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Not Your Daddy's IT Force Anymore
Quill345 writes "The days of high-paying technology-based jobs right out of highschool are over. As writers for ACM report, the skill-sets required for jobs have grown over time. Academia has responded to the evolution with novel programs recruiting women and integrating IT into MBA programs. And as technology finds its way into every aspect of business life, the NSF is creating a grant program to fund service science, a blend of IT into other industries. Researchers at City University of NY are working on an NSF-funded project to infuse technology into Liberal Arts courses taken by students who are in primary tech-producer or tech-consumer majors. What are these crucial modern skills? Knowledge of laws like the DMCA? Interpersonal and group work skills? Experience with different technology platforms? The ability to discriminate between useful and useless information sources?"
Not sure what MBA program you have attended that teaches that, must have been one of those online banners I see everywhere...
As a fella with a CS degree and an MBA, here's the way I view the problem between management and techs:
Engineers and techs are hired to perform some technology-related task. They are responsible to complete these tasks.
Managers are responsible for overseeing the tasks mentioned. They are also responsible, however, to ensure that when these tasks are being implemented, that the company's corporate strategy is followed. I think this is where things get mucked up.
Managers are not always good at communicating what this strategy is to their engineers (and I'm not entirely convinced that they should do so to begin with). As a result, the manager is often considering factors that the engineer is not privy to. Moreover, any manager hired by a tech company should know his technology. If it's not a job requirement, then the company has more pressing issues. But, how many IT folk know anything about corporate strategy? How many techies (without any B-School background) know who Michael Porter is? While there is a TON of crappy management going on out there, I have a problem with the fact that the tech industry has a difficult time embracing the concept that there is more going on than: create product, get order, fill order, repeat. A company that has their shit together has a detailed corporate plan in place, and while I realize that you are an incredibly important asset, Mr. Engineer-with-5-years experience, please forgive management for not including you in their long term strategic planning and goal setting discussions.
Cheers