Where is the Information Systems industry headed?

java-programmer, Where is the Information Systems industry headed? Our university is doing some survey work to consider where the world
of IS is headed. Since most of those here work in that world, I'm
interested in your thoughts, especially if you think you have a good
feel for job skills needed now and job skills needed in the future.

The question is sort of two pronged.

First, where are IS jobs headed? Will there continue to be a
significant demand for programming skills? What type of analysis
skills (especially in terms of those that can be developed
academically) are important? Are the requirements changing -- will
things look different in the next five to ten years?

Second, what are the specific things you would think IS majors should
understand when leaving the university? Do you think any of those
things are going to change in the next 5-10 years?

Those are broad questions since I want to leave a lot of room for your
thoughts. I'd like to have some idea of what your role is in your
business and what type of business you are in if you answer (I know
some people don't like to give specifics on here and that's fine --
just "we are a manufacturing company, or I'm a private consultant" is
enough).

Lastly, I'd point out that I'm not interested in specific language
skills, etc. I'm not interested in starting another Sun/Microsoft war
or anything like that. Our philosophy is that even if we use Java/Sun
products for everything we do, you ought to be able to go into a shop
using Smalltalk or .Net or whatever and get up to speed quickly -- so
it's the broader concepts that I'm referring to.

I don't know whether I'll reply to all responses unless I'm looking
for clarification, but I promise I'll give all serious consideration.

Thanks for any ideas,

Marty McMahone
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
Texas

java-programmer >> Where is the Information Systems industry headed? Marty McMahone wrote:

> Our university is doing some survey work to consider where the world
> of IS is headed. Since most of those here work in that world, I'm
> interested in your thoughts, especially if you think you have a good
> feel for job skills needed now and job skills needed in the future.
>
> The question is sort of two pronged.
>
> First, where are IS jobs headed? Will there continue to be a
> significant demand for programming skills? What type of analysis
> skills (especially in terms of those that can be developed
> academically) are important? Are the requirements changing -- will
> things look different in the next five to ten years?
>
> Second, what are the specific things you would think IS majors should
> understand when leaving the university? Do you think any of those
> things are going to change in the next 5-10 years?
>
> Those are broad questions since I want to leave a lot of room for your
> thoughts. I'd like to have some idea of what your role is in your
> business and what type of business you are in if you answer (I know
> some people don't like to give specifics on here and that's fine --
> just "we are a manufacturing company, or I'm a private consultant" is
> enough).
>
> Lastly, I'd point out that I'm not interested in specific language
> skills, etc. I'm not interested in starting another Sun/Microsoft war
> or anything like that. Our philosophy is that even if we use Java/Sun
> products for everything we do, you ought to be able to go into a shop
> using Smalltalk or .Net or whatever and get up to speed quickly -- so
> it's the broader concepts that I'm referring to.
>
> I don't know whether I'll reply to all responses unless I'm looking
> for clarification, but I promise I'll give all serious consideration.
>
>
> Thanks for any ideas,
>
> Marty McMahone
> University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
> Texas

Tricky one - and I, too, wish I had a crystal ball.

I'm in my mid-30's. I wish to remain such that my skills are not only
profitable, but also marketable (it's pointless being on GBP600/day if,
after the contract finishes, your skills were only useful in that one
contract - give me a stable GBP400/day skillset anyday that would, in the
long run, bring in more money).

But, from my experiences, I got into Unix back in 1988, and I've stuck with
it.

I got into Sybase 6 years ago, and it still, apparently, continues to be the
database of choice of the investment banking industry.

*BUT*, I know that Linux is now being considered as an alternative to
Windows or Solaris or both. I worked a Credit Suisse | First Boston a
couple of years ago and attended a lecture where Linux was about to undergo
feasability tests.

> Second, what are the specific things you would think IS majors should
> understand when leaving the university? Do you think any of those
> things are going to change in the next 5-10 years?

What should they understand? That the only thing that will always be around
is change. Everything else won't always be around.

In my experience, soft skills are more important. An IT (we say IT in the
UK - Information Technology) manager told me once, "If I approached 10
agencies for a good C++ programmer, I'd get 100s of CVs. If I approached
30 agencies or more for a good Support person, I'd get far less responses".
Attitude cannot be learned from a book, only experience and wisdom will
give you that. (Minor gripe: sadly a lot of HR departments don't
understand this and choose to wordcount buzzwords on a CV)

Also, I recently went for some psychometric tests. The Ops Manager said,
"You can't study for these, it's just the way your head is wired up - you
either have it or you haven't". He went onto explain that the reason
psychometric tests were so important to them is because if you fail them,
you probably don't have the natural ability to do the job. An example: one
of the tests was "clerical checking" - if you don't have a natural ability
to accurately and quickly compare two lists, one handwritten say and one
computer printout, then you're unlikely to be able to do a job that
requires this ability as well as the guy who has it.

I met a guy recently who joined this particular company as a chef. Out of
curiosity he did the tests, and sat in a room with two others who were also
sitting the tests: one had a Masters Degree in Computer Science, and other
guy had a lot of experience. Both of them failed, he passed. He's now
team leader in the QA department. He just had a natural ability that the
others didn't have.

I don't have a degree. Yet I have gone into an investment bank and taken
over a failing project from a PhD holder, and done a better job than him.
But he has a PhD, and I don't have any degree.

And I can think of many others I've worked with over the years. Eg, one guy
was described to me by one of his co-workers as, "Technically brilliant,
but a complete cretin when it comes to dealing with people." This person
would spend a lot of time on the phone to traders explaining why their
system wasn't working. Even though he was technically brilliant, he didn't
have the ability to realise that the trader was not interested in this -
only in passing the technical problem onto a technical person so he could
get back to making money on the markets. In my opinion, these are the
types of skills that will always be required.

The moral of all this blabbing? Skills can be quickly learned. Aptitutes,
abilities and attitudes are not so easily learned, if at all.

java-programmer >> Where is the Information Systems industry headed? darren_uk <email***@***.com> wrote in message news:<ZtfVb.1306$email***@***.com>...
> Marty McMahone wrote:
>
>
> The moral of all this blabbing? Skills can be quickly learned. Aptitutes,
> abilities and attitudes are not so easily learned, if at all.

Skills cannot be quickly learned by all at the same pace. Some pick
up certain skills easier than others.

I've run into people who are "technically gifted but just can't deal
with people", too. I've often wondered just how much of the problem
stems from being oblivious to the fact that other 'regular' folk don't
wanna hear technobabble and how much is from loving to hear themselves
talk about what they think they know...