3 steps to better IT career management

Several of my futurist colleagues and I have been thinking about where, in these turbulent times, IT executives should go for career advice. 

We began by considering how IT career advice has evolved. Thirty years ago, the field of IT career advice was an unregulated wilderness of divergent actors. There were academics, rock-star executives, psychologists, bestselling authors, shamans/gurus and snake-oil salesmen.

Back then I worked at a boutique IT consultancy with a guy I’ll call Mr. Average. This guy was not impressive. He had no technical skills to speak of (he did not code or possess any certifications). He was not into networking. He was not an active listener. He did not keep up with developments in any industry or field. He lacked general business savvy, was not strategic in his outlook, exhibited little or no curiosity about the future, did not have any domain expertise in a vertical market, and repeatedly failed visibly to appreciate the nuances of either internal or customer politics. To top it all off, he was not very likable either. So, during one of the IT industry’s many cyclical downturns, it surprised no one there that Mr. Average left the company. What did surprise us was what he chose to do. Mr. Average set himself up as a single-shingle “career adviser.” He did this semi-successfully (meaning he was able to feed himself) for over a decade. The success of his clients is another matter entirely. 

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