OVERVIEW OF I.T. CAREERS

Core I.T. competencies continue to be:

• Software Engineering
• Systems Administration
• Database Administration
• Telecommunication & Network Engineering
• Hardware Engineering

However, the highest quantitative demand is not for any one of the above-listed "pure" disciplines, it is for "Support professionals" who – depending on the organization and the type of business – could be Help Desk personnel, systems administrators managing the backup & recovery function, network engineers working as troubleshooters, call center operators handling a Technical Help Line, PC technicians, you name it. Even software maintenance programming could be thought of as a support role. So, unfortunately, job security does not necessarily lie in the glamorous world of UML, XML, Java, ASP, etc.

I.T. Professional as SOLUTION PROVIDER

What all I.T. professionals have to keep uppermost in mind is that in order to realize the maximum career benefits, everyone has to go beyond their immediate technical expertise and embrace generalist characteristics in order to become a "solution provider". That’s the magic phrase – so we repeat it again: "solution provider". Your Management or your client could truly care less whether or not you can write brilliant code or devise innovative system architecture – what they truly care about is what you can do for them in terms of providing solutions that they need to run their business, and at what costs (time & money) those solutions are provided.

So if you want to shoot for the epitome of your career potential, then aim to become a Solution Provider. As long as you say, "I do C++ programming, it’s Jerry who writes the Stored Procedures and Jim who configures my IP addresses", you are firmly embedded in the quagmire (a "good" quagmire, but nevertheless a quagmire) of a "blinkers on" specialist. Today telecommunications and computing are rapidly converging into one and the same service-set. The Network already is the Computer. The Artilligence VPN (Virtual Private Network), for instance, is more important to all our co-workers than our individual "boxes" that allow us to connect to the VPN. As we migrate up the ASP-MHP-VHP chain, our individual "boxes" will become less and less relevant, until they are relegated to the stature of a TV set-top box. So a solution provider today needs to know his architectural options, his software options as well as his telecom/networking options. And may we add, his offshore options too!

Retain your expertise specialization, but broaden your I.T. generalization; imbibe every sort of knowledge, even if it has to do with a Point-of-Sale terminal that you might never use; get out from behind the keyboard and into the trading pit; understand what works for the end-user and what doesn’t; think systems; interrupt your ego (if that’s possible) – put it in sleep mode – and wake up to the "expertise" that others also have; be curious – ask questions – understand the world of technology that lies beyond the click-and-build technology of today’s 4GLs.