Slashdot Mirror
A New Reality For IT: the 18-Month Org Chart
StewBeans writes: Finding and keeping IT talent is getting increasingly competitive and expensive. A recruiter for Bay Area and Seattle tech companies said in a recent New York Times article about the cloud computing skill gap. "Someone working deep inside Amazon is getting five to 20 recruiting offers a day. Compensation has doubled in five years." Beyond steep salary and benefits packages, the resources to train new IT talent is wasted if they jump ship for the next best offer. That's why some IT executives are focusing talent management inward and investing in their current employees who are loyal and eager to learn, adapt, and grow with their company. Curt Carver, CIO for the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said that this approach led him to do away with the 10-year IT org chart and remain more agile as technology needs change. He argues that 18-month org charts and constant training are the new reality for IT, providing this example: "If you go back a couple of years ago, we were heavily involved in the storage business. Now I can buy unlimited storage from the cloud. I don't need a lot of people doing storage. In fact, I may only need one. Everybody else, I'm willing to retrain you, but you're going to be doing mobile, or you're going to be doing business intelligence, or you're going to be helping our organizations do gap analysis."
The gap between the expectation that technology would lead to a leisure society, and the realization that it just leads to a feudal, totalitarian regime where the billionaire beggars just take, take, take.
"The cloud computing skill gap" "Finding and keeping IT talent is getting increasingly competitive and expensive"
Juxtaposed with "mass IT layoffs across the industry"
I think it's pretty clear what we're seeing here. People are leaving the industry or the West Coast, whichever you prefer.
Or maybe if companies showed the same loyalty to their employees that they demand from them, this wouldn't be a problem.
What you say is generally true, the obsolescence cycle for those languages is longer than today's shiny new thing. But they will become obsolete.
Keeping up with technology trends is the best way to ensure income security; you don't need to jump on every fad, but be prepared to move on when the moving's good.
This is the very definition of bad math/outsourcing mistakes.
Just because it costs less doesn't mean you're getting an equivalent service. If you save $200k but lose $500k in productivity then congrats you have outsourced to the detriment of the business. Likewise transition costs take out more productivity.
Believe it or not, at one time, companies didn't lay people off at the drop of a hat. Because hiring them back again is expensive and hiring new people means that you not only have to train them to do the job the way your company needs it done, but they also have to learn where to go in the company to get things done.
When 110% efficiency and rapidly gaining short-term share price was not the expectation, people would be reassigned, furloughed or sent off for training if their primary skills weren't required.
That doesn't mean that people didn't get laid off. Just that the norm was that layoffs were a measure of last resort, not the first thing you did to boost quarterly profits. There was a certain noblesse oblige there. The company took care of you and you took care of the company. You worked until you retired, they gave you a gold watch and a pension. You were invested emotionally in the company and in the happiness of its customers. Or, if not, you got canned, but not because you weren't the perfect fit for the moment.
Then they invented "perma-temping"...
That's the thing. You're completely ignoring the emotional element, dismissing it as something valueless. But it's not just about a pay packet.
Perfect example... I could be making a shit ton more money elsewhere, with my skill set. But I'm not leaving, cause the company I currently work for is one of the best places I've ever worked. Management does everything it can to not only make employees succeed, but make them *want* to succeed. And not in a, "Some consultant advised us to do team building exercises" kind of way... In the, "the leadership actually *cares*" kind of way.
I've lost track of the number of employees that have left, only to humbly come back again after realizing that that greener pasture they found was a field full of cowshit. And we've welcomed them back, too.
Well, as a 40-year worker in technology, I can definitely say that HR, managers, and CXX have all contributed to any problems they have. .NET programmer with 5 years experience. HR.
In 2001 I saw an ad for a
In 2005 I saw an ad for a linux programmer with VBA experience. HR
Golden Parachutes. Managers and CXX...
Outsourcing: Managers and CXX and MBAs . ( also, any in-house workers from some-unnamed-country ).
17 to 119 page employment contracts - HR extravagance and ego.
Sorry. I will not feed your machine any more. Or enable your delusions. Or your manipulations/threats.
You could have had a good worker, who would have gotten better.
Instead, you have someone 10 timezones away. Good luck with them.
No more of the $35,000 / year graduate.
No more of the $55,000 / year worker with 10 years experience.
Get off the dime and pay what it's really worth.
You pay for what you get. Good. Or Cheap. Pick one.
Every time I read one of these articles I expect to look in my local paper and find all kinds of wonderful enticements to leave where I am and expand my career elsewhere. Or even better, new local companies or companies willing to hire remotely. Alas, they are never there. And I am a person that is historically very loyal to the company that I work for.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Bangalore.
You are welcome on my lawn.
pull out a 12" frying pan and hit them in the face as hard as you can.
And not one of those nancy-boy aluminum and Teflon ones, either. Get yourself a cast-iron frying pan. It's much more satisfying.
Go on, citizen, stamp the vote card. R or D, your choice.
The thing you need to realize is aritcles like this are talking about SPECIFIC ENCLAVES in the world - namely the Seattle area, the Bay area, the Austin area, and a few others... areas with huge concentrations of high tech companies. This huge concentration of companies combined with a huge concentration of very intelligent labour, results in a very competitive labour market. People in these markets routinely will work for 3 different companies in a 5 year timespan... they have no loyalty, they go where the money and/or opportunities are. As a result salaries are high and benefits are good. When you are competing against Google, Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce, and Uber for employees, you have to pay well.
The thing that people who live in these areas DO NOT realize is that this is a UNIQUE situation to these enclaves, and does not translate to other places in the United States, let alone the world. People who work on the east coast or midwest do not have anywhere near the hypermobility of those on the west coast because the labour pool competition is not there.
The base message - if all you care about is a job and IT and money, move to the bay area. I can basically guarentee you you will find tons of well-paid work. Will you be able to afford to live there though? That is a different problem.