The first year of the 21st century is almost over and if you're like a lot of readers, you're more confused about the future of your IT career than ever. Although we've explored the ins and outs of many IT careers this year in ComputerUser, things keep changing and there's more ground than ever to cover.

I don't blame you for being confused. There are a lot more reasons for confusion than for clarity. As I've been looking over the reader responses I've received, I've been doing some thinking about the reasons for this confusion and what I wish we (the business world, the government, et al.) could do to end the confusion--or at least significantly reduce it. The end result is my year-in-review, year-ahead wish list for the IT Santa.

As you read through the wish list, you may find yourself saying, "Hey, these are great, but how do I get more information?" Being the practical sort, I've looked the list over and decided that I could take care of some of the items on the list myself--with a little help from ComputerUser and some dedicated research. So, in the coming year I will tackle some of the wishes on the list and, I hope, help reduce some of my readers' confusion in the process.

Seven wishes

Wish #1: We all see a lot of numbers, and the numbers say the world is crying out for more IT professionals. But one in three of my e-mails lately (check out my Ask Molly advice column on ComputerUser.com) has been from some poor soul who has an MSCE (or some other certification) and can't find a job. They want me to tell them what's wrong. I wish I knew for sure.

Maybe we've all taken too seriously the notion that IT jobs are like manna--plenty for everyone if you'll just go out and pick it up. Likewise the idea to get the kinds of jobs that companies want to fill requires more than a certification. What we really need is rock-solid, reliable statistics on job prospects: short-term, long-term and how they relate to certification and training.

Wish #2: Getting certified in an IT area seems to be a shortcut to a great IT job, right? Not necessarily--at least not according to what I'm hearing from you. What the industry needs is a simple way for people to find a job once they've got a certificate. If you're going to sink time and money into training, you need to know that there's a job for you. Maybe we need to pair trainees with companies for short internships as part of the training cycle. If both parties are happy at the end of the internship, the trainee would have a job upon certification.

Wish #3: We need fewer and better Web job sites for IT-related careers. There are dozens and dozens (I'm not kidding) of Web sites onto which you can load your resume and hope for the best. Trouble is, no one seems to know the real story about which sites are best and which sites you should avoid. You can spend precious time and money sending your resume to every site on the Web and never get a single phone call. How can you tell which ones are worth the effort? Which sites have the best behind-the-scenes personnel, and how can you get some individual attention?

Wish #4: It would be nice to have more information about how to draw upon your own real-life experience and blend it into IT work. I get e-mail all the time from people who are tired of the work they've been doing for decades and they're wondering how they can switch to the IT field. "What if I get a certificate in XYZ?" they ask. My standard response to them is to find a way to apply the experience they've gained over the years to some aspect of IT. What we need, though, is more real-life success stories of people who've done just that, and stories about companies looking for a few good people with experience in a particular niche.

Wish #5: We need government statistics that track the real IT world, including job descriptions that truly describe what's going on in the job market. The federal government likes to be super careful about how it gathers its job information--which means not moving too quickly and publishing information only when it has been cross-checked many times. Now, I'm all in favor of accuracy, but the IT field changes daily, not annually, so how about some numbers that reflect these changes, delivered in a more timely fashion?

And while we're on the subject, how about some standardization in state reporting on IT careers? That way, we could figure out if it's worth relocating in search of better job prospects.

Wish #6: Readers want more information on what the average person has to do to get trained in a particular IT area, particularly in IT certification programs, and how much time and money is involved. The cost of some of these week- or month-long programs could cover a year's tuition at a good four-year college. Is it worth it? How do you know before you make the investment?

Wish #7: We could use less hype about IT career potential and more of a sense that human skills count as much (or more) than raw technical knowledge. This goes hand in hand with learning how to profit from your experience rather than starting all over again as a network tech somewhere. It should be possible to blend your people skills with IT knowledge and find a rewarding job that lets you put both to work.

Striving for clarity

I said earlier that in the coming year I'm going to devote this column to spreading the (real) good news about the IT job market--especially in the areas of training and certification. So, instead of reading about different kinds of IT jobs and what's involved in those jobs, I'll be focusing more on training--the costs, the time, and the payoff. I'll also be talking about ways to make the most of your time and training dollar--and how reduce your investment without selling yourself short.

What I need from you to accomplish this mission is more of your real-life stories: Visit ComputerUser.com and pose an Ask Molly question about your IT career. While I can't answer every question individually, I do appreciate hearing from you. Together we can make the IT picture clearer and a lot less confusing in 2001 than it was in 2000.

Contributing Editor Molly W. Joss also writes Ask Molly, a daily careers column on ComputerUser.com. Ask her an IT career-related question at AskMolly@ComputerUser.com