Transcriber: Mary Kay Reviewer: Denise RQ
Stereotypes are everywhere.
When I talk about stereotypes,
I am not talking about anything related to race, ethnicity, or creed.
Stereotypes are so much bigger than this.
They are just absolutely everywhere.
Picture in your mind your stereotypical IT professional.
(Laughter)
What does this person look like?
How do they talk?
What do they act like?
In 2005, I graduated from St. Lawrence University,
a small liberal arts school in northern New York.
Shortly after graduation,
I was fortunate to get a job in a medium-sized business
as an IT professional.
I wasted absolutely no time
following directly into that stereotype.
My standard dress everyday was
some sort of a patterned button-down shirt
with a really horribly busy tie.
(Laughter)
I had a real problem connecting with people.
Most of the conversations that I had
involved some series of acronyms
that sounded something to the effect
of "Your SIP phone wasn't working
because DHCP assigned you the wrong IP,
so the QoS going to the PBX wasn't working;
so therefore, your phone call had some jitter."
The person on the other end--
you just stop talking to this important customer in the middle of it.
I spent most of my days,
sitting in my dark office
in front of the comforting glow of my computer screen,
never having to have a meaningful conversation with anyone.
I continued this pattern till about 2008,
when I was reading some tech journals,
and I started to notice a change in the audience of the journals.
They were using terms like "return on investment," and "cost center."
They weren't aimed at techies.
They were aimed at businesspeople.
IT was becoming a core business function.
So if I wanted to continue in this industry,
I have to understand business.
Being a firm believer in "happy wife, happy life,"
I went home that evening and I asked my wife's permission
to start looking at MBA programs.
We are very, very fortunate here in the Rochester area
to have three outstanding business programs.
During my search, I had an a-ha! moment happened
at one of the information sessions for one of these programs
as one of the prospective students asked,
"What is it that made St. John Fischer so much different from everyone else?"
The answer came from the gentleman
who was conducting the session at the time;
He said, "If you want a fantastic finance program,
go to the University of Rochester.
If you want a great tech-based program,
go to RAT.
If you want to learn soft skills, then come to Fischer."
So I turned this statement over in my head for a couple of days,
and I came to a conclusion.
I decided that I didn't want to learn finance.
I could learn a tech -- I have been doing it for years.
But what so many IT professionals miss are those soft skills.
So I chose Fischer.
Since graduating,
I've had an opportunity to reflect
on my education, on my career experiences.
I realized that I had fallen into that stereotype.
I asked myself, "Why?"
The conclusion I came to was expectation.
I was expected to look a certain way,
to act a certain way, to talk a certain way,
because that's how an IT professional looks, acts, and talks.
But IT is a business function.
IT can't be those cave-dwelling nerds, which you just lock into a basement,
and you only call them when you need them.
They need to be an active part of the corporate culture,
they need to be in front of customers,
driving values to the top line not draining the bottom line.
They need to be those internal motivators,
adding value not waiting for some non-technical person
to bring them a very, very technical solution
that they only need to implement.
So my call to action today is to take a close look
at the expectations you place on yourself and on those around you.
Do you expect a stereotype?
And if you do, ask yourself why.
If we want to lead others, to break the mold,
and become more than just a stereotype,
we need to start with what we expect of ourselves.
Stereotypes are everywhere,
and expectations are powerful.
When we can recognize both of these things,
we can change the world around us,
and make ourselves better than we could have ever imagined.
Thank you.
(Applause)