Our sector is made up of thousands of talented people involved in a variety of roles which in turn contribute to the success of our industry.

From helpdesk analysts, technicians, engineers, developers and team leaders, through to security consultants, project managers and CxO level roles, each person has a responsibility and duty of care to attend to their own learning and behaviours.

But what about our industry, who is responsible for looking after it? Who is responsible for its development?

What’s happening?

Fortunately, there are a number of great people doing great work in order to advance our profession. These people develop and apply the following in order to advance their own careers and also our profession:

1. Experience
2. Ethics
3. Education
4. Engagement

Each of these four elements forms a fundamental part of growing your career and our profession. They also determine the way we conduct business, provide customer service and interact with our customers.

Let’s break down these four elements and look at what they are made up of.

Experience

You can’t rush experience yet it is very important for a successful ICT career. From design and development, delivery of services, troubleshooting and issue resolution for clients through to concurrently managing streams of work crossing several sectors.

The longer you have been involved in your line of work, the more likely you are to have the skillset needed to tackle the day to day challenges that our profession brings.

Education

Education on the other hand is something that you actively pursue. It involves dedication and commitment, and can take a number of forms. You could attend a tertiary institution which is generally the most common form of education but it is not the only option.

ICT Professionals who pursue higher education show:

1. Commitment to the ICT profession.
2. Commitment to advancing their own level of knowledge.
3. Commitment to ensuring that they are providing the best solutions as governed by current “best-practice” methodologies.

Based on the above, education can be defined as:

“a degree, level, or kind of schooling”

but also, it can also be defined as:

“the act or process of imparting or acquiring particular knowledge or skills, as for a profession”

According to the latter definition education can encompass several other mediums which could include:

• · Attending industry held events.
• · Membership through Professional Bodies.
• · On the job knowledge sharing with colleagues.
• · Mentoring.

It’s not limited to the above of course. Education isn’t just about knowledge gained; it is also the sharing of knowledge with others.

Engagement

Engagement is the odd one out: it may not appear as important as the other Es, but should still play a part in growing ourselves and our profession.

Engagement is how “involved” you are with what you do. How engaged are you at your workplace and with the wider profession?

Everybody has a certain level of engagement with their workplace. This is simply because you work within the constraints of your workplace. However, how many people can take this same level of engagement with their work place and go a step further and engage with the wider ICT community?

To give you some examples, low levels of engagement might be:

• · Knowledge sharing internally within their company.
• · Building relationships with those within their company.
• · Assisting others internally with issues and problems that arise.

And high levels of engagement:

• Converse with the wider ICT community via social media and other forums.
• Frequent ICT events in the local area.
• Have a professional body membership enabling like-minded people to come together.
• Use their knowledge to help solve the issues, problems experienced by the wider ICT community
• Communication and application of externally gained knowledge to their day to day work.
• Building of relationships and networking with others in the sector.

Ethics

Ethical behaviour is paramount to the sustainability of our profession. Whilst in every profession you are going to get good eggs and bad eggs, the IT profession needs to continue to focus on two major areas:

• · Adoption of an ethical framework.
• · Educating the sector as a whole as to the merits of ethical operation and the flow on effects this has on the sustainability of our sector whilst ensuring ICT continues to be seen as a profession.

Ethics can be defined as:

“The branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.”

Maintaining a level of ethical behaviour challenges each of us to evaluate our available options, take into account all affected parties and potential conflicts and then make an informed decision.

We are all individuals acting on behalf of our profession. How do we ensure that we maximise the good eggs? There are two simple methods:

1. Become a member of a professional body.
2. Obtain a professional certification.

Joining a professional body with a Code of Conduct or Ethics is a fantastic start.  For those looking to really commit to their professional development then making a move to become ITCP certified is a great goal.

As the current generation of ICT professionals move onwards and upwards it’s important to instil good practice, clear codes of ethics, networking opportunities, professional development opportunities into the incoming generation. I am a firm believer of lead by example.

Whilst it does take time and commitment to grow our own individual careers and also to achieve some of the bigger goals of increasing the level of professionalism within our industry, if everybody pulls together in the right direction, I am sure we would see a significant change both internally within organisations and externally within the industry.

So who’s responsible for our industry?

We all are of course. It doesn’t take a lot if we all contribute to help raise the level of professionalism within our sector but the impact will be, and is significant.

This blog written by myself was recently published in the NZCS weekly Newsline e-newsletter (September 16th 2011). Newsline is an online newsletter which goes to 10,000 ICT Professionals in New Zealand.

Original article can be seen here http://www.nzcs.org.nz/newsletter/42