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Emerging IT Career Options
There is a broad trend we're seeing develop based on a large number of our clients throughout the country. And that is, more and more employers are looking for candidates who possess a mix of both technical skills (i.e. accounting, IT) as well as a decent amount of business acumen. A recent post on Job Search Secrets, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, also point out that this is particularly true within some high growth job markets in 2007; computer systems design, systems administration, cyber security, and management consulting to name a few.
If you're an individual looking to break into the hot IT field, I found a great cyber tool to get you started. Check out the YouTube video below called 'An Introduction to a Career in Network Support.' This video is part of a series by TechAnvil that gives an excellent background to some jobs within the IT field. They will give you a taste of what to expect from these jobs which can help you determine if they are a good fit for you or not.
Posted by Kip Havel on March 6, 2007 at 9:37 AM
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This is for those who are interested in accelerating their careers: know for sure nothing happens until you sell yourself!
A well-known adage advises that you have only to invent a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door, bearing recognition and riches. Believe me that's poor career advice!
If you are content to accept that bit of career counseling, you are likely to end up with a shelf full of unsold traps.
Common sense says that inventing a better mousetrap is only the first step toward a successful career. Until potential buyers (i.e. employers) are aware of your mousetrap (i.e. your accomplishments and potential) and decide to choose you as a supplier you will be left waiting for success.
Few people are comfortable with promoting themselves. The idea generates a knee-jerk reaction: ?I?d be too embarrassed to brag about myself. Besides, my work speaks for itself.? Wrong! Nothing happens until you sell yourself.
Sometimes peer pressure says, ?Don?t raise your flag too high above the rest of us. We?ll all be put on the spot so we have to perform up to a higher standard.?
This is a counterproductive attitude except for those who are willing to lag behind in the comfort of the herd.
Overt braggarts are pains in the neck. Braggadocio will usually backfire. On the other hand, doing a good job, consistently, and letting the world know about it is an essential to success.
Five Ways To Promote Your Career
Here are five suggestions to help you promote your career.
1. Be sure your performance deserves recognition. You are programmed for failure if you try to take credit for more than you do.
2. Be sure your boss and the organization know what you are accomplishing. They may be taking you for granted.
Seek opportunities to work with other departments. Make contacts and friends. Let them know what you do.
3. If your organization maintains a public relations office, get to know the people who work there. If they recognize you as a knowledgeable source, they are more likely to publicize your work.
4. Be active in trade associations, civic clubs and public service activities. With your employer's permission, make speeches and write articles for the trade press and general news media. Everybody wins when you do. Your employer basks in the sunlight of your achievements. You gain visibility and contacts. You polish your skills and your image.
5. If you have done a job alone, don?t hesitate to accept the credit. Be just as quick to share the accolades when there has been a team effort.
Who Is Served By Your Reluctance?
If you are reluctant to promote your wares, ask yourself these questions:
If I can provide something of benefit, shouldn't I let the rest of the world know about it? Am I on an ego trip if I sit back and expect the world to beat a path to my door? Whose interests are being served by my reluctance to make known what I can do?
How many mice will I have helped to eliminate if I have built a better mousetrap, but nobody buys one because they don?t know about its value?
Posted by Ramon Greenwood on March 29, 2007 4:32 PM
Career Advice
How To Make Meetings Work For You
You might as well stop complaining about meetings. Like it or not, they are here to stay. So it makes sense to make meetings work for you.
Here eight things you can do to reach that goal.
1. Do your homework. Most people don't. Just by being prepared you will enjoy an advantage. Know what the meeting is all about--the stated purpose as well as the hidden agenda. If you don't know, ask. Study the background materials. Set your own goal for the session. Make a list of the points you want to make and compile the facts to support them.
2. Never be late for a meeting. If the others have started without you, you begin with a disadvantage. The positioning ritual has already begun, and some information has been exchanged.
3. Understand that meetings go through stages: (1) participants feel out each other; (2) a pecking order is established; (3) ground rules and purposes emerge; and (4) the subject is addressed.
Obviously, you clog up the process if you are operating in one stage while others are in another.
4. Understand the dynamics of the meeting, especially the seating arrangement. For example, you will see that if you are to be seated at a rectangular table, the leader will gravitate to the head of the table, whether the seat is assigned or not; the number two person will sit at the other end. Even if someone other than the top honcho is seated at the head of the table that person will act more forcefully than usual.
You can also get a feel for how confident various people are feeling about their roles by observing how they sit in their chairs. Those who are confident in their power are likely to be sitting more relaxed, sort of laid back in their chairs. Those who are supplicants, anxious to win a point or make an impression, are apt to be sitting forward in a somewhat rigid position.
5. Participate. You weren't invited to the meeting because of your good looks.
Speak up. If you have questions about the purpose of the meeting or the order of the agenda, say so. Help keep things on track by sticking to the point and challenging (in a friendly way) those who stray off the path.
6. If you have what you think is the best idea since sliced bread, offer it with confidence and enthusiasm, but not as if it were the only solution.
If someone tries to skew your idea in a direction you never intended, try saying, "I am sorry I didn't make myself clear. What I suggesting suggesting..."
Expect that others may attempt to amend your idea. If they are successful, always be the one who restates the revised version. This way you are assured your core idea survives and you retain authorship.
7. Don't be afraid to disagree with other participants when it is necessary. Although, disagreements are never pleasant, the meeting is foreordained to failure if honest differences of opinion aren't tolerated. Try to disagree pleasantly, of course.
8. Do your part to make meetings effective. Remember, some wise man said, "The only thing wrong with meetings is the people who attend them."
Posted by Ramon Greenwood on March 31, 2007 12:52 PM