IT consulting is a topic I'd planned to cover in this column this year, but not this month. The topic came to the top of the list after I started writing the column and started getting letters from readers asking for advice about getting into IT careers. Most are straightforward and simple requests for more information, but a few stuck in my mind. Here's the gist of some of the more memorable ones: "Hi, I've got 20 years of experience in the insurance field and I'm looking to get into an IT career before it's too late. I'm male, in my forties (or fifties), have a couple of kids who'd like to go to college, and I make $60,000 per year. Can you help?"

Here's another one: A reader (let's call him Jim) with 15 or so years invested in a high-powered banking career and a master's degree in finance wrote to me recently. He has a tuition-reimbursement plan through his company, and he was trying to figure out which graduate program in computing he should get involved in. He asked me to take a look at some Web sites for him. By his reckoning, it would take him about seven years to finish another degree, working steadily and going to school every semester in his spare time.

These letters stick in my mind because they all tell the same story, one that resonates with me personally. All of these folks have decades of experience invested in serious careers: banking, publishing, manufacturing, and so on. They've got significant financial responsibilities and they're making at least $50,000 a year. They're interested in IT "something" because they see ads for IT jobs everywhere and they like computers. What they're asking me for is advice on switching careers.

I'm at a point in my career where I've come to value experience and I know it's important in the computer field. Yes, there are fresh-faced whiz kids making billions out there, but they're the exception, not the rule. The people who really get the job done are the people who know to show up on time and how to work with people. And learning those skills takes experience and a few hard knocks-something you can only earn by putting in the time to get the stripes.

So here's my standard advice to anyone out there who fits the above profile: Don't switch careers--add to the one you have. Make the most of the time you've already invested in your career. Believe it or not, your experience is invaluable in the field you're in if you can add some IT knowledge and experience to it. With a little planning and training, you'll be able to ease yourself into IT consulting. You'll be happier, and the business world needs people like you-honestly, it does.

Case in Point

Let me tell you about someone who has done just what I'm proposing people like Jim do, although this person didn't do it intentionally. Steven Schnoll is the president of Schnoll Media Consulting, an e-commerce consulting firm specializing in the graphic-arts industry. For years, Schnoll ran his own printing business, then decided to take early retirement. That didn't last long.

Schnoll says, "Before long, my friends in the business were calling me up and asking me to come talk to them." You see, they knew Schnoll was interested in the Internet and knew something about computers. And at that point, that's all he did know. He wasn't an expert in e-commerce, but he did know the printing industry-and lots of people inside the printing industry.

After a few conversations with his former colleagues, Schnoll realized he had a potential business opportunity if he wanted it. Computers had been integral parts of the printing and graphic-arts industry for years, but now everybody wanted to know about the Internet and how the Internet was going to affect their business. They wanted to talk to someone who knew something about their business first and the Internet second.

You see, technology is a fine thing, but people still run companies, and people like to talk to people who know a thing or two about what they do for a living.

It didn't take Schnoll long to make up his mind that he was interested. He decided to open a consulting firm that caters to companies in the graphic arts exclusively in order to bring the companies information about e-commerce. To get moving gaining some training and experience in IT and e-commerce, he enrolled in an intensive e-commerce seminar offered by MIT. Today he spends a portion of every week reading books and magazines, doing research, and talking with experts about e-commerce. What he learns, he blends with his experience in printing and takes back to his clients.

Lessons to Learn

There are a few life lessons, I'd like you to glean from the story of Steven Schnoll. To understand them, you've got to back up a little and let go of some of the details. In other words, we're going to generalize a little from his experience: Build on what you know. Unless you absolutely hate the field you're working in today, find a way to mix IT and technology into what you already do. Use the experience you've gained by hard work and persistence; add to it some technical knowledge and help the people you already know. Knowledge of technology isn't the most important thing for a successful IT consultant. I'm not talking about having zero knowledge of how computers work, but you don't have to be a technology wizard to be useful or successful in an IT consulting career. That's what teams are for (more on this below). Ease into IT consulting. You don't need to jettison your current career. Check out IT by signing yourself up for some short-term training, take a few days off, and attend an IT conference. Read some magazines and books to get the basics. Then, write yourself a business plan for moving into IT consulting over a few years. Consider changing your lifestyle--I suspect that one of the reasons why people like the idea of getting into IT is that it's something new and different, and they're at a point in their lives when they're ready for new challenges. Terrific, but it will take you years to build your IT consulting practice and bring yourself back up to your former earnings level. So while you're easing yourself into IT consulting, trim back your living expenses and reduce those financial obligations as much as you can. The transition will be easier on the whole family that way, I promise.

Contributing Editor Molly Joss also writes a bimonthly Software feature for ComputerUser.

IT Consultant Resources

If you're interested in learning more about IT consulting, there are a lot of good books on the subject. One of the most useful ones for folks like Jim, though, isn't about the technology side of consulting; rather, it's about the human side. It's called "The IT Consultant: A Common Sense Framework for Managing the Client Relationship" (Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer Publishing). The author, Rick Freedman, is the founder of Consulting Strategies Inc., an IT training and consulting firm.

Freedman's stance, as expressed in the book and in his company's training courses, is that technical expertise is not enough for the professional, successful IT consultant. Indeed, it's not even the most important facet. This is how he explains his position in the book: "Consulting is more than expertise in a technical discipline or craft. We all have had the experience with the supremely qualified technician who cannot explain in plain English what's wrong or how to fix it. Who hasn't worked with a talented craftsman who had no understanding of working within a defined budget, or of the basic courtesies such as timeliness? In the IT world as well, there are plenty of technicians who can design and implement the most complex multisite data networks, yet lack basic skills in communication, project management, time management or human interaction."

-M.W.J.