Succeeding In An It Career
By Barbara Cole-Gomolski© IT Careers at Computerworld.
The job market for information technology (IT) professionals is booming. The U.S. Department of Labor and IT industry groups confirm that there is definitely a shortage of IT workers. Still, technical know-how alone doesn't guarantee that a person will smoothly sail up the corporate IT ladder.
While technical skills are clearly in high demand, what corporate IT departments crave most today is project management skills, hiring managers say. Companies need people who can manage IT projects from start to finish, says one chief information officer at a large retailer in the Chicago area. This is being driven by IT's greater reliance on outside contractors and consultants, he says. Simply put, someone has to manage all those outside resources.
In terms of technical skills, recruiters report that C++, Windows NT®, JAVA, SAP, Unix and Oracle expertise are among the most sought after. Computer networking experts, Web and E-commerce gurus and security types are also in high demand. There is also a growing demand for PC technicians and people who can support the helpdesk and customer service areas.
So technical savvy gets you noticed, but combining that with the ability to manage people and take a project to completion is even better, observers say.
Technical skill may help you land a job, but "what ends up differentiating IT workers are their professional skills," says Doug Upchurch, executive director of the Information Technology Training Association, an industry group in Austin, Texas.
That makes sense if you consider the emerging profile of the chief information officer (CIO). In a recent study of 150 CIOs at U.S. companies by Los Angeles-based search firm Korn/Ferry International, 65% said that their jobs are in flux. Most typically, the CIO role is moving from that of a technical architect to one of strategic planner, the survey showed. Forty-nine percent of the CIOs in the study sit on their company's board of directors, and 17% interact daily with the chief executive officer. This trend means that in addition to technical know-how, CIOs now have to understand budgets, corporate strategy and profit and loss statements.
Karen Rubenstrunk, vice president of Meta Group, Inc., a research firm in Stamford, Conn., says a key attribute of the new CIO is leadership. Increasingly, it will be important for CIOs to "develop a following and drive through decisions," says Rubenstrunk.This represents a shift for IT, which has generally promoted those who were able to accomplish the most work, she says. A CIO with strong leadership will be able to say 'no' to projects that aren't good for the company, says Rubenstrunk.
Getting There
If companies are so keen on a mix of technical and business skills, how do you go about building a resume to get you there?
A key factor is making every job change count. Avoiding common pitfalls such as becoming fixated on working for a particular company without interviewing people who used to work there. "People also forget that no matter how great the company is, the boss will make the experience," said Marilyn Moats-Kennedy, president of CareerStrategies, a consulting firm in Willemette, Ill. Picking the right boss, then, should be a priority, she says. "Look for a mentor on the job, and never take a job that isn't a major learning experience," said Moats-Kennedy.
Interpersonal skills and communication skills are key. The best way to prove that you have them is to site examples of how you've used them (in two or three sentences) on your resume, career experts say. If you want to get into management but don't have that kind of experience, show that you've at least worked in a group environment.
Moats-Kennedy believes that sales training of some kind is a plus. "If you can get into an organization that lets you make presentations or sell to clients, that's very valuable," says Moats-Kennedy. Getting out in front of the customer — or end user — gives IT people a perspective they wouldn't normally get, she says.
Interestingly, it's no longer necessarily bad to job hop, though switching jobs more frequently than every two years may still raise some eyebrows. "What used to show longevity can now mean you are stagnant," says David Dolak, a career coach in Charlottesville, Va. "If you stay longer than five years, it may mean that your skills are outdated," said Dolak. The challenge, then, is to show that you are staying current no matter how long you stay with a particular employer. You can do this by working toward a technical certification, says Dolak.
Road Forks Ahead
At some point in your IT career, you'll need to decide whether you are interested in the corporate IT career path or want to go down the consulting road.
Over the past few years, IT departments have used more and more contingent labor, typically in the form of consultants and independent contractors. These people generally get paid by the hour, and are paid well.
The attraction of working for a consulting firm is the relatively high pay, as well as the opportunity to work with a variety of products and platforms. The downsides are that there is usually a lot of travel involved, and a good deal of pressure to generate high profits (in the form of billable hours) for the company.
Moats-Kennedy says that deciding if consulting is for you depends largely on how social you are. Consultants need to be more social because they tend to work on assignments at client sites. "In that kind of setting, you have to be fairly social just to find someone to have lunch with," says Moats-Kennedy. Of course, consultants usually have to be more self-directed than IT people who work in the corporate setting, according to Moats-Kennedy. How can you tell if you are self-directed? Moats-Kennedy says if you tended to study alone in college, you are self-directed. If you were the type of person who went in a group to the library to study, you're not. Similarly, if you seek other opinions when working on big projects, you're less self-directed than someone who goes off and completes the project on their own.
"If you want more structure, you'll probably get it in a corporate IT department," she says. On the other hand, if travel appeals to you and you like to move from assignment to assignment, consulting may be for you.
As far as what kind of companies are offering the best IT opportunities, "any organization that is heavily dependent on IT," should do, according to Gary Kaplan, president of Gary Kaplan & Assoc., an IT recruiting firm in Pasadena, Calif. This would include financial services companies, such as banks, credit card companies and insurance companies as well as utilities, Kaplan says.
If you want to move into a leadership position in IT, you should have an undergraduate IT degree and at some point pick up an MBA, says Kaplan. "The CIOs of today are better educated than the ones from the past who often came up from operations and didn't even have college degrees," he says.
Clearly, the bar is set higher today for individuals seeking IT leadership positions. In addition to their technical know-how, they need a solid business background, too. However, this has also made IT staffers more valuable to the companies they work for.
Salary and Perks
According to the national staffing firm Robert Half International, CIOs earn between $107,000-174,000 per year. A director at a consulting firm makes $68,000-97,000.
In addition to salary, bonuses have become common in IT. They may be given as sign-on incentives, as projects are completed or on employee anniversaries. In 1998, some 65% of CIOs and information systems (IS) directors received bonuses that averaged about 25% of their base salaries, according to AJ&M Professional Services, a Troy, Michigan-based IT recruitment firm that does an annual compensation survey. Meanwhile, about 17% of IT middle managers earned bonuses equal to about 10% of their salary, and IS staffers got 4-6% added to their salaries in the form of bonuses.
The tight labor market has also forced companies to go beyond bonuses to retain their best people. Typically, these additional rewards come in the form of perks (such as free dinners and weekend trips). One large manufacturing firm allows IT staffers to earn points for every quarter they stay on the companies year 2000 team. These points are collected, and may be redeemed for merchandise like mountain bikes and electronic equipment.
In addition to money and perks, IT employees are looking for flexibility on the job. A recent survey by Robert Half International showed that 76 percent of workers would leave the career fast-track in exchange for a more flexible schedule. A lot of companies have begun offering some kind of flexible scheduling, in the form of telecommuting, job sharing or compressed work weeks. Bob Nelson, president of Nelson Motivation and author of the "1001 Ways to Energize Employees," says that the faster an organization operates, and the harder employees work, the more important it is for managers to allow them some flexibiliy.
But career experts warned that it's important to look beyond the monetary rewards and perks when considering an IT job. It's equally important to be in an environment — whether it be a corporate IT department or a consulting firm — that supports and offers technical training and continuing education. "These days it's all about hot skills," says David Cowan, president of New York-based Fanning Technical Search.
