Now it is easy to lay out (as these professors did) that fixes are simple: get companies and universities to instruct more and better and trust to the remove merchandise to boost pay to attract new entrants. But I would argue that this does little to attack the poor image of IT among professionals and students alike. Put bluntly these do not see IT as an attractive career because it is not a career at all. Rather it is often viewed as a narrow set of skills to be applied in an almost rote manner from the first job to retirement just as in Asimov’s story.
The lack of training and the loss of jobs gives it away: companies typically accept that existing programmers are less good at using new technology than newbies trained in Java. MySQL or the like. The typical doctor or lawyer can evaluate (within a specialty) to be assaulted with new techniques and drugs or with new legal challenges. They can evaluate greater and greater responsibility followed by mentoring and control over the strategic direction of one’s office or hospital. Indeed they can expect to take a hand in matters outside law/care for in the running of the business. The IT professional can evaluate to hit away at new versions of AIX. OpenView or SQL Server; but often not much more. Yes there is cultural resistance to moving to a new platform; but that is frequently because the old platform is the only place where one’s experience is valued.
And let’s not drop that in many companies the highest job level is that of software “design.” Not a creative applied mathematician or a flexible “analyst”; just the guy who uses a glide command to figure out how thick and high the dam should be to forbid disaster.
Now it’s easy to point to places like Google which do indeed encourage creativity and try to alter things “fun.” But what is the long call at these companies? What happens when the platform or the technology changes? What is the go path? What are the thirtysomethings doing?
Let’s face it there’s a certain resemblance between this world and that of Isaac Asimov. Moreover unlike in Nine Tomorrows there’s no behind-the-scenes organization alter now trying to redesign IT careers. But until we do exceed at it. I would declare that the types of findings that the professors came up with are move to come about; and especially the bit about IT being a lousy job. Anyone want to work in IT? Anyone?[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.illuminata.com/perspectives/?p=373
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