IT Career Paths
It shouldn't be news to anyone who has been in Information Technology for more than a couple years now, but more and more folks are suggesting that an IT career will no longer be insular or self-contained. In many ways, this is very good news, as IT has often been relegated to the "back room" within the business. While there will still be some room for your stereotypical antisocial super-techie, there is an ever-growing need for a more versatile and business-fluent entrepreneur who is also a master of technlogy. And whether they started out in the technology field, or migrated to it later in their careers, it is a skill set that will breed success.
Having ones knowledge limited to *only* business or technology, will be debillitating, long-term. This certainly doesn't mean that every business person will have to be a systems architect, nor that every senior developer will need to be proficient in sales and marketing, but there will definite advantages for those individuals who have more than rudimentary skills in both realms (technology and business).
In fact, it could easily be argued, that starting at the mid-management levels, ones ability to add significant value to the business as a technology professional is impaired if one does not have a decent understanding of the business one is in. It's not just tech-clueless managers that wreak havoc in their organizations...
So, as a technology professional, you need to start mingling more meaningfully with the business people in your enterprise, lest you wake up one day and find out that one of your former power-users in the marketing or finance departments, is suddenly vying with you for a promising IT position, and they present a more compelling value proposition for the organization.
About Logik!
Andrew S. Baker aka ASB aka Logik!
Andrew is an accomplished, hands-on IT Executive with a solid track record of providing timely and cost-effective business solutions using technology. With over 16 years experience in Information Technology, he has proven to be effective both as a Team Leader and as an individual contributor in designing, deploying, securing and maintaining enterprise networks.
His personal interests include Astronomy, Basketball, Bible Study, Chess, Comics, Computers,
Family Life Ministries, Reading and Strategy/Role Playing games...
Some of his contributions include several whitepapers on technology and Information Security, the UltraTech Knowledgebase, various postings to technology mailing lists and forums, active participation on LinkedIn Answers, along with a number of interviews for articles published in industry magazines.
A condensed version of
Andrew's current resume is available here.