'Develop business applications knowledge'

In these hard times, IT professionals need to exploit emerging opportunities

by expanding their areas of competencies, by developing more business

applications knowledge and specializing more deeply in IT for life sciences,

according to Ronn Gusass, technology management consultant to Fortune 500

clients. 

"As tool makers, IT professionals need to develop advanced business

applications knowledge to address the needs of the tool users. They also need to

keep abreast of the emerging areas by tracking the media so that they can

exploit them instantly. Such emerging fields are life sciences, graphic imagery,

and entertainment where new applications are driving demand for IT professionals

at the rate of 3 times their scientist counterparts," said Gusass. 

He felt India had a lead in that as it had highly educated people with

advanced knowledge. Commenting on the downturn, he said the crash was very steep

and that about 465,000 IT professionals have lost job in the US. So the rise

would also be steep. However, the economy is recovering extremely slowly but

steadily. 

Ronn Gusass is in town to speak at the seminar on 6 July at Tidel Park

organized by the Global IT Network, a Chennai-based trust formed to equip the IT

professionals to be on the cutting edge and be value-based in implementing

strategies that would positively impact the society. He would speak on the

future outlook for Information Technology- is there life after dotcoms, and

career outlook for IT- surviving the downturn. He will discuss the process of

adapting to change and how to add depth and width to a professional's profile so

that he becomes indispensable for the company.