Every career
is a high-tech career
February 17, 2006
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It has been coming for a long time, but I think it is finally
here. Every job and every career in America is now a high-tech career.
It is impossible to ignore technology no matter what your position. Whether
you are a corporate CEO or a security guard, technology is now an intimate
part of your work. More importantly, now that technology has found its
way into every job, everyone needs to recognize and accept this fact.
Avoiding technology and refusing to learn about it is no longer an option.
Considering yourself incapable is no longer an option. If you want to
move forward in your career, regardless of the work you do, you have to
embrace technology and make it your own. If you continue to avoid it,
ignore it or distain it, you will see you career whither.
Some already know this
The truth is, any good high-tech careerist already knows what is happening.
They have been living with technology for years. That doesn’t mean
they have always embraced it, though. Even those of us who decide to dive
into the high-tech world can sometimes find ourselves rebelling against
it. This is especially true whenever we feel that technology is pushing
us rather than leading us. No one likes to be pushed around, but technology
can do just that. Sometimes changes are so far reaching and so dramatic
that we are swept along with the tide. The only answer to this, though,
is to be constantly engaged in “riding” the bucking bronco
that is technology. It is only by facing technology that we can hope to
gain its many benefits.
Those workers who are just now finding themselves thrust into the high-tech
world should take some basic guidance from those of us who have been there
for a while. First, your ability to learn and knowledge you acquire are
everything. In the coming years you will need to learn more than you have
learned in your entire career. While some careers move slowly and steadily,
technology can introduce changes that happen overnight. You may know everything
there is to know about doing your job today, but new systems and new software
can transform your job. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your
knowledge is obsolete, only that there is so much more to learn.
An Example
Take the role of security guard. The basic tenets of security have been
long established. You control physical access to buildings and rooms,
monitor access points and check identification. Now, though, you need
to understand magnetic card readers, biometric scanners, DVR technology,
Internet-accessible video monitoring, PC and network management and much
more. Technology has introduced an entirely new aspect into the well-established
security realm. You have to adapt these new aspects or, despite your expertise,
you will fail at this newly added facet of your career.
Is this frightening? Of course. No one likes to feel they have somehow
fallen behind the times, but a career is a living thing. It grows and
changes from day to day. No matter how much you might wish it, any career
that does not change is stagnant and in danger of being lost.
Embrace, embed and enjoy
My biggest advice to all careerists is to find ways to embrace technology
and its effects on your career; embed technology into your lives so it
becomes an integral part of your work and finally, enjoy all the benefits
that technology can bring to you and your work.
You can’t do this, though, by avoiding technology or pretending
it does not effect you. You can’t rely on the IT personnel or computer
consultants to handle your technology tasks anymore. You are now a high-tech
worker, like all the rest. Technology isn’t just a hulking computer
in an air-conditioned room anymore. Technology is here, in your hand,
on your desk and in your home. You don’t just work with technology,
you live with it every single day.
Regardless of the work you do, every job , every career is now a high-tech
career. There is no escaping this reality or the consequences this brings.
As the 21st Century progresses technology will continue to be part of
our lives. Embrace it. Bend it to your will. Work against any negative
effects that arise, but do not ignore it. Otherwise, you may find that
you won’t have any career at all.
Join the career discussion in the Career-Op forums at http://forums.friendsintech.com/
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