[lopsa-discuss] Career planning

[Brad Knowles]

At 9:14 PM -0500 2005-12-05, Andrew Maddox wrote:

>  How permanent is any job these days in IT? In systems/network fields,
>  especially?

	Not very, at least in my experience.  Many people seem to move on 
after just a year or two, pretty much regardless of where they are 
moving from or where they are going.

>              How do I keep myself informed of what's going on, current
>  on technology, moving forward in my responsibilities, and all that?

	That's a damn good question.  When you get some good answers, 
please let me know.

>  What does anyone else think? I think keeping in touch with people here is
>  a good channel,

	Yup.

>                  and LinkedIn seems to be popular (anyone who wants to send
>  or get an invite link and help me network, please let me know!).

	LinkedIn has potential, but I have yet to see much realization of 
that potential.  I'm still willing to give it the benefit of the 
doubt, at least for now.

>                                                                   Got my
>  local SAGE-like group, which I'm trying to help make more active,

	That's a good place.

>                                                                    and
>  I'm trying to find two or three reliable recruiters to build
>  relationships with.

	I've known some really good recruiters at Pencom and Collective 
Technologies.  In fact, all the good ones I know of have worked for 
them.

	That said, I've heard very mixed opinions on recruiters.  I'd 
like to find a few good ones myself, but outside of the ones I knew 
at Pencom and CT (who are obviously restricted in terms of who they 
can refer), I have yet to find any.

>  But what else?

	Don't forget conferences.  They're excellent places to network, 
learn about new and interesting stuff, etc....  Even if you can't get 
your employer to send you to conferences, you should try to get to as 
many good ones as you can.

>                  Do I need a specialty?

	Not necessarily.  I think a good generalist can be much more 
widely useful than a good specialist, although it wouldn't hurt to be 
able to fit into both kinds of roles.

>                                        What should it be?

	Objectively, I think security is a good choice.  Or databases. 
Or networking.  Those kinds of things are always in demand.  And it 
is not uncommon for a sysadmin to need to be able to do one or more 
of them, either as part of their job or in addition to their official 
job.

	Subjectively, I think you should ask yourself what kinds of 
things do you find interesting?


	However, when considering a specialty, ask yourself how much time 
and effort you're willing to put into learning that specialty, and 
what will happen when the company decides to outsource all that work 
to some other company.  On the flip side, ask yourself how you might 
be able to get a job working at the other company which does a lot of 
outsourcing in that field.

	It doesn't do you a whole lot of good to be a Unix/Internet 
e-mail systems specialist, when a new CEO comes along and decrees 
that the company mail system shall be Microsoft, and of course he's 
got all his own favourite people from his previous employer that he's 
bringing with him in that area.

>                                            Certifications - training
>  and studying for them, which are worthwhile?

	Very, very few.  Mostly so that you can get past the HR zombies 
which scan your resume to see if you mention the right buzzwords.

	The cisco certifications are pretty good.  And these days, if 
you're doing security, then you pretty much have to have a CISSP, or 
something along those lines.

>                                               How do I keep myself
>  competitive so that when the company that never has layoffs goes into
>  a massive restructuring or downsizing, I can land on my feet?

	Good question.  Let me know the answer when you find out.

>  Doing a lot of musing out loud, I'm curious what other LOPSoids think.
>  I'll probably post a version of this to SAGE-members, too, so ignore one
>  of the dupes if you get it.

	Done.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.