This article has been devoted to getting a job in data processing. It should be evident from what you've read that seeking a job involves a set of specific and tangible rules, all calculated to make the most of your education, experience, and personality.
Now, however, we move into a less tangible area- the question of attitude for success. This has less to do with resumes and interview techniques, and places greater emphasis on you.
There is a technique that many successful people use when called upon to prepare a proposal. First, they meet with the person for whom the proposal is intended, in order to find out what elements that person considers most important. Once that's done, they include those ingredients in the proposal, which, in virtually every instance, results in enthusiastic acceptance and approval.
The same principle can be applied by each of you looking to achieve maximum career success in data processing. What are those people in positions of power looking for from DPers seeking advancement? The best way to answer that, I think, is to refer to the studies I conducted within the data-processing field.
It's such an elusive, arguable term, and it has captured the attention of every American since we became an industrialized society. It carries with it enough definitions and viewpoints to create its own dictionary.
Success in data processing is no different. What you judge to be success in your life will determine the level of aspiration and energy you put into achieving it. It might be satisfied by a lower-level, routine, and hands-on application of a narrow DP skill. It might be keyed to where you work or live, or to the number of vacation days you are given, the level of air conditioning and general surroundings of the workplace, or hundreds of other factors that represent your individual needs.
I've tried in this article to offer advice on at virtually every level. Where you choose to stop is, again, an expression of your individuality and personal needs. It is in the eye of the beholder - your eye.
Those of you who have not only set your sights on the highest positions in data processing and its management, but hope to leap beyond them into the highest echelons of top management, are entertaining those dreams at a vital point in the history of data processing.
It wasn't long ago that the field was narrow enough in its general contribution to a company's success that the chances of making such a dramatic move were certainly less than probable, and barely possible. In the past, men and women reached the top by coming up through such corporate departments as marketing, sales, finance, and others that were perceived as having direct influence on the company's success and future. Now, with computers moving to the heart of American industry-and with that trend destined to continue in coming years-the importance of your occupation is significant enough to make quantum leaps to the boardroom not only possible, but in some cases, even probable.
What will it take for you to achieve it? Wanting it. Preparing for it. Going after it.
I hope this book will help you to achieve a greater level of success by realizing and understanding that there is much more to success than just technical knowledge. It involves every aspect of the human condition, every facet of us as men and women, no matter what occupation or profession we choose to pursue or what our ultimate goals are.
Data processing-is an established and accepted part of the American business and industrial future. That future is bright. So is yours. It's just the beginning. I wish you well.
What is attitude for success?
There are probably as many ways to sum it up as there are people who have thought about it. It involves wanting to win. It means viewing accomplishment as a goal unto itself. It stems from a genuine joy in working hard and being willing to put yourself on the line. It's men and women who view the glass as being half full rather than half empty, and who are open to the world around them and view it with an intense sense of curiosity and wonder.
Authors and philosophers have tried to define it over the ages.
The philosopher Nietzsche said:
If ye would go up high, then use your own legs! Do not get yourselves carried aloft; Do not seat yourselves on other people's backs and heads.'
And George Bernard Shaw wrote:
The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.
Having the proper attitude for success is essential to being successful. You can possess all the technical skills and knowledge available, and have all the other trappings of a winner, but if you aren't looking to win and aren't willing to work hard enough to achieve a victory, you won't. It's that simple.
