How should you develop yourself as an IT professional?

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

One of my colleagues was picking my brains recently as they were creating career development materials for a variety of jobs across our organisation. They specifically wanted to point to organisations that had good guides. For professions like accountancy and HR there were some very specific Chartered Institutes that had CPD materials. For IT though, I think it's very different.

I've been with Wycliffe for nearly 25 years, so I don't have a lot of wide experience. However we have recruited three people (developer, IT manager and a tech support role) in the past few months, so I've seen several CVs and what people are saying on them.

As far as Chartered Institutes go, I'm aware of the BCS and the IEEE in the UK. However, none of the CVs that I looked at mentioned either of them. From my perspective, when it comes to recruiting people experience counts for more than anything else (though specific qualifications in, e.g. Azure AD are of some use). 

Through the BCS and their SFIAplus I came across the SFIA skills framework. It does seem quite comprehensive. I'm open to debate, but I think IT is a much wider field than Finance or HR. 

I think SFIA will answer the question "in my particular area, where should I be putting my effort to gain skills" or progress in my career, or other ways of describing getting on. However, is there anything more generic. In fact my colleague had already come across the Research Development Framework. Although it is aimed at the research profession in fact I think the topics in the inner circle and the quadrants, with a bit of tweaking, could apply to IT - creativity, self-management, professional conduct - all good things.

So in the end we pointed people at that framework and the IEEE CPD materials. I hope you find them useful.

It would be interesting to get the perspective from both of my blog readers - does experience count for everything in IT? Is there any field in which being a Chartered Engineer is a distinct advantage?

Kingdom Code

Awesome to have 60 people at Impact Hub last night for the "Kingdom Code" Christians in Tech event #kingdomcodeuk pic.twitter.com/BTZKenssIp
— Andy Geers (@andygeers) June 17, 2014

You can see me on that picture if you look very closely.

Kingdom Code was an event organised by Andy Geers and others:

Are you a Christian in tech? This event is being held to draw together a foundational group of Christians who work as developers, UX / UI designers, data geeks, product manager or entrepreneurs and who are excited to see mobile and tech used to serve Kingdom purposes. One output of this group may be to organise a Code for the Kingdom Christian weekend hackathon in 2015. 

The event was really well organised. After a bit of mingling we moved into a room with chairs. There was a brief introduction from Andy and Rupert Edwards and a big of plugging from the sponsors. We were then told to chat to the person next to us, and a bit later, to the person on the other side. There was a pre-event questionnaire asking about what people hoped to get out of the event and what sort of work they were in. There was a wide variety - not just developers and designers, but digital marketing people, business developments and entrepreneurs. I think I put myself down as jack of all trades. Some people were doing not specifically Christian type jobs (I hate the term "secular job"), but had Christian related side projects, in the way that Andy G does Prayermate on the side. Some people were visionary types who could see potential, e.g. in the internet playing a similar role to Roman roads which enabled the growth of the church after Jesus' death and resurrection.

We then split into 8 groups according to those types - I went with database/IT. After a bit we were then asked to mix about talk about this possible Code for the Kingdom event next year.

There was a plugging spot, where about 20 people got a minute to plug the thing they were involved in and ask for help, mostly volunteers or funding. There was a variety of visions for, say, easy software for administering churches, or helping those turning 18 who are forcibly returned to the country they sought asylum from, or getting the Bible out via mobiles. I plugged the paid job I blogged about recently. There was someone from Scripture Union who won the "oldest organisation" award, in contrast to the new ventures that people were working on. I think we came second.

There's another event planned in October, but I left before the end so I didn't hear much about that. Update: It's Monday 13 October.

Update2: Andy's written a post about it, though I blush to link to it.

I met a couple of people with links to Wycliffe:

• someone who did a short-term placement with us a couple of years who is part-time working on Tyndale House's online scripture tools. Update: they've launched a new version of the site now.
• Jason Ramasami who did this great picture for our magazine:
Post by Wycliffe Bible Translators UK.

It will be interesting to see what this event has started.

IT Intern needed

It's not even the school holidays and already I'm thinking ahead to the autumn. We have a vacancy for an intern in our IT department from September.

Here's the advert. You can respond on that advert page or in the comments below. You get to work for someone who works for me, but there are advantages to the job too - nice location, free coffee, air conditioning, beach volleyball court and swimming pool onsite. The Internship programme means no salary, but pocket money, food and accommodation provided.

IT people needed

I've just put an advert up for an IT Support Assistant on our vacancies list.

Do you want to use your IT skills to support the vital work of Bible translation? Based in the UK at the headquarters of Wycliffe Bible Translators, we are seeking IT people to help keep the IT systems running, so that staff here can help recruit and support those doing Bible translation abroad.

We are looking for people who

• are familiar with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7
• are familiar with Microsoft Office products from 2000 to 2007
• have Linux skills (desired quality)
• are able to learn new things quickly
• have experience in PC support
• are good at diagnosing problems with hardware (PCs and printers for example)
• are able to use tools to repair machines

Particular qualifications are not required.

You will be working in a small team of specialists and you should be a team player able to work well without close supervision, and also to able work under pressure. You should be able to explain technical concepts to users of differing IT ability, increasing their IT knowledge and confidence. We seek people who are committed to upholding and demonstrating the Christian ethos of Wycliffe UK, and to achieving the core aims and objectives of the organisation.

This would suit someone working through our Intern scheme or someone who has retired and who lives locally to High Wycombe. Unfortunately we are unable to provide work for people working remotely, or for less than 6 months. This position is not salaried.

For more information, or to apply for this job, get in touch.

Wycliffe UK needs a new boss!

We need a new Executive Director as the current one will finish his term soon. Our website has a document with the details of the appointment.