SAS CIO Suzanne Gordon starts her speech by asking groups of us to stand if we're programmers, statisticians, analysts or communicators.

She's going to talk to us about prospering - both in a down economy and in a good economy.

Suzanne received a degree in math & computer science. She says she had really good grades but graduated during a recession, and several months went by without her getting a job. Then, on the same day, she received two job offers: one from IBM and one from North Carolina State University.

She took the job at NC State.

When it comes to making career decisions - or any big decisions - Suzanne likes to remember this advice from a friend: There's no right or wrong decision, just two different paths.

Suzanne started by working in user services at NC State, where a lot of PhD students and professors were using SAS. "I found that although a lot of people were familiar with SAS, not a lot of them knew statistics," says Suzanne. "I saw a void, so I took some stats courses, and was able to help students with that." She also became the SAS consultant for the university and would go across the street to talk talk with Jim Goodnight, John Sall and the rest of the staff.

When Jane Helwig went on maternity leave from SAS, Suzanne was recruited to help fill in for some of the work Jane did, and she became the first MIS manager at SAS.

Here, Suzanne offers advice from her dad who used to say, "Work hard, let the boss know you're working, and ask for promotions and raises." So when SAS hired a second MIS person she asked if that person,"could work for me instead of with me?"

For awhile, Suzanne worked as director of consulting, which provided a different view of the customer. Even though this wasn't directly related to her career path, the different perspective ended up helping when she returned to IT.

Even in good times, Suzanne tells her children, you should always have a plan A, a plan B and a plan C.

Four things Suzanne recommends you do to prosper:

• Develop a passion for learning.
• Understand your values and your skills.
• Explore new ways to use SAS.
• Network.

Four things you should ask yourself:

• What is my passion?
• What are my current skills? List them. Read, Now discover your strengths, and learn how to exploit your strengths.
• Where is the void? If you're working, where is there a lot of data that nobody is using? If you're currently looking for a job, where's the void in your community?
• Who can I help and who can help me? Try to meet four people tonight that you don't already know. Be sure one of them is a student. Visit the demos. Talk to the presenters.