Career Advice for IT Students

Advice for the next generation of IT execs, an article in Network World reiterates the point of a previous post: the need for today and tomorrow's IT workers to have general business skills and not just technical skills.

from the article:

Awareness of the business side of IT - and the IT side of business - is going to be crucial for anyone starting out in today's workforce. A report issued by Gartner last September predicts that by 2010, six out of 10 people affiliated with IT will assume business-facing roles. Gartner says "technical aptitude alone will no longer be enough" as IT execs will need to "possess expertise in multiple domains." CIOs want IT pros with breadth and depth of skills and diverse experiences, rather than deep and narrow specialization, Gartner says.

The article quotes a number of IT execs, including Jeffrey van Brunt, assistant vice president of finance and IT, Salt Lake Theological Seminary, Utah, who states:

Today's students should focus more on general business skills than on specific technology skills. Businesses will want IT professionals [who] understand how IT really relates to the basics of what businesses do. This is why more and more, companies are looking for those who have skill sets related to things such as Six Sigma, process analysis and design, and general business knowledge, in addition to some set of technical skills.

Although the article is from a networking magazine, the advice is great for any IT career path.