Ongoing education is essential to an ongoing IT career, whether the job
market is hot or not. But when it comes to investing your educational
dollars, don't train for a job title; train for a career.

With the lull in the IT job market, many readers have written the IT
Career Advisor with questions about their continued education. Those who
have made it so far without a college degree are wondering if now's the
time to get one; others are debating more college education vs.
certification; and others are trying to choose a line of study to
pursue.

Unfortunately, there's no black and white, right or wrong answer to
these questions. It really comes down to looking at your career up to
now, where you want it to go in the future, and mapping a path between
those two points.

The education and training options available to IT professionals today
are so varied that it's easy to get stuck in the present when trying to
map out that path. A common pitfall is to focus on a trendy job title or
a hot skill set.

It's generally best to steer clear of programs that promise to prepare
you for a specific job title. A career change from the aerospace
industry wrote the IT Career Advisor that he is evaluating an
Associate's Degree in Applied Technology from a local community college
that would allow him to specialize in becoming a Web master, a database
administrator or a systems programmer. While a program with such
clear-cut specializations is attractive on many levels, it may not be
the best investment of his educational dollars for the long term.

Consider the job title "Web Master," for example. In the early days of
the Web, this title (and its many variations) was the must-have title
for the dot-com generation. It emerged as a highly visible, glamorous
position. But the importance of the title waned rather quickly. Today,
it's generally a career launch pad - an administrative taskmaster rather
than a strategic contributor.

Rather than funneling your discretionary education funds toward a
shortsighted goal based on a job title or hot skill, think of your
educational investment as you would any other financial investment - you
want a solid long-term return. In the example above, a better
educational choice for someone who wants to carve out an
Internet-related career would be a program that helps students
understand the unique drivers and processes behind conducting business
online.

So, instead of getting caught up in choosing between one job title or
another, community college or technical institute, a Master's degree or
an MCSE, focus on your long-range goals (think: function over form).
Start with where you see yourself three to five years from now, and then
work backward from there.

Looking at the long-term gains inherently eliminates education and
training choices that are rooted in IT fads or that are designed to
capitalize on trendy buzzwords. Pursuing additional education based
solely on what's the coolest IT job title of the moment, or what's the
most marketable skill right now, is not the most effective way to invest
in your continued IT career growth.

Marketability is important, of course. But don't make it the end-all and
be-all of your career planning. If you love what you do, you'll strive
to be good at it; and being good at what you do and exhibiting
enthusiasm for it are just as marketable as the latest buzzwords.

Over the next few weeks the IT Career Advisor will look at how to map
out educational investments that match your long-term goals and some of
the options that can give an IT career the extra oomph required in a
sluggish job market plus continue to pay off in the years to come.

» posted by ITworld staff

ITworld

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