Sorry, Allen, but I think you've missed a beat with the latter part of your first paragraph...
Often times, it is NOT easier to teach a techie about business practice... it is often FAR easier to teach a business person the techie side of things... I work for a major US retailer. Nearly all of our Store Support people - technical positions to say the least - have come from the stores. WHY? Because they know the way we work - our corporate philosophies, if you will. They know what our business is all about (selling stuff!) and they grasp that concept. Teaching them how to dial into a store location (using PC Anywhere) and how to do some basic computer skills (Task Manager, Explorer, etc.) is easier - especially since many of them may know this from their own computers at home.... But they understand the concepts of what we do and why we do it. They generally have some rudimentary techie skills - and can certainly acquire more - while working as first level support for the stores in the chain. On the flip side, we've also hired some exceptionally techie people for the same positions - people with their MSCSE certificate and Cisco Certified and all the rest in their history. And some of them surely DO know their way around the computer... But teaching them the business side of things - why we do what we do - over and above the basics (selling stuff) is a lot more difficult. Some of those non-techie store people that take over techie types of poistions can continue moving in the techie realm and become quite talented. Personally, I grew up around computers - mom was a programmer/analyst for Univac many, many years ago. But I fought the "techie genetics" and went decided "non-tech" when in college (English Major, then changed to Architectural Design & Graphics Major). I worked in customer service positions - and then upped My way into retail management - not for the same company I'm employed by now. I did start off in that store support (and also with mainframe support) and have worked My way up to EDI guy... Another guy I started with worked at the stores, went on to work with the team rolling out a new POS system and is now our AS400 Operations Supervisor. Another store person has become our Technical Contracts Administrator. Another works with our networks... I could go on and on about examples of how it can be much easier to higher non- technical people to do technical jobs when they understand the basics of the business. I guess it all depends upon what business you're talking about - but in our case - it makes much more sense to promote non-tech people into tech positions.... Craig Dunham EDI Coordinator major retailer --- In [email protected], "Allen Garrett" wrote: > > You are not in a unique position, as a matter of fact, > I think it is more common place than you'd think. It > seems that upper management has this idea that IT professionals > aren't good business people with business sense. One thing > that they tend to overlook is that it is easier to teach a > techie business skills than it is to teach a business person > techie skills. ------------------------------------ ... Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Job postings are welcome, but for job postings or requests for work: <JOBS> IS REQUIRED in the subject line as a prefix.Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
