Wanted for hire: generalists, not IT specialists

High-tech professionals with fewer skills could land more IT jobs, according to Interop speakers who argue that specific high-tech training and IT certifications could be detrimental to a career in next-generation data centers.

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"The times we hire specialists to fill a gap we might have in a technology area we plan to embrace are few and far between," said Tim McLaine, global functional manager for data center services at Perot Systems. "The majority of people we bring in are entry-level and I don't care if they have data center or tactical experience. I more look for behavioral traits, such as enthusiasm, passion and energy because we can teach technical skills very easily."

With more than 30 years experience working in data center management first at EDS and now at Perot, McLaine said the changing environment requires IT pros to focus less on specific certifications and more on adopting a broad knowledge of existing and emerging technologies. Hiring managers aren't seeking specific experience in potential candidates, he said, because previous knowledge of data centers could actually hamper progress in today's environments.

"The deep technical experience from the past might not be applicable in our data center now," McLaine added during a panel at Interop that explored the technical skills needed to manage next-generation data centers.

Paul Clark, data center manager at The Ohio State University Medical Center, agreed that candidates need to be able to learn a broad set of technologies, becoming generalists in essence, and then apply the high-tech know-how to business scenarios. Unlike in the past, the data center team is not in a "vacuum" and needs to fully interact with the IT department as well as business managers, he says.

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