With information technology (IT) underpinning the way many schools and universities deliver and support programmes, IT professionals in the education sector frequently find themselves working on groundbreaking technology.
While the same can be said of IT professionals at corporations, the education sector presents a number of key differences.
'In the commercial world, most IT jobs focus on generating revenues around a product, service or process,' says Gerrit Bahlman, director of information technology at the The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). 'But at universities, the IT challenges come from every direction.'
This can include a need to deliver solutions for everything from teaching and learning to research, fundamental infrastructure and security. 'For those who enjoy variety and change, there is always something new happening and always a different challenge to face,' says Bahlman.
Another attraction Bahlman points to is the fact that university IT professionals get to be part of an academic community that is informed, used to taking risks and welcomes opportunities for implementing meaningful technology.
When recruiting, Bahlman says that in addition to IT skills, he also looks for passion and an appreciation of the importance of education.
He cautions, however, that the expectations of staff and students are raising the bar for what is required to fill the roles. 'We need to hire enthusiastic people with exceptional skills who want to work on technology projects that haven't been tried before,' he says, citing PolyU's soon-to-be-launched learning-management system as an example.