How to Advance Your Tech Career — Simple Steps

On September 13th, GovLoop hosted our first ever virtual show, the Government Innovator’s Online Summit. The virtual conference brought together nearly 1300 government innovators, and provided five trainings throughout the day. Participants had the opportunity to virtually network, download resources and attend free online trainings to help them do their job better.

Topics for the virtual show included, the State of Government Social Media, How to Advance Your Tech Career in Government, Mobile Government: Today, Tomorrow and Beyond, How To: Create a Great Government Website and a session on Project Management training for government employees. Please follow the links at the end of this post to access a follow up blog and the archive of the webinar.

This post will provide a review of the Tech Career in Government session. You can view an archived version of the post here.

In November 2011, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management laid out its IT Program Management Career Path in direct response to the President’s 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management. While the Career Path is helpful in recommending courses and curricula that assist a government IT professional in advancing his career according to a clear competency model, what does that kind of advancement really look like?

We’ve compiled a panel of experts to look at the issue.

• Kirk Webber, Communication Lead for the CIO Council, IT Workforce Committee
• Mike Koehler, Program Analyst, Cybersecurity Education Office, National Cybersecurity Division, DHS
• Benjamin Scribner, National Cyber Security Division, Department of Homeland Security
• Phil Bertolini, Deputy County Executive & Chief Information Officer, Oakland County, Michigan

“When it’s time to advance your IT career you should keep a three part perspective in mind, Know, Be, Do,” says Webber.

Know standsfor being aware of what’s going on around in terms of IT developments and programs. IT leaders should check out what’s happening with CHCO Council, News Media, Interagency Groups, OMB, OPM, GAO, CIO Council, Congress.

Be stands for be the IT leader you want to be. You need to get outside your silo. You should work to increase your technical knowledge, improve your soft skills and seek out learning and training opportunities.

Do tells you to become the go to person. Use your technical skills to the fullest, volunteer for special assignments and resolve tough problems for your agency.

For a full list of development programs take a look at our archive here.

Specialize in Cybersecurity

How do you know if a career in cybersecurity is for you? “Simple” says Mike Koehler, he and his team have developed a National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework. The guide which is due out early next month will assess your skills and interests to see if the field is right for you.

Feds and contractors are also allowed to enroll in cyber training at the National Institute for Cybersecurity Studies. The first of its kind of training brings together the best resources.

Go Virtual: FedVTE and FedCTE are both options for feds. They courses combine virtual training with in-person events. All of the sessions are interactive and involve hands on leaning.

Local IT

“In many cases in local government, IT staffs, are being asked to do less with less,” said Bertolini, “in order to stay competitive the IT industry needs to think of new ways of working. For example adding flexible hours, telework and competitive pay. We need to believe that county government is a good place to work.”

Bertolini says governments should consider rent to own programs and outline very direct purposes for IT staff.

You can find slides to the virtual summit and the audio of the presentation here.

Here are some photos that show what the virtual show looked like, if you want to download the slides to the session, please visit the archive version.

Find more photos like this on GovLoop – Social Network for Government

This page is brought to you by the GovLoop Technology Solutions Council. The mission of this council is to provide you with information and resources to help improve government. Visit the GovLoop Technology Solutions Council to learn more.