Believe It Or Not, You Are A Techie
by Jim Nelson
Vice President, Redwood Technology Consortium

********
Recently I had the opportunity to moderate a panel presentation about ?Technology Based Careers? for approximately 100 regional high school students at Tech Expo 2000 (Sept. 29-30 at College of the Redwoods). Surprisingly, we did not bore the audience to death with our stories about how technology can help advance one?s career choice, whatever that may be.

As is expected with any group of teens forced to listen to a group of talking heads, we did have our share of pessimists and antagonists. The majority of the crowd however, was eager, energetic, and genuinely interested in the potential modern technology provides to help them enjoy a higher than standard quality of life. Many had even already begun down the path to successful tech careers by default through their interest in computers and the Web or their involvement in our local Cisco Academy, where they are learning the in-demand talents of network engineering.

After we described how the median annual salary in America is less than $20,000 and how anyone with formal training in a technological field can feasibly make closer to $60,000, we pretty much had everyone?s attention. Then one questioning student chimed in with a rather poignant question: ?Are you saying that we will go nowhere if we don?t know enough about technology??

To convey this message was not our intention at all. The point we stressed was that you will go further with the help of technology. Nearly all employers today require at least basic technology skills. Being able to operate telephone systems, fax machines, and photocopiers is a prerequisite in any office environment along with knowing your way around the computer. Tech skills as basic as being able to use email and word processing programs give job seekers the upper hand in today?s competitive marketplace.

I took this argument one step further by challenging the students to name a career that did not involve technology. A student answered with ?Massage Therapist,? as an attempt to stump the panel. . On the contrary, technology plays a vital role in even the most analog professions ? especially for new practitioners starting out on their own. Technology helps them create their own marketing materials, manage a calendar, and facilitate bookkeeping ? all important aspects of any business, which are often unaffordable to outsource for startups.

?But what if you wash dishes?? asked our cynic. After my whimsical description of the technological advances in today?s modern dish cleansing machinery, our panel was perfectly able to identify this as one career choice you may end up with if you lack basic technology skills.

The ?Tech Career? panel consisted of consultants, professors, web developers, designers, and researchers ? all enthusiastic advocates for the use of technology. Some pursued formal training in their field, but most found themselves in a technology-related profession virtually by accident. The point being, that whatever you choose to do today, it will inevititably involve technology to some degree. And in order to do it well, you must stay on top of the skills needed for that profession.