Are You Looking for a Job in I.T. or a Career in I.T.?

In every one of my courses for I.T. majors I ask this question:  What do you plan to do when you graduate? Some students answer very specifically and demonstrate they have a clear idea of where they are headed and how they plan to get there.  For quite a few however, it is a bit more murky.

In either case, the class discussion inevitably turns to the issue of salary and what's in "demand".  I don't want to diminish the importance of choosing a specialty that is in "demand" or that pays well, but there is a lot more to it than that. At this point our class discussion usually goes much deeper into the subject.  I decided to write this article for those students who don't attend any of my face to face courses.

 A Job vs. a Career

So what are the significant differences between simply "getting a job" and actually "starting a career"?  From the employment perspective, I look at a job as doing anything that earns income.  I think of a job as doing something short-term to pay bills, perhaps (if you are young) get your first car, etc.  It is typical for younger college students to have had at least part-time or summer jobs, while some others are returning to school to get additional certifications, degrees or start new careers. Notice I said "start new careers". These "returning" students may have substantial work experience, but they are back to school to either enhance or even change careers.

A successful career encompasses a lot more motivation, forward-thinking, planning, and continuous learning. Notice I said "successful career".  When most of us think of careers, we should imagine being both successful and very good at what we are doing.  Now, don't get me wrong, jobs do help us understand the world of work, gain valuable experience, and they sometimes can point us in a direction toward a career. To get and hold a job you need to be able to follow directions, listen, be punctual, be polite, comply with company policies, practice good hygiene, and so forth. But what exactly does a successful career require? Or, more specifically, what does a successful I.T. career require?

My Own Career Development Story 

Let's first look at I.T. career development by way of a real life example--my own.  My Father was a country lawyer specializing in real estate law.  At first, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer.  For four summers beginning at age twelve I worked at an Italian resorts in the northern Catskill Mountains where I was raised.  Those summer jobs taught me how to work, how to interact with my employer and the guests (customers), and how to handle money. They also taught me a lot of Italian curse words as well--LOL!  When I got my driver's license, my Dad taught me to do "title examinations" at the county courthouse records office. These examinations are necessary when you buy/sell real estate.  I worked at this every summer until I graduated from Marist College, where I majored in political science/pre law.

The more I did this work, however, the more I felt that being a lawyer was not for me.  One thing is for sure, the best advice my father gave me at the time was this: "You can be a great lawyer, but if you don't like law, then don't do it.  You don't just have to be good at your job, you have to LOVE IT!" Instead of starting law school after college, I went to the first ABA accredited legal assistant program and became a paralegal.  This way I could continue to work in the real estate title business doing title examinations and make good money, but not waste the time and expense of law school.

This is where things started to get really interesting. Marist College was close to a major IBM facility, and had a very robust computer science department with a lot of IBM employees attending at night. IBM funded the college's computer data center.  We were the first college in the region to have an IBM 370 mainframe to play with.  When I was in college I took a few computer science courses as electives and was fascinated by computers and programming. When I worked for my Dad after college as a paralegal, I purchased a Radio Shack TRS80 computer and started writing programs in BASIC that I could use in my Dad's law office. I really enjoyed tinkering with the computer and coming up with new ways to use it at work.

When the economy and the real estate market tanked in N.Y. in the early 80's I moved to Florida, and immediately got a good job with a title insurance company as a title examiner. I brought my TRS80 with me and continued writing programs. Not long after, an IBM PC store opened in West Palm Beach, and I bought my first PC on IBM credit.  After a year or so, the title company I worked at started to get IBM PCs in the branch offices.  Up until then the computing platforms were large mainframes and minicomputers. By that time I was a title operations manager, and one day a shipment of two PCs arrived.  My boss walked into my office and said "hey you know about these PCs right?".  I said "sure--I own one".  At first I set up the PCs in our office and train the users, but then had to go to all the office is Florida to do the same thing. The company's Florida systems officer took notice and soon I had my first full time job in I.T.

After a couple years PC networking was perfected, and our region started to design and install PC LANs in every office to replace the minicomputers and mainframe connections. The company paid for me to train and become a Novell Certified Network Engineer.  At first there was a lot of corporate resistance to going from mainframes to PC's, but our region proved how much more cost efficient and flexible these new PC LAN's could be.  Our regional systems group (which I was now the manager of) developed PC based applications for title operations and title agents, and eventually the home office in Chicago took notice.  I was promoted to National Agency Systems Manager, and eventually became an I.T. director of the national title division of a NYSE traded real estate information services company in Houston Texas.  My job there was to oversee conversion of operations from minicomputers to WANs, as well as to design and implement technology solutions for National Title Operations and insurance agents. Since then I have gone back for my Master's degree, have become CompTIA Security + certified,   and now teach I.T. full time.

So, if you haven't fallen asleep after reading my story, what do you see here as significant events in my career development?  Was my success resulting from a series of coincidences or accidents?  Or was it more...

Engineering a Successful Career

I recently had representatives of a national technology services company visit one of my advanced I.T. courses. This company hires contract to perm I.T. workers, and also has a I.T. recruiting division. I wanted them to tell my students about what the current job market was, the types of careers that are hot right now, and also to discuss what they can do to be more "employable".  What were four of the most important things they said?  First: Make sure you pick a career and a specialty that you love. Don't focus solely on money or job demand.  Second: Don't rely entirely on your college courses to prepare you--work hard (on your own) to build knowledge and skills that give you a competitive edge, while you are in school, and continue self-learning, even after you graduate. Third:  Make sure your communication skills, i.e. reading, writing and speaking are excellent. Fourth:  Add certifications to reinforce your college program, but there is no substitute for work experience, so get experience, even if it is not a paying job.

Pick a Career That You Could Love

Remember what my Dad said to me 40 years ago?  It is even more true today.  To be successful and enjoy work, you have to love what you do.  I know it, the company that spoke to my students knows it, the best places to work like Goggle, SAS, and the Boston Consulting Group know it, and now, you know it too! BUT--getting to the point that you are happy with your career is not an easy journey.  There is a lot involved and you must work at it.  If you take "do what you love" or "find your passion" at face value--you are doomed.

Keep Learning and Expanding Your Skill Set

Continuous learning is beneficial to anybody trying to build a successful career.  But as an I.T. student, the "continuous learning" advice is especially relevant--dare I say imperative. Even when I was in college in the seventies, the transition from typewriters and carbon paper to word processing systems, copiers, and fax machines was rapid (a couple of years once the technology was available). At the same time, the transition from mainframe computer systems to PC's and LAN's was also relatively quick (less than 5 years for many businesses). Since then, the velocity of technological change has been even faster.

If you look at my story, you can see where having a TRS80 microcomputer, and then my IBM PC (while learning everything I could about them on my own), gave me the chance to switch into a I.T. career that was, as it turns out, the best thing that could have ever happened to me.  However, I did not come right out of college as an I.T specialist. In my case, it made perfect sense for the company to "promote" me from and operations position to an I.T. position.  Sure--I didn't have a computer science degree, but I knew enough about PC's and a huge amount about our business operations to apply I.T. effectively.

In your case, you are coming out of school (typically) equipped with a somewhat "generic" I.T. skill set. Of course that is good, but I dare say, not good enough. You must do more, much more, to land the job you want.  A lot of companies hire I.T. workers in what are called "entry level" positions. What are these positions typically?  Help desk, systems configuration, field services, and systems analyst are areas that may be considered entry level.  Here is one example: If you majored as a networking technician, it may be that, to get some experience, you may have to settle for a help desk job (third shift) to get in the door.  While the basic I.T. courses that are required your first two semesters will help, you should spend time learning to troubleshoot hardware and systems problems, and be sure to have at least a foundational knowledge of Linux as well as Windows.

Here is another example of the benefits of being versatile.  If you are a programming major, and your college program focuses on C# and VB, you might consider developing some skills in other languages as well, perhaps some web technologies such as PHP or Java. Take a look at free on-line courses such as codeacademy.com (or others) and learn some other platforms.  If you are a programming major, be sure to carefully watch trends and demand for particular platforms, and please don't ignore Python and Linux based technologies!

Communication and Soft Skills are Also Important

Be sure that your communication skills (reading, writing, and speaking) are excellent.  If English is not your native language, insure that your language skills will not prevent you from communicating effectively to customers, co-workers, and senior management.  You also must be able to read English well. These skills are also very important for your success in college. Your college's student success counselors can help assess these skills. If you need improvement, you can be placed in developmental courses to get you at the necessary level to be successful. Excellent technical skills are critical for career success, but so are good communication skills. In surveys of employers, the lack of candidates having good communication skills is frequently brought up as a major concern. You have a chance to fix these issues while you are in school. Once you are out of school it is too late. Remember that if your communication skills are only at a minimal level--just enough to land an entry-level position, you will be hard pressed to land a promotion when one comes up.

Soft skills are typically defined by employers as the group of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that facilitate relationships with other people. This is an area that is typically hard for us as humans to "self-assess".  We want to believe that we are always personable and fun to be with, and that we are easy going.  It is not easy, if not impossible for many of us to change our own personality.

You at least need to identify your limitations and find ways to compensate for them. You do not want to blow a job interview just because you weren't even aware of them.  If you tend to be introverted or shy, practice interacting with friends and family to get more comfortable in both work and social settings.  Get honest feedback from them and work to compensate for areas of concern. For example, if you get flustered easily, try practicing some calming exercises or meditation. If you have a tendency to talk too much or to interrupt others, work on your listening skills.

In fact, many employers now focus substantial interview time evaluating your social skills and personality to insure that you are a good fit for their company culture. In most (if not all) I.T. positions you will be dealing with co-workers, customers and senior management, even in an entry level position on a help desk.

There is no question that the I.T. job market is getting better and better, but employers are still somewhat selective about who they hire, and many jobs remain unfilled because they are not willing to settle for less than the perfect candidate.

Ongoing Professional Training and Certifications: What's the Real Story? 

I looked into this, and really didn't find a lot of statistics or surveys on the subject. I do feel that if you get a group of I.T. employers in a room and you want to start an interesting (if not a somewhat heated) discussion, you should bring up the topic of the role of I.T. certifications in their hiring decisions.  I did find a 2014 survey of employed I.T. professionals (not employers) from the Spiceworks I.T. professional network that had some interesting findings (Note that the survey was sponsored by a training company which may or may not had an impact on the findings).

• 84% of IT pros surveyed agree that additional IT training is "very to extremely" valuable
• While less than half of respondents (47%) attended IT training in 2013, close to 80% state they plan to take a course in 2014
• Of the respondents taking a training course in 2014, a whopping 94% plan to do so to increase knowledge in a specific area (which makes sense – new and complex topics require special focus). Other major motivators: Boosting job opportunities and salaries and gaining a little industry cred. 
• Nearly half of IT pros feel that certifications are very to extremely valuable.

The most recent employer survey regarding certifications that I found was done by CompTIA in 2011.  Here are some interesting findings from that survey:

• Among IT hiring managers nearly two-thirds (64 percent) rate IT certifications as having extremely high or high value in validating skills and expertise. 
• Eight in ten human resources (HR) professionals surveyed believe IT certifications will grow in usefulness and importance over the next two years (so that is now since the survey was done in 2011).
• Experience, track record and accomplishments rank as the most important factors when evaluating job candidates, according to the study. But education and credentials such as certifications also rank high. For example, 86 percent of hiring managers indicate IT certifications are a high or medium priority during the candidate evaluation process.

Based on all of this my conclusion is that a combination of accredited (college or university) training in information technology combined with I.T. certifications and practical experience all are factors in obtaining an I.T. career in your field of choice. I believe that certifications can partly make up for a lack of experience.

Even after getting that great position, always be mindful of the velocity of technological change, and keep looking around the next corner.  What will be the next IBM PC?  What will be the next programming language?  There is no such thing as a 20 or 30 year employee anymore. Keep learning, keep looking for new and interesting projects and stay challenged.

I Can't Get a Job without Experience, but I Can't Get Experience Without a Job

I hear this line all the time from students.  The problem with it is that it is simply a myth. There are ways outside of getting a paying job in I.T. to get valuable experience.  Here are a few:

Develop a portfolio of I.T. projects you had to do for school.  If you are a programmer, running applications that you coded are good examples. You can also include applications you wrote on your own time for personal learning.

Seek out and complete unpaid (or paid) internships.  If your college cannot connect you with organizations that use interns, start pounding the pavement and find someone who will take you in.

Don't know where to start looking?  Start asking friends and family members.  Get them to check with their friends and employers.  Get dressed up, develop a resume, and start cold calling businesses you know, including volunteer organizations and churches. Not only is the experience valuable, but you have also added a name to your list of references for perspective employers to check.

Keep Positive and Stay Motivated!

And finally, it is difficult, if not impossible to keep a positive attitude and stay motivated if you are in a job or on a career path that is not your passion.  You want to strive to be in control of your future. You want to be able to make choices about what you do.  You want to have some flexibility in the future, because the one thing for certain is that things in I.T. will continue to change rapidly.  You want to be able to be agile and adapt to these changes.  Also, in your college courses, focus on learning the material, not on the grade you will get.  Your learning needs to be focused on getting a career started, not solely on getting a passing grade. I sincerely hope this article helps you toward this end.  Bookmark my blog (www.itsysed.com) so you can access it in the future and keep track of I.T. trends.  Please feel free to contact me or post comments even after the semester is over, and best wishes for an exciting and successful career!