Lisa Minder knew she had some work ahead in 1991 after graduating with a degree in public relations. "I didn't know what a LAN was, what a WAN was, or what a router did. I didn't understand segmented networks. I barely knew how a computer worked," recalls the 32-year-old.
But the Atlanta resident had an affinity for technology, and she understood one of the most difficult concepts for lay-persons: Software just does what you tell it to do.
It was enough to start with. Today Minder is a business analyst and applications manager, currently working on contract for the IT director of American Fiber and Yarn, a divested entity of BP Amoco, which is based in Chicago.
Minder's story is a familiar one to techies who have ascended the IT ranks from small potatoes to big cheese. Successful techies say that movin' on up depends on a continuous fight for further education. It's also important to know when to jump ship or maintain momentum within the corporate structure.
Learning on the job
Minder credits much of her early technological know-how to her boss, who let her do things outside her normal routine.
She remembers, however, that some fellow technologists were not exactly generous with their knowledge. "They didn't just hand me the information," she says. "I had to work. If you're not serious about learning, they won't teach you."
After four years of absorbing the technology around her, Minder was working with the help desk, assisting the LAN and email admin, and helping to manage consultants. She made small decisions daily and created policy for the company.
In the next few years, she swtiched jobs to implement an email system for pharmaceutical company Foxmeyer, converted Holiday Inn Worldwide's email system from a Novell platform to NT, and worked on a Y2K project for a southeastern regional bank that included changing their topology from a token-ring network to Ethernet.
Progression
Marianne Bays, director of measurement services at Technical and Business Integrators, says progression is most important to techies. Yet techies are more interested moving on to bigger projects by growing their capabilities than climbing the proverbial corporate ladder, she notes.
Bays has found techies to be among the most educated workers. Yet, they're less likely to pursue management. One reason is that most corporate cultures keep techies from seeing the road toward that kind of progression, she says.
Regardless of whether or not a techie pines for management gigs, those who want to advance their careers need to understand the relationship between the business needs and what they are doing, Bays says. "When making recommendations ... technologies have to be tested in the context of business pressures. You can't impress a business person with technical knowledge if it's not presented in the context of business needs," she notes.
To manage or not to manage
Helen Seltzer, president of MessageClick.com, a US-based electronic messaging management provider, decided to pursue management early in her IT career. It was "natural" for her, she explains. Seltzer says she hasn't had a career so much as "a series of decision points."
Seltzer, now in her 50s, has been building her telecom expertise for more than half her life. She started 28 years ago, working her way through office positions at AT&T, IBM, and MCI. Her peripheral work with technology was "typical," she says.
But many techies say they aim to stay as far away from the "corporation" as possible. Minder, for one, is not interested in management. "It's not a challenge I want to take on," she says. "Once you move into management, if you have your hands off the systems for just one year, you've lost skills."
This is not to say that techies can be wholly separated from the corporate grind. "I don't want to be involved in corporate politics," says Minder, "but even the lowliest IT person must be aware of what's going on around them."
"The IT specialist is important to us, but we shouldn't expect that just because they have technical talent they also have management talent," Bays says. "Some techies are excellent managers. But not all are, nor should they be."
Bays says learning more about business doesn't automatically put techies on a road toward management. "They can marry technical and business skills and still stay close to the technology."
Challenge
Mike Jackness, IS director at Lee Technologies, likes working for a growing company because every day brings more responsibility. Lee is an environmental services provider for data centers.
Jackness notes he's not making as much money now as he once did consulting. "But money isn't everything," says the 24-year-old. "I like unpredictability."
He didn't want the part-time position Lee originally offered him. But he took it on, he says, because he liked the idea of being a part of a new company.
Minder warns techies that while solid job performance is required to excel, passion for the work can play a critical role as well.
"The people who have come farther and faster than I are the people who go home and build a server and play with it and see if they can crash it," says Minder. "It's almost like an obsession."
Lessons learned
Seltzer says techies have to like roller coasters, and to be prepared for a longer and harder ride than most other jobs demand.
While noting that "this is golf-course time" for other people her age, Seltzer went ahead with MessageClick.com after "the decision to still spend 18-hour days at work."
"I believe that anyone willing to work, anyone with the desire to learn, can move forward," says Rick Goldsby, president of Technology Extension Consulting, a firm that fills interim senior management positions for other companies.
Jackness says humility plays a role as well. "Once you realize you don't know everything about the computer field, you'll be able to go a lot further," he says.
"Having a diploma doesn't make you somebody," adds Goldsby, who has been in technology since the '60s. "The people you step on going up are the people you pass on the way down."
