IT Careers in 2010 - Learn a business 170
feminazi writes "Business knowledge and domain specific skills are becoming more important to IT workers, according to Computerworld's special report on IT careers in 2010. The most sought-after corporate IT workers in 2010 may not have deep-seated technical skills at all. Traci A. Logan, vice president of information technology and vice provost for academic affairs at Bentley College in Waltham, Mass. says, 'That [business skill set] is going to be more important than the straight technical skills they know, because you're going to see a closer marriage between the business and IT.'"
Yea! (Score:2, Insightful)
Until push comes to shove. (Score:3, Funny)
Technical skills? Not so important.
That's "sarcasm" for those of you unable to see it.
Being a good salesman can get you in the door and on the project. But nothing will help if you don't have the tech skills to deliver.
Particularly as more and more of the business is being put on
Re:Until push comes to shove. (Score:3, Insightful)
Business skills being more important doesn't make tech skills non-essential.
Anyone can pilot the ship in calm weather. (Score:2)
The flaw in that approach is that it depends upon nothing going wrong that you cannot blame on someone else.
Which is not to say that you won't get lucky and succeed with that approach. Just that it is a flawed approach.
And that is the essence of "tech
Re:Anyone can pilot the ship in calm weather. (Score:4, Insightful)
And that is the essence of "tech viewpoint" vs "business viewpoint".
May I dare to suggest that you develop tech skills and business skills? I am not employed in management, and don't intend to be, but understanding some of the skills/viewpoints of management allows me to:
1. Better understand the priorities of management (you know, those guys that sign the cheques?)
2. Be more skilled at promoting my ideas to management (the stuff alot of workers find really difficult, but is really valuable to the company)
3. Deal with customer issues more succesfully (for some reason our customers are more concerned with being profitable than with being assured by me that our product is within the ordered specification. This sometimes involves coming up with solutions that require some knowledge of business)
Re:Until push comes to shove. (Score:2)
Re:Until push comes to shove. (Score:5, Insightful)
Coding is skilled labor that the company prefers to acquire as needed on a contract basis. The 'professional' job is the business analyst, technical analyst, and architect.
Re:Until push comes to shove. (Score:2)
Know what's important to the bottom line for your employer and adjust your priorities accordingly. This is especially important in smaller outfits.
I'm working for a manufacturer outside the "technology" sector for the first time in my life now. I'm learning as much as I can about every aspect of the business.. from production and distribution to customer service. What else can I do to increase my value to them? They're already getting the full benefit of my te
Re:Until push comes to shove. (Score:2)
Re:Until push comes to shove. (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm still left wondering if that was worth it because I feel so dirty to be able to make marketing employees and managers drool when I 'talk the talk'. Probably an easier croud to please than most, but I do agree with you; learning what customers were looking for when they ran campaigns and contrac
Re:Until push comes to shove. (Score:2)
Re:Until push comes to shove. (Score:1)
Re:Until push comes to shove. (Score:2)
Re:Until push comes to shove. (Score:2)
Short example: A friend designed a complex toy the fairly exact specifications but kept getting back "We can't build this" from the Chinese haul of the company. After 8 faxes and several phone calls it was discovered that they needed a to extend the base 1/4 of an inch to fit all the components. Now the original specification was ~1 inch base but either ~1 does not stretch to 1 and 1/4th or someone dropped t
Re:Until push comes to shove. (Score:2)
I hate to brake it to you but communication tends to be the most important problem on most projects.
Now that's irony right there.
Re:Until push comes to shove. (Score:2)
2000 people working for 10 years might develop software that "works" but 30 people working for 6 years might solve the same problem. I have solved problems in hours that someone else spent weeks on. Both of us where effective, but that says nothing about being cost effective.
Google is your friend. (Score:2)
Just ask the people working for Google. In fact, just look for any of the companies that the tech people are trying to get into.
Roll your own (Score:2)
Re:Roll your own (Score:2)
Re:Roll your own (Score:2)
Uh, you're either thinking of a third-world textile sweatshop as your replacement job, or you have no clue what kind of effort you need to spend in a startup. What employee position has you working twice as many hours - or even the same number of hours - as any reasonable startup effort?!
As for 90% chance of being out of work... so what? Get another f-ing job, or try again with another startup. This sub-thread wasn't about a psychological need t
Re:Roll your own (Score:2)
It takes money to make money. I suppose you could be a consultant if you want to save money without renting an office but you need years and years of experience and know alot of people via networking to do this.
But starting a business is not for everyone. We need only so many chiefs but lots of Indians.
Re:Roll your own (Score:2)
Friends & family is a good place to start; personal savings; and the angel community. Or you can bootstrap - start it part-time while working at a big co, build the business until it has the revenue to justify a full-time position. And yes, consulting is a viable options as well. You do need experience - and netwo
Re:Roll your own (Score:2)
What's that, Henny Youngman-style lending?
For those too young (ha!), see the first [wikipedia.org] paragraph.
Re:Roll your own (Score:2)
Re:Roll your own (Score:2)
It's not easy to start a business. But it's not impossible for those who are motivated - you have to look for ways to succeed, not reasons to not try. Mortgage, kids... join the club. But in that situation, you've also presumably got something to show for your 10-20 year career (saved up some equity on that house, some savings from your past work), and kids implies you've got a spouse. That spouse can be a second breadw
Re:Yea! (Score:2)
Re:Yea! (Score:2)
Re:Yea! (Score:2)
Re:Yea! (Score:2)
Nothing new (Score:5, Insightful)
Flipside (Score:5, Informative)
The best middle ground is to have hybrid people - people who have thought and can think from both sides of the aisle, so to speak. When contractors are brought in, if there's no one who can explain the business requirements at *any* level (and I've been in some places like that over the years), it's not the outside contractor's fault.
Contractors (Score:2)
Hey, I got a question... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hey, I got a question... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Hey, I got a question... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hey, I got a question... (Score:2)
Re:Hey, I got a question... (Score:4, Insightful)
You are vastly over-rating the time and effort involved in running a business. If you are technically good, and have invested in acquiring a basic set of business skills, then running a business is no big deal if you're talking about a single person consultancy.
The things you need:
1) Basic accounting (and I mean VERY basic--my accountant does all the hard stuff. And besides, most of advanced accounting is learning ways to lie with numbers while still remaining a respected if not respectable member of the community. The least honest developer I know once voiced a desire to become an accountant, and I can well understand why.)
2) Basic business law, especially contract law (lawyers are a lot more expensive than accountants, but the cost of failure is also higher. Tread carefully.)
3) Presentation skills. Stay away from all the bullshit seminar stuff. Join your local community theatre group.
4) Reputation. Every business contact you have, ever professional contact, is marketing. Every arm's length interaction you have is marketing for your future business. Businesses don't start in a vacuum and they are essentially based on relationships of trust based on reputation. Build yours carefully and it will be your greatest asset when you strike out on your own.
It just isn't that hard to be in business for yourself. There is a certain level of complexity you have to deal with, and a lot of discipline required to deal with it (I update my books religiously ever Friday morning, for example--keeping on top of the paperwork is vital.) But 90% of my time is spent on purely technical work. I just get to keep 100% of the profit from that, instead of paying most of it to support an ignorant manager with a big ego.
It took me five years to move from academia to being in busines for myself. Every career move I made within that time was aimed at getting me closer to the goal. I took jobs so I could learn particular business skills or get a closer look at how a small business is run. Anyone with a brain can do this, and acquire sufficient business skills to run their own show. It just isn't that hard.
Everyone else! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Hey, I got a question... (Score:2)
"the most effective workforce will be outward-focused, business-driven competency centers"
People have been spouting that sort of gibberish for a long time - until now big companies have managed to survive despite that, however if it becomes even more widespread than now, they are going to take those companies down
Do they just make this up as they go? (Score:3, Insightful)
I always get the idea that the "authorities" who right these articles don't have a clue about the real world.
Re:Do they just make this up as they go? (Score:2)
Re:Do they just make this up as they go? (Score:2)
Re:Do they just make this up as they go? (Score:2)
And I have the feeling that you don't know how most businesses work: They tend to use more than one technology and of course their IDEAL candidate possess all the technology knowledge, heck, that's whey they want to hire you.
It doesn't matter at the end of the day that you don't, because the guy who is interviewing you hopefully realizes that very few people have ALL the skills.
So... (Score:5, Funny)
like janitorial staff? Start acting on the ideas
that IT brings to the table?
Re:So... (Score:2)
The business requires the support of IT to push their *business objectives*. Its nothing to do with technology.
So many IT people fail to see that the reason their is an IT department is to support the needs of the business.
IT is just a vehicle to delivering faster, and more effective business drivers.
Hopeless (Score:2, Funny)
IT is just a vehicle to delivering faster, and more effective business drivers.
I visualized IT as a minivan delivering the likes of Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Little E, etc. to their retirement assignments: Driving business executives around.
It's bedtime kiddies.
Re:Hopeless (Score:2)
Night night!
Re:So... (Score:3, Interesting)
it is business that fails to see that the reason
for the IT department is to support the needs
of the business. My admittedly anecdotal view
is that most "business" types just expect IT
to keep the machines running, and dont come to
IT and say "we want to do 'X'" or "can we do
'Y' more efficiently", or "what can we do next
to improve how IT can support the business".
In fact, advice from IT seems to be rejected
with a "it will cost too much".
Re:So... (Score:2)
It sounds to me alot of IT folks dont know how to sell themselves. It shows if your organization thinks it only supports. I have seen posts here where IT reports to HR rather than implement plans like MRP and ERP systems that can really make a difference to cut costs and bring information to employees.
A good intranet site linked to a database with suppliers or a customized accounting app is alot more value than Excel and some as/400 terminal app for employees to sea
Re:So... (Score:2)
*gasp*
*wheeze*
ahahahahahahaha
*choke*
Thanks, I needed a laugh!
Re:So... (Score:2)
or one of the other "i dont agree with you"
moderation possiblities.
Good luck finding a non-Dilbert job.
Re:So... (Score:2)
Re:So... (Score:2)
Re:So... (Score:2)
I had a crew of 2 kinda working for me. One person
was in early in the morning, he did not drink coffee.
I think you see where this is going....
Anyway, one of the big wigs at this company decided
it would be nice if he could get the coffee going
when he got in, so that they would not be bothered
with such things.
Fortunately, I was able to go to my boss and get this
stopped, since he was not a coffee drinker, and had
other things to do...
Other tidbit. From this cre
BS Bingo Anyone? (Score:4, Insightful)
Bottom line is diversify your portfolio of skills. Pick one or more of the math, engineering, financial, public speaking, etc. skills and you will have a better chance in the future.
learn the cliches, I mean the language (Score:2)
I'd say the bottom line is to learn to speak and act like a suit even when keeping the brainpower of the techie. Suits respect suits, and there is a coded language they use, much like dogs sniffing each other's behinds. Pick up a popular business book some day--the vacuity actually sucks air from the room. But these people are inexplicably good at making money, so go figure. But they do not respect a t-shirted morlock telling them that their latest e
Not consistant with my observations (Score:5, Insightful)
This runs completely counter to the outsourcing and cost focus of todays businesses. Indeed even people hired "permanantly" are usually seen as expendable at the end of major projects. These are the ones with the most domain knowledge. Business types tend to be "visionaries" and whip crackers. Rarely do the excel at requirements or planning. I have worked for major corporations since 1990 and I see the gulf between management and software professionals growing widerthan ever with the increasing sophistication of tools and the increasing complexity of projects. Engineering culture has all but disappeared.
Re:Not consistant with my observations (Score:2)
This is where a good Architect (if you like or hate that designation) comes into play. S/He would be the person who bridges that divide. A "jack of all trades". In essence you have to know the bullshit from the real stuff and understand what i
2010? Bad year to choose. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:2010? Bad year to choose. (Score:2)
Okay - now back to our regularly scheduled rant...
How many? (Score:4, Funny)
You want to make money? Quit beating around the bush and
just go to law school!
Re:How many? (Score:2)
A nation of managers (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A nation of managers (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm the IT manager for a small advertising company. I was hired as the company was just starting, and built a small network of Macs and PCs. As I was being hired, we also got an outsourced IT company. I'm a person that tends to do things himself, and then ask for help only after I have given it my best shot... otherwise, how the fuck do I learn anything?
However, we are a company of managers, and I find that I get praised for doing a good job when I call the outsourced company to deal with an is
Learn a business? (Score:3, Funny)
I think we need to start with: "Learn how to communicate"
Offshore (Score:4, Interesting)
IT != R&D any more. IT = Production (Score:3, Interesting)
There is no magic in computer development any more. Adoption and demand are so high, people literally code for food. Take a look at your ten year old coding his website and think how many people could do that fifteen years ago.
The fact that there are so many companies nowadays in 3rd world counties (no offence meant) who act as major players in outsourcing means we are far beyond research and development stage in IT.
We did not need business people to manage IT when it was R&D simply because any R&D requires tremendous dedication and you can't do both research and business.
A production can and has to be managed. Business skills mean more than research capabilities in production. Why approach the problem with your mind if you can approach it with your pocket book and do not pay an arm and a lag?
I'm not worried a single bit about IT researchers. They are very bright, hard working and will be able to adapt. One year in an MBA programs is all they need.
Purely management-esque article (Score:3, Interesting)
As someone who's seen this first hand, I don't think the author has hit the mark at all. Instead of shifting high level responsibility on day to day IT folk, they would be better to invest in key architects and engineers who can bring all of the existing reponsibilities together. These positions require leadership and long term planning/project management. These types of folks will replace the VP of IT types that write these articles, not the specialized IT skillsets that we have today.
I agree, this article coule have been written 20 (Score:2)
Re:Purely management-esque article (Score:2)
Which is why articles like this keep getting written and read, of course. Most of management's time is spent justifying its own existence.
Rather than become a jack of all trades (Score:2)
Re:Rather than become a jack of all trades (Score:2)
It's been my experience that there is a need for someone like that, and they get paid enough
Pointy haired IT workers? (Score:1)
TRANSLATION (Score:1, Insightful)
I can't UNDERSTAND our H1B slaves.
I need a middleman who'll be willing to work for entry-level IT wages, but do essentially all my management work for me, keeping my servants on task and getting the job done, meanwhile able to speak to me in plain MidWestern English and occasionally pick up my dry-cleaning.
That will be all.
I am sick and tired of this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I am sick and tired of this... (Score:3, Interesting)
You and everybody else.
The first half of this sentence includes facts. The second half includes valuations. Pretty much any admin has experience with MS-Windows (desktop and server), and most have dealt with their share of routers and L3 switches. I'd wager most of those have also had
Re:I am sick and tired of this... (Score:2)
So there's the problem. Nobody is going to hire a troublemaker, someone who will go over their head.
If someone isn't willing to hire someone with their own brain, who puts the needs of the corp ahead of their manager's petty concerns, then fuck them, right up the ass. Smart companies actively seek out troublemakers, so long as they work for the good of the company. In my last job, one of the consultants I knew told me that his role on the project was to voice unpleasant truths, and he did.
As to the resu
Re:I am sick and tired of this... (Score:2)
Well, that's quite a paradox!
It seems then that the only way of escaping this paradox is to go into business for yourself, isn't it?
(So says the junior developer who has yet to discover one of these mythical, unicorn-like "good managers" who is neither stupid nor incompetent...)
Re:I am sick and tired of this... (Score:2)
So says the junior developer who has yet to discover one of these mythical, unicorn-like "good managers" who is neither stupid nor incompetent.
Good managers do exist, they're just fairly uncommon. I'm currently trying to change teams to one. In the meantime, watch your bosses for signs of what not to do and what to do so you can be one of the good ones when you go start a company.
Re:I am sick and tired of this... (Score:2)
Wheat can I say? "+1 Insightful" seems to be most appropriate.
Re:I am sick and tired of this... (Score:2)
Trust counts (Score:2)
Screw resumes. They are for the weak. What you need is notoriety. Be very
Give first. Get in touch with your local cable-access channel, and produce your own "IT for small business" s
if you want to stay hardcore tech, what's hot is (Score:2)
But you need experience in those technologies (Score:2)
Re:But you need experience in those technologies (Score:2)
Look whose talking (Score:5, Insightful)
Duh, or COURSE they wish IT people knew their line of business. So why don't we start looking at the courses they'd like CS majors to NOT take in order to make time for the business courses. Databases? Obvious nope. Programming languages or operating systems? Not a great idea if you want them to pick up new platforms / languages quickly. Algorithms? Don't hire that person to a project where you need advanced warning that something won't scale well. Computer graphics? OK, maybe that one is rarely necessary, but that's just one course.
My point is whether or not the author knows it, they're asking to eat their cake and (still) have it too. They want someone to study the line of business more, but ignore the dumbing-down effect that has on their IT skills. Taken to that extreme, you may as well just offer a few extra "IT" courses within the business department, and let those people be your company's IT staff. Which in most cases is moronic for well-known reasons.
The author is happy with "dumbing down". (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know about you, but that's a huge warning to me.
So, the "most sought-after" IT worker will be one who can
Why? Because
Translation:
2010 management will demand IT staff who can understand the business and technology sufficiently to manage the out-sourced projects.
Said out-sourced projects will be the actual writing of the software that supports the company and the end-user support of the remaining company employees who use the software that was written by other people outside the company.
Welcome to the "Titanic" business model.
I'm sure you can all imagine the fun that that will be. With the out-sourced support staff blaming the out-sourced programmers and the out-sourced programmers blaming the support staff
Maybe I Haven't Been Around Long Enough, But... (Score:2, Insightful)
stop and think about it (Score:4, Insightful)
You aren't born with business/writing/accounting know-how, nor with IT knowledge. People already spend a lifetime trying to be an expert in their respective fields. You can't be an expert in every field, especially those that require distinctly different skills.
Re:stop and think about it (Score:2)
Re:stop and think about it (Score:2)
Unfortunately for most techies, good project management means bringing the right resources to bear on the right tasks at the right time, which argues against bringing tech staff into the requirements gathering activity (which is often where the rocks get lifted and you see just how ugly the business really is).
I love how this works - managers refuse to tell you how things work (so I hear), then complain that you don't know the business side. Odd thing is, most every place I've been has been more than hap
Not surprising... (Score:3, Insightful)
Make sh*t work (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, you'd damn well better have the needs of the business in mind in any position. But if Company A decides they're going to have manager types who don't have IT skills doing skilled IT work, they're going to find out real quick that sh*t don't work and there's no one around who can fix it.
Let's cut to the chase... (Score:3, Insightful)
doing the business ... (Score:2)
"they will use outside vendors to gain those skills"
What he means is when they want to appear 'managerial' they hire in a systems analyst to tell them what their own staff already know. You get the work done in spite o
This service industry trend is crazy... (Score:2)
We are just heading to a point where no-on at all in the US will actually DO anything. Everyone will just be middle-men managing everyone else. It's like one of those pyramid schemes.
If someone somewhere in the business pyramid doesn't actually produce some tangible product (i.e. made by engineers) then you've got no basis on which to exist.
Nothing new. (Score:2)
Since when has IT been so technical (Score:2)
Re:business skills is always neccessary (Score:2)
I have alwais made an effort to get more business knowledge and I must say it has alwais created lots of new exciting opportunities for me. Dowside is hat you become less of a geek...
Re:C2 wiki on this (Score:2)