The evolving skill set reflects the rapid-fire trends that have been impacting business for much of the last decade. We’ve been through the dot-com boom and subsequent bust, a massive infrastructure upgrade driven by Y2K concerns over outdated technology, the post 9/11 impact on travel, and the global financial crisis and credit crunch. Technology has shifted as well, with mobile applications and smartphones, SaaS and cloud computing, virtualization, storage innovations, multicore servers and myriad other technological advances.
It’s no wonder that the information worker is seeing revisions to the job role faster than he or she can keep up with the changes.
Becoming More Business Focused
The recent global financial crisis compelled CEOs and other business leaders to call upon IT to take on a wide set of responsibilities for achieving business goals. Gone are the days when the job revolved around three-year desktop refresh cycles, implementing server upgrades and expanding data centers. Today, the call is for IT leaders to collaborate with business functions and determine how to address broader business needs. More companies are outsourcing the “keep the lights on” IT functions, such as desktop support and server refreshes, and asking IT to focus on business goals.
For example, if you work for a consumer packaged goods firm, your role will likely evolve (if it hasn’t already) to the point where you’ll work with marketing to improve analytics and sell more cans of soup or bars of soap. If you work for a distributor or supply chain company, you may be called on to implement technologies that improve quality of data, optimize shipping schedules or trucking routes, or even basics like ensuring that inventory and ordering systems link to one another.
The greatest thing that IT can bring to this “work with the business” initiative is developing a strong understanding of how the technology relates to business needs. No matter what your industry, the trend is clear – you’ll be working more closely with people throughout your organization.
Wither Certifications? The Growing Importance of Soft Skills
As your job evolves from working in the data center to working with the lines of business, some of the traditional skill sets become less important, and some additional requirements are taking their place. It used to be that an IT professional with the right Cisco, Microsoft or project management professional certification could write his or her own ticket.
Now firms need their IT staff to be well versed in soft skills – communications skills (interpersonal – not data networking), presentation skills, listening and organization. Communication skills are especially important. The ability to articulate an idea to non-IT professionals is not easy. Drop the jargon and start explaining how some element of your IT organization impacts the business.
The recent U.S. financial crisis impacts the IT worker – for a not-so-obvious reason. Many tech professionals who are out of work have pursued a technology certification while unemployed. This has caused firms to become very specific about the experiences they’re looking for. While technology skill requirements are still specific, the majority of firms don’t necessarily care about the specific certification. They want to know whether the person actually has the skills and experiences to get the job done.
A good example is the market for PMPs. So many in-transition workers have focused on getting their PMP certification that the certification by itself is not as valuable as it once was. IT professionals need to couple the certification with relevant work experiences – experience is what makes the difference. Today more companies will consider a candidate without a PMP.
Don’t get a PMP just to “get ahead.” If you’re truly interested in process management, the PMP may enhance your on-the-job skills. But if you’re serious about being a transformative IT leader, an MBA or other degree may be more important to future employers. That goes for the technologies that are hot as well – collaboration tools like SharePoint and .NET are still hot, as is Windows, but combine the IT certification with solid business training or experience.
The ability to develop or leverage personal networks and become more connected across the business realm is also important. This need is driven by the changes in your company’s HR department. They’ve likely been cut as well, therefore the ability for firms to sort through an influx of hundreds of resumes and choose top candidates is weaker. Increasingly, companies rely on personal networks to help with staffing. If you’re not reaching out to the community – chapters of IT groups, networking organizations, local technology associations – you may be missing a chance to influence your company’s growth.
The key to success is continuing education – more people are engaging in some form of continuing education because they are in transition. Those who are employed need to keep up. Pursue dual professional tracks, if appropriate for your career goals – ultimately, you need to understand what you want to do. Climbing the ladder in IT is not just learning how to manage people or take on multiple projects – you need to become business savvy.
Tony Hotko is vice president of Talent Solutions. He can be reached at thotko@laurustech.com.
Tony, as VP of Talent Solutions at your company I am completely disillusioned by your post. Not because of your message but because of the amount of disinformation in your article in combination with the position you are employed in. While I agree that IT personnel need to focus on developing business acumen I'm afraid that your continuing comments in regards to certifications are entirely inaccurate.
Please review what the PMP is and then take down or fix your post.
Briefly: The PMP is a soft-skill (not IT as you alluded) certification on Project Management (not process management as you repeatedly stated) for EXPERIENCED project managers with 7,500 documented work hours as a project manager leading projects (not, as you put it; for people just trying to "get ahead" who have a certification with no experience, this is simply impossible due to the requirements for the certification). It was also alluded to that PMP is no longer as popular or in-demand since the recession hit, this is completely counter-intuitive and if you in your capacity at your company are no longer requiring or giving preference to hires with a PMP then you need to review your hiring policy/practices. The PMP is on nearly every PM job posting I've seen for months, PMP's are focused with delivering projects successfully and lowering the overall rate of failure (which is still astonishingly high) on projects. To say that companies are going through cuts and trying to keeps costs under control by NOT looking at having seasoned, experienced professionals at the reigns is simply ridiculous.
If you are going to promote the importance of soft skills then do not trash one of the few soft skill certifications out there, specially not when the PMP is one of the most difficult to obtain from a qualification/requirements standpoint, if not most, certification on the market. Requiring 7,500 hours of documented experience as a project manager, 35 hours of formal accredited training and a lifetime commitment to learning/volunteering and 60 PDU's every 3 years for life. Please review the PMP curricula.
First, the notion that continuing education needs to be dual-tracked, comprising both business and technology, is a critical insight. If there were good educational programs around soft-skills, another focus of the article, I would suggest continuing education should be triple-tracked. Of course educators can try to emphasize soft skills in the way courses are designed, but there is no School of Soft Skills.
I teach in a continuing education program (www.marquette/computing) that strives to balance learning about business and technology. In my classes, I emphasize, People, Process, and Technology. The people part of the message is the "soft-skills" and caring for the customer. Process speaks to the business interests and effective methodologies to deliver information systems (such as PMI's PMBOK). Technology needs to follow these two and support the People and the Process.
While technology comes last, it should not be underestimated as a source and enabler of innovation. Innovation frequently occurs at the boundaries between business and technology. Continuing education serves two purposes. One to keep workers informed of advances but the other, which may be more important, is to stimulate thoughts that can lead to innovation.