The Final, Final Word
Congratulations! You've made it through the entire book. With this knowledge you are well prepared to be an effective user of information systems. And with work and imagination, you can be much more than that. Many interesting opportunities are available to those who can apply information in innovative ways.
Your professor has done what she can do, and the rest, as they say, is up to you. So what's next? Back in Chapter 1 we claimed that Introduction to MIS is the most important course in the business curriculum today. That claim was based on the availability of nearly free data communications and data storage.
By now, you've learned many of the ways that businesses and organizations use these resources and information systems based upon those resources. You've also seen how businesses like FlexTime and Fox Lake use information systems to solve problems and to further their competitive strategies. In some cases, particularly with Fox Lake, they struggled to use information systems for those purposes.
How can you use that knowledge? Chapter 1 claimed that future business professionals must be able "to assess, evaluate, and apply emerging information technology to business." Have you learned how to do that? At least, are you better able to do that than you were prior to this class? You probably know the meaning of many more terms than you did when you started this class, and such knowledge is important. But, even more important is the ability to use that knowledge to apply MIS to your business interests.
Chapter 1 also reviewed the work of the RAND Corporation and that of Robert Reich on what professional workers in the twenty-first century need to know. Those sources state that such workers need to know how to innovate the use of technology and how to "collaborate, reason abstractly, think in terms of systems, and experiment." Have you learned those behaviors? Or, at least, are you better at them than when you started this course?
As of August 2010, the national unemployment rate was about 9.5 percent, with projections that it will increase to 10 percent or higher. Under these circumstances, good jobs will be difficult to obtain. You need to apply every asset you have. One of those assets is the knowledge you've gained in this class. Take the time to do the exercises at the end of this Guide, and then use those answers in your job interviews!
Look for the job you truly want to do, get that job, and work hard. In the movie Phillip Glass in 12 Acts, the composer Phillip Glass claimed he knew the secret to success. It was, he said, "Get up early and work hard all day." That quotation seems obvious and hardly worth stating. Except that it has the ring of truth. And, if you can find a job you truly love, it isn't even hard. Actually, it's fun, most of the time. So, use what you've learned in this class to obtain the job you truly want!
Discussion Questions
1. Reflect on what you have learned from this course. Write two paragraphs on how the knowledge you have gained will help you to "assess, evaluate, and apply emerging information technology to business." Shape your writing around the kind of job that you want to obtain upon graduation.
2. Write two paragraphs on how the knowledge and experiences you've had in this class will help you to "collaborate, reason abstractly, think in terms of systems, and experiment." Again, shape your writing around the kind of job you wish to obtain.
3. Using your answer to question 1, extract three or four sentences about yourself that you could use in a job interview.
4. Using your answer to question 2, extract three or four sentences about yourself that you could use in a job interview.
5. Practice using your answers to questions 3 and 4 in a job interview with a classmate, roommate, or friend.