Looking ahead to 2016: IT Generalist versus IT Specialist

It's amazing to me how everything in life seems to come full circle.

When I started life as an IT professional (way back in the early 1990's), the profession was about knowing how to work with everything in the environment – an IT Generalist. 

I needed to know something about everything that was implemented and deployed in the company for which I worked. We were cross-trained, youthful, and energetic.

Fast forward a few years, and the IT profession took a different turn. 

IT Specialists emerged. As IT became a more trusted and steadfast business partner, IT professionals could choose the products and systems they wanted to work with. 

Particularly in larger organizations, there were entire teams designated to support things like SQL Server, Windows Server, Windows workstation, Exchange, SharePoint, etc.

While IT Specialists still exist today, the IT Generalist is making a strong comeback. Knowing the details about numerous products is becoming more critical. 

There's many things you can attribute to the changes in IT, but I think the biggest is probably:

The increased acceptance of the Cloud, and those that are choosing to educate themselves on a varied stack of technologies instead of one or two areas are finding much bigger employment and professional advancement successes.

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This doesn't mean that IT Specialists are going the way of the Dodo bird, or that new opportunities will only be filled by IT Generalists. It just means that in the new IT economy, there's finally room for both once again. Both are required to ensure success.

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This is one of the reasons why IT/Dev Connections is structured the way it is. IT/Dev Connections offers the following 5 distinct tracks:

• Cloud and Data Center
• Data Platform and Business Intelligence
• Enterprise Collaboration
• Enterprise Management, Mobility, and Security
• Development and DevOps

So, for those IT Specialists, you can choose and stick with your area of expertise the entire week. 

But, because IT/Dev Connections is architected to seem like 5 conferences in one, you can also jump tracks and fulfill your IT Generalist needs.

As we dip into 2016 here shortly, we'll be rolling out our conference catalog so you'll be able to select your path – choose your own destiny. IT Specialist or IT Generalist – the choice is intimately yours.

Sent from my iPadmc