Making It in IT - How to Help Me Help You

On an amazingly regular basis, I get e-mail, field posting comments or otherwise get queries from all kinds of folks interested in career or certification advice. As I’ve responded to these many requests,  I’ve compiled a list of questions that I invariably end up asking these IT professionals.

Hoping to learn from my experience with others, here is my list of questions that I’d humbly request you answer to help me give the best possible insight of information, suggestions and advice as I might be able to supply. Please answer as many of these as you can. The more you tell me, the better I'll be able to reply.

1. What is your educational background? High school diploma? Associate’s degree? Bachelor’s degree? Graduate degree(s)? Please also briefly describe any incomplete progress toward any of these items (for example “two years of computer science grad courses, 2/3 of MS completed”).

2. What is your prior work experience? How many years of work, and what kind of work have you done? Any volunteer work? Part-time work in school or elsewhere? (You’d be surprised how much value employers give to those who show evidence of being able to hold a job, and how much credit they give to people willing to work as volunteers or part-time in order to get experience in their chosen fields.)

3. Where do you live? What is the job market like there? How much opportunity for entry-level people? Mid-career people? Senior people? Are you flexible about relocation, or do you have to stay in your general geographic area? (Feel free to answer only those questions that relate to your personal situation: if you’re just starting out, please skip the mid- and senior-career stuff.)

4. Are you interested in working in management, or would you prefer to stay on a technical track? Have you ever done any project management (and again, school, part-time, and volunteer experience all help)?

5. What kinds of certifications interest you? Please describe any certification held, is it current or has it lapsed, and when earned. How does this fit your overall technical interests? Is there anything outside of certification that particular catches your imagination, or that you’d really like to work on or around?

6. Do your long-term career goals include staying in your current position (or in the same field as the next position you’re seeking, if applicable)?

7. What kind of job are you doing now? What kind of job would you like to be doing? How important is salary to you? How important is job satisfaction? If you could have any job at all, what would that be?

With answers to these questions, I gain the advantage of learning something about you, as well as the various options you might be pondering, and a range of possible opportunities that might possibly fit your needs or desires. This helps me to provide answers that have a better chance of helping both in the short and long terms, and that can be tailored to specific locations, circumstances, needs, and goals.

I hope this makes sense, and that those interested in asking for my input or advice will understand why such information is helpful to me, and thus ultimately also helpful to them. In fact, I have heard from several people who’ve diligently worked through this questionnaire that they’ve been able to use that information to figure things out themselves without actually having to ask me anything at all!

Please provide me with some information when you can, but also please accept my best wishes for your planning, hopes, efforts and progress toward a fulfilling and meaningful career. If I can help you on that path, it’s my pleasure to do so.

Ed Tittel is a 30-year-plus veteran of the computing industry, who’s worked as a programmer, a technical manager, a classroom instructor, a network consultant and a technical evangelist for companies that include Burroughs, Schlumberger, Novell, IBM/Tivoli and NetQoS. He has written and blogged for numerous publications, including Tom's Hardware, and is the author of over 140 computing books with a special emphasis on information security, Web markup languages and development tools, and Windows operating systems.

E-mail Ed at etittel@tomsitpro.com with your request for IT certification or career info, or your ideas for future blogs. If your e-mail leads him to a blog topic, he’ll have the Tom’s staff send you your very own Tom’s IT Pro t-shirt! Be the envy of your friends and colleagues, and help him help you with your IT career!

(Shutterstock cover image credit: Skills)