Many aspiring IT professionals and students have questions such as the following:
- how do we handle changes in the technology?
- which area to pursue?
- what are the pros and cons of pursuing a career in this field?
- Is there a road map for an average graduate to follow and experiment?
There are several resources on the web and articles published on these topics. Some are very useful and are provided in the references below.
The IS professional can expect to spend 5 - 10 years (maximum) working with specific tools and techniques (a.k.a technologies) actively. The time span is diminishing more quickly for non-standard technologies than for standard ones.
Industry standard tools and techniques would be likely to have the maximum life span (say 7-10 years, before the next wave of technologies comes along) for obvious reasons. However they become commodoties soon enough that the technologies are not seen as valuable if the goal is to pursue as a career.
Processes, methodologies, approaches, shifts in the industry are dynamic variables contributing to the waves of change that influence the career goals of an individual in addition to the personal, educational and professional profiles. If the individual can understand and contribute effectively in the above areas he/she may be successful in finding avenues to continue as an IS professional.
Business and industry trends and globalization have a large role to play in the career options of the IS people.
As discussed above the areas of influence are broad and dynamic. Therefore, it is easy to see that an average graduate needs to make extra-ordinary efforts with adaptability, training and development just to be able to continue his/ her profession!
Communication and collaboration skills heavily influence the time spans and career/role of the individual. They also contribute to the length of time the careers and roles played are likely to last.
References:
1. An investigation of student perceptions about the information systems profession
Ronald Berry, John Rettenmayer, James T. Wood
May 2006 Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, Volume 21 Issue 5
Publisher: Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges
2. http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/generalizingSpecialists.htm
3. http://www.ambysoft.com/essays/skills.html
4. IT career management: Transferability of skills over the IT career path
Choong Kwon Lee
April 2005 Proceedings of the 2005 ACM SIGMIS CPR conference on Computer personnel research SIGMIS CPR '05
Publisher: ACM Press
