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 COLUMN
Hitting the books ONE ITEM THAT comes up in my conversations with other technology professionals is the relative importance of formal education in one's career. In retracing my steps to the CTO job at InfoWorld, some key moments stand out in my mind: building gargantuan Web sites for media companies, sleeping on the floor of a datacenter with a wad of Ethernet cables as a pillow, managing groups of people to the successful completion of projects, and gaining a clear focus on education via long nights spent studying computer science texts and systems administration manuals.
A college degree, technical or nontechnical, is a wonderful thing, but I think the keys to educational growth in the technology field often lie in other areas. Mentorship. In one of my previous columns, I wrote about my experience with Dan Woods, the key mentor in my early career (see "A memorable mentor," Nov. 19). As technology and business continue to converge in many different ways, I think it's important for technical staff to seek out not only technology mentors, but people in other areas of the business, such as sales or finance. Learning how a business really works can only inform the building of systems and software to drive the business. Formal advanced studies. If I were to go back to school now, I would choose something such as the unique program that Georgia Tech offers called the Executive Masters of Science in Management of Technology -- essentially a technology MBA (www.dupree.gatech.edu/programs/executivemasters/ ExecMasters_index.shtml). University of California, Berkeley also offers a Management of Technology Program jointly offered by its Haas Business School and College of Engineering (http://mot.berkeley.edu/intro.html). These high-profile programs focus on the increasingly meaningful intersections of business and technology. Books. I can't overstate the importance of reading. At least 95 percent of the time someone asks me about a particular technology or business issue, I recommend a book on the subject. This is perhaps the most democratic form of advanced education, since the price of admission to the hallowed halls of books is the occasional $30 at your local bookstore. In many ways, the book approach is the most solid, since you can tailor the program to your particular needs and enjoy the benefits of self-pacing. As your parents said, studying is important, but it is more important to focus on the education and not just the degree. How do you advance your "studies" in the technology field? Write to chad_dickerson@infoworld.com.  RELATED SUBJECTS  Professional DevelopmentMORE > SPONSORED WHITE PAPERS 
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