The Sky is the Limit

 If this is true, how to we ever hope to help people who are trying to figure out what they're personally interested in doing as a career? When the potential workspace is SO large, where does one start?  How do we make it simple enough to be easily digested, yet informative enough to ensure we are not creating false expectations, or (probably more importantly) scaring students away from the "hard" stuff?

What is THE Problem?

Students are not aware of the diverse career opportunities that exist in the information technology space. Students who have a limited interest in the “technical” part of I.T. are not aware of the non-technical aspects of the work.

Why does this problem exist?

1. There is not a definitive IT advocacy group that has defined all the potential careers in the market
2. There is no "simple answer" to what a career will look like so we have analysis of too many choices
3. Guidance counselors are only able to "guide" on subjects they have information on
4. Guidance offices default to being an extension of college recruitment offices instead of career discovery

What are the impacts of this problem?

1. Students are less likely to take early, positive steps in preparing for an IT career which delays their entry into the career marketplace
2. Undecided students spend more time in unbeneficial study courses.
3. Students with skills/interests that are useful in the IT context do not consider the IT career space early because they do not understand the diversity of needs in the IT space
4. IT workforce has to shoehorn people with certain “skills” or tangential experience into roles to fill in gaps

How can this problem be addressed?

Fundamentally it is always about information. The question is in what form it is presented and which audience is the most appropriate to target. 

So the sky may be the limit, but we clearly need to start with ground truth first.