So they're saying broad not deep
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| watux Aug 13, 2006 1:19 AM EDT |
Looks like sound advice at first glance... but “broad” implies diversity, also known as “lack of focus”. How does one pick the right kinds of diversity to be distracted by? In Real Life™ you simply don't. You go broke instead. Fun? |
| Sander_Marechal Aug 13, 2006 9:41 PM EDT |
Look again, it's targeted at SME IT personell, not all of IT in general. In the SME space you need to be a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. |
| dcparris Aug 14, 2006 1:44 PM EDT |
I was thinking it would be helpful to have a basic smattering of several areas, even if you generally focus on only one or two. |
| dinotrac Aug 14, 2006 2:26 PM EDT |
Broad AND Deep may be the best of all worlds...and not impossible. Nobody can be deep in everything. Too much to know and not enough time to learn. However, there is something to be said for not living in isolation, ie, knowing all there is to know about one thing, but knowing next to nothing about context. When I started my IT career with EDS, they had a program whereby trainees spent a year or more working at a client location doing decidedly non glamorous work before receiving any IT instruction or receiving a Systems Analyst (or Systems Engineer) title. They believed (and I believe) that understanding the business was a huge benefit to the people crafting systems to run it. That's probably a bit broader than most are ready to go,but the point remains...it's great to be an expert, but it's better to be an expert who knows where that expertise can be put to good use. |
| Sander_Marechal Aug 14, 2006 2:55 PM EDT |
Quoting:They believed (and I believe) that understanding the business was a huge benefit to the people crafting systems to run it. It is, I know. I was educated as a business engineer before I went into IT by accident. From what I see around me I'd say 25%-50% of IT problems (and with it large parts of the budget) are due to techies not fully understanding the suit or the business and vice versa (another mayor part is due to the suits not understanding the business as well, but that's PHB like behaviour we all see now and again). Putting on a business engineer's hat and looking at what a suit is actually trying to accomplish before implementing what he wants has given me a valuable insigh into how things are done around here. Sadly I also find that it really only works well in SME enviroments where you have a chance that your voice is heared. Doing the same in a really large corporation usually means bumping your head into established bureaucratic walls :-( |
| dinotrac Aug 14, 2006 3:02 PM EDT |
sander - There are many different corporate cultures. Personally, I've always preferred environments where the work I was doing related directly to the company's bottom line. Too many outfits look at IT as a cost rather than a resource. Much more fun to be seen as instrumental to the company's well-being. |
| Sander_Marechal Aug 14, 2006 9:40 PM EDT |
I know. It probabely depends on what business the company is in too. If you work anywhere somewhat related to the tech industry you gave a good chance IT is treated the right way. Alas, I work in logistics. IT is seen as little more than a burden. Something that should take a small as possible budget cut. I've actually heared logistcs managers compare logistics companies on the basis how how little percentage of the costs goes to IT, with anything above 5% behing classified as "very unhealthy". |
| dinotrac Aug 15, 2006 2:26 AM EDT |
sander - Sounds like you should be looking for a new company/industry. There comes a time in some corporate cultures when you realize that management views it's technical staff in the same way it views staplers. Things you need, things you don't want too many of, and things you don't want to pay too much for. Those are places to leave post-haste. They do not deserve you and they will make you miserable. There are too many of them, but they are not the universe. Let those people who actually wish to be staplers gravitate to them. Let them get the folks who carefully track every vacation and personal day, the ones who make sure they are in no earlier than 8:30 and leave no later than 5:00 (or 5:30 -- these things vary a bit), and the ones who compare notes to make sure that 5% really was the standard raise this year. If you care about what you're doing, you deserve better than that, and better than that is out there. |
| Sander_Marechal Aug 15, 2006 8:27 AM EDT |
If only I could get a job programming FLOSS :-) |
| dinotrac Aug 15, 2006 8:29 AM EDT |
I hear the dental industry is good.... ;0) |
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