Wait....Now go talk to your mom
My usage as of late of the term IT professional has been called into question.
And, as best as I can tell, for good reason.
I am not going to refute, or even repudiate those who stand opposed to the nomenclature; I will confer with your opinions, and enhance my original statements to include your criticism.
I’ve always needed a good editor, and don’t mind the input: without the assistance of a good editor, some of us simply are speaking our minds. And until one masters stream of consciousness like Joyce (or even like David Foster Wallace – who is a far cry from my beloved Irish master), there’s simply no reason to think that one’s ramblings are solidified as concrete writings on the first pass. Welcome to the wonderful world of the blogging professional: everything is in draft form.
So I present to you a new undertaking: a modern take on the industry, which will synthesize the modern with the future, the past with the yet-established, the common with the extraordinary—
The ICT Professional
In the 21st century, we have definitely witnessed the evolution of the IT Professional. What was once a career path that steered one toward a technical, almost vocational outcome, now has corrected its direction toward the oncoming traffic of the business professional; where once router jockeys and Database Administrators ruled this roost, new birds have flown in to nest in the same high trees.
And, as I mix the metaphors of modern job descriptions, I offer a new label for our ever-shifting industry: The ICT Professional.
Now, rest assured that I had no place in the invention of this term. I actually had to look it up to make sure I was using it appropriately. And I blame (thank) you critics for this post.
As the IT Professional remains the master of all things Information Technology, the ICT Professional has materialized to be the advocate, the champion, and yes the master of all things Information and Communication Technology.
And, what, you may ask is the differentiation between the two proposed labels? Simple: Communication. Ask yourself if your vision of an IT Professional possesses the ability to explicate the meaning behind his job title. Probably not. Your vision of the IT Professional probably can fix your office printer on a good day.
Well, as proposed earlier, the IT Professional is much more than that. However, I now must veer off course of the defense of this misunderstood industry in order to shine light on the new, emerging ICT Professional.
The ICT Professional possesses the ability to do just this—communicate. I have mentioned previously that IT Professionals must “educate, manage, and demystify.” I have since realized that this is the job of the ICT Professional, and that it is exclusively this singular element of Communication that is the differentiating factor in this equation.
The ICT Professional combines the technical with the ideal, the rational with the ethereal, and the parts with the labor. The ICT Professional is the total package just waiting to deliver the goods.
Please understand that this is not a retraction on the importance of the IT Professional, merely an expansion on the encompassing viability that Communication plays in this arena of the future: this business world of the modern economy—an economy that is so bombarded with facts that it is thirsty for understanding.
Communication is both the well that fills and the chalice that pours this understanding.
Why? Because once automobiles were new, and when common people figured out how to work on those vehicles a common understanding—a compendium—of knowledge emerged. People found the power within themselves to solve the problems that they were facing everyday. And those people either wrote their findings down, or more than likely, told someone else. They communicated the body of knowledge to others. Now granted, an entire industry of professionals emerged as a result, but so did the cottage industry of self-sufficient, garage-bound, weekend mechanics. In the midst of an industrial revolution, regular people found the time to self-educate themselves on the skills that others were being paid to learn. Normal people tore through the complex systems at hand and still produced drivable results.
And is this a negative statement on the professionals in the automotive field? Absolutely not; it is in fact merely an exploration into the situation that allowed the field to expand into the everyday, the routine, and the normal: the industry gained enough social permeation that the common man developed an understanding of not merely the output, but also the component parts and processes that allowed for successful comprehension of concept.
Technology today bears little difference; and today the common person is so inundated with technology that there is little hope to avoid the chance that one will have to essentially fix one’s own problems. And just as most of us drive cars today, plenty of people deal with technology today, even though most don’t work in the industry.
And who’s going to be there when there’s a problem with that technology? A guy who can write Cobol? What’s that do for the other 99 percent of us? It really boils down to who will tell what to whom. Either way, we are still faced with communication.
None of us have to wake up tomorrow able to build a home network; yet as technology continues to permeate, more gain that specific understanding. You do the job without thinking you’ve become a component to the industry.
So I ask this simple question: Has IT permeated into its surroundings, or has Communication merely found its way into IT? The answer, like any other evolutionary quandary, is probably both.
Welcome to intellectual heft. Be prepared to lift.