Best Classes Honolulu, HI

Honolulu is the largest city in the Hawaiian Islands, and it is the gateway through which almost all of the islands’ visitors enter and exit the state. This means that the city is a major economic hub, and its unique placement globally (in terms of its place in the global economy and its literal place on the globe) creates the conditions for an extensive number of job opportunities for anyone trained in tech, data, or design skills. If you are looking for a high-paying, in-demand career in one of the most beautiful places in the world, you are likely to find what you are looking for in Honolulu.

Major Industries for Tech Professionals in Honolulu

Tourism Marketing and Creative Careers

Without competition, tourism is the most significant industry in Honolulu. Millions of visitors come to Hawaii each year, generating tens of billions of dollars in revenue for the city and the state, making it the largest industry in the state and one of the largest tourism industries in the world. Since Honolulu is home to the largest airport in the state and the only airport capable of handling the level of traffic that the islands produce, even the tourism industries of the other major islands in Hawaiʻi rely heavily on Honolulu and, in turn, provide it with economic power. This means that there are a lot of jobs available in and around the tourism industry, particularly as it pertains to design and advertising.

One of the largest employers within the tourism industry is the state of Hawaii itself. Given that the economy of the state is so dependent on outside visitors, there is a strong push to advertise the general idea of Hawaiian tourism independent of any specific attraction, island, or goal. The state hires designers, analysts, social media marketers, and other professionals who will work alongside public and private institutions to help develop campaigns that remind audiences, both in the United States and internationally, that Hawaiian tourism is an aspirational goal and something to treat as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Given that the US isn’t the only source of this tourism, they will also hire specialists who can work on bringing the message to foreign markets, ranging from Canada and Australia to Europe, Japan, and Korea.

There is also a wide range of industries that are adjacent to the tourism industry that will hire designers, mechanical engineers, data analysts, and professional digital marketers to reach a wide audience. For example, Hawaiian cruises are a major part of the international cruise industry, and thus, they benefit from the work done to keep the public consciousness focused on Hawaiʻi as a major tourist destination. Likewise, Hawaiian businesses, including hotels and restaurants, thrive off of tourism, making it important that they hire experts who can help them compete with their competition for the limited time and attention of travelers who may only visit Hawaii for a short time once in their lives.

Finance and Banking

The geographic isolation of Hawaiʻi means that a lot of the industries that are more centralized in mainland America developed in parallel to those companies, resulting in a very local set of companies dominating Hawaiʻi (and only Hawaiʻi). For example, the banking industry is serviced almost exclusively by companies like Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, and First Hawaiian Bank. This locality means that it is likely that they will focus on hiring residents who can work with the specific makeup and qualities of the state’s economy. If you are interested in working in data analytics, finance, risk management, or another field related to investment and finance, it is likely that you will be able to find work in one of the many businesses designed to serve the specific needs of Hawaii's permanent resident population.

Insurance and Healthcare

Similarly, Hawaiʻi’s healthcare and insurance industries are such that they primarily service and support local resident populations, and these tend to be based out of Honolulu, regardless of the part of the chain they work most directly with. This means that Honolulu will have ample job opportunities for risk analysts, data analysts, healthcare administrators, and other office professionals who can handle the sheer amount of data and information that these industries produce. If you are looking for a job in administration, database architecture, or general management, these positions offer a high-paying way to approach the field.

Transportation and Shipping

Given that it is one of the most remote major cities in the world, Honolulu serves as a major transportation and shipping hub. Not only is it home to the largest airport in the state, which serves a vital function in the tourism industry, but it is also a major port city, both for goods entering Honolulu and for goods moving across the Pacific from east to west. This means that there are a lot of jobs open for professionals who can handle the mechanical design aspects of the shipping process and who can manage the logistical and data-driven aspects of moving huge amounts of goods every day. For example, a shipping company will hire data experts who can manage the logistical analyses necessary to maximize the flow of goods through their port, administrators who can oversee their contracts and schedules with other companies, and managers who can handle the on-the-ground aspects of running a shipping business.

Job Titles for Tech Experts in Honolulu

Owing to how remote it is, Hawaiʻi has one of the highest costs of living in the country (since almost everything needs to be imported over the ocean). However, Honolulu is a relatively wealthy city, meaning that if you find work in one of the high-paying, in-demand tech fields, you can enjoy the Hawaiian atmosphere comfortably. Here are a few common tech job titles and their mean annual salary in Honolulu, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

• Graphic Designer: $58,000
• Database Administrator: $93,000
• Data Analyst: $62,000
• Software Engineer: $111,000
• Marketing Manager: $146,000
• Database Architect: $137,000

Learning Tech Skills in Honolulu

Honolulu is a major city, with a metro population of over 1 million residents, but it is still one of the most isolated cities in the world, meaning that if you are looking to learn tech skills in Honolulu, you are going to be limited in the options available to you. While there are colleges and universities, as well as smaller public training institutions, this will limit your options in terms of the kinds of courses offered and the subject matter being taught. It is still very much worth your time to look into their catalogs, but you’ll need to be aware of the limitations that you may encounter when looking into these classes.

If you are looking for an alternative option for learning in-demand tech skills, you can consider enrolling in an online training course. These classes, which are often presented as live online training courses, give students the chance to learn these tech skills from the comfort of their own home without sacrificing the advantages of a live education. Students will learn practical career skills through hands-on lessons overseen by live instructors who can provide them with guided support and personalized feedback.