In our last career tip, we brought you some words of wisdom from Frank Wood, President of
Phoenix Resources, an IT recruiting firm serving clients throughout the United States and abroad.
He has 30 years' experience in human resources and senior management. Here are some more useful
excerpts from that conversation:
According to Wood, there are five main professional areas within the CRM field:
--The Functional Specialist: This person develops specs for the client, specifies the solution and
implements software. This person is a "high-energy person with extremely good communication skills
and knowledge of the product."
--Programmer: This is the traditional programmer who can customize and integrate the software into
another system. Expertise in programming languages and Internet technology are important.
Certifications like MCSD are also helpful.
--Database Developer: The database developer figures out how to store the great quantity of
information in the CRM system. Skills in databases like SQL Server and Oracle are important.
--Telecommunications Specialist: This person maintains the telephone systems. Since many CRM
opportunities are in call centers, telecom specialists play a key role.
--NetworkingComputer Specialist: All the systems depend on the network and the computers, so the
networking and the computer hardware are showstoppers if they aren't working properly.
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According to Wood, the best opportunities are in the functional specialist area. These positions generally demand higher salaries, but also require a lot of energy and effort. Wood said that the functional specialist is a "high-energy person with extremely good communication skills and knowledge of the product. Those people are principally on projects all the time and have such a high activity level that they are typically breathless."
He added, "Companies like people that can solve problems. The people I know who are most successful are people who can go into meetings and give answers that hold up."
Information about Phoenix Resources is available at http://www.phnxres.com. Frank Wood can be reached at fwood@phnxres.com.
====================================================== Dave Loebig, of BrandonBusiness.com, is a writer, web developer, graphic designer and instructor out of Tampa, Florida. Feel free to send comments, questions, ideas, innuendo and rants to D_Loebig@brandonbusiness.com. You can visit his web site at http://www.brandonbusiness.com.
This was first published in February 2001
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