Career question for IT pro's...

[Tim Burke]

I know a ww forum is a strange place to ask an IT career question, but over the years I've noticed lots of people with IT careers on the ww forums.

I'm 45 and looking to switch careers. I currently am a medical equipment support supervisor at a large hospital system and want to get more into the computer programming/analyst/dba area (yeah I know I just described a wide window). I have enough database and report writing experience (Crystal Reports/Excel) to know that I enjoy this type of work.

I'm looking for any words of wisdom about which areas are the more demanding/rewarding. I don't necessarily want to be stuck behind the scenes since I enjoy working with people - even demanding people. Public speaking is no big deal either.

This is the program I am looking at http://web.sau.edu/cis/CIS/CISMajor.htm

Is a 4 year degree even necessary for this type of work? Maybe some local courses and a Microsoft certification?

Thanks for any insight!!!

Tim Burke

[Joe Pelonio]

Tim,

In a previous life I was an analyst. (up to '93) At that job I also served several times on an oral board interviewing lower level programmer and IT supervisory candidates (this was a civil service employer). The biggest problem we had was people that had great technical skills but were not so good at communicating with users. We'd found over the years that it's easier to teach the technical than the interpersonal. The downside was just being called in the middle of the night or being paged while eating dinner out with the family. There the minimum requirements were and still are for certain knowledges, skills, and abilities, that could be acquired through a variety of means, including but not limited to a 4 year degree.
Typically if you had no degree you'd offset that with specialized courses, experience (though none is actually required) or proven special skills.
This was for entry level which currently is paying $4,781-$5,812 monthly
there.

[Dennis Peacock]

Check for jobs at www.acxiom.com

I work at Acxiom and we're always looking for good IT folks. Oracle DBA's, Unix Engineers and such.....Most do not require a degree.

[Bob Weisner]

Check for jobs at www.acxiom.com

I work at Acxiom and we're always looking for good IT folks. Oracle DBA's, Unix Engineers and such.....Most do not require a degree.


Dennis:

I just looked at that website. They have a job listed as "ONLINE INVESTIGATOR". Do you know what that job is? Also, at the bottom of the job requirements, it says *cb*. What is *cb* ?


Thanks,

[Bob Johnson2]

I'm looking for any words of wisdom about which areas are the more demanding/rewarding. I don't necessarily want to be stuck behind the scenes since I enjoy working with people - even demanding people. Public speaking is no big deal either.

Is a 4 year degree even necessary for this type of work? Maybe some local courses and a Microsoft certification?

Thanks for any insight!!!

Tim Burke

We do just inhouse work (publisher/media) and I don't know of many dba's/programmers that interact with a lot of people, it's mostly a sit at your terminal and plink away type of thing other then the all too often meetings.
Sounds like you want a business where they sell what you design/maintain, that way you'd have customers to talk to and maybe even some road trips.
My brother's a dba/sys admin at one of the phone co's, he's pretty much the same as us. Look for something with a product, not a service.
No offence to the programmers out there but I'd opt for the dba, seems the programmers don't get to work on much of the overall picture, just smaller and smaller pieces. It used to be different.
I'd also think about working on the 4 yr degree or at least be in a good program while you look around and interview. It's something that shows me the person is serious about the field. The folks who get the 6 or 9 month crash courses are a dime a dozen around here.

[Kevin Herber]

If I were to start over I'd look seriously at Disaster Recovery. That seems to be the hot ticket now.

-- Kevin

[Matt Meiser]

I work in consulting which gives me a lot of opportunities to do different things and work with a lot of people, including a lot of difficu...er, I mean demanding people. The downside is that there's constant pressure to finish projects on budget, stay billable, and bring in new work--most of which conflicts. I'm lucky that in my current position, I'm given more latitude on the billable part.

I have an EE degree and am a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer. We pretty much only consider only people with relavent 4-year degrees for developer and analyst jobs and we push for some kind of additional certification, usually Microsoft since that's what we work with the most. The job market here is down for IT (and just about everything else) but we still have difficulty hiring good people. We'll get dozens upon dozens of resumes, but they'll often have no relavent experience.

[Rich Konopka]

I have an EE degree and am a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer. We pretty much only consider only people with relavent 4-year degrees for developer and analyst jobs and we push for some kind of additional certification, usually Microsoft since that's what we work with the most. The job market here is down for IT (and just about everything else) but we still have difficulty hiring good people. We'll get dozens upon dozens of resumes, but they'll often have no relavent experience.

I agree wth Matt that most companies are looking for 4 year degree's or relevant experience. Microsoft certification is good. And if you fo the Microsoft route I would focus on security / identity management. :rolleyes::D

However, you mentioned that you have enough database and report writing experience. What does enought mean? If you have good SQL analytics skills then I would focus in that area. I work for a DB company that begins with O and I see the demand for SQL developers, Reporting, and BI to be one of the hottest area's outside of security/identity management and SOA.

Also, if you have industry experience that always is a very important area to illustrate on a resume.

Cheers

[Tim Burke]

However, you mentioned that you have enough database and report writing experience. What does enought mean? If you have good SQL analytics skills then I would focus in that area. I work for a DB company that begins with O and I see the demand for SQL developers, Reporting, and BI to be one of the hottest area's outside of security/identity management and SOA.

Also, if you have industry experience that always is a very important area to illustrate on a resume.

Cheers

By "enough", I mean that my hands on experience is enough to convince me that I know what I like. I do not think it is probably good enough to convince someone to hire me.

I have been responsible for maintenance management databases since 1987, pretty much as a "power user". I have written gazillions of reports in Crystal for myself, front line techs, other supervisors, upper managers, administrators, and other department managers. I'm not an SQL expert, but I have familiarity with SQL commands.

I think my greatest strength is extracting relevant data and formatting the output into a understandable format for whoever the intended audience is. I like taking the raw data into a form that is practical and highly productive for people to do their jobs.

Thanks for everyone's feedback!

[Matt Meiser]

Rich is right on. "Business Intelligence" is a hot topic right now. Companies have been working hard on collecting all kinds of data, and now they realize that if they want to use it, they need to be able to extract it and look at it in meaningful ways.

[John Kain]

Tim, have you ever thought about being a sales rep for a surgical equipment company? I ask because most of the guys I like to associate with (spine surgery) have a good background in woodworking/machining/farming. It makes my life easier when the rep I'm working with during the case can tell me about the product (pressure allowances, angles, how to manipulate the product to a specific case...etc) and help me out. I work with 3 good reps who all have a background in "hands-on" careers/upbringing who help me through jams on a daily basis. I know I help them get paid well too.............

Hell, some of them make more money than I do...........

[Gary Herrmann]

I've been an IT consultant for quite awhile now. Used to write code and do some dba work. But for the last 8-10 years or so, I've done mostly BA and PM work. You might want to look into Business Analyst work. I almost exclusively PM projects now, and find that I miss the BA work sometimes.

Having technical experience is very helpful, and communication skills are critical. You'll work with the clients up front to define scope and establish their requirements. Then you write use cases for the dev team and work on the conceptual and (sometimes) technical design phase to flesh out the deliverable. After that you may develop the test cases for UAT. It may be somewhat similar to what you've done with Crystal and other SQL work if you've created reports for people other than yourself.

Try to find small contracting or consulting shop that will give you a chance to prove your skills. Leverage the experience you have in healthcare. You may even want to see if you can transfer to IT internally and pick up relevant experience that way. Use your contacts to get your foot in the door somewhere. Shops differ in how much emphasis they place on relevant degrees.

[Maurice Metzger]

Tim, here in the Silicon Valley area there is a job specialty called a Sales Engineer. If you like software and you like dealing with people that might be the way to go. I'm not sure if the position exists elsewhere.

- Maurice

[Steven Wilson]

"medical equipment support supervisor" My advise is choose something that requires face time with the client and is unlikely to be outsourced; plain developer, DBA, and developer DBA roles are fairly easily outsourced. I've had a bunch of experience in the last few years supporting the outsourcing of those activities. What you have to differentiate yourself is your medical equipment experience. Combine that with a desire to work with people and I would recomend some sort of pre-sales technical support position; basically work with sales teams on persuits. Another avenue might be a data analyst position or project management position in the medical space. If you already have a 4 year degree I wouldn't go back and get another, if not you might consider it. Otherwise I would look at relevent certification in the areas you're interested in

[Jeremy Gibson]

Tim,

My story may not be typical, but maybe it will help a bit. I started my IT career in 1989 when I enlisted in the Air Force as a computer programmer. I learned to break problems appart into code-able pieces. I spent 8 years in the AF and did office automation process work, administration, customer support, pure development in C/Motif, database application programming, and network admin and design. In each job I was faced with a new challenge and little or no official training. I took some college classes and CLEP tests to get an AAS in Computer Science.

In 1997 I left the AF and was hired by IBM in part because I was local to a big client and in part because I had a varied past. I spent several years helping the client navigate the complex support structure of IBM and learned how clients viewed software vendors. I moved through a few jobs, but always focused on existing customers and best practices to give them the most bang for their software buck. I even got the opportunity to co-author a book on software deployment. I started to get a BS in Business Administration through an accredited online university mostly to round out my resume and for my own satisfaction. I'm set to graduate this June - Summa Cum Laude!

In November 2005 I left IBM to be an independent contractor working with a small firm I also helped create called Software Success Partners. We took the lessons learned at IBM (all three partners came from IBM) and apply it without any vendor bias. My first engagement required some fairly intense Access skills. I used my past knowledge of SQL, but primarily attacked the challenge by getting a few books and giving myself a crash course. I would not consider myself a DBA or even an Access expert, but I quickly learned enough for the client to recommend I take the lead.

The point to all of this is that nobody can know everything, especially in a fast changing industry as IT. If I were looking to hire an additional partner in our firm I would look for communication skills, an ability to learn new technologies, and a desire to help clients. I believe that in a service industry people need to think of how to help the client first and worry about closing a sales deal second. In that way I believe the client feels comfortable spending money instead of being "sold" to.