PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Personal Development & Research Methods



Personal Development & Research Methods

Answer the question, “What is happening in X?” (Where X is your field of study).

For the first time in history the entire planet is capitalist. Even the few remaining command economies are surviving or developing through their linkages to global, capitalist markets. Yet this is a brand of capitalism that is at the same time very old and fundamentally new. It is old because it appeals to relentless competition in the pursuit of profit, and because individual satisfaction (deferred or immediate) is its driving engine. But it is fundamentally new because it is tooled by new information and communication technologies that are at the root of new productivity sources, new organizational forms, and the construction of a global economy.

E-mail, personal computers, and the Internet: These products of the information age have become common currency among working professionals. They make your life simpler by enabling faster communication, providing tools for more effective work, and giving you access to vast information with the click of a mouse. But they also introduce a risk factor that isn't totally within your control: If your computer fails or the network connection goes down, you lose time and possibly money.

That's where information technology (IT) specialists come in. Information technology brings you the information and applications-such as word-processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software-that office workers everywhere rely on to do their jobs. IT specialists create such products and set up and maintain such systems. Their work varies widely: They upgrade your computer software; get your office computer network, or your computer, up and running again after it crashes; set up and maintain the servers on which your company's internal applications run; create and customize the software products you use; build websites; and build and maintain the databases that you rely on to gather information to serve your customers.

IT professionals wear many hats and go by different names, depending on their area of expertise-engineer, programmer, website producer, and network administrator, to name a few. The range of IT jobs is vast. And the skills needed to set up an office network-install the cables, configure the computers, and keep them running-are quite different from those required to set up and customize an automated-payroll software system. A database specialist needs still other skills to administer the ever-changing complex of information generated by enterprise software applications and the company website, including files on visitors who have signed on as members or purchased something.

But no matter what job they do, all IT professionals focus on improving the usability and efficiency of technological systems and processes. Their goal is a smoothly functioning computer network-free of bugs, glitches, and interruptions-that provides an effective flow of information so the company can keep on improving its work processes, customer retention and acquisition, and other aspects of its business.

There's a broad range of jobs in IT, and not all positions require technical skills. "The best tech support people we had," one insider says, "had humanities ...