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by Anonymous |
The 30 year-old computer that sang "Daisy Daisy" has recently been retired to the Smithsonian Institution to join their pioneer collection.The world of computers is new and everchanging. Hal, that soft-voiced mechanical start of "2001" has been replaced in the public's fancies with a bleeping imitation of a souped-up vacuum cannister, "Star Wars" R2D2.
Glowing more and more sophisticated by the year, computers fascinate, often stealing the show from live actors. But to consultant, Jeannie Wexler, they're "just part of the furniture."
As a consultant, Jeannie is there to assist people (companies, universities, government) to make decisions on how best to use computers to solve their problems. Her job might involve designing and programming: a business, for example, has a computer to handle the accounting and payroll. It needs to produce cheques at regular intervals - a specific product. The programmer has to ascertain what system is required to calculate, print up, and account for the cheques, paying everyone on time and not making interest mistakes with the decimal points.
A more common assignment at Jeannie's level is conducting feasibility studies. These involve the examination of all aspects of the client's needs to match them up with computer systems, calculate what the costs and the benefits would be, and make recommendations about whether it seems worthwhile to adopt a particular system or not. A third and related type of work is marketing. Initiating sales calls and following up with detailed proposals estimating how long a project would take, its cost, and so on are part of informing the client of what to plan for and what she can do for them. This may take her to a resort hotel to study their reservations system, to a pulp mill in the interior of the province, or to government offices in B.C.'s capital city Victoria.
At 31, drawing a salary in the $30,000 range, Jeannie is pretty near the top of the ladder. Because of the job's heavy reliance on experience, however, she is intimate with each rung in the ascent . Born in Sweden and raised in Montreal, Jeannie's interest in enrolling in a commerce course at McGill University was encouraged by her family. "I knew I'd do something in the business world but hadn't yet discovered what."
The program itself she found a little rigid and dry; useful in teaching her what she didn't want to do. "The accounting course told you the difference between debits and credits - things you could easily get from a book anyway - but didn't give you any scope as to what business was all about." Certain things have to be learned on the job. After graduation, she took a position as administrative assistant to an executive at Canadair. "It turned out to be a secretarial job without typing. I'm sure it would have been with typing if I'd known how, but I was very adamant about not learning how to type."
The data processing operations were part of her supervisor's area of responsibility so she was frequently exposed to its activities. After a few months she asked to be switched specifically into that department, starting as a junior programmer. When she moved to Toronto a year later, she realized that she'd missed the flexible environment of the university and found a job at York University, but getting increasingly involved in the design as well as the programming stages of projects. For example, she would talk to the users of the payroll department to find out precisely what they needed.
As an intemediate programmer, Jeannie took on more and more projects, but after a year and a half, when she felt she wasn't learning anything new, she switched to a company that sold computer time, taking a job as technical support staff. Government and big business would purchase time on the computer to run programs they had already designed. Jeannie would help them if problems arose, reworking their programs to work most efficiently. "There are a lot of little rules you have to follow, things that can go wrong when using a computer, whatever the particular job. These problems would be new to the clients but familiar to me since I worked with these machines all the time."
Again, after a few years, Jeannie wanted to go a step further. She joined a "software" firm. There, the company develops specific applications for the clients instead of providing only support. Some of her projects were a payroll system for a bank and a vender system for the Department of Education to keep track of all its suppliers; how many, how much, invoice dates, and so on.
She also helped clients with "conversions"; transfers from one computer type to another which offered advantages of greater speed or efficiency.
At this point in her career, Jeannie began to bill for her services on a daily basis; before, her services had been provided as part of the ordinary costs charged for the computer time. Now she was part of each client company's staff for the duration of the project; ideal for clients who normally didn't need a fulltime computer staffer.
When Jeannie planned to move to Vancouver, the Ottawa-based company suggested she head up a West Coast branch to service their western clients. "There was a terminal hooked up to computers in the East, and once I'd set everything up administratively there was relatively little to do. Although I'd never done marketing before, I thought I should try it to build up more clients for the firm."
Although she was selling both computer time and "software" services, the reception was cool. Vancouver has a history of failed companies, especially from the East, so there was much skepticism towards a new one. "Call me back in a year" was the refrain. But Jeannie managed to sell enough business to keep herself and two assistants busy, and began to be known.
After a stint as Project manager with another Eastern-based firm, Jeannie became involved with the locally based company. She became a consultant a year and a half ago and is thriving, "Because the company is not only well-recognized, a lot of interesting projects come their way." Her only reservation about her work is "the feeling that there's still so much to learn all the time. Dealing in big money also creates pressure, and people paying for your time by the hour heightens your awareness of the need to solve problems quickly. As for the future, the route up is joining management, becoming a partner in the firm. Alternately, she could look for a position as data processing manager in a large corporation or start a consulting firm of her own. But she likes where she is, and enjoys dealing with people rather than just coding sheets
Career Data: Business Programmer Consultant
The business programmer consultant assesses the customer's computer processing needs and, on the basis of his/her knowledge of business and computer systems, selects equipment and develops appropriate computer programs.
Community college or university education with specialization in mathematics, business and/or computer sciences is recommended, though not always essential.
Programmers must pass computer programming aptitude tests administered by employers. Possibilities for promotion, eventually to managerial positions, are good for talented, hard-working programmers.
Aptitudes:Above average ability to learn, excellent logical reasoning skills; good attention to detail.
High School Subjects:
Maths, sciences, English, business subjects
Salary Starting:
Salary for a programmer with a large company - approximately $12,500/year.
Future Outlook:
Job opportunities should be good in this rapidly growing field.
Related Careers:
Systems analyst, computer services marketing representative, computer operator
Occupations:
Computer Programmer/Systems Analyst:
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