The Monthly Beat, Emerging Tech: Did this statistic make its way to your department?

Since I started this series I glanced over a concept at the crux and backbone with all things Emerging Tech, Change. It seems almost obvious in the statement itself but I think the topic warrants its own discussion. Gartner now cites 40% of IT staff will be “versatile-ists”, holding multiple roles most of which will be business-related rather than a pure technology focus (Gartner findings 2017). And for a year now Regina Rometty, CEO of IBM, along with others have been inspiring views on the need to prepare for the “New Collar Job”. Whether this directly means you and your career, these facts- at minimum - mean change and with this we need to evolve our perspectives.

The question: How can these two frames of thought be married into an actionable way to be preparing for change in years to come,

Multiple Choice Answers: There seems to be two relevant perspectives here:   

A)      Perspective 1: Technology is nearly synonymous and is regularly mentioned in the same vein as obsolescence… isn’t it? Obsolescence defies expertise and places value on resolving the latest trending new inefficiency.  

B)      Perspective 2: Technology is an opportunity and synonymous with new expertise and value add.

C)      Perspective 3: “my friend knew a guy named SAP”

D)      Perspective 4: I am pretty friendly with everyone at work, I should be good.

Answer: Well, here on this series, we look at the emerging tech in terms of opportunity.

Knowing that the words we casually use frame thoughts, perspectives, and actions, “perspective one” in the foremost goes wrong with idea of obsolescence. For all you “non-techies”, just because you are trained in a certain tech does not mean the new tech will be foreign. It is really more about a frame of thought. Take for example coding languages. On the surface there seems like there are as many coding languages as there are Baskin Robins flavors, 31 ( or for a reference set now, 16 handles X 2). But truth of the matter is people are trained to think like a programmer and the details of syntax with the nitty gritty out there on the web with the tech communities all around. Once the fundamentals are understood it becomes a sort of learn as you go model.  And so with this I say, to all those “non-techies” out there, becoming a “techie” is kind of like sky diving. Someone will be on your back the whole time for the first ten jumps or so and that someone is the online community 😊.

Meetup.com features a bunch of group with mini classes and info sessions (some for fee/free)

My personal favorite meetup group is: https://www.meetup.com/New-York-Data-Science-Analytics  - it’s a very helpful blend of a community network and formalized sessions where you can learn.

Coming soon Emerging Tech Series: The Horror Chronicles of Tech in your place.