Careers in ITOn Wednesday, the New York Times published a brief editorial by Melinda Gates, the wife of the world’s richest man and the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Their charity is often held up as a prime example of the good that can be done when extraordinary financial success meets a healthy sense of social responsibility. This is so much the case that several years ago Warren Buffet simply donated a significant portion of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in lieu of setting up a charity bearing his own name.

That noble example is worth highlighting on this blog because it points to two very different but equally compelling reasons you might have for pursuing information technology training and keeping yourself on the cutting edge both of technology and of financial and business practices. IT job placements are definitely a pathway to a high paying career, and that’s worthwhile in its own right. But if ever entertain loftier goals it’s worth recognizing that every online software training course and every bit of project manager training gives you a better chance of having your hand in a project that makes a serious, positive difference in the modern world.

That was the emphasis of Mrs. Gates’ article. Highlighting three examples from around the world – three of innumerably many – she made the case that technology, although neither good nor bad in its own right, has the potential to be a tremendous force for good. Her piece implies that all it really takes is for the cutting edge of information technology and related industries to be held in the hands of specialists who know how to wield it and project managers who truly care about what they can accomplish.

It’s difficult to find a career path that can be both self-serving and morally fulfilling, but materially beneficial and beneficial to the human soul. But as more and more people find that their information technology training leads them toward solutions to modern problems, everything in the field becomes a potential opening to that rare combination of wealth and personal satisfaction.

The same can even be said of IT job placements that are more closely related to the business aspects of a firm than the actual project management and software development. Even business analyst certification or market research analyst training can lead you to a sense of personal fulfillment as you contribute to the financial success and further project development of firms that are actively committed to making a difference in the world.

As Mrs. Gates’ article seems to imply, these sorts of firms are growing. And they will continue to grow if more people are inspired by the examples of the Gates’ and Warren Buffet and thus see both business and information technology as a force for good. By keeping a firm foothold in business training and information technology training, you can become part of a generation that regards IT training and certification not just as the path to a career, but as part of a mission.