For students graduating into the millennium, Browne says the picture is even clearer. Using information technology and its tools, whether through a personal computer or some other type of electronic equipment, is equivalent to driving a car. It's something that everybody needs to be able to do to maintain minimal living status, Browne says.

President Clinton in a commencement address to the MIT Class of 1998 in June addressed that same technology-value proposition.  The President noted that because of information technology, 30 times as many messages are delivered by electronic mail today as by the postal service.  He exhorted students not to allow this age of opportunity to be remembered also for the opportunities that were missed.

What Clinton, Browne and others hone in on is that information technology is not just for technologists, but for anybody who expects a successful career and a successful life. A recent report from Norwalk, Conn.-based Business Communications Company Inc. forecasts that 62.4 million U.S. households will subscribe to the Internet in 2001, compared to 25.5 million in 1997.

While high-tech jobs do go begging in the marketplace, students of all stripes need a technological bent, especially African Americans and other students of color. Studies consistently show that African-American students, for instance, are disadvantaged compared to white Americans in the use of computers and the Internet in the home.

The haves and have-nots today are not about money. They are about access to information technology, says Browne, who also worked for Digital Equipment Corp. and Wang Laboratories during his career.

Information technology is a tool that you use to leverage the information you want to gain access to. For somebody who's coming out of school today with a finance degree, everything is going to be related to spreadsheet manipulation. Before, they had a calculator. So now when you combine the tool with the discipline called finance, that person is incredibly more powerful than the person who just has the finance knowledge, Browne adds.

For students who are majoring in an information technology field, the sky really is the limit. Technology companies large and small are literally on the prowl for workers. In his speech to MIT graduates, Clinton, citing a national unemployment rate of 4.3 percent, noted that over the past four years, information technology has been responsible for more than a third of the U.S. economic expansion.

Microsoft, for instance, with its Skills 2000 Initiative, is courting workers from all walks of life, from police officers to artists to construction workers, to change careers, get training and take good-paying technical jobs. And 3Com Corp., another influential high-tech company, has joined a nationwide program, called NetPrep, to offer schools, teachers and students a standards-based curriculum on how to design, implement, manage and integrate computer networks, as the rise of the Internet has escalated the need for computer networking specialists. During the next eight years to 2006, the computer and data processing services industry is projected to grow 108 percent, the most of any other industry, and produce more than 1.3 million new jobs, particularly for database administrators and computer support specialists, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It's not just the Intels and the Motorolas and Microsofts of the world that are looking for these people, says John Hannabach, director of the career services office at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta. The petroleum industry, the banking industry are all looking for information systems and information technology people. And then there's just a wealth of small entrepreneurial start- up organizations that are looking for them. The demand is just tremendous.

With the spoils of the job market come the riches by way of salaries for information technology students and graduates. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) of Bethlehem, Pa., the average starting salary for job offers in computer science fields was $40,843 as of April 1998. For information technology jobs, the average offer was $39,476. In 1994, the average offer in computer science was $31,701 and $29,345, in information technology, according to NACE.

For students who bring exceptional talents to the job, such as cooperative work experience, summer job experience and leadership ability, the starting salary grows more. Geraldo Abreu, a diversity recruiter, for IBM Corp. in Raleigh, N.C., says while the competition is hot for top information technology students among companies, IBM still places a premium on students with superior skills. An information technology specialist, a typical entry-level position at IBM, can command a starting salary of $44,000 or more, Abreu says.

We ask, 'Can this person come in and have the basic entrepreneurial skills that a job like an IT specialist requires,' he says. We take the best possible candidate, one that has all the skills and extras.

Indeed, IBM, because of its legacy in computing and information technology, traditionally is considered by students as one of the top firms to work for as our other top technology corporate employers such as Microsoft, Intel, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Lucent Technologies and Raytheon Systems.

Kharlon Galbreath, 24, took a job as an information technology specialist when he joined IBM two years ago after graduating from North Carolina Central University in Durham, N.C. He urges students interested in high technology careers to get experience and keep their options open about the types of jobs they may want to do.

Galbreath did just that. He began at IBM in North Carolina as an intern and worked during the school year. A business major with a concentration in computer information systems, Galbreath actually wanted to work as a computer programmer. But as an IT specialist instead, writing computer code all day, he helps to solve customer problems.

There was so much out there that I didn't know about that I wish I had known about in school, Galbreath says. I don't think students know everything that's out there because there are so many different jobs you can do that are just as good. I like my job, and I'm glad I was introduced to it before I graduated.

Hannabach of Georgia Tech says the hot job market is causing college placement offices to try to convince employers that they should be focusing on a student's functional skills instead of solely on the major. Functional skills will give students the ability to perform a number of positions.

Besides a generalist position like information technology specialist, other IT positions drawing students today include data entry operator, database analyst, help-desk operator, computer operator, computer programmer, programming analyst and systems analyst. Even positions like webmaster are emerging because of the rapid development of the Internet and private corporate networks.

There are many positions that could be done not only by computer science majors, but physics majors, math majors, other engineering majors and even humanities majors, Hannabach says. We've been pushing this now for a year because of the dearth of people who can fill the jobs. The demand just far, far, far outstrips the supply. There are literally hundreds of thousands of positions that can't be filled.

Abreu says IBM tries to offer its young workers credible training so they can succeed and want to stay.

When a young person comes into IBM, one of the things we allow for a young candidate to do is achieve success almost immediately. We're bring people in we feel can do the job and we give them that sense of confidence that they can do it, Abreu says.

Dr. John Hopps, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Morehouse College in Atlanta, says everything is at stake for students to get the most from today's technologically -driven society.

It's going to be pretty difficult really to be an expert in any area without having to understand some things about technology, Hopps says. The Bill Gates and the David Packards and their billions and billions of dollars in wealth were really accumulated in one generation. With great ideas, there is a tremendous amount that you can do.

Hopps says technology is all encompassing at Morehouse. He says colleges need to take the lead in showing all their students the merits of understanding information technology.

It's as critical as in the old days of being able to go to the library and understanding the Dewey Decimal System and being able to find books in the stacks. Certain basic skills are just absolutely mandatory. Colleges and universities will have to assume full responsibility for ensuring that students receive that minimum knowledge and skill level, Hopps says.

If you need evidence of what technology entrepreneurship can do, look no further than William W. Davis Sr., founder, president and CEO of Pulsar Data Systems Inc., a computer systems integrator and reseller based in Lanham, Md.

Pulsar Systems was founded on the back of a $30,000 second mortgage on Davis' home 15 years ago, and now the company has annual revenues of more than $150 million and according to Black Enterprise magazine ranks as one of the 10 largest African-American owned U.S. companies.

Understanding technology served him well both personally and professionally and should not be taken lightly, Davis says.  In view of today's heavy emphasis on technology, Davis adds computers are going to have to have high involvement in your lifestyle from this day forward.

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Looking for job and career information on the World Wide Web? If you've never done so before, don't fret. You are only a few key strokes and mouse clicks away from finding what you need.

As a student on the dawn of a new century, the Internet is the way you locate jobs today. Georgia Tech University's Career Placement Office, for instance, conducts all of its registration, scheduling and job postings over the Internet. Many other colleges and universities are quickly automating as well, so understanding that the Web is a tool to be used in your career search is critical. Companies today willingly will accept your resume sent over the Internet via electronic mail, so save the postage.

A good place to start is on THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online Web site at www.black-collegian.com. Click on the links to careers or search open positions for starters.  In addition, another excellent web site to visit is IMDIVERSITY.COM at www.imdiversity.com.

Another way to get started is to do a search on your browser. If your interest is in finding information technology jobs, search those words on one of the search engines like Yahoo, Excite or Infoseek. There are literally hundreds of links out there to Web sites offering career information and postings. They are too numerous to mention here, but just one site, such as www.hotjobs.com, will point you in the right direction.

For information on the information technology industry, the site maintained at www.itic.org by the Information Technology Industry Council of Washington, D.C., will yield impressive results. If there is a company you might want to work for, make sure one of the first things you do is visit that company's Web site. Students majoring in the information technology field will clearly discover that the sky is really the limit in seeking quality professional opportunities.

Browne, Davis and others, who have already forged out successful careers in information technology, have some solid advice for students. They advise the next time you encounter that often intimidating computer, don't just walk on by, instead stay awhile. Your next job might only be one mouse click away.