InformationWeek

August 11, 1998

I am a CPA and am employed as the chief financial officer of a nonprofit organization with a budget of about $4 million. As we are not a large company, I have been charged with the duty of also being the IT director. I have considerable client-server background dating back to about 1990. I was a systems administrator for the computer lab in college, as well as at my last two positions. Through this time, I have become extremely confident in building, maintaining, repairing, and replacing both systems and servers. My problem is that my degree is in accounting. I prefer computer systems work to accounting, but cannot seem to move out of my field. Any suggestions?

You really shouldn't have a problem making the cutover, especially with the experience base you describe. It could be how you're representing it in a resumé. Does your resumé describe your IT experience like you just did in your question to me? If not, it should. As a suggestion, a packaged vendor would love to have a candidate like you for the financial-systems modules. All the ERP vendors are targets for you: SAP, PeopleSoft, Baan, and other financial system vendors like Hyperion, J.D. Edwards, and Lawson. You shouldn't have a problem making the transition, so have a headhunter evaluate your resumé to see if it's structured to show your interests and experiences.

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