As IT professionals, sooner or later we decide to look for another job (hopefully voluntarily). And even if you’re not looking for a job at the moment, it’s always a good idea to have your resume current … you’ll never know when you’ll need it.
What do potential employers look for? Is it someone with deep technical skills developed through computer science and/or software engineering degrees?
There was a time when that was what really counted. Moreover, if you could add to that some computer certifications that implied measurable hands-on experience, that was even better.
But in these days of out-sourcing and off-shoring, it seems that potential employers are interested in more than technical depth. They want breadth of experience. They want people who can work in teams, communicate, and solve problems – and you don’t need a computer science degree for that. In fact, those individuals may be presumed to have less breadth of experience, rightly or wrongly so.
Another way to think of this is programmers versus programmer analysts. A programmer typically is very deep technically. A programmer analyst has technical skills but also doesn’t need to code directly from specs – they may be writing those specs.
And even beyond programmer analysts, there are analysts. Analysts may not be deep at all in technical skills, but can think of questions to ask, perhaps look “outside the box.”
People with job openings know that technical skills can be learned – it just takes getting that computer science or software engineering degree. However, someone with another type of degree may have skills that that technician would have more of a challenge acquiring. This may be one reason why getting a MBA is so popular!
To read more about tech skills and college degrees, see http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/040609-hot-tech-skills.html.
