With each category comes a different set of skill requirements, some of which may determine a path for particular individuals. One key skill of every IT expert is the ability to quickly develop an understanding of new technologies and be able to move projects forward based on this understanding. Many IT projects will identify a new technology, seek capable engineers and train them in the art of their chosen product. This takes some flexibility and skill on the part of the engineer.
As you can imagine there will be hundreds of ideal skills and abilities that will make a great IT expert. We will discuss some of these here.
Customer communication and service: This may not be an obvious skill to all IT experts, but it is very important. Whether it is communicating with the user-base, dealing with stakeholders who have a vested interest in a project or simply dealing with colleagues, communication is key. Without proper cross departmental communication, systems whose technical responsibility covers multiple areas could come crashing down.
Ability to adopt new technologies: As mentioned, technology is an ever changing landscape, new technologies are popping up all around us. To provide flexibility to your organization, an IT expert needs to be able to adopt these new technologies with open arms. They almost become one of the main driving forces for the adoption, as organisational members will look to the IT expert for sound advice and guidance as to the product effectiveness.
Analysis and pre-emptive support techniques: There are two types of system support in the broadest sense. Firstly there is a usual reactive support technique. This is the process of a problem being reported, investigated, solved and possibly prevented in the future. This is all well and good, but there has been a loss of service to some degree. Where an IT expert can really be worth their weight in gold is when a more proactive approach to IT support is taken. This is the analysis and monitoring of systems, looking at trends, trying to model when a failure could occur, stopping it in its tracks. This could potentially eradicate downtime in the future.
A thirst to improve own performance: With IT technologies always evolving and improving, the IT expert needs to mirror this evolution. Constant improvement and self development is a must in order to keep up with the world of technology.
