In case you wonder, the last few days I’ve been busy doing projects on dotnetnuke. I did not really have much time to update this blog. So today everything has been sorted out, and I regain my breathing space to update this blog =).

Okay, a few days back Mr. Ramon Padilla wrote an article at TechRepublic looking at the career progress in IT. He thinks that the current practice in the workplace will put you, either in the “I” category, or the “T” category. He defines the “I” category as an employee with understanding the needs and goals of the business side, whilst the “T” category as an employee with a good handle on the nitty-gritty of technology.

Although I am not disagree with him, I think that the classification only applies–most of the time– in medium/big companies. If you happen to work for startup companies, believe me, both your “I” and “T” skills definitely will be put in test. I happen to know a good friend who works as the Business Consultant, Designer/System Analyst, Developer, Debugger, all in one package. Contrary to another friend which works as a Test Engineer and responsible mainly for creating test-cases for the Application.

So let’s identify jobs that are related to IT and try to assess which one is dominant, the “I” or the “T”

1. Programmer

   Programmer a.k.a Code Monkey (I am one!!!) is required to have a well versed skill on the programming language. In order to be able to do their job properly, they should know the technology well. If your programmers did not master the technology, prepare a huge time buffer for your project delivery date.

2. System Analyst

   System analyst will convert customer requirements into the solution design which later given to the programmer to develop. The better the system analyst, the less headache the programmer have.

I know there are many other jobs related to IT such as Helpdesk Staff, Test Engineer, QA QC, Web Designer, Graphics Designer. Which none of them I ever professionally work as, and I better not risked myself bad-mouthing a profession. These jobs are related to how the IT Infrastructure are implemented in a particular company. For best practice of IT Infrastructure implementation please refer to Information Technology Infrastructure Library.

If you want to share about your profession, and help me to complete the list, please elaborate it in a comment and I will be delighted to incorporate it here. You could also mailed it to me at sodeve@sodeve.net

I want to be an IT Manager, Should I go the “I” or the “T” way?

From my experience, to climb up the leadership ladder the “I” plays more important factor than the “T”. If we analyse IT Managers from their background, the ones from “T” category most of the time were promoted because they have better understanding on “I” aspects than the rest of his/her peers. On the other hand, it is quite common to have IT Manager with lesser “T” knowledge than his/her staffs. Remember Dilbert?

My Two Cents: if we want to climb up the leadership ladder, make sure we brush up your “T” skills to somewhat acceptable level, before we upgrade our “I” skill. This way we can become a manager, without having disgruntled staffs that think our hair is somewhat pointy.

Legends

• or refers to a high “I” or high “T” skill
• or refers to a average “I” or average “T” skill
• or refers to a low “I” or low “T” skill

Incoming Search

career