InformationWeek

May 26, 1998

Your letters to my print column and this E-mail forum ask some serious questions about managing information technology in today's world. Since today's world is essentially absurd, my serious responses may sometimes sound a little whimsical, and my occasional whimsical ones, serious. In any case, if you want to participate, write to me at lovelace@home.com . I'll respond to those letters that I can. I reserve the right to edit for size and content. Just sign your E-mail the way you want it to appear online.

Dear Herb:
After about nine years in various roles as programmer, analyst, and systems programmer, I was given the role of computer operations manager in an insurance business mainframe shop. I have been in this position for six years. While I considered this an advantageous move, at least on a short-term basis, it is not a high-demand area. For about four of those six years I had responsibility for the IS help desk and the LAN and WANs.

However, those areas have recently broken off into a separate department due to their growth. Do you have any suggestions on proper positioning or focus to make myself more marketable within the field of data processing?

Shel

Dear Shel:
The first thing is to get with the jargon. Start to call it information technology, not data processing. As sad as it may be, you are no doubt aware of the importance h iring managers place on the image that is projected by prospective employees.

Next, focus on the hot skills that you have and the ones you may not even realize that you do. For example, mainframe operations management is not a hot skill; help desk experience and networks knowledge are. Start to bone up on what is happening in these domains. Write a resumé that stresses your accomplishments with the company's LANs and WANs. If you've been in charge of them for a half-dozen years, you probably have a lot of war stories to tell.

Then, having done all of these things, take a look at your career path in your own company and ask a few questions. When the help desk and networking areas were split off from your control due to their growth, how come you were chosen to stay with the computer operations, rather than head up one the expanding areas? Speak with your supervisor and get a candid appraisal of your performance and potential. You might learn a lot that will help you either in making yo urself more marketable or in advancing in your present position, if you choose to stay with your employer.

Dear Herb:
I have worked for the last 20 years in publishing as a sales and marketing executive. I am currently the VP of sales and marketing at a small company with sales of slightly less than $10 million.

I have always been a lover of technology. I read the trade press, attend Comdex, etc. I know technology very well and I'd love to transfer my sales, marketing, and media skills into high tech, but I feel that I would not be given consideration due to my lack of high-tech job experience.

How can I make the transition at a salary level comparable to my executive experience?

Fred

Dear Fred:
I don't know that you can make the transition at a salary level comparable to your executive experience. It all depends on how well you leverage that background into a new job that has the high component of technology that you find so attractive, but capitalizes on your 20 years of knowledge.

What I do know is that you can be given consideration for a position in information technology even though you do not have a great deal in the way of high-tech credentials. The IT world needs people who have the ability to communicate ideas and win acceptance for them.

One of the best systems managers I know came out of a sales job. He sold a product that was as far away from being technology-based as Peking is from Cleveland. But, he loves technology and he has a wonderfully creative mind. He based his new career campaign on his ability to relate to people and to learn quickly. Prospective employers were impressed with his interpersonal skills and surprised at what he knew about IT. He also did not make the mistake of trying to show off and act as if he were an expert; he simply communicated what he did know.

Take stock of your accomplishments and your goals. View achieving them as a sales campaign that is going to require a clear plan and move forward in implementing it. I have a feeling that you will be surprised by the results you achieve.

Dear Herb:
I am facing the possibility of moving to the Research Triangle area in North Carolina. I am currently a police officer and possess a bachelors degree in criminal justice. I am greatly interested in a career change to the computer industry. I am interested in both hardware and software applications, and am unsure of what path to take, what education to pursue, etc. I have only been "playing" with computers for about a year now and have had many people in the computer industry surprised by how much I have learned in that time. I have heard that many companies will hire individuals and train them in the programs needed by the company. Should I pursue a higher degree or can I just take a few classes and be trained by employers?

Thanks,
Adam H.

Dear Adam:
Either path can lead you into a new career and neither can be said to be overwhelmingly superior in increasing initially the odds that you may meet your objective. Completing a degree program has the advantage of providing a prospective employer with proof positive that you have the basic credentials in the field. The real downside is that, assuming you go to school at night, you are talking years before graduating. On the other hand, if you just take a few classes, your major hurdle will be in getting hired.

There is an approach that might just help you minimize some of the difficulties with either alternative. It is to enroll in a degree program and write a resumé that emphasizes the relevant skills you have learned or applied over the past year.

Have you used computers in your police work? Some of the law enforcement officers that I know have written programs not available from the central command to help their local station reduce paperwork or keep track of suspects. Employers would love to know about such activities because they show real initiative.

You probably have worked primarily with PCs. If you can learn a few basic applications packages such as Microsoft Office and how to help people who have problems with either Windows or NT, you have a good chance at snaring a job as a help desk analyst. Don't forget to communicate your skills in dealing with the public as a means of showing your ability to be able to handle such a job. Being capable of managing an unruly crowd or a disorderly person is excellent training for coping with a surly and frustrated user.

Finally, don't rule out a continuation of your career in police work. Many of the people who run the computer systems in major law enforcement agencies are sworn officers who got their start by focusing on how to use the comp uter skills that they had learned on their own.

Good luck and let me know how you make out in achieving your goal.

Dear Herb:
I tend to read InformationWeek from back to front, starting with your article. It was with some interest, therefore, that I read " But What's the Focus? ".

I don't work for a research company or anything like that: just a small computer reseller in Portland, Ore. I have been part of dozens of focus groups about everything from hard drives to keyboards. Most of the focus groups have been the same: 15-20 people in the computer industry who are shown various devices and asked their opinions. Not being the quiet type, I identified with your observation of the "know-it-all who just talks and talks, delighted to hear their own voices and impress all of us with their opinion." I'm hoping you were taking artistic license with exaggeration, since I talk because that's my nature, not my method of trying to impress anyone.

Admittedly, my main reason for doing focus groups when asked, are the freebies (got a Pentium II core key-chain, Microsoft Natural keyboard, hard drives, pens, etc.) and the money ($50-$100 an hour for after-hours "work" isn't bad) but I really DO enjoy giving a manufacturer my opinion. It is my belief that far too many products are marketed and shipped without proper research, omitting features that could have been included had they asked a broad enough audience at the start.

I just wanted to let you know that I believe that focus groups (if done correctly) should be considered an indispensable tool that manufacturers should use for virtually every product they build.

Don H.

Dear Don:
I agree with you that properly done focus groups are very useful. When you take a look at some of the silly stuff that gets on the market, you have to wonder if anyone ever asked consumers if they would have the vaguest interest in buying any of it. I also think, however, that focus groups can never take the place of design inspiration and an understanding of what the public will ultimately decide it needs.

There are two basic flaws with relying too heavily on focus group results. The first flaw was discussed in But What's the Focus? : If the group is poorly chosen or poorly led, then the results are worthless. You no doubt remember the old computer mantra: Garbage in, garbage out.

The second flaw is one that marketing types could discuss for hours. Some individuals believe in building what the public says it wants; others believe that some products require time for people to accept and develop a desire for them. Typically, breakthrough inventions are of this nature. When items as diverse as the personal computer, the VCR, the microwave oven, and even the telephone were first introduced, people t ook to them slowly in the home market, partially because of cost but also because they were not sure of exactly how useful these new gadgets would be.

As in many things, not just focus groups, relying on just one path to enlightenment can be a dangerous thing. For example, it can provide fodder for someone to write about what they have observed.

Herbert W. Lovelace is CIO at a multibillion-dollar international company. Herb practices his day job under an alias and has changed the names of colleagues to protect the guilty.