Adding Layers of Skills to a Science Background By STEVE LOHR

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August 20, 2009
Adding Layers of Skills to a Science Background By STEVE LOHR
In good times or bad, the pace of technological change never seems to let up. This relentless engine of innovation, economists agree, is the wellspring of the nation’s long-run prosperity. But it presents a daunting challenge to science and technology professionals who are trying to stay ahead, seeking a career that is unlikely to become outsourced, automated or obsolete.

The sour economy has only intensified those pressures. So colleges across the country are reporting a surge in applications since last fall, up as much as 50 percent, for continuing education programs intended for people with science and engineering backgrounds. The offerings, in classroom settings and online, range from short courses of a few days to graduate degree programs that span years.

Some students want refresher courses, educators say, but most are trying to broaden their appeal by adding business and communications skills or by learning how to apply their technical talents in promising fields like renewable energy, transportation and health care.

“Technical expertise by itself is not sufficient, and that is more true now than it has ever been,” said Bhaskar Pant, executive director of professional programs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s school of engineering.

The technology workers most in demand in the future, according to James E. Spohrer, a researcher and director of university programs for I.B.M., will be “T-shaped people.” Such people, Mr. Spohrer explains, possess a deep knowledge in one technical discipline topped off by a wide portfolio of skills, from project management to industry expertise, that makes them more valuable to employers.

Katherine Heningburg, 28, an electrical engineer at General Dynamics in Scottsdale, Ariz., wants to become one of those broadly skilled technologists. Ms. Heningburg, who designs computer circuits for communications systems, is taking online courses from Arizona State University to earn both a master’s degree in engineering and an M.B.A.

The added skills, she said, should prepare her to lead project teams, a step into management. “My goal is to bridge the gap between the business and technical side,” Ms. Heningburg said. “And this will give me the ammunition I need to be marketable within my company, in my industry and beyond.”

In many schools, hybrid courses that apply computing to business problems are increasingly popular among continuing education students. These blended courses are in new academic niches like knowledge services, data analytics and services science, which combines technology with business processes. These hybrid disciplines apply computing to businesses as diverse as online advertising and food distribution.

“All the business knowledge and data analytics is further up the economic ladder than pure technology alone,” said Ram Akella, a professor of information systems and technology management at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “That work is not going to go offshore.”

Sometimes, a return to school is a smart way to restart a science career. That was the motivation for Mark Spencer, 53, when last fall he began M.I.T.’s Career Re-engineering Program.

Mr. Spencer has a Ph.D. in chemistry and for more than a decade was a scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., specializing in atmospheric chemistry and climate modeling. But in 1995, Mr. Spencer, an avid amateur photographer, decided to pursue a long-held desire to try another career. He moved back to his home state, Massachusetts, and set up a photography studio.


MR. Spencer did well for years, as both the owner of a small business and as a photographer, winning a string of professional awards. Yet, he explained, the intellectual stimulation of photography waned over time, and the deep recession reduced sales of his business by 40 percent.

So Mr. Spencer immersed himself in courses at M.I.T. two days a week last fall and, as part of the program, started an internship this year at a technology and research firm, Agiltron. One division of the company does contract work for the government, and shortly after he arrived Mr. Spencer was asked to help prepare a contract proposal on deadline. He was hired the next day, well before the M.I.T program was over.

“I didn’t get my full money’s worth,” he joked.

Mr. Spencer said he found the M.I.T. course work useful and stimulating. But like others, Mr. Spencer also pointed to the networking benefits of rejoining a university community and the value of the program as a sign to employers that you are motivated and willing to make an entrepreneurial investment in yourself.

“If my résumé started by saying I had run a photography studio for the last 15 years, there’s no way I would have gotten in the door,” Mr. Spencer said. “Having that M.I.T program at the top of the résumé really was crucial.”



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