Information Technology

(13 years in the field -- with a Film degree!)

IT is a very broad field, and it is rapidly turning into a tradesman market. Less glamour, and more like plumbing. Required, but not noticed unless it goes bad. Usually a loss-center for businesses, and treated as such.

If you LOVE tech, go for it. Be aware that it's very much a young man's game. If you're not on top by 40 (director, CIO, etc.), you're in trouble. Someone younger can do your job for much less. It's also a treadmill, more than most other professions. Nobody cares about 4 year old tech in the job market.

Honestly, learn how to run a business, and how money works. That's what really makes the world go around. IT is just a tool.

Good luck

 

I'm majoring in IT right now. Since I have zero experience in the field, I'm just going to relay what I've been told by people who have been in the field for a long time. I'm currently a sophomore so I have yet to pick a particular path within the field (may do systems analysis, perhaps programming, database administration who knows), but regardless of your exact career path you'll probably need to take some calculus. If you hate trig and calculus, well, you'll just have to find a way to tough it out. And whether you end up running a business or not you definitely need to know the ins and outs of the business world, especially if you want to be a systems analyst. We can't all be business owners otherwise there'd be no employees to hire, therefore no company to be started and therefore no money to be made.

By the way, I'm talking from the perspective of attending a regular four year institution. I cannot and will not speak for community colleges.

I enrolled in school at the age of 32 so I'll take exception to this.

 

That is spot on. I worked at Intel Corporation for several years in their I.T. department. Same situation as said above.

 

IT once was were it was at. Now everyone has a nephew who "Is a computer Wiz" ya hello! Go to school and become a pharmacist, radiologist or a professional baseball player. That is where the $$ is at.

 

My wife was an IT recruiter, and if a generalization could be made, it was that 99% of the "talent" pool was interchangeably qualified, yet each thought they were special and unique and better than everyone else. Job candidates didn't tend to be long on social skills either, which made working with them a struggle. Like others have implied, don't get into this discipline to be mid-level member of the pack. The industry won't look after you--you need a career plan.

 

I seem to recall other threads on the topic, try searching too.

I've been in IT longer than I do the math for, 20+ yrs and a biz owner for the last 14 or so. Defn agree with the posts to date, and would add that any Sales training you can pick up now is invaluable as well as basic business.

Sales makes the world go around, Sales helps you sell your ideas, and successful selling internally and to clients gets you noticed, promoted, and power.

It's also a good idea to be the "best" at something, rather than a one of the "I can do that too" kids responding to everything.

 

I'm an IT/Data consultant and I've found some insullation from being niched into an "interchangable IT" career. I think this is because my job is a hybrid of IT and business because to do my job well requires to immerse yourself quickly into a business and understand their business and data better than they do. And then use that knowledge to apply it to IT to help them make better business decisions based on their data. I have started to specialize in a few industries and this industry knowledge is what sets me apart from a lot of the other guys and keeps me employed and my rates high. I've noticed in my field that a lot of companies are not only looking for the IT experience, but they also want to see x number of industry experience. Someone that has been doing 10 years of solid insurance data warehousing for example is going to have a certain level of knowledge and expertise that can't be outsourced or replaced easily.

So, I guess my advice would be to make sure if you go into IT, make sure that the job has heavy involvement with the business side and not just stuck in an IT room. The guys stuck in the IT room all day are the ones that have less insullation. Just my opinion though.

That all said, I'm saving my pennies and as soon as I see an opportunity I'll be jumping ship to start my own business. I enjoy what I do, but I don't see myself doing this into my 50's.

 

Ross (hey that's my name too),

Some good advice has been given above, and I'll try to add on top of it. My background: I've been in the IT industry for a few years and have a business information systems bachelor's degree from a state school and an MBA degree with an IT management emphasis. I really enjoy the field and learning new technologies and helping people out. I ditto the suggestion of learning the business side of things. That's one of the reasons I chose BIS and an MBA. I've worked with plenty of IT guys who were good technically but had zero business knowledge and sense. They never moved up and often frustrated the business side managers. I eventually want to get into a management position like CIO, etc. Salaries are typically pretty good, and six figure income isn't uncommon for upper level management. IT people tend to be more casual and laid back which is what I like. I worked five years in three different jobs and never dressed up more than a tshirt and shorts in the summer. There's good money in tech sales, and it's always obvious when you get a salesperson that doesn't know IT, so it's good to learn both sides.

 

Great advice and I also think you made some great decisions education wise. BIS(which is now MIS(Management Information Systems) at most colleges) combined with an MBA degree in IT management is a fantastic combination in the hands of the right person.

To the OP: I would personally avoid the CS route because the programming/systems/tech positions can be interchanged at will or outsourced. I also agree with yoda's advice on IT guys who have zero or bad business knowledge or are just flat out difficult or impersonable people to deal with and the management on the business side get tired of it and will stop hiring those types. They need and want someone that understand's their business and that they can communicate and work with to get things done. I will say that there are a lot of gifted minds out there technically, but are stubborn and want things their way and this really puts off business and/or clients and slows things to a hault at times. They stop getting invited back to meetings and are looked over and pushed aside in the field.

Good advice!

 

Going out 180° I'd like to suggest IT security and/or forensics with the FBI or the CIA. While there, obtain and maintain a high-level security clearance and you'll always be employed and in demand. Of course, you'll need a degree first.

Or, you might want to stop by the Air Force recuiter and ask about their relatively new cyber warrior training.

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123085355

Insist on information regarding their ROTC program or, preferably, the Air Force Academy. At the Academy, one area of specialization for computer science is Cyberwarfare.

http://www.usafa.edu/df/dfcs/accr/docs/Developing_cyberwarriors.pdf

 

Great set of questions you have there.

Top schools for IT? Carnegie Mellon or actually any major university. Most States have at least 2 major universities that would be fairly top-notch.

Good field to get into? Yes and no. It is well-established and still has at least another 50 years of a fairly bright future to it. However, I think the next horizon will be in robotics, not IT. So think of this decade for robotic solutions like 1970 was to software. Everything is still at an early stage right now in robotics which means two things: most of the good ideas haven't been thought of yet, but none of the infrastructure is in place to make things easy.

System analyst? Step 1, you got to spell it correctly (j/k, LOL). It is an okay job but the barrier to competition isn't too high, so there will always be other people in the organization competing for the jobs. I'd either go more technical or more into management consulting, depending on your natural aptitudes. The key to management consulting is to help companies refine their business strategies in order to increase revenues, cut costs, improve their product or service delivery quality, or improve the level of service in something they provide. Often an IT solution is a key enabler to those business improvement strategies. If you're going to go more technical, I'd suggest looking into custom geo-spatial application solutions design and development as a niche that is paying well now and is likely to for another 10 - 20 years time (note, this is different from GIS systems).

Math? Not too much. You have to be conversant in binary and hexadecimal data once every 10 years or so. Anything else you can learn from embedded Excel spreadsheet formulas, such as how to calculate IRR for financial systems. It is much more important to master Boolean logic. Take a Philosophy 101 course when you get to college.

Prepare for an I.S. major? Learn one programming language well such as PHP, c#.net, or Java. Learn the various ways to code conditional logic, loops, screen interfaces, database selects & inserts, and reports. Also read a book on full-life-cycle development methodologies such as Agile development, OO A&D, UML, and the old ones like Information Engineering and Yourdon/DeMarco techniques. You also might want to learn the basics of MS Project and MS Visio. And, of course, be fluent in in the web fundamental technologies of HTML, Javascript, CSS, and AJAX.

Other advice? As soon as possible take a Myers-Briggs personality test. Make sure your 4-character personality type matches the career you're considering. If you are an INTP, you are a natural IT person/systems designer/programmer type and will be very creative in that field. For other personality type test results, there are various other IT-related jobs that will fit well.

Other advice #2? Keep your lifestyle as clean as possible. Background checks and security clearances are becoming the norm in IT jobs so you don't want any criminal charges on your record. Or any old friends from your past school days that will say you participated in any "recreational pharmaceuticals" (even if you didn't inhale).

Hope this helps. IT was my first, best destiny. Now I mostly manage people. Not the best trade IMHO.

 

I’ve been in IT since 17 (my first IT based job). The number 1 thing employers look for (like myself) is experience then certification/education. I can't tell you how many people come in the door with all these certifications/degree's and know absolutely zilch. Even fail simple questions like what port is telnet on?

 

As you may have seen, there is a long standing debate in IT about education vs certification-only. It is closely related to personal and societal views on the value of education. As a CIO I value employees with intelligence and abilities to quickly learn, adapt, and innovate since the IT environment is so dynamic and interdisciplinary. IMHO higher education is where these abilities are developed, and a university degree clearly demonstrates self-motivation and the ability to work hard and persevere. There are few things harder than excelling in an engineering program at a first-rank university, which is why there are so few American citizens in these programs. Technical certifications - especially those that are vendor-specific - only provides documentation for a current area of particular technical expertise. While there are exceptions, the lack of a degree will typically keep you from advancing from hands-on technical work to having more strategic responsibilities.

 

Your car is stunning.

 

You Sir, have nailed it on the head! The current IT employment trend is degree centric and this will divide the Techs from the Engineers (and their payscales as well). Anything involving management (people, places, resources, assets, etc) will require a B.S. as a minimum.

While I don't agree that "a university degree clearly demonstrates self-motivation and the ability to work hard and persevere" it is the determining factor.

Nowadays one needs a BS just to work the counter at rental car company.