On Work and Work Ethic

In this entry, I want to present you with a little food for thought. My hope is that it will motivate you both in and out of the classroom.

I have long been an advocate for students working beyond what they are assigned. All of you have heard me say before that you need to do more than just the exercises that I assign in class. The big problem is that many of you don’t even do those! Many (not all) of you are more worried about how fast you can get out of class instead of worrying about how well you learn the material. It’s what I call a “click and run” mentality. In other words, the faster I can click through these steps and get out of the lab, the better off I’ll be. Wrong! You are only cheating yourself and setting yourself up for failure, not only in the class but in the workforce as well.

You are (at least based on your major) entering a field that is highly competitive and constantly changing. If you want to make it, you have to be prepared. That means walking out the door with more than a piece of paper saying you graduated. You have to have initiative. You have to be able to learn on your own. You have to be willing to try new things. You have to be willing to put forth the extra effort. Most of all, you have to be better than the applicant sitting next to you waiting to be interviewed.

As instructors, we can only carry you so far. The rest is up to you!

Read CIOs Uncensored: How Tech Savvy are Kids Today, Really? written by John Soat for InformationWeek. Are you one of the “kids” in the article that are gadget savvy but don’t know the basics when it comes to real IT? Could you be doing more in and out of the classroom to prepare for your IT career? Being able to update your MySpace or Facebook profile, pirating music for your mp3 player, or watching the latest YouTube videos isn't going to cut it. You have to have real IT skills that you can apply in the workplace, as well as critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Now that you’ve had the gloom and doom, let’s look at where you could find yourself in the future. Read the InformationWeek profile on Bruce Livingstone, Senior VP at Getty Images, and CEO of iStockphoto. It is worth noting that Mr. Livingstone was born in 1971 (he just turned 37). Further, his official profile at Getty Images states:

“Bruce got his start in design at Image Club Graphics in 1994, where he was a mail clerk, and learned design on his own time. A few years later, Livingstone began iStockphoto by creating a Web site to share 1,600 of his own images.”

Notice the part about he “learned design on his own time”?

So, the choice is yours. You can "click and run" are you can put forth the extra effort. Which choice are you going to make?