IT workers grumble about lack of career path
More to job than shoot 'em ups and doughnuts, y'know
Posted in Management, 21st July 2009 13:28 GMT
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IT workers feel frustrated by the lack of career development opportunities on offer, a new survey has found.
More than half (54 per cent) of the 693 IT employees and contractors in the UK surveyed by recruitment agency Hays expressed dissatisfaction with their career path.
Unsurprisingly, their response was markedly different to that of the 369 employers who were also asked to take part in the survey.
The vast majority of IT bosses questioned about job satisfaction in the sector said employees had plenty of scope to advance in their careers, with 81 per cent stating that their IT departments were “equipped with the right skills to deliver an excellent service.”
According to Hays, 65 per cent of permanent IT workers were satisfied with their packages.
The most valued benefits among employees included contributory pensions, followed by bonuses and private medical insurance.
Employers, meanwhile, played down the significance that flexible benefits and training had on their staff recruitment and retention strategies.
“For many employers, delivering strategic IT projects represents an opportunity for their organisations to move a step ahead of the competition and increase productivity. Benefits have remained competitive, as organisations are eager to retain talent,” said Hays director of IT contracting Richard Horrocks.
“Candidates are naturally more cautious and less inclined to change jobs, so will be scrutinising remuneration and benefits, job security and enhanced career prospects more closely.”
Earlier this month Hays workers suffered a blow to morale, after the company coughed to a pay freeze for all staff, including executives, following a drop in fees it collected from clients. ®
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COMMENTS
It's not just IT
I work in a major science and technology laboratory, Phds to the left Phds to the right in every discipline you can imagine and the biggest complaint regardless of technical or scientific background :- there is no technical career path, to move up through the ranks which is the only way to a decent payrise requires you to develop management skills.
That said IT and computer science, since they are different things, are not good careeer choices esp. the latter. Computing has been dumbed down by easy to use tools such as Visual Basic, Excel etc to the point that large models are being built by non-computer specialists. I was in one meeting when I asked a near board level person what they intended to do about computing support in the lab. The reply was to ask for everyone to put their hand up who had a copy of MS Office on their desk; 100% of course and Excel met their needs.
With that attitude establishing a specialist niche for a computing career is hard work to say the very least.
But at least this article has convinced me that it's not just me who's finding it hard going.
trade
I agree with the earlier post that IT is now more of a trade - just like plumbers, mechanics, etc. At the end of the day computers are a tool so IT workers are just glorified tool makers or people who know how to use that tool or repair it. I even knew plumbers back in the Y2K boom days who picked up some IT knowledge and ended up as Sys Admins or DBAs, and then went back plumbing after the crash - shows how easy it is for fellow trade workers to join IT if need be. It would be difficult for them to do the same in a medical or legal profession. In the old days - 70s, 80s - computer techs were seen more as scientists or engineers - remember the images of guys in white coats hovering over an IBM mainframe, but now we're seen more as experts on now to use and implement tools. Knowledge on a product/tool is king today, and experience sometimes has no depth if you come up against someone who knows a new product better than you do. I've seen techs promoted to senior tech posts - and they tend to slack off a little and can't keep up with the latest technology and managers have even less of a clue of the products being worked on by their team members. My philosophy is therefore to keep ahead of the game and constantly update your knowledge in your niche areas, and you will get respect and hopefully be rewarded and recognized for that.
IT's got a career?
f*cking hell - so what have I been doing wrong for the last <counts> 30 years?
Moan whine moan whine repeat to fade
Choose Life not Drugs
"I want my employer to map a career path out for me"
Which reality are you guys living in?
It's up to you, no-one else. Leaving your whole career in the hands of your feckless boss or useless HR departments??
I thought IT guys were supposed to be smart.
It's a recession. you've got a job, quite moaning
When the economy picks up, go freelance, make more money, pay for yoru own training and stop moaning
Shees, anyone would think the universe owed you a living.
Now, where did i put the plans for the Improbabilty Drive?
Paris- cos she takes her future in her own hands
Well said ThirdMan
That was pretty much my process from my last job fortunately the current one is
Better but its descriptive of much of my career. I've been through the Soul-numbing
Agony of a Clueless and impotent management structure that used to have me
Screaming with rage on a regular basis, having to do my managers job for him and
Working in an office where your contributions are not rewarded much less noticed,
Where IT professionals opinions and experience is ignored in favour of salesman’s
PowerPoint presentations and the company ask you to write code with questionable
Legal practices that even the promotion to team leader and a 17% pay raise couldn't
Convince me to stay ... and that was before the recession, I dread to think what it's
like out there now.
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