/9918578/Banner

/9918578/Banner_2

/9918578/Mid

section

articleId

product

orgType

parrefer

accountID

Consulting

Banking

Accounting

Fintech

Internships

Rankings

Internship Rankings

Intern Resource Center

Explore Internships

Vault Law Home

Practice Area Resource Centers

Regional Resource Centers

Summer Program Resource Center

Vault Law Culture & Inclusion Survey

Vault Law

Guides

Events

Financial Services

Technology

Grad School

Work Relationships

Productivity

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Social Impact

Remote Work

Negotiating

Changing Jobs

Workplace Issues

Blog

Resume Samples

Cover Letter Samples

Interview Tips & Questions

A Day in the Life

International

Career Readiness

Explore Professions

Research Industries

Search Companies

Career Advice

Employers

Schools

The word &lt;em&gt;information&lt;/em&gt;, according to Webster’s dictionary, has eight different potential meanings. For this discussion, I’ll directly quote the following definition (as it relates to computer information):&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;em&gt;Information is data at any stage of processing (input, output, storage, transmission, etc.)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;When interviewing for a high-tech job opportunity, your chances of making a great impression increase if you have a broad understanding of the above definition. If you already have a high-tech job, your chances for innovation will increase if you deepen your understanding of this very important term.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In fact, a typical job in the high-tech industry will often focus on a dedicated sphere of information management. Innovation is more likely to occur, however, when you combine your sphere with an adjacent sphere.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So what are the different spheres of information technology? These spheres are too numerous to describe in one post! Let’s start with a very basic picture describing the generation and storage of information.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://media2.vault.com/034263b3-5192-443c-968d-3a88555b019f/00000060.png&quot; alt=&quot;information storage flow chart&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;embeddedObject&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At a very high-level, applications generate digital information and store them to a persistent storage device (such as a disk or tape). Here are some real-world examples of this kind of operation:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;User clicks “Save As…” on a Word document and saves it to a local disk drive.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;User downloads a music file to an iPod.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;User inserts money into an ATM and a deposit transaction is stored.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are literally dozens of technologies that revolve around the stream of digital information that is depicted in the center of the diagram above.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Knowing as many of them as possible is critical for your career.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are technologies that &lt;em&gt;capture&lt;/em&gt; information. There are technologies that &lt;em&gt;encrypt&lt;/em&gt; information. Don’t forget &lt;em&gt;routing, retaining, shredding, snapping&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;replicating&lt;/em&gt;! I’m just getting started. There are many, many more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In 2010 I’ll be stepping through a fairly sizeable list of information technology spheres, with a goal of making the reader more conversant in each. Knowing the basics of each sphere will make you a more marketable high-tech candidate.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Once we get a handle on the full variety of spheres, future posts will describe effective methods for finding and combining spheres.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Steve &lt;br /&gt;http://stevetodd.typepad.com&lt;br /&gt;Twitter: @SteveTodd&lt;br /&gt;EMC Intrapreneur &lt;/p&gt;

Steve Todd

Article

How Basic Cybersecurity Knowledge Can Boost Your Career in Any Industry

How Capture the Flag Events Can Jumpstart Your Cybersecurity Career

AI Skills Everyone Should Learn in 2025

100 Most Outstanding Fintech Employers for 2025

The Library