The Hindu Business Line : `IT is so compelling as a career choice'

LOOKING out for a job, or a career? Wait, are they two different things? "A job is not a career," says Matthew Moran in The IT Career Builder's Toolkit, from Cisco Systems (www.ciscopress.com) , the "complete guide to building your information technology career in any economy."

The author defines a career as "the ongoing development of skills, attitudes, and relationships that lead you into and through various professional positions and objectives."

To Moran, therefore, a career is not made or broken by a job; and career is not linear, but far less structured. Career is free-form for most of us, taking "twists and turns along the way". He assures that you are in your career, "even when you are out of work"; don't fret the unexpected `detours', for they allow development of critical skills or key relationships.

But, is IT a great career? This is a natural question many like to ask because "the promise of unrestricted growth, high pay, and opportunities has given way to a sombre realisation" of fewer jobs. Yet, Moran is bullish; and he has four reasons: options, performance-based advancement, opportunities for continuous learning, and pay.

"Options. That one word might be a defining reason why IT is so compelling as a career choice," he writes. "It is a vast field. In fact, it is segmenting daily into new and growing areas of specialty." Since varied areas fall under the IT umbrella, career moves are easy, "while maintaining the consistency of being an IT professional."

For programmers, a ready tip from the author is "to frame their careers in relation to their broadest skill set." Don't call yourself, therefore, a Cobol programmer or a VB programmer, because you're in effect placing yourself "in the undesirable position of having to be completely retrained in newer, more prevalent languages."

So? "Both in conversation and mentality," call yourself simply as programmer, because "the language of choice is simply a tool" you currently use.

The US jobseekers dread outsourcing. To them, here is Moran's comforting thought: That "most jobs fall into the small-business category," where there are 10 to 500 employees, and IT departments are small, requiring "overlap of talent and business knowledge."

Without getting put off by size, seize these openings because of the opportunity they provide. "You might be required to provide training one day, infrastructure support the next day, and simple programming assistance the following day."

Plus, you'll be aware of the company's projects and plans, and "be forced into a more strategic role," with its attendant career benefits.

There's an interesting discussion of how you should identify areas for success when on the job, for you need to take control of `your career direction'. Your work has the standard duties, and "you might be recognised as effective at your given tasks." However, to accelerate your career dramatically, you need more.

"It is critical that you take on some of the additional projects that are not being done. In doing this, you need to identify those projects that will garner respect, have a high profile, and require you to learn new skills."

True to an acclaim on the cover, "Matt fills in the big picture," telling you things that "go beyond degrees and certifications." A must read.

Digital signature is different from a digitised one

RAKESH M. Goyal's Digital Signature, from National Center for Research in Computer Crimes (www.sysman.org) is a booklet with essential information on an important component of EDI and e-commerce, helpfully written in simple English. Thus, digital signature is explained as a unique set of digital characters that are computer-readable. To explain digital signature, Goyal exposes you first to digital identification - as an "electronic equivalent to ID card, driver licence, passport, and so on."

Digital Ids are the means to prove one's identity in electronic transactions. Licensed certifying authorities (CAs) create such IDs, and issue digital certificates containing information such as serial number, signature algorithm, name of issuer, validity period, subscriber's name and digital ID, and public key. Armed with such a certificate, you can create the `unique scrambled coded message' or `digital signature.'

If, like the many, you always thought you could create a digital signature by scanning your signature and storing it as an image file, the author clarifies that such a signature can at best be called `digitised signature'. Another common misconception is that the digital signature of yours will be the same for all the documents you send out, just as in the case of normal signature. "No," points out Goyal. The signature is "for a specific combination of private key and document." Thus, "another document with the same private key will generate a different digital signature," and so too the same document with a different private key.

To explain how digital signature is used for authentication, the book sketches the sequence graphically: Create the message; apply the encryption algorithm to create message digest or `digital fingerprint' which would vary even if you were to change the original message by adding a comma or space there; encrypt the message digest using private key to create digital signature; and so forth.

Where to store the private key? You can store it in your computer hard disk, or keep it on smart cards or hardware tokens such as floppy disks or pen drive. Whatever the medium, ensure it is not accessible to others. "The smart card and hardware tokens must be protected like money, jewellery and important documents."

One last question: What is the legal status of digital signature? For answer, the author draws you to Section 5 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 where the law confers validity to digital signatures, except in the case of certain documents such as power-of-attorney, will, contract for sale of immovable property, and so on. In India, the Act provides for cross-border certificate to be valid in India, only if there is an agreement between outside CA (not chartered accountant but certifying authority) and a licensed CA in India.

Useful read to prepare you for secure digital transactions.

Tailpiece

User: "Hello, I want to know if I clicked right!"

System support: "Did you click the right button or the left?"

User: "No, I'm wearing a pullover today. No buttons."

Books2Byte@TheHindu.co.in

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