Finding my calling
As I progress in my studies, more and more I think about where I want to go when I’m done. Which sectors, what types of companies interest me? What specific domain do I want to call my speciality? Where will I find the key ingredients that will enable me to give my very best to the world?
I’ve chosen my field of study four years ago – Business engineering in management information systems- and that narrows my possibilities down from an infinite amount of choices to all the possible directions within business and IT. I don’t regret my choice. This ís where I want to go. This is where I see so many (future) challenges and opportunities. However, this field still offers such a broad platform that the possibilities are still large in number. I could be a system analyst, system architect, web developer, IT or business consultant. I could work amongst programmers, in an IT security department, in several project teams and –in time- I could make it as far as the executive level. My question has no answer yet.
Lately, however, I think I might have found some specific domains that appeal to me just a bit more than all the others.
First, there’s strategy management. I admit the courses itself are dreary and not exactly my favourite pastime late in the evening or somewhat early in the morning, but when I study this course I find the content of what the professors were trying to tell me in those auditoria to be more appealing than I had thought it would. It’s not easy to formulate and implement a good strategy, so I’ll have my challenges. It’s also more in line with my own personal preference to stop, think things through, design a plan and then go for it, allowing changes only when they are really needed.
Strategy management is still mostly business-related. Combine this with IT and you have my second point of interest: enterprise governance of IT. If I have to tell you what people in my field of study are going to strive to –because there is a serious lack of it- it’s this term. Basically it is the combination of business and IT – or business/IT alignment: to translate a business strategy into an IT strategy and then combine the two sides at every step from top management to operations.
So what direction leads me to a job that suits my interests? Many, no doubt, but I think IT or strategy consultancy might be a good place to start. After all, that is where most of my fellow students will go to. Training programmes and personal development for the win!
I still have some doubts though. What if I’m fooling myself, making myself believe that these courses interest me more just so I could say I have a ‘calling’? Only time will tell, but at least I can be more specific when people ask me “what will you do when you’ve graduated?”