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6. February 2004. C-Level Business Review Magazine
Executives feeling heat of job climate
In an industry as dynamic as information technology, the job market can also be very unpredictable. Recruitment consultants Beth Jackson and Phil Kerrigan of McLean Kerrigan Jackson identify some important trends.
With the way the job market has been in the IT& T sector in recent times, it is no surprise that executives are feeling the heat and considering alternative career paths.
For some it is a time of fear and uncertainty, but to others there is an exciting new vista opening up. Whichever way you look at it, the concept of career is undergoing fast transformations for those in the IT& T sector.
Never before has it been considered the norm to switch career paths- possibly several times- in a working lifetime. Long gone are the days of building a career within one organisation, working your way up through the ranks.
One reason for this is that there are now more options open to workers, even mid- career. Another reason is that as technology changes so do industry strengths and weaknesses. Eventually, the path an industry may be following comes to an end, and the skills and experience workers possess in that industry become redundant. They have to make way for a new trend that requires new skills. Demand for programmers, for example, has been declining because companies have had to switch direction from a model that adopts new technology, to one that makes better use of existing infrastructures. This in turn has meant lower employment opportunities for people such as project managers.
Ongoing rationalisation around management and operations continues to bite, mainly due to the industry moves away from general management, operational and delivery activities.
It is obvious that the dot-com boom time is over and with it, many jobs in the IT& T sector. Companies have had to cut costs where they could and IT departments across most industries have been affected.
There are some positive changes to note as well. The number of sales and marketing positions are increasing, enabling businesses to build new revenues, focusing on a different mode of selling. Services or solutions selling is a very strong trend amongst telcos and other IT organisations.
There is also a strong, positive trend to be seen in mobile applications, particularly around multimedia and data use, driving broadband mobile services. These are relatively new areas in IT but ones that will grow because they add to the efficiency of how a company operates.
Demand for skills in business analysis or business intelligence is also expected to grow. That is because we need to know where the industry is headed, especially since it is almost rebuilding itself from scratch in both old and new areas.
But herein lies the conundrum. Companies need people who can take them into new areas and new technologies, but their crystal balls often don't fully identify the future direction and what is required to get there, much less the staff who will deliver the necessary outcomes.
This is also true of many IT areas that are already identified as potential growth drivers but whose true nature is still blurry. Even in offerings like managed services, which many companies are already spruiking to their customers, there is widespread uncertainty about the size of the market, the profile of the ideal customer, the price points, etc. This shows in nervousness about product development and staff recruitment.
In many cases the new technology emerging at the moment requires skills that are just not readily available. It is becoming rare to find candidates with the necessary formal qualifications or even the experience, so novel approaches are required.
Valued executives are being sent back to university to acquire a better understanding of the emerging technologies and business practices their employers have identified as critical to future growth. Alternatively, some companies are discarding long-serving staff. Instead they are looking to raw graduates who may not have the hands on experience but could possess the necessary high-level knowledge behind the new technology works.
In other cases it is the reverse. Especially in areas like digital media and web site development, the only people who fully understand what is required are sometimes those who have few formal qualifications or training but who have developed their expertise as the technology has evolved. They have taught themselves on the job and have become the subject matter experts.
These challenges create enormous problems for recruitment. Not only are the best candidates difficult to categorise, but they may only be needed for a limited time until the company enters another phase of its transition. It means a great deal more fluidity in career development and job moves. This applies not only to developers and technical specialists, but also to those who manage them.
One trend that will therefore gain momentum is the need for contracted or interim management or specialists. Luckily there are many former senior corporate line management people who no longer wish to remain full-time in the workforce. Instead they are happy to maintain contact with the industry by taking on interim management or consultancy roles.
Smaller companies, start-ups and those who need short-term assistance to get them through a special project, a new development phase or a crisis are increasingly seeing this approach as the way to go. Not only does it give employers flexibility, but it also means they don't have to take on long-term financial commitment of permanent executive appointments.
The industry cannot expect to move forward until the industry leaders and company chiefs recognise the emerging trends in technology and respond accordingly.
There are mixed feelings about how long it is going to take to climb completely out of the present downturn. Yes, we may have begun, but we are nowhere near the goals of high employment and positive cash flows in the IT& T sector.
The countdown has begun, although we will never return to the days of working happily ever after in the one job- or even the one career. For many participants in this post-dot com boom era, that's enough to keep them gloomy. For others, it's truly a welcome change.
