University of South Alabama

Information Systems Skills and Career Success

The proposed research will study the relationship between IS skills and career success for IS professionals working in certain IS specializations. A basis for studying this relationship is the concept of person-vocation fit. The congruence between the level of a professional�s skills and the need for these skills in his or her specialization represents a proposed measure of fit. The goal of this research is to determine if career success varies positively with a professional�s fit in an IS specialization.
Skill areas and specializations have been identified from previous research. This information, along with the importance of skills to a professional�s specialization, will be used as inputs for a measure of fit, defined as Person-Specialization-Skill Fit. Previous studies have shown fitness, such as person-job fit, to be positively related to career success when such is defined in terms of career or job satisfaction. Thus, this study will use a definition of career success also defined in terms of satisfaction.
Data on skills, collected using a skills assessment instrument, and a follow-up survey on the importance of these skills and the professional�s level of career satisfaction will be used to study the relationship. The results of this study should be useful to academics in developing curricula, to industry in learning how skills relate to success in IS specializations, and to individuals in deciding on education or in selecting a IS specialization.