Job Responsibilities
I think my job can be divided into three sectors; the first is
the Administrative, Managment sector and this deals with budget,
personnel issues (hire/fire/evaluations, and corporate
planning. I spend about 10% of my time in this space. The next
sector is the technology. Because my department is a 'data
warehouseing' department we have some great tools to work with
and because I am a 'working' Director I get a chance to write
ETL scripts, create BI reports, develop data models and mange
the various projects that come throug our department. i spend
about 40% of my time in the technology. The third sector that
consumes about 50% of my time is the business communications
part of the data warehousing disapline. Much of our time is
spent communicating with the various business units to develop
business directives and requirements so we can ensure that our
data warehouse solutions solve our users business problems.
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Job Requirements
We are a small shop and becasue of this we do not develop
specialist, or focused skills. We require a well rounded
individual that possess a number of IT and business skills. We
spend a great deal of time with our business partners, so it
stands to reason, that we would need to have good
communications, both written and verbal, to ensure an
understanding of the problem and the solution. Any good MBA
program will provide the foundation for the communications
aspect of the job. The technology piece can only be gained from
experience. You need to work within the Information Technology
industry in some capacity to gain an appreciation of the
different parts of an IT infrastructure. How does the Web play
a roll, what does the mainframe bring to the solution, what
problem does a client/server environment present, how is the
solution delivered over the network, are all part of the overall
skills that a person should gain through experience. Specific
skills on specific toolsets can be gain very easily through some
vendor presented classes and some hands-on, so that generally is
not an issue. The career path is to get some exposure to an IT
environment, polish your business communications skills and then
start by learning a specific tool. Once you have those skills,
then you progress through the career path through experience and
taking on more and more responsibility.
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Uppers
The technology and the great tools that are available in the data warehouse
industry are the most exciting part of the job. Also, the variety of
opportunities that are presented and the direct contact you have with the
business unit makes the job very enjoyable.
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Downers
The demand for data and information is insatiable and the
pressure to produce is very keen. One must be ready to be very
focused and plan for some stress and long days and weeks.
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Lifestyle
The lifestyle varies with the company. In our company we have a relaxed
business casual dress code. We have occassional department outings, mostly tied
to meeting company or department goals. All of our corporate offices are local
so travel is minimal with an occasional trip to the field to visit business
partners or provide training.
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Compensation
My compensation is based on the industry standard charts that
are available and is adjusted for our geography, years of
experience, and level of responsibility. The base is about
$110,000. This is augmented with a performance bonus of 10% and
is based on the performance of the company, as well as your own
personal performance in attaining certain goals, define at the
beginning of the year. In good economic times the company has
provided stock options, but this hasn't occurred in at least six
years.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Get comfortable talking in front of people and making
presentations. Teach a Sunday School class, volunteer for a
speakers bureau, do Toastmasters, sing a song in a Kareoke bar,
anything to help you with your verbal communications. Second,
learn how to write in an informal business style. You will need
to write a variety of documents that simply explain how
something works, or to gain an understanding on how something
should work. This is done everyday of your work career. These
communications don't require a formal style of writing but are
best accomplished with an easy reading style. Lastly, soak up as
much technology as you can get. Networks, web based, languages,
anything you can become exposed to.
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