A classic New England vignette: Two old-timers from Maine are lazing in
rocking chairs on the front porch of the General Store. A tourist
approaches and asks for directions. And one of the old-timers answers
matter-of-factly, "Well, yah can't get ovah the-yah from ovah he-yah."

When thinking about thinking about future career goals, sometimes it's
easy to come to the same conclusion.

However, the diversity of experience that comes into play and the myriad
directions a single IT career can take belie this notion. The truth is,
with some forethought and planning, you CAN get over there from over
here -- wherever "there" and "here" may happen to be.

Consider the unconventional career paths these IT professionals have
pursued:

* A political science grad, working as an intern on a U.S. Senate
campaign, learns (on the job) how to build and administer a LAN,
then goes to work in IT for the House of Representatives and ends
up building the IT infrastructure for a San Francisco-based
e-commerce start-up.
* A mainframe programmer with 20 years of corporate experience
develops an interest in the intersection of IT and law
enforcement, gets a specialized masters degree in IT and
criminology, and garners a new position developing Visual Basic
and MS-Access applications for the Department of Corrections.
* An administrative assistant at a software company, whose job is to
field calls to the customer help desk, starts taking calls herself
(of her own volition) when the help desk lines are all tied up;
she learns on the job how to troubleshoot and solve problems, gets
promoted to a customer service position, and goes on to another
software company where she's quickly appointed a senior account
manager with responsibility for software implementation at a
number of client sites.

What these IT professionals share in common is an ability to visualize
where they want to go, and then map out a practical way to get there.
And that involves a combination of deliberately plotting out a route,
recognizing an opportunity when it comes knocking, and seeing
possibilities you hadn't previously considered.

From Point A to Point B
Think of it the same way you would a road trip. You've got your starting
point and your destination. You've plotted all the connecting
interstates to take you from point A to point B. But on the way, you're
prepared for construction detours and traffic, and you leave room for
detours along scenic state roads or just following your nose, and those
meanderings off your well-plotted route (in fact, sometimes off the
beaten path) yield their own rewards without necessarily veering you
away from your ultimate destination.

As you make your way toward point B, you may even change your mind about
your ultimate destination; you may decide to head somewhere else
instead. You're not lost, you're just responding to new possibilities
that have opened up.

Two recent IT Career Advisor newsletters on the subject of training for
a career, not a job, generated a number of Emails from readers trying to
figure out how they can move from here to there (see "Going Back to
School? Train for a Career, Not a Job" at
http://www.itworld.com/nl/it_career_adv/06242002/ and "Training for a
Career, Not a Job," http://www.itworld.com/nl/it_career_adv/06242002/).

Next week's column will respond to those specific inquiries by offering
some sample career paths based on the experience and goals each reader
has described. In the meantime, imagine your IT career as a road trip.
While the shortest distance between two points is a straight line,
curves and detours are much more interesting and open up brand new
horizons.

» posted by ITworld staff

ITworld

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