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March 24, 2008

IT Pros with MBAs earn 46% more

A Management Insights study (link to study press release) finds that IT professionals with MBAs earn 46% more than those with bachelor degrees and 37% more than those with other master degrees. Anything that increases pay this much is interesting. I'm certainly glad I have mine and believe it was very worthwhile.

I think there are probably 3 reasons for the finding:
1. Those who get MBAs have management aspirations and managers make more.
2. The trend of IT personnel holding H1s without MBAs and without management/higher pay aspirations. IT has grown this way without as many in management layers.
3. IT really is business oriented and to thrive, one needs to be very attuned to the business. MBAs help IT personnel understand that focus better. IT success is certainly very much more about the business than college made it out to be!

Technorati tags: Information Technology, MBA

Posted by William McKnight at 9:56 AM | | Comments (0)

June 4, 2006

Top Performance, Part 2

Last week, I focused on...
1. Time Management
2. Desire to succeed
3. Goal Setting

I fill out that list out further with these...
4. Brual honesty with oneself
5. Willingness to do the things nobody else wants to do
6. Paranoia

Continue reading "Top Performance, Part 2" »

Posted by William McKnight at 10:19 AM | | Comments (1)

May 29, 2006

Top Performance, Part 1

I have been advising companies on data warehousing, business intelligence, information strategy and master data management for several years. I don't have all the answers, but I do believe I can take a client through the correct process to grow and arrive at the best answer for their challenges where I do not immediately possess an answer. Much of that counseling has really been the process of helping capable individuals come to the necessary conclusions themselves. I believe that leaves behind a better client than before I came - always a goal of mine. If I can improve an individual, or team's, performance and success capability, then that is something the client can benefit from for years.

Due to the personal nature of lots of my consulting, I think I've come to understand why some professionals achieve a high degree of success while others do not. I've noted some fundamental characteristics that I believe to be common among top performers and I want to share them with you over the course of several blogs with the title of "Top Performance."

Continue reading "Top Performance, Part 1" »

Posted by William McKnight at 11:47 AM | | Comments (0)

November 30, 2005

Bed time for business intelligence professionals

According to "Missed ZZZ's, More Disease?" in Science News, skimping on sleep may be bad for your health.

While it's too soon to say moderate sleep deprivation can damage your health, definite hormonal changes occur when people get less than 8 hours of sleep. Business intelligence professionals are probably more guilty of this than most.

Research indicates sleep deprivation can increase risk of obseity, cancer, diabetes and heart trouble.

I think I'll quit blogging and go to bed.

Posted by William McKnight at 11:50 PM | | Comments (0)

November 18, 2005

Live to a ripe old age - with a little help from your friends

I found this study interesting since we are getting close to that big family holiday, Thanksgiving.

Want to live a long time? Make some friends.

FRIENDS, not family, are one of the keys to a long life, a study of elderly Australians suggests as reported in New Scientist.

The research suggests that friends offer advice without pressure, which might help people take care of their health without adding stress.

Posted by William McKnight at 9:49 AM | | Comments (0)

October 28, 2005

Thumbing your way to pain

I know many readers of this blog, along with myself, are addicted to their Blackberry or, in my case, Treo. My peace of mind has gone up tremendously with the adoption of this technology. Now, when I'm away from my laptop, I can still thumb out an email (or two, or three, or ten). I have been wondering if this is just good for my thumb dexterity or if indeed I am doing structural harm and am pioneering a modern version of carpel tunnel, focused on the thumbs.

For what it's worth, I always give my thumbs a full range of motion exercise after thumbing away a long email.

This article on washingtontimes.com, "Being all thumbs gets painful" talks about "Blackberry Thumb" - a catch-all phrase to describe a repetitive stress injury of the thumb as a result of overusing small gadget keypads.

Be careful out there!

Posted by William McKnight at 8:43 AM | | Comments (0)

October 12, 2005

Where does time go?

I do about 10 environment assessments of DW/BI environments per year. I appreciate being able to fine tune or overhaul an environment so it is best able to meet its goals, both short- and long-term. People, process and technology are analyzed as a result.

All too often, I find that some of the optimizations are unrelated to client preconceptions about where they may be. One common optimization comes down to simply time management by the team members.

For example, one interview some time ago was supposed to be at 9:00. It started around 11:00. Read on to learn why...

Continue reading "Where does time go?" »

Posted by William McKnight at 1:34 PM | | Comments (0)