What does 2007 have in store for techies? Does the road ahead represent opportunities or a dead-end? Like the old adage goes: ‘Anything that goes up has to come down’—so it is with technology trends. Uncertainties are always there. The question is: Are you techies prepared for them? Gartner Research suggests that ‘by 2010, IT professionals will need to possess expertise in multiple domains. Technical aptitude alone will no longer be sufficient. They must prove their understanding in business realities—industry, core processes, customer bases, regulatory environment, culture and constraints. Versatility will be crucial.’

Over the last 12 months the Editorial Team of the SmartTechie has met up with several such successful IT professionals across the nation. One of the common factors for their success is that all of them identify themselves not just by occupation but also by the industry, process and the global programs in which they participate. When you look into how they strategize their career growth—their versatility, initiative and business knowledge come to the fore. It’s exactly these characteristics that techies need to demonstrate to seize opportunities for personal career growth. Not everyone can gaze at the crystal ball, but keeping the odds in one’s favor by factoring the big trends into the career strategies is a prudent move.

When techies step out of engineering colleges, they start searching for a career by first considering which fields are growing the fastest or have the largest number of job openings. Those looking for careers where they are most likely to command top compensation-package will want to take the search to the next step: They zero in on careers combining both—biggest growth in terms of actual projected demand and the biggest anticipated shortage of prospective applicants preparing to fill them.

Changes in technology impact career path where the first job is the beginning of a long journey. Hence the need to constantly upgrade oneself is more relevant than ever before. In reality, many of the engineers at the entry level miss the next bus mainly because they tend to focus on the ‘big buck.’ Money will increase as the engineer gathers work experience and adds on to his existing skill sets. Like Mahesh C.R., a Group Manager at Capco puts it: “Money is there, it will always be there. But come for the love of technology.” Well, if you’re one of those money-mongers then think again.

Amit Meshram, Systems Engineer at Siemens Information Systems Mumbai says, “I have seen freshers hunting desperately for jobs but once they get in, they wear a laid back attitude. However this doesn’t work for long.” Of course it won’t.