Identifying skills for entry-level IT consultants

Authors:
Diane Lending;Thomas W. Dillon
Affiliations:
James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA;James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA
Venue:
Proceedings of the 2013 annual conference on Computers and people research
Year:
2013

Citing 10
Cited 0

The evolution of IS job skills: a content analysis of IS job advertisements from 1970 to 1990

MIS Quarterly
Critical skills and knowledge requirements of IS professionals: a joint academic/industry investigation

MIS Quarterly - Special issue on IS curricula and pedagogy
Changing patterns in IT skill sets 1988-2003: a content analysis of classified advertising

ACM SIGMIS Database
Transferability of skills over the IT career path

Proceedings of the 2005 ACM SIGMIS CPR conference on Computer personnel research
IT Consulting: Communication Skills Are Key

IT Professional
Information Technology Competence of Business Managers: A Definition and Research Model

Journal of Management Information Systems
Analyzing the dynamics of skill sets for the U.S. information systems workforceusing latent growth curve modeling

Proceedings of the special interest group on management information system's 47th annual conference on Computer personnel research
Synthesizing IT job skills identified in academic studies, practitioner publications and job ads

Proceedings of the special interest group on management information system's 47th annual conference on Computer personnel research
Designing a multi-faceted metric to evaluate soft skills

Proceedings of the 2010 Special Interest Group on Management Information System's 48th annual conference on Computer personnel research on Computer personnel research
Validating instruments in MIS research

MIS Quarterly

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

In this paper, we present preliminary research into the skills that entry-level IT Consultants need. Our data sources are senior-level IT consultants from six different companies and senior IS students who had just completed an IT consulting class where they were mentored by 12 different consulting firms. We used focus groups and open-ended surveys to get rich detailed data and then analyzed the results. Based upon this, we expand the identified skills for an entry-level IT Consultant to include being able to cope with changes, taking a holistic view of a problem, knowing when to ask for help, being a self-starter and having good time management skills. We found that both written and oral communication skills were important and that senior consultants looked for entry level personnel who were well-rounded.