What My ‘NonTraditional’ IT Background Really Means

 Over a decade ago, during an interview, a hiring manager whom I greatly respect remarked about my resume, that it was one of the most unique ones in IT. I found that to be an entertaining and tactful way to put it.

Here’s what’s different about it. I have a Master of Divinity degree, and served as a pastor in the Christian and Missionary Alliance from 1985-1993. That’s not where most people in IT come from. What’s more, my undergraduate degree is in Classics -– Greek and Roman language, literature and culture. That’s not the Computer Science or Engineering degree that many of my colleagues have earned.

So, what does this mean as far as my qualifications for IT, and specifically, for software development? Well, on the one hand, that’s not all that there is about my background, skills and qualifications, and on the other hand, there are some things from that part of my background that have some relevancy.

First, there are some false preconceptions that others have about what it has meant for me to be a pastor and what it means for me now.

• As a pastor, I wasn’t some kind of political operative. Political indoctrination wasn’t and isn’t part of the mission of a church nor the responsibilities of a pastor. In fact, the IRS will easily revoke the tax exempt status of a church, and in the process, probably get the pastor fired and blacklisted from his denomination if the pastor undertakes these kinds of activities as a church activity and the church facilities are used for political activities.

• My background as pastor does not mean that I will come in and try to be the ‘moral policeman’ of a department or an organization. There will be activities that I may decide not to participate in, such as departmental ‘happy hour’ get-togethers, depending on how much pressure there is before and during the activity to drink and to get drunk. (I would add that managers need to be aware of the issues with liability and litigation that can result from these situations.) Nor am I a prohibitionist who goes around trying to reform the ‘party animals’ in an organization. In other words, I will seek to live in accordance with my own convictions, and that can be an asset to an organization, because those convictions include working with foresight, skill and integrity.

• My background as pastor does not mean that I will try to do ‘churchy’ things during the course of a work day. As far as me doing things like stopping my work, standing up and delivering impromptu sermons during the middle of the work day, or trying to perform weddings for others in the organization, or badgering people about attending my church – those things simply aren’t going to happen.

• I’m not a part of some paramilitary militia or anything like that. I’ve served in a respected denomination that’s been around for over a century with a publicly available website and statement of faith on that website.

• I’m not a Catholic priest, nor have I ever been a part of the Roman Catholic Church; I’m a Protestant minister, and no one ever has to call me, ‘Father’, ‘Pastor’ or ‘Reverend.’ I’ve actually always preferred simply to be called ‘Dale.’

• I didn’t leave the pastorate because of being connected with any kind of scandal.

Second, the course of my education and background has provided considerable skills and capabilities that proved to be transferable to IT:

• As a pastor, I was responsible for public speaking two to three times per week. This transfers into being comfortable in front of audiences and being able to deliver presentations.

• As a pastor, sermon preparation called for a great deal of self study and self initiative to get things done each week. So I’ve been proactive outside the pastorate in finding and getting the training that I’ve needed, reading the manuals and documentation, and getting things accomplished without a great deal of supervision and micromanagement.

• During my high school, college and seminary education, I gained fluency in Latin, ancient Greek and Biblical Hebrew – three languages which no one speaks. This gave me experience in working with human languages no one speaks, which transfers to working with programming languages no one speaks, and a prior understanding of different fonts and alphabets. Unicode, anyone?

• My math and philosophy education included symbolic logic, pre-calculus and calculus, and I understood and was easily able to work with things like Boolean logic, sets, functions and coordinate systems.

• During my education, writing played a major part in achieving my degrees, and my ability to write clearly has helped me with preparing technical documentation and with other areas of my work that called for expressing my thoughts and communicating to others clearly through the written word.

• My business experience outside IT and the pastorate included call center, business process documentation, financial accounting and operations research experience, and helped me to understand business beyond IT. Moreover, it gave me some ideas and convictions about what efficiency, profitability and customer service mean to a business as a whole.

Third, since I left the pastorate in 1993, I’ve definitely sought to gain whatever training and education that I’ve needed. Here are some things that I’ve done:

• I’ve had a personal Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) license pretty much since 1998, and I first learned classic ASP and MS SQL Server primarily through going through the MSDN documentation.

• I’ve taken internal employer provided training wherever possible, and this has included classroom training on Visual C++, DB2, Mercury WinRunner, LoadRunner and TestDirector, quality assurance for IT, and project management, among others, computer based training on C, C++, Visual Basic, HTML, and COBOL, among others.

• I’ve taken classes in the Master of Business Administration program at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, which included a class on object oriented development and the Unified Modeling Language.

• I’ve attended outside special interest groups and seminars where available, and count myself quite fortunate to have heard such technical lights as Juval Lowy, Kathleen Dollard, Julie Lerman and Steve Smith in person.

• I’ve acquired a number of manuals over the years, and read as much as possible from classic literature. Recommended reading lists such as that in Steve McConnell’s Code Complete had a considerable influence on the personal IT library that I’ve collected over the years.

• I’ve subscribed to a number of magazines over the years, such as Software Development (now a part of Dr. Dobb’s Journal), C/C++ User’s Journal, Visual Studio Magazine and MSDN Journal.

Moreover, to corroborate what I’ve learned, I’ve also put in the time, expense and effort to earn these IT certifications:

• Microsoft Certified Developer (MCSD) in C# .NET.

• Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) Enterprise Developer in C# .NET.

• Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) in MS SQL Server Database Development.

What I’ve learned and put into practice without having a Computer Science or Engineering degree has been more than sufficient for me to fulfill of my work responsibilities, to make significant contributions over the years to many projects completed on time and within budget, and to provide creative and innovative solutions to specifications, requirements and wicked and difficult problems. So, my ‘non-traditional’ background did mean some difficulties in getting established in IT, but it’s made me work harder to keep my capabilities current and to provide solid contributions where I’ve worked.

Over the years, I’ve come into contact with others who have had ‘non-traditional’ backgrounds and who have been working in IT and quite productive and valuable employees, contractors and consultants. When it comes down to it, no one has to understand or approve everything in the background, work experience or off-hours activities of a colleague to work effectively with that person on a team or in a project. Rather, IT provides many opportunities to work with and understand others who are different than we are, and to learn how to work effectively with them.