A few quick takeaways from my time working in IT

Back in October, I did my annual visit to Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business to present to a group of its undergrad business school students. The primary purpose for the visit is to deliver a keynote speech to Freshman in the Kelley Living Learning Center. On the night before the keynote, I always do a laid-back question and answer session with a group of students ranging from Freshman through MBA students. This trip is always a highlight of the Fall season for me because one of my old friends is an administrator at Kelley and does a great job of getting students fired up for me.

The email below was sent by one of the Kelley Freshman students after the laid-back Q&A session mentioned above. Like several of her classmates, she’s interested in Information technology and was looking for my thoughts on the industry after having spent so long as an IT professional.

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JT wrote:

Hi Marquis,

Thank you so much for taking the time to have dinner with us tonight! It was so amazing to hear all the stories and things you’ve achieved. I am really looking forward to your presentation tomorrow night.

Besides business, I am interested in IT. I know that you moved away from this path. What would be your advice and take-aways from working with computers?

Thank you so much for your time and advice!
~JT

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My response:

Hi JT,

Thanks for making the time to come out last night and for sending over this follow-up email. I really appreciate it.

Great question about what I took away from my time working in IT. I’ve gotten that one a few times over the years and have posted a few blog entries about it at https://marquisparker.com/blog. If you get a chance, you should take a look at my archives and see if you can find some of my old responses on the topic.

Just to give you a quick response here, I’ll pass along the following comments:

• The first thing to note is that IT is about more than working with computers. While I was a Software Engineer, I did crank out Java code, but, as an IT professional, my job was more about the computer side of things. People in the IT industry can dive deep on all kinds of topics that are crucial to the inner-workings of a business, regardless of industry. Areas like IT strategy, software development, database administration, requirements management, IT process design, and technology budgeting/finance all fall under the umbrella of Information Technology. I’m sure that you probably knew these things already, but I thought it was worth mentioning anyway. 🙂

• As you start moving toward pursuing a career in IT, I’d recommend taking time to determine where your areas of interest in the field really are and to spend time diving deep in developing your expertise in those areas. In the Technology arena, subject matter expertise is a key differentiator and, if your knowledge is strong enough, you can quickly make yourself valuable to an organization. Also, demonstrating subject matter expertise in one area can be a strong indicator that you have the capacity to develop a similar level of expertise in a different area, which, in some cases, can make the difference between being offered a job and not even being invited to interview. Some roles in IT are perfect for people who aim to get a more broad understanding of several IT-related topics, but there’s always the risk of being labeled as a “Jack of all trades, Master of none”. Don’t let that happen to you unless that’s what you’re really looking for.

• If you are more interested in a more business/management-focused career, don’t make the mistake of diving deep into a hard core techie role at the beginning of your career. I made that mistake by starting my career as a Java Developer instead of trying to obtain a Business Analyst sort of position. While I had a strong interest in technology at the time, I didn’t really want to spend my entire career on the hands-on, hard core tech side of things. After a few years, I realized that I was basically stuck in the techie track because that’s where I’d gone right out of college. It is incredibly difficult to make a large shift in career direction when you spend several years going deep into tech work. It took me pressing pause on my career and earning an MBA in order to press ‘Reboot’ and restart my career on the business track. If you have a genuine interest in IT but don’t want to roll up your sleeves and mess with code, database, or systems, aim for something on the business side of IT. Thank me later on that one.

• Focusing on IT (particularly management of information/data) will give you great insights into the way that businesses work on the back end. When it comes to business, information is king and those with access to the best information will be in the best position to succeed. Understanding IT will provide unique insight into the strategic challenges that can come from decision making without access to all of the data needed to be fully-informed. You’ll gain exposure into the problems that can come from having to integrate systems of different ages, in different formats, and with disparate data types into a single repository. You’ll truly understanding how advances in technology can help companies literally change the game in how they operate…and also how implementation and integration challenges for those new technologies can bring a company to its knees. Many people in business look at technology as simply a way to check their emails and surf the web, but it really is so much more. The course of study that you’re considering will help you to learn all about what that “much more” actually is.

Please let me know if the comments above were hitting in the areas that you were hoping for.

Marquis