Are you in career stagnation?
I feel one of the hardest challenges for IT professionals is to reach beyond their comfort zone. Ask yourself, are you feeling too comfortable in your job? This can be a key indicator of stagnation, complacency, and career stall!

It's good to take ownership and control over your future. I believe there's a lot to be gained by incremental improvements on a continual basis. I often advise IT pros to assess their situation at least monthly and look at opportunities to move forward. Ask yourself, "How can I add and gain value and what do I need to do to grow?" This is the hard part since growth means discomfort. And discomfort encourages avoidance. Who hasn't avoided making difficult or challenging career moves? However, to me, this is a signal for an opportunity that can be missed.
In fact, if I'm feeling too comfortable, I know I'm not growing. There has to be a tool or formal process for doing a career check. I recommend doing a self SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis is something companies should be doing regularly to ensure differentiation, and competitiveness. However, the same principles apply to career growth for an IT professional. It is something I talked about at the last career day conference where I was the keynote.

So what is a self-SWOT analysis?
You assess your own personal Strengths, Weakness-this is the SW part of (SW)OT. I recommend you do this assessment on three: People, Process, and Technology. How are your people skills: communication, speaking, collaboration, team-building, leadership, writing…to name a few? How are your business process abilities-do you understand the processes used in your industry and in your organization? What is the extent of your business knowledge: business planning, strategic planning, finance, business agility factors, governance, regulatory compliance, etc.? How about your grasp of relevant technologies and future ones? If you determine any shortfalls or gaps, then you need to strengthen them by taking on courses, projects, opportunities where these kinds of skills will be sharpened.

Then you also analyze external Opportunities and Threats-this is the OT portion of SW(OT). When I say external, I mean coming from the environment around you. External opportunities are events, trends, changes occurring that allow you to grow your career. For example, the trend towards online collaboration, SOA, and blogging is an opportunity. The new Microsoft technologies in Windows Server, Vista, Virtualization, Office 2007, Windows Live, are opportunities. The shift towards having a deeper understanding of business processes, overall business and industry knowledge is an opportunity. Large upcoming retirements in senior IT ranks are opportunities. Often opportunities can appear as threats to you since they involve change. However embracing change provides you with a career leadership opportunity.

Threats are disruptive forces that can stall your career. Threats can be technological, economic, political, environmental, … there are no limits. Outsourcing in the technical specialist areas can be a threat that requires you to rethink where you should be focusing your career. Economic downturns in certain industry sectors is another threat. You should be looking to move into other verticals. 

The key is to match your personal strengths against new external opportunities. If there are new opportunities that you can't take advantage of since you don't have the required skills, then the skills you lack are weaknesses. I recommend working on overcoming these weaknesses so they become strengths.  You also should work on reducing or countering external threats. The prior shift to outsourcing of more commoditized jobs was a threat. To reduce this, you would acquire skills in areas that are difficult to outsource such as those that are mission critical to the organization. Typically, this would require taking a more business focus outlook. I should note that the trend towards outsourcing is reversing (in some areas) and moving these functions inside the organization, especially if they are critical to business agility.

A SWOT Example
Let me work through an example of a self-SWOT analysis. Mary as an IT pro is great at acquiring new skills since she has to stay current with constantly evolving IT trends. This is a strength. The movement towards a more business focus in IT roles is an external opportunity. Mary takes courses in business and works towards her CIPS I.S.P. to take advantage of this new opportunity. Mary is reluctant to interface with business workers and has difficulty in making presentations. This is a weakness so she starts taking courses in communications, and joins a speaking club where she can improve her skills. In her job when there's a request to make a presentation before business managers, she volunteers. Mary is applying her newly conquered weakness to these opportunities so she can gain recognition outside of her specialist domain. She also gets recognition before management that she want to move into more senior roles. 40% of IT specialist jobs are being eliminated. This is an eternal threat so Mary looks to broadening her skill set outside of the specialist area and starts studying business process management. Mary conducts this self-assessment every month and makes the necessary changes to move her closer to her goals.

I want to hear from you … comment here or send me an e-mail as sibaraki@cips.ca

Thank you,
Stephen Ibaraki

Wow, great things happen while your away.  As you know, I've been offline for the last week and when I came back it was to some great news!  My friend and co-blogger Stephen Ibaraki was announced as the recipient of the "2005 IT Leadership: Lifetime Achievement Award.  Now that is really great news!!

Congratulations Stephen, it nice to see someone that gives so much get recognized. 

The official announcement was formally delivered in Computing Canada (CC)  December 16th, 2005 issue. This is not a lightweight award, the IT Leadership Awards represent the highest of honours for the business technology industry with an estimated size of 500,000 to 800,000 professionals from business, industry, government, media, and education.  As I've written in the past recognition is really important in our industry and very necessary as it helps as a catalyst to keep those that break new barriers excited and energized.   I captured some comment on this award from some past web announcements to give you some background, "The CC awards in association with CIPS were created to recognize the achievements of IT professionals whose ideas and works have made a positive impact on their organizations".  This really has me smiling as I can't wait to see what Stephen has in store!

Thanks CC and CIPS,  I couldn't think of a better person to recognize!

Stephen... Way to go!!

your friend,

John

Graham Jones (Surrey, BC - IT Professional and President of VANTUG)

The Opportunity to Spread the Word

Last week Stephen Ibaraki (blogger extraordinaire – congrats on being named one of the top 10 in Canada) and I attended the "Global" MVP Summit and a "World" UG Management Summit in Redmond. Most of you may have heard of the MVP Summit but the UG Management Summit was a new event organized by Microsoft. Representatives from Microsoft (Redmond), INETA, Culminis, PASS and the UG Community from most geographic regions of the world were in attendance. The significance as it pertains to “Professionalizing the Profession” is that both events provided an excellent opportunity for Stephen to communicate the culmination of several years of work by a dedicated expert group of people around the world with respect to Professional Status in the ICT sector. 

Stephen facilitated an Open Space discussion and made formal presentations to MVP’s and those attending the UG Management Summit. Stephen is not only an extraordinary blogger but an equally impressive and effective presenter. His message went across loud and clear and generated a huge amount of interest. So much so that he was inundated with requests to pretty much speak to the “world”. So what is this all about? As someone who has spent a large part of their career as a Professional Engineer and fervently believes in the importance of Professional Status, I feel a responsibility to show my support. My purpose here is not to steal Stephen’s thunder but to explain the significance of the outcome.

The Need for Change

The ICT sector contribution to our existence is now totally pervasive and yet the public view of its workers has not materially changed (computer geeks, etc.). If we contrast this with other well recognized professions, such as medicine, accounting or engineering, the public may not know exactly what it takes to “get there” or exactly how it is done but there is an “image” of higher standing in society. It is time that the contribution of the ICT sector is recognized in the same manner. To do that, and stand alongside the already recognized professions with the influence that they have on society, the “IT professional” must become the “IT Professional” via some recognized accrediting body.

A New Range of International Qualifications

It is not my intention here to describe how this has all “magically” came together or how it is to be physically implemented but to highlight that in 2009 a new range of professional qualifications starting with the IITP (International IT Professional) as the IFIP global standard will come into being. This has all come together via the IP3 (International Professional Practice Partnership) and IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) [a UNESCO body]. More information can be found at http://www.cips.ca/about/i3p/. To aid in gaining a “picture” of how this is to be structured and managed I have included a couple of graphics:

Over the next few years these events will have a profound effect upon the ICT Profession. We are at an historic moment in time. Every single person in the industry should become familiar with the goals and requirements of the new professional qualifications because it is likely that they will affect you in some way in the future. Before I finish I would like to take the opportunity to thank and congratulate Roger Hart for the part that he has played in bringing this together both on behalf of Canadian professionals and also on the international stage. Canada has always been a leader in these matters and it is appropriate that this year CIPS celebrates its 50^th Anniversary of great service to the ICT Community.

This is one of the most remarkable, open, personal, and candid interviews that I have “ever” conducted since the 1980s’ with a most talented executive and academic leader who is shaping history on many fronts. It is unlike any I have ever done before and it is part of a series—this extensive interview covers Maria’s experiences from early childhood to 30. As a side note, Maria is keynoting at the IFIP World CIO Forum and I will be seeing her there.

I trust you will enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it.

Harvey Mudd College is led by Maria Klawe, HMC's fifth president who began her tenure in 2006. A renowned computer scientist and scholar, President Klawe is the first woman to lead the college since its founding in 1955. Prior to joining HMC, she served as Dean of Engineering and Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. During her time at Princeton, Maria led the School of Engineering and Applied Science through a strategic planning exercise that created an exciting and widely embraced vision for the school.

At Harvey Mudd College, she led a similarly ambitious strategic planning initiative, "HMC 2020: Envisioning the Future." Maria joined Princeton from the University of British Columbia where she served as Dean of Science from 1998 to 2002, Vice President of Student and Academic Services from 1995 to 1998 and Head of the Department of Computer Science from 1988 to 1995. Prior to UBC, Maria spent eight years with IBM Research in California, and two years at the University of Toronto. She received her Ph.D. (1977) and B.Sc. (1973) in Mathematics from the University of Alberta. Maria has made significant research contributions in several areas of mathematics and computer science including functional analysis, discrete mathematics, theoretical computer science, human-computer interaction, gender issues in information technology, and interactive-multimedia for mathematics education.

Her current research focuses on the development and use of multi-modal applications to assist people with aphasia and other cognitive impairments. Maria is a past president of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) in New York, chair of the Board of Trustees of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology in Palo Alto, and a trustee of the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics in Los Angeles and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley. In the past Maria has held leadership positions with the American Mathematical Society, the Computing Research Association, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and the Canadian Mathematical Society.

Maria is one of the 10 members of the board of Microsoft Corporation, a newly elected member of the Broadcom board, a board member of the non-profit Math for America, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and past chair of the board for the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology in Palo Alto, Calif. She was elected as a fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery in 1996 and as a founding fellow of the Canadian Information Processing Society in 2006. Other awards include Vancouver YWCA Women of Distinction Award in Science and Technology (1997), Wired Woman Pioneer (2001), Canadian New Media Educator of the Year (2001), BC Science Council Champion of the Year (2001), University of Alberta Distinguished Alumna (2003), Nico Habermann Award (2004), and honorary doctorates from University of Maryland Baltimore County (2011), University of British Columbia (2010), Mount St. Vincent University (2007), University of Ottawa (2008), University of Alberta (2007), Acadia University (2006), Dalhousie University (2005), Queen's University (2004), the University of Waterloo (2003) and Ryerson University (2001).

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

DISCUSSION:

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:36:
Maria, you are an icon in so many domains where your innovations and accomplishments laid foundations in science, education, leadership, innovation, and research. This is the first in an interview series where we will explore your considerable history from your early years and into your professional life of notable distinction, and significant outstanding contributions in a number of fields including societal causes. Thank you for sharing your considerable expertise, deep accumulated insights, and wisdom with our audience.
"....It's been interesting preparing for this interview because as you'll hear I've had a somewhat turbulent life. I hope that others can learn from my many mistakes...."

:01:24:
What are your earliest memories and how do they correlate to where you are today?
"....My first memory is my third birthday and I was given a swing set....I had wanted a swing for a very long time and was devastated when my parents insisted that I had to let my older sister as well as my best friend use it....I'm better at it now than I was when I was turning three, but learning that I really had to share things with other people, it took me a long time to get there...."

:02:26:
One thing is clear when I speak to your colleagues is that you are so curious and you have a questioning nature. What triggered your questioning nature?
"....I think my father was exactly that way and my daughter Sasha is that way. I think all of us are interested in many, many things, but we also have this intense wish to change things for the better and I think when you're that way, no matter what you encounter, you're constantly trying to figure out how it works and how it could work better...."

:03:00:
Describe your first good and bad experiences in school?
"....My first good experience was in kindergarten....I was making complex geometric patterns with these rods and I remember being enormously pleased that my kindergarten teacher thought that this was really wonderful....The bad experience for me was that I was extremely lonely at school until I was about eight because my interests were so different from all the other students...."

:05:30:
Are there any particular teachers who inspired you and how did they inspire you?
"....One teacher who stands out particularly for me was a music teacher whom I met first in 8th grade...."

:06:31:
What are some of the specific attributes that made her so outstanding?
"....She realized I was going through a very difficult transition so it wasn't just that she taught me music, she found a way to help me bridge this transition from moving from Scotland to Canada...."

:07:57:
I guess a great lesson is that if you're in a community of some sort and you see some people being isolated, reach out and try to mentor them or bring them into the group in some way?
"....Absolutely....One of the things that I feel really good about Harvey Mudd College is that people (including me but also the faculty, the other students and staff), make a huge effort to reach out to people like that and find ways for them to find a connection...."

:09:10:
Looking back how would you describe yourself - your attitude; your approach to family, friends, activities, interests, hobbies, life in general, schools, dreams of the future, your intended career?
"....My parents believed that I could accomplish anything that I chose to do with the exception of sports - I was very clumsy and uncoordinated and they thought of me as being athletically challenged. I completely internalized that and was very surprised to discover much later, at the age of 37, that I actually had talent as a long distance runner...."

:15:19:
Are you still in touch with some of these people from that time?
"....We had our 40th high school reunion three years ago....Lisa is the person I'm closest to but I still know people from then...."

:16:00:
Who were your first mentors and how did they influence you?
"....Obviously my parents had a huge influence on me because they really believed that I could do things and my music teacher as well. I also had very good math teachers in high school....They really made me feel that mathematics was something that belonged to me or that I belonged to...."

:17:14:
Maria, can you describe further your early years and some pivotal events that shaped you before you entered university?
"....I ended up choosing many things which were non-traditional for girls and eventually for women in life, and I think if my father had not been so supportive it would have been much harder....Establishing friends who taught me that even though I was so different from people around me it was possible to find people with similar interests and abilities....Soon after we moved to Canada I discovered that I was an atheist. This was my first intellectual battle with my parents that I actually won and for me I think it established that I could make my own choices....I had to adjust many times (I must say with difficulties), to many cultures in my career but learning that it was possible and be willing to try to do it from that time has become an important skill....I learned that I could work when I decided that I really wanted to achieve something....Another thing was what happened when we wrote the valedictorian's address in 1968....It was my introduction to the student protest movement that became a very big part of my life in the next few years...."

:24:38:
What was remarkable from your time as an undergraduate?
"....I think the biggest thing was that I really wanted to feel that I could contribute something useful to the world. I really liked pure mathematics, but I couldn't see how that would allow me to contribute anything...."

:34:11:
What five forces shaped you at that time?
"....The student protest movements....The pain of separation from my family - particularly this feeling that I had lost my father's belief in me....Taking full financial responsibility for myself was really important....Travelling around the world with PH was an amazing experience....Finding out how important mathematics was for me and how to work hard, and the importance of working hard and what it meant...."

:40:31:
What were some of the good and bad experiences from that time (undergraduate days)?
"....I had many good experiences as an undergraduate student. The math professors at the University of Alberta were very good to the Honours Math students. They cared for us as individuals; they really believed in us....I also had some really good friends from that time....When you participate in student government you get to see a different side of how universities are run. I think it was a good experience....Obviously travelling was a great experience....The bad experiences were the separation from my family...."

:42:08:
Throughout this discussion, I can see a lot of decision points. How did you make your choices and why?
"....I feel that during that period (roughly a five year period), since I was out of school for about 2 years and in school for about 3 years, it felt like I was really searching to find out who I was....What was so wonderful was that when I found out I really needed to do mathematics, I could come back and really be a student and embrace it for what it really was...."

:43:29:
Maria describes her time as a graduate student and beyond.
"....During that year [at Oaklands] I discovered there were well-known mathematicians who worked in the computer science department and there were tons of job openings – academic jobs for computer scientists...."

:53:27:
Who were your mentors at that time and how did they influence you?
"....Tony Lau my advisor was an incredible mentor. He taught me about how to be a good academic citizen, how to be a good researcher....Václav Chvátal at that time was Professor of Computer Science at operations research at Stanford....Ron Graham and Alan Hoffman….Derek Corneil...."

:58:36:
What five lessons did you learn at that time?
"....Sometimes you just have to give up....How important it was to allow myself to be helped by somebody....I learned a lot about the culture of different disciplines when I moved to computer science....I learned the importance of learning a new discipline and how important it is to learn to function in the culture as well as to learn the knowledge....I learned that what you thought to be right is not necessarily right. If you allow your biases to blind you, you might miss some very important things....You never know when something is going to come along that just transforms your life...."

:01:04:01:
Based upon those early years, if you were conducting this interview, what 3 questions would you ask, and then what would be your answers?
"....Why did I have such a turbulent life especially during my university years?....There's a recurring theme of loneliness during my first roughly 30 years and how did that influence my choices?...How did being female influence what happened during this period?...."

:01:10:45:
Maria, with your demanding schedule, we are indeed fortunate to have you come in to do this interview. Thank you for sharing your substantial wisdom with our audience.
"....I feel very lucky that I survived the first 30 years because there were definitely some difficult times. But I had some amazing support and some amazing experiences that certainly shaped what I've done with the rest of my life...."

This is the first in an interview series where we explore Maria's considerable history from her early years and into her professional life of notable distinction, and significant outstanding contributions in a number of fields including societal causes. In the next interview, we will delve into Maria's early professional career as an academic and researcher.

MVPs represent a tremendous resource to IT Managers since their recognized and elite expertise extends to more than 90 technologies/services and they are part of your technology community—as independent professionals who have been acknowledged for their many continuing important contributions to the industry.
In my travels, I get a chance to meet outstanding individuals. Arthur is one of them and also a Microsoft MVP. Arthur and I got to chat about important issues that I wanted to share with you.

Thank you and Enjoy!

Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P. … sibaraki@cips.ca

Index and links to Questions

Q1 Can you tell us more about your award area as a Most Valuable Professional (MVP) and how you came to work in this area?
"As digital imaging becomes part of broader areas of personal and commercial use, I'm helping people further afield. For instance, just the other day, a dentist asked about going digital with his X-ray lab."

Q2 What would make your list of the top technical challenges and how they can be resolved?
"In the specific areas of printing and imaging ......color management......image permanence......lowering the initial cost of equipment acquisition while asking highly inflated prices for consumables to make them the profit driver......scanners, printers and other similar peripherals are being forced into premature obsolescence by lack of upgraded drivers....."

Q3 Please make your top predications for 2007 and beyond in your areas of technical expertise.
"Much within imaging technologies will continue in an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary fashion........"

Q4 What should businesses know about future trends in the Internet environment? What are the implications and business opportunities? Why should businesses care?
".....the internet becoming a new place to "hang out".....telecommuting.....virtual products are becoming acceptable......never before in the history of business has the ability to create a niche market out of thin air been so available......"

Q5 If you sum up your life experiences with some career tips for the ICT professional, what would be your tips and the reasons behind them?
"I suppose what I am saying is that besides developing methods of emulating what already is and translating it using current technologies, we need people who will unleash new capabilities and societal expressions and who will take their creative vision forward."

Q6 You have a passion for consumer advocacy. Can you tell us more about this?
"If the energy, time, materials, and a certain environmental cost are required to produce something, that item should be of value equal to or beyond the fundamentals that produced it. It offends me when manufacturers release products that are not properly implemented, incomplete, over-hyped, or of poor quality...........I note a tendency of products to last just beyond their warranty period, and as warranties become shorter, this is particularly concerning."

Q7 What are your views on the environment and e-waste?
"How many of us have stored away in our closets and basements perfectly usable peripherals that have been forced into obsolescence by lack of drivers, or change in a plug or interface? Each time a new operating system goes through an introduction, it negates hundreds of thousands of otherwise usable peripherals. For lack of a small bit of code, millions of otherwise perfectly functional devices will be forced into the e-waste stream."

Q8 You have a remarkable history. Please share this with our audience.
"What it ended up being was a forced entry into the early realms of computer graphic arts, which ultimately give me an early leg up on using computer technology in art and photography."

Q9 What are your "burning" questions that you want answered?
"....How do we maintain or re-establish balance between our humanity and technology?....Can the natural world survive technology?....Are we willing to speak up in the boardroom of our technological leaders about these issues?....."