A business owner needs a person who will understand business problems. The problem is that there are too many technical people who can include dozens of new technologies into an application without solving the business problems.
Michael Zalewski
That was very well put.
My strategy in job hunting will be to say: "Hey, here is a new technology, JSTL; here are the business problems it will solve; and this is (in a very general way) how it will solve them." Everything will be put in as few words as possible. My aim will be to be understandable to even the non-technical person. (We'll see if I actually accomplish this. I think it can be done, however.)
I will be making this pitch as much as possible to the actual/ultimate decision maker, whether this be the owner, or an IT Manager (who in the present recessionary circumstances is probably being pressured to think in terms of business problems).
When my pitch succeeds, and I generate interest in the actual/ultimate decision maker, the next step will be to talk with a technically sophisticated person, whether this be the owner himself or an IT manager under him. At this point, I will be trying to convince him that I have an in-depth knowledge of the technical stuff.
This is how I hope to distinguish myself from the large number of competitors who are technically better than I am.
Your general point that my approach needs to differ depending on who I am talking to is well taken.
Cliff
[ September 03, 2002: Message edited by: Cliff Engelwirt ]