Global Prospects for recent graduates 2

[tonykblen]

Hi,

I was just wondering what opinions people have about the skillsets that will be needed by graduates going forward. I am studying for my MCSA at the moment. Are there any other skills that will give graduates a better chance of getting jobs?

Here in Ireland, most jobs seem to require two-three years experience. This leads to the chicken and egg situation of can't get experience-can't get a job.

Tony.

 

[mmorancbt]

I do a fair amount of I.T. Career Development in the U.S. Check out an article I wrote about where opportunities to get "entry level" experience exists.

The article is titled, I.T. Happens Outside of I.T.

http://www.thetechmag.com/index.php/news/main/72/event=view

Often, new technologist bang their head against a pretty stiff I.T. department door. However, there are departments and small companies that are dying for I.T. skills but don't have I.T. department budgets.

You have to ask the question whether it is more important to have the experience or have a formal I.T. title.

I hope you find this helpful.

Matthew Moran

 

[dilettante]

If you are following a course of study that makes an MCSA or MCSD reasonable I assume you are studying programming and software development. The general wisdom seems to be that some formal study in another business skill or something related to a line of business may make you more valuable than a pure IT person.

Something like some education in accounting or chemical engineering or ... something useful in addition to IT.

The software developer job market seems a little tight right now - especially for pure programming skills. Your chances of landing a position may be higher if you have some sort of connection (relative, colleague, acquaintance) who might be able to get your CV to somebody on the "other side of" the HR folks in some organization. If Dad is a truck driver, maybe the company he works for needs a programmer. Or Uncle Ernie might work for a shoe factory that has such an opening.

Mr. Moran may be right to suggest thinking small for that 1st job. Don't sell yourself short though, apply for any entry-level job that seems to fit your area of expertise. Out of 30 letters you might get 2 interviews, but it only takes one right opportunity.

I sit on several interview panels for a large organization during the course of a year. I see applications from wildly unqualified people all the time. Nobody gets upset. If a person doesn't look like he has what we need for the job we just don't interview him or her. So I am suggesting that you go ahead and apply for things you think you have the skills for - even if they ask for experience you don't have. Just be sure you stick to reasonable situations: no point in applying for senior positions. ;-)

Good luck to you.

 

[drdebit]

dilletante
I think that is a balanced and practical post.

I don't know that I'm in a position to be creating faqs in an IT forum, but I think that post and one or two other ones by Moran would make an interesting faq to point some of these "just starting out" folks to.

 

[tonykblen]

Hi again,

Read that article and I could not disagree with it. My own background is that I have just graduated with a degree in Business Information Systems from University College COrk which at least on an academic level should give me the business skills as well as the technology skills to succeed.

The BIS program is unique in Ireland (

http://bis.ucc.ie)

but even with these it is still hard to break in. Currently I am the only IT professional in the company I work in and at least am getting some experience.

My rationale for studying the MCSA is that I will know how to use Win 2K better and provide 1st level tech support wherever I go as well as covering the SQL Server module which deals with administering SQL Server which I work with every day.

Finally I agree that some sort of FAQ would be useful as I am sure there are may people out there who are interested in how to break into IT.

Thanks for your comments,

Tony.

 

[mmorancbt]

I posted on another forum a recent article at EWeek (not by me) that covers this great need for a mix between technical and business knowledge.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1023750,00.asp

Also, please understand, I do not advocate one skillset over the other. It isn't either/or. It is both/and. However, when I had my consulting company, if I had a choice to hire someone who was 90% proficient in needed technologies but 60% proficient in business/communication skills versus someone who is 90% proficient in business/communication and 60% proficient in the necessary technology, I would - in the huge majority of cases - select the latter person.

My feeling was that technical aptitude was easier to teach than the business/communication knowledge. That has been my experience and is why, when counseling a hardcore techie, I fill them with reading material that is non-technical.

A short list of recent or important reads (excluding fiction):

The Goal - Eliyahu Goldratt
Written as a novel but covers a turnaround manufacturing and organizational expert's work with a struggling company. Probably not the greatest work of fiction but great business insight and you learn a little about manufacturing. This book had been (and might still be) required reading for Pepperdine University's MBA program.

7 Habits... Stephen Covey
Enough said. it's a classic. I thought his other books - covering each of the 7 habits were less necessary - but that's just me.

Winning The Talent Wars - Bruce Tulgan
Cover's key elements of this new - free-agent driven economy. I view his message as critical for technologists who want to understand the phenomenon of I.T. work going overseas and why there is tremendous opportunity still here in the U.S.

The Roaring 2000's - Harry Dent
Cover's what will make the next several years prosperous for the U.S. Common sense but also warns it does not predict anything as precise as year by year because too many factors play a part. Does point out that the number of spending consumers in a market determines the long-term strength of that market.

24 Hour MBA
A simple coverage of marketing, business plans, financial plans, and business operations. It won't make you an MBA but you probably don't need to have that to succeed.

Dangerous Company - O'Shea and Madigan
Covers the debacles and successes of management consulting over the past 50 years and particularly the '80s and '90s. This was required reading for my consultants.

Running Training Like A Business - Adelsberg & Trolley
I found this fascinating because the training and development industry suffers from some of what the I.T. industry suffers from. Lots of highly technically proficient individuals who often fail to see or convey the link to a clearly defined business objective.

The Business of Consulting - Elaine Beich
Good nuts and bolts on setting up a generic consulting business. Includes proposal process and how to determine your rate and marketing effort.

The Entrepreneur Magazine Small Business Advisor
I thought this book was a great reference. Nuts and bolts of running a small business, financing, business plans, tracking growth, marketing, operations, etc.

The Elements of Style - Strunk & White
If you write anything, this is a must. 107 pages covering all the topics you ignored in English.

Technically, from a networking standpoint, I look at anything written by Mark Minasi and since I am soooo Microsoft centric I use MSDN, SQL Server Magazine, Visual Studio, and Windows .NET as resources.

This is not an exhaustive list. It is, however, representative of the non-technical to technical ratio of reading that I do. Two things to note.

First: I read a lot (50-120 pages a night - cursory overview reading model).

Second: You should too. Find out what the people you admire and/or find intriguing read because there is usually a reason they read what they read.

I hope this is helpful.

Matthew Moran

 

[drdebit]

Matthew

My perspective comes from the viewpoint of failure - I am not a people person and that has cost me in many ways - getting jobs, keeping jobs, how long i keep a job, and responsibility and compensation levels within a job. Those perspectives accompanied by a failure at a job placing computer programmers and the way that I have obtained some jobs - in spite of everything I could do wrong - convince me that there has been a lot of merit in some of the things that you've said.