We're all familiar with the stereotype of the IT professional. He (and it is usually a he) prefers machines to people, and would rather write programs than prose. It's the classic left-brain skillset.
Like many stereotypes, there is some truth to the assumptions, even though they don't fit every individual. As IT becomes more integral to business, however, IT departments will need more people who buck the cliché. They'll need staff with strong right-brain skills: creativity, intuition, and empathy.
Nowhere is this need more pronounced than in big-data, a growing field that is already suffering from a lack of qualified workers. McKinsey & Co. predicts that by 2018, the United States could face a shortage of more than 1.5 million people who can work with, analyze, and interpret data in ways that enable business decisions.
Many IT departments are scrambling to find people with the right technical skills for big-data. They are looking for people with strong backgrounds in statistics, business analytics, search algorithms, natural language processing, or other specialized skills (on the software side), along with Hadoop and/or data storage skills (on the hardware/infrastructure side). Such specialists are being snapped up fast and paid exorbitant salaries, especially if they have worked for one of the search or social media companies that have pioneered data analysis. (One analyst told me that $300,000 to $500,000 wasn't out of line for a top data scientist.)
Rather than a crisis, this shortage could be an opportunity for CIOs to enrich and strengthen their department by identifying and encouraging IT staffers with right-brain skills. For IT professionals, it's an opportunity to increase their level of job satisfaction and potential for advancement. In recent interviews for a Computerworld story, several data scientists said the best candidates for big-data jobs are "Renaissance men" -- intensely curious and creative people who are interested in many different disciplines, including the arts and humanities. Again and again, my sources pointed to the following characteristics:
Intellectual curiosity
A comfort level with non-technical people and the ability to explain big-data concepts and analysis in terms that business people understand
An ability to understand how to analyze data in ways that support the business and further business goals
Dogged persistence despite repeated failure, because big-data is an area in which you have to try lots of things that don't work, in order to find those that do
An open, flexible mind that can switch perspectives and assumptions
A strong creative bent
"These are people who fit at the intersection of multiple domains," said D.J. Patil, data scientist in residence at Greylock Partners, a venture capital firm. "They have to take ideas from one field and apply them to another field, and they have to be comfortable with ambiguity."
Patil ought to know. He is among the first wave of data scientists, having worked on data analytics at LinkedIn, PayPal, and eBay. Last year, he placed second on Forbes magazine's ranking of data scientists, just behind Larry Page. With Jeff Hammerbacher (founder of Cloudera), Patil coined the term "data scientist" when they both worked at LinkedIn. It's the type of mind a person has that determines how well they can work with data. People can learn the technical skills along the way. At LinkedIn, for example, Patil hired a neurosurgeon for his data analytics team. "He hated surgery," he says.
Of course, there are different specializations within data science, each of which might be suited to different individuals. An IT person with an interest in art, for example, might be perfect at the job of visualizing complex data. Someone who writes well could thrive at explaining how data analysis can be turned into business advantage.
To take advantage of this opportunity, both CIOs and IT professionals need to broaden their thinking when it comes to IT hiring. CIOs shouldn't focus narrowly on searching only for technical qualifications. Instead, they should keep an ear to the ground -- perhaps through their professional networks -- for these Renaissance types. And they should review the staff they already have, looking for those closet right-brainers with an interest in and aptitude for big-data.
IT professionals need to demonstrate all their skills and interests. Especially for those who've felt confined by the nerd stereotype, now is the time to break out of the mold and talk about your community theater alter ego. Enlightened managers are starting to realize that your right brain may be just as valuable, perhaps even more valuable, than your left.
Tam Harbert is a freelance journalist based in Washington, D.C.
That's a nice way to describe it Scott. Another disadvantage with the left brain/right brain metaphor is that it implies we're hardwired a certain way and can't change. Some people find it easier to change than others, but it's not like "I've only got a right brain, I can't do that stuff."
Kim, I think the whole left brain/right brain is popular because it's a nice layer of abstraction to explain why people behave the way they do.
I think the most important trait required is the ability to change perspectives, as mentioned by Tam Harbert. The ability to see a problem from multiple perspectives is how technical information can be transferred to non-technical people and is critical to good marketing, and I think it's the secret to thinking "outside the box". It's not really thinking out of the box, it's simply understanding the situation from the target market, and understanding that the target market's goals are different from the organization's.
I know plenty of IT folks that do creative things as avocations - they are musicians, writers, painters. In fact, there are a significant number of IT people who have liberal arts degrees that for one reason or another found themselves in IT. I think these are the people that will benefit the most from this new-found appreciation of the right brain.
I agree, Kim. As you point out, our thinking today is the composite of how we analyze and solve problems.
I think that is one of the distinctions of today as well. In that we have to solve complex problems requiring deeper thinking than just the luxury of one style versus the other, and resorting to pop science. We truly have to fully use our full brain power.
The left brain/right brain dichotomy is really a bit of pop science which has somehow become embedded in the culture. I don't think anyone seriously thinks that functions are confined to one part of the brain. What Tam's blog highlights is that different skill sets are coming to be valued in the IT world; some IT veterans will adapt to them easier than others. Talking about sides of the brain doesn't really bring any explanatory value to the situation.
I agree that people in the IT industry should certainly "think outside the box" especially in a management position. It is important for an IT manager to understand and be able to create useful information from data to benefit the organization.
What do you think is easier/better? Train a left-sided brain to look beyond the code, or to have a right-sided brain to think methodically?
Also, regarding the first part of your article, I believe that engineering doesn't make you anti-social, its just that "anti social" people tend to look for numbers and codes. Also, school doesn't do enough to teach those soft skills.
this is an endless debate i think, however we should keep in mind that for success we should not think if we should use our left brain or our right brain. Using the brain, and using it right is the most important thing. For success in any work that we are performing we need to foucs and concentrate, and that can come from either side of the brain, and it will be useful as long as it helps us acheive us what we want.
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