InformationWeek

August 4, 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 Mr. Lovelace:
I am an undergraduate studying Computer Information Systems. During my college career, I have gained approximately two years' experience with high-end Unix systems in a sales environment.

I have the resources to attend graduate school, but I'm unsure whether or not to pursue a job immediately after graduation or to continue my education. I want to see myself in a CIO position years down the road and I am willing to work hard to get there.

What path do you recommend for me to take, a graduate program in CIS, an MBA, work after graduation while also working on a grad degree, or something completely different?

Patrick G.

Dear Patrick:
Your question--or variants on it--is a very common one. It can be rephrased as, "Now that I have a degree, am I more likely to attain my career goals by staying in school for more education or by getting a job immediately for additional work experience?

The question has a hidden assumption which I think masks the real issue. The query is almost always phrased so as to mean, "Which will count more with my potential employers when they consider promoting people, education or experience?". The more appropriate interrogative is, "Which path will better improve my own abilities to do future jobs?"

What counts with employers when they decide whom to promote is who is most likely to do the best job. The answer to your question depends on the extent to which additional education will give you additional skills.

It's what another degree can teach you, not whether you get one, that is most important. In truth, within a few years of entering the work force, your colleagues and bosses will probably have very little memory of what degrees you have and what schools granted them. What they will be interested in is your ability to learn rapidly, think creatively, solve problems quickly, and work well with others.

Sit down and think carefully as to what strengths and weaknesses you possess. Talk to professors and to the people with whom you have worked. Consider how additional formal education can help you improve your abilities. Make your decision based on what you have learned about your own proficiencies. I am sure it will be the right one for you.

Dear Herb:
I recently resigned from a startup company after working full time for five months because of differences with new management. I was one of the core members of the company and got a good severance package.

The company agreed to consider the time I spent there as consulting time rather than full-time employment. I am now actively searching for a new job and I am in a dilemma whether to put my job title at this startup as full-time software engineer or consultant. Which title will be advantageous to me in finding a job ?

Thanks,

Murthy

Dear Murthy:
The one that most accurately describes what you are doing.

I suppose some people would recommend that you put down one or the other title, depending on whether or not you want to be a consultant in your next position, but I'm not comfortable with that approach. Employers get very testy if they think people have deliberately misstated something on their resumés. Since you were a full-time employee and not an independent consultant, I suggest that you say that you worked for a startup company for five months and leave it at that.

One other point: whether you were there as a consultant or full-time person, stating that you left because of differences with management is a red flag with an employer. Rather than leaving it to people's imagination as to what you mean, you probably will be better off boiling that phrase down to one or possibly two very specific reasons that avoid sounding like a litany of the faults of your former employer.

Dear Herb:
I am a post-graduate student in computer science with five years of experience in the rubber, textile, and automobile industries. I have a good knowledge of materials management and payroll systems. I am familiar with Oracle and now I want to switch over to learning the ERP packages.

I am confused. Some guys say knowledge of SAP is better, and some say PeopleSoft is better to know to get a job. Some of the latter say SAP will be obsolete in two or three years, but there will not be any type of problem with PeopleSoft.

Please suggest to me what should I do now; training in SAP or training in PeopleSoft?

Vijai

Dear Vijai:
If your friends have that much knowledge of the relative sales strength of the ERP packages in the next two or three years, they should stop wasting their time in graduate school and concentrate instead on playing the stock market. They could quickly become rich and then donate money to the university and receive many honors from it, instead of toiling at the place for an advanced degree.

With its huge installed base of customers, the likelihood of SAP being obsolete in two to three years is nonexistent. Large companies dislike replacing systems that have cost them tens of millions of dollars after only a few years. Even if a wonderful new ERP package were to come onto the market, the investment in SAP systems by major businesses would have to continue for quite a while if for no other reason than because of what has been spent on them to date.

Both PeopleSoft and SAP make good-quality software. You will not go unemployed if you learn either system. Do some reading on the approach to solving business problems that both companies take and then make your decision. SAP is certainly the larger company with a much bigger ERP base, but PeopleSoft is an aggressive organization with a strong presence in the human resources market that it's attempting to leverage to the rest of the business. One factor you might want to consider, because of your experience with Oracle, is that the majority of SAP installations use it as their database engine.

Dear Herb:
I've been an accountant for some 20 years now, recently as a manager of inventory control for a retailer, and I just got the word that my company is moving out of state. I'll be out of a job within six months. I've got a accounting degree as well as an MBA, but I've recently had an increasing interest in the systems side of things and have been taking some classes at the local tech school.

I could easily go back into the accounting area, but I've had some thoughts that since this isn't in my heart anymore, maybe now is the time to change careers. I am wondering the best approach to get into either the networking/ communications area or into programming. Classes that I've taken at nights include data communications, programming logic, Novell 4, Unix, and Windows 95. I haven't taken quite enough classes to narrow down my ideal job desires yet, but wonder if more classes, maybe even full-time for a quarter or so, would be enough to make me desirable. I realize that I'd be starting over again in a new field.

With the shortage of good IS folks out there, wouldn't you think that there would be a need for a good hard-working business-minded person like myself? What would you suggest I do?

Thanks for the support.

Sam

Dear Sam:
There may be an easier way to get deeply involved in IT than abandoning all of your experience and education. You can leverage what you know by selling yourself to a new employer as a person who would contribute greatly in either of two ways. You can be the very educated user who can represent the accounting department on a new IT project, or you can be that new systems person whose forte is really solid experience on the accounting side of the fence.

Companies have a real need for knowledgeable people who cross the technological boundary. Unless you are just totally disgusted with worrying that one side of the ledger has a passing resemblance to the other, it would be a shame for you to not take advantage of what you know.

With regard to the courses that you're taking, I think that they aren't as focused as I would recommend to be consistent with the type of job I have indicated. You need to take some courses in systems analysis and project management to gain familiarity with these subjects. They should be useful to you and there's no need to wait until you have completed them before looking for a new job.

Good luck in your career plans and let me know how things turn out for you.

Dear Herb:
I started with my current company seven months ago. At that time, the network was very infantile in regard to policies, procedures, hardware redundancy, and communications to the outside world.

Now, all servers are RAID5, I have put in an Internet connection via an ISP, and I've started working on a disaster recovery plan, network policies, and network procedures.

Everyone has stated that I've done a great job maturing and stabilizing the network. Now, they want me to take over the phone system and all telecommunications for the company, in addition to my role as network administrator.

I'm excited by the idea and enjoy my current position, but the company has been dragging its feet with regard to my review. When I first took the network administrator position, the company and I agreed on a six-month performance and salary review. I took a stiff pay cut to get this job, and now I want to be paid for the work that I do and the hours I put in.

If the company continues to drag its feet, do I start to look at other positions with other companies, or do I stay and hope things change? I love my current position and responsibilities, but I know that I can make much more elsewhere.

Rod

Dear Rod:
The company promised you a performance and salary review after six months. They have a responsibility to honor their commitment to you. If they think you misunderstood what they promised, they have a responsibility to tell you that, too.

Go to your supervisor and ask for the review. If you continue to get put off, then look for another job. Regardless of how much you love your present job, you will grow to hate it if you think that the company is not keeping its word and is taking advantage of you.

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.

View past issues of "Ask The Secret CIO"