are earning their certification. Medical assistants make salaries in the $30,000 range to start with, but Ridgeway stresses a tremendous potential for future job mobility.
KAREN PICKARD
Another health care job that remains much in demand is one with a more traditional career path: nursing. “There is always a huge demand for registered nurses, but it’s especially strong now,” says Karen Pickard, administrator of the Margaret H. Rollins School of Nursing
at Beebe Healthcare. “Many nurses
who were Baby Boomers had been considering retiring, and the COVID pandemic made that retirement decision for them,” she says. “We recently graduated 29 nurses in our program, and 24 of them are entering our Beebe nursing residency program.”
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