High-Tech Careers for Non-Geeks

If you are growing increasingly envious of high-tech careers, it still isn't too late to have one yourself. There are four basic avenues to join in on the e-conomy without going to programming school or making some other drastic career change:

1. Support it. Although the Internet may cause a decrease in "brick and mortar" industries, it has supported growth in a number of professions. If you are an attorney, writer, graphic artist, banker, public relations specialist or business consultant, you don't need to change professions so much as find high-tech clients. This might mean a change to a firm that specializes in high tech (as in the case of attorneys) or finding ways to market yourself to high tech companies (as is the case of writers and graphic artists). Read through professional publications to find out the differences between a standard and e-commerce business model, and how they impact your job. One caveat: The most lucrative part of the current high-tech boom - stock options - will be the most elusive if you choose this route to a high-tech career.

2. Start a web version of your field. (Or work for someone who has.) Look very carefully at your current field. Who are the middlemen, and how can they be cut out of the process? This is the basic formula for many current successful web sites. What do you do if you are a middleman? Gather your suppliers together under an umbrella site. Your customers then have choices from many companies, yet have the convenience of dealing with one storefront - you. Find out what kind of web presence companies in your field currently have. How can their web models be improved upon? Are there extra steps remaining from the brick-and-mortar world which can be eliminated? If a company has set up a solid web presence, see if you can obtain a job with that company.