Who are CIOs Planning to Hire Next? 163
Ed Baker writes "Do you have the skills CIOs are looking for? Cioinsight.com just posted their latest research, in which they asked more than 400 top IT executives about the hiring outlook for 18 different IT positions, and finds that the demand for new systems and infrastructure is leading to more hiring for IT professionals who can build them. The result: Project managers and programmers/systems developers top the list of IT professionals CIOs are looking to hire."
All I want to know is... (Score:2)
But at least it's decent presentation... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:All I want to know is... (Score:2)
You know, like when you agree to answer a survey and realize it's your bank when they ask questions like: "Please rate how much you like Washington Mutual. One, love it. Two, think it's awesome. Three, would marry my teller. Four, wish they would adopt me."
Wait! I do love her! Come back!
Tecnhincal vs. business skills (Score:5, Insightful)
[OK, nit pickers, I'm waiting for you to point out the corner cases where this isn't true]
minor addition (Score:5, Insightful)
I say:
Technical skills get you the job, social skills keep you employed. Business skills get you promoted."
no no no no no (Score:5, Interesting)
* Nobody wants to fess up to hiring sub-par people, so they pretend they're okay and keep them around.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Hiring managers are protected from their own incompetence by auditioning employees for two to six months before making a commitment. Also if the person is too good they can keep them around without the danger of them becoming your boss. You can also not renew the contract and take full credit for the work.
Re:minor addition (Score:2)
Sales skills (== lying) get you the job. They hire the person who lies the best about what they can do. I've never seen anybody hired on the basis of demonstrated ability - only claimed ability (and those claims usually turn out to be, at best, exaggerated).
Re:minor addition (Score:2)
Re:minor addition (Score:5, Insightful)
me: I see that you claimed to have skils in XYZ. How comfortable are you with implementing an XYZ system?
/Bogus XYZ/ issue?
/5 minutes of bs/
:-)
candidate: I'm an expert with XYZ
me: Oh, how did you solve the
or
me: What were some of the design issues you faced in implementing XYZ? (make sure it is not something that is covered in chapter 1 of the XYZ cram guide)
candidate: Oh, simple....
If the candidate gives us a look of 'wtf are you talking about', then we smile and move on, drilling into real issues with XYZ (to determine just how much they know about XYZ).
The general idea is this: give them some bait, see if they take it.
As an average, I'd say that half of the candidates that get to my stage of the process are overstating their abilities. They dont get any further. I have yet to regret hiring somebody. (If they are faking it, I have a tendancy to keep drilling on the topic so that it soon becomes painfully obvious that even they realize that they are faking it and we all know it. Its a great way to make sure that the guy does not expect to actually get the job)
In general, lying will only get you a job at a place run by idiots. If that is the type of job you want, go for it. It can pay well, but the turnover can be a real pain. When layoffs come (and they will. Remember, you are working for idiots), dont expect them to keep "the best" people, just the ones that they _think_ are the best. i.e., the ones with the best golf scores.
Re:minor addition (Score:2, Insightful)
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The trick is to find the right group who has at least 1 or 2 good levels of insulation (aka management) above you. Every large company has these groups. The trick is to find them. Its not easy, but if you manage to find one, you'll be much happier.
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I once turned down a $300 gig to go to such an interview. About five minutes into the interview, the guy glances at my resume and said: "oh, I can see by resume that are not qualified for this job." So why did they even ca
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As for your particular issue.... I have been in the same situation before. In that case they didnt know what they needed, so i had to put my business analyst hat on to tell them that a) i was not the person that
Ubermensch (Score:2)
And the bestest employee would have great tech skills and great business skills. Everyone wants to hire the superman. That's a given.
Now, on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 low, 10 high) how far down can your tech skills go to bring up your business skills?
(5 being average for that sector, not for the public)
If you stay employed because your tech skills are an "8", but you want to be promoted and your busi
Re:Ubermensch (Score:5, Insightful)
You can maitain your '8' in tech AND raise you business skills.
Like I said, "Ubermensch". (Score:3, Insightful)
Like I said, everyone would love to hire the guy who is great at everything.
The reality is, those people don't exist. Which is why Dilbert cartoons are so popular.
Re:Like I said, "Ubermensch". (Score:2)
When at work, home many area do you need to keep your technical skills up to date?
Now, am I keeping technical skills I do not use or need up to date? no. But I can't fancy why I would need to keep ontp of the latest FORTRAN development, or C++ skills when my job does not, and will not require them.
OTOH, my database skills are up to date(really not to difficult if you understand the underlying mechinisms).
You just lack motivation.
Re:Like I said, "Ubermensch". (Score:5, Insightful)
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In theory Windows XP is the most secure and stable OS ever. See the problem now? Its not as simple as CIOs fantasize it should be. We don't have the time to do both our job and theirs and expect that our job g
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A technically perfect system which does not help (either directly or indirectly) a company make more money is totally worthless from the point of view of a company (even if it's very interesting from a technical point of view).
Good technical skills together with so
Re:Like I said, "Ubermensch". (Score:2)
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A freind of mine recently started down that path - and yesterday, complained that he had 12 hours of meetings on his schedule.
The "support" role is kind of a nice one, because you have a great opportunity to sharpen social skills, and because p
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Ubermensch (Score:2)
Re:Ubermensch (Score:2)
Of course, since we didn't work there, they didn't need to pay out the 30% that the promised to divide up among the team(4 people)
rat bastards, I hope their new yaught sinks and takes them with it.
Re:Ubermensch (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ubermensch (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what I said. (Score:2)
Are you going to spend the time keeping your tech skills up to date or are you going to let them atrophy while you build business skills?
Re:Ubermensch (Score:2)
Business skills do become obselete, but nowhere near as fast.
If you head more into the business side, you will probably become less of a specialist, more of a generalist, but have a better idea of the big picture.
In my experience, there are roles for both. The generalists design and maintain the overall architecture, keeping it steered towards business goals, and the specialists keep the in
Re:Tecnhincal vs. business skills (Score:2)
Re:Tecnhincal vs. business skills (Score:5, Insightful)
It's weird; the American culture values business skills more than any other (except maybe acting skills and legal skills), but these skills aren't even mentioned in public school.
Re:Tecnhincal vs. business skills (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Tecnhincal vs. business skills (Score:2)
That's just the law of supply and demand. With demand outstrips supply, prices rise. When supply outstrips demand, prices plummet.
Since the US educational system has ensured that those with effective business and leadership skills are in short supply, their salaries are higher.
I think you'd do very well to be a technology-savvy bus
Re:Tecnhincal vs. business skills (Score:2)
I think I'd rather poke my eyeballs out with a fork. The only way I'd want to be a businessman is if I started my own single-employee internet company.
Those are political skiils, not business skills. (Score:2)
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Compulsory education was designed to create factory workers, not leaders.
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That being said, in my public university [purdue.edu], I earned a degree in Telecommunications and Networking that strongly focuse
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Too bad that the current crop of high-flying CEOs seems heavy on machiavellian tactics
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I saw students learning these skills at my public junior high school. If you wanted to be part of the popular crowd, if you wanted to rise to the top of the pack of Jennys, you had to master all those. And now I wonder why there aren't more successful prominent businesswomen out there.
Tentative definition of business skills (Score:2)
- Know your Machiavelli and know when to use it and when not to use it.
- Be professional in how you communicate and deal with people and organizations.
And - you keep an eye on the budget when prioritizing.
Re:Tecnhincal vs. business skills (Score:2)
Sayings are fun, but are they really true? (Score:2)
From what I have seen, over and over, hiring, retention, and promotions, are almost arbitrary. Such decions are almost never based on sound logic. Many times I've seen people promoted to management who have neither business, or technical, skills.
If so called "social skills" means playing politics, then I suppose that is important.
Biz skill can hurt you if your a techie (Score:2)
I inverviewed at raytheon for a job that I seemed to fit perfectly, especially since my top secret clearance was still active. The interviewer was very concerned about my project managemnet training. He kept saying: "this is just an admin job, it involves no project management." No matter what I said, his concern was very ap
The Age Factor? (Score:2)
Re:The Age Factor? (Score:2)
Re:The Age Factor? (Score:3, Insightful)
He is correct, there is a very strong trend of hiring younger programmers 30 or under over older ones 40> in the industry.
If you company bucks this trend, then good for you.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The Age Factor? (Score:3, Insightful)
What she's been told is hilarious stuff, like: "Honey, 25 is to old to just be starting in bussiness... If you had several years with another large company we'd overlook having to untrain any ba
Re: (Score:2)
One word: "Contracting".
Got to know the Business (Score:5, Insightful)
Translation: Big dumb companies value propaganda more than function and don't value their employees. Notice that training is close to the bottom of the list. Technical competence and familiarity with fundamentals of the field should be the thing they look for in new hires. Business school is something a company should pay for it's own employees if it wants to promote them to upper management. For a new employee it's a place where they can forget what they need to know. Looking for detailed business knowledge outside of the company is an admission that you are not willing to train and have not trained your own people adequately in a long time. Prediction: Big dumb companies are going to get dumber and people working there will continue to be forced to waste their overworked lives on mind numbing nonsense instead of getting things done right. You will be worn out and discarded like a rubber gasket.
True familiarity with the way a company works can only come from working in the company and keeping up with your competitor's actions. Business school case studies, while interesting, generally don't apply outside the specific case except for obvious general principles. Sure, some business schools are very good at understanding industry but I'm not convinced that's going to be useful to some guy who's there to make a better network or information sharing tool for the company. Someone who's been at the company long enough is going to know who needs what information from who an how best to get it there. If they have had the time to keep up with the field, they are a company's best resource.
Yes, I've worked for a fortune 100 company. It got nothing but worse and this survey shows that the trend continues. Notice how the smaller companies valued skill more than propaganda?
Re:Got to know the Business (Score:5, Insightful)
The attitude seems to be that you must leave a company with no more skills than you walked in with, EVER. Frequently employees who get training on their own are seen as being "disloyal" by trying to improve their skill set. Why? Because if you're making yourself more marketable, clearly it means you're not interested in staying in the position you have that doesn't require those skills, and are dissatisfied with the opportunities that you've been granted at your current company. (The fact that those opportunities are frequently described as "no fucking way" never enters into the thought process.)
Why Big Biz seems to be so incredibly phobic of encouraging the professional growth of its employees is a mystery to me. It's so incredibly pervasive that many companies have stopped hiring IT staff *altogether*. Instead they hire "contractors" (read: "temps" or "slaves" or "disposable humans") to do the jobs that need to be done for the continued functioning of the company. The contractor gathers experience about the computing environment over the months (or, more likely, years) that they're there, which is rendered completely useless to both the contractor and the company when one of the following happens: 1) Some beancounter arbitrarily decides that payroll is too high and forces someone to lay off contractors regardless of the importance of their role, 2) the contractor is fired (oh, excuse me, "has their contract terminated") because of some incredibly minor infraction of the rules, their failure to take abuse from a permanent employee, or just because, or 3) the contractor realizes there is no place to go from where they are, and decides to leave. The company has to go hire and train another "contractor", during which time the (usually critical) work the contractor was doing goes undone, to the detriment of the entire organization.
This isn't restricted to IT by a long shot. A close friend of mine had been in the same job for 4 years. Her supervisor left to take another job, leaving the position open. This friend of mine had more seniority and experience than others in her group (not to mention being the only one in the group that actually did any work, the rest spent most of their time talking about Pro Wrestling and NASCAR.) Her supervisor wrote a letter recommending her for the position once she had left. A golden opportunity to reward a valued employee for hard work.
Rather than promote her (even in title, maybe not with a raise), they decided to eliminate the position. That's how much they didn't want to promote her (or anyone else). Big Biz has raised the concept of "penny wise, pound foolish" to an art form.
Re:Got to know the Business (Score:2, Insightful)
After reflecting on that I find that a very valid point . So getting new job every 2-3 years is a reality now if you want career growth. If you are lucky
Re:Got to know the Business (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm four years out of college, and I've worked for a Fortune 50 company for the past two years and had great experiences. My management has actively encouraged me to take more training, even cross training with other parts of the company in case I want to go a different direction in my career. They know that I'm going to learn and grow, but they want to do everything they can to keep my knowledge and talent in the company.
I was just given a 15% mid-year raise (I have less experience than all of my co-workers, but perform at the same level, so they wanted to "catch me up"). I've also been told (more or less), that I'll be promoted come year end, and I trust my manager enough to know this will happen.
My management seems to genuinely care about me as a person. I'm allowed to work around my personal schedule, coming and going as I see fit. If I work late one day to get something done, I don't need to ask if I can take off early the next day to make up for it.
In short, I'm respected by the people I work for.
I'm sure there are a lot of hellish working environments in large companies, probably even within my own, given how culture can vary accross one large company. Just don't assume that a large comany will automatically be a terrible place to work.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm speaking from my own experience, as well as the experiences people I know have shared with me. Of course there are always going to be exceptions, and it sounds like you've found one. (Congratulations. Just do
Re:Got to know the Business (Score:4, Insightful)
Things change. Bosses come and go. Reorganizations are hell.
If you ever work for a bad boss, all of the positive things you just said will disappear in a flash. I now work for a good boss again. I appreciate that much more than when I didn't know any better.
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Doing a good job is the last way to get promoted (Score:4, Insightful)
For example: let's say you are hired to work for slave wages at the helpdesk. After two months, you have proven your worth by doing a great job.
Hey, they have a great helpdesk tech who works for slave wages. Why should they ever promote the tech? If they promote the tech, then they'll have to get a new tech, and train him/her. Of course the tech will just quite, but companies are seldomly that far sighted. After the tech quits, the company will bitch about how techs are job hoppers.
Companies don't want to train because they are afraid of training people for the next job. Besides, it doesn't fit into the budget.
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As I said, this was a close friend of mine, and I've left lots of stuff out that could potentially be identifying. You'll just have to take my word for it. Suffice it to say the work that had been assigned to the eliminated role didn't go anywhere, it just got dumped on people who had too much work already
Re: (Score:2)
no
I don't know about the rest of you, (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I don't know about the rest of you, (Score:2)
Who cares what CIOs think about technical hiring? (Score:5, Insightful)
The CIO's job is to manage management en-masse (to "throw IQ points" at problems, as Bill Gates' approach tends to be), and to have "Big Ideas", or at least read the same business-tech magazines their lowly technical people do (eWeek, InformationWeek, etc.) which present big ideas -- and then tell the techies what to do, even if it's technically the wrong thing to do. Your typical CIO does not have a technical background...
Ideal skill set (Score:5, Funny)
2. Disagree with everything the boss says. Go out of your way to contradict her every statement. This shows that you're an independent thinker and way smarter than the rest of the peons you've been thrown in with.
3. Use the same buzzwords as the boss. Make sure what you say is an actionable, user-centric, directionally correct turnkey solution with touchpoints. As you can see, it doesn't even have to make sense if you say it fast enough. For extra points, speak entirely in acronyms.
4. Ask questions during company meetings that have no purpose other than to showcase your tremendous intellect. If the CIO is talking about reorganizing the help desk, don't be afraid to raise your hand and ask what effect the current business strategy will have on the next quarter's profit margin. For an added bonus, ask this question at the end of a meeting. (See next point.)
5. Don't make any major presentations during the course of a regular meeting. Wait until the meeting organizer is wrapping up and makes the perfunctory "does anyone have anything else?" request. Then you launch into your spiel, assuring that everyone has to pay attention to what you say. Sure, they may hate you for making the meeting run long, but you'll have made an impression.
6. Laugh hard at your boss's jokes. The higher placed the boss, the greater your laughter should be. If it's the CIO, feign uncontrollable mirth by intermittently wiping tears from your eyes.
7. Be at work 23 hours per day. Be there when your boss gets in and when she leaves. Even if your workload only constitutes about 3 1/2 hours, stretch it out with coffee breaks, four-hour lunches, non-work-related web browsing, and general co-worker chit chat. After all, productivity is measured by your physical presence not actual turnaround.
8. Pay close attention to whatever phone/PDA/gadget the boss uses. Do a great deal of research on it, then casually let the boss know that you're looking for a new phone/PDA/gadget with particular features--namely the exact ones that his model is known for. The boss will instantly recommend his own gadget, so that when you buy it yourself, he thinks you took his advice, rather than merely copied his purchase.
Shamelessly ripped from "The Trivia Geek" at TechRepublic
CIO's don't often interview non-mgmt (Score:2)
Since when are CIOs involved in hiring? (Score:2)
Project mgrs and developers, huh? (Score:2)
Yeah, the project managers and developers can take care of all that stuff in their free time.
For the nth time, IT is more than programming/development. There's a whole lot of infrastructure that needs installing, repairing, maintaining, and securing, and your development staff and management is either unwilling or unable to deal with it. Which is fine, because there's a whole bunch of pe
Cyclical (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Project managers is a euphemism (Score:2, Funny)
Whom are CIOs Planning to Hire Next? (Score:2)
Is this kind of information useful? (Score:2)
Project Mismanagers... (Score:3, Insightful)
I have yet to meet one that I consider competent. Though I have heard fairy tales of such mythical beasties actually existing.
The push towards ever more (incompetent) PM's stems from a lack of leadership in the executive suite and the common misconception (or desire) that people are fungible resources, that can be plugged and played at will. Exec Management in many companies (especially the large ones) have no concept of leadership, and thus they promote a mechanistic approach to management, which manifests in their hiring ever more PMs and delegating responsibility down to them.
Ever seen a project manager that could be labelled a "project leader"? I haven't. Yet. And I'm not holding my breath.
PM's, at least the accredited ones, worship the PMBOK (Which would be better acronymized as the PMFOC, IMO). Seen any mention of a PMBOL (Book of Leadership)? That'll be the day.
Unfortunately, I see no end to this approach. It's only going to get worse, till everything crumbles. Offshoring is just another symptom of higher management's abdication of leadership and the treatment of people as commodity components.
My 2 cents worth.
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The problem is such a large one b
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That being said, don't read too literally what I wrote. The "fun and profit" for me will come when I am my own manager, boss, leader, and the only things I have to do during the day are what *I* decide I need to do. Of course, this ignores the wife factor, but I digress.
My point was mainly that a good leader has either raw talent or developed talent for leading others, or more likely of mix of raw a
screw trends and corp. stats (Score:2, Informative)
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Being that you aren't prepared for more responsibility (promotion), you'll need to actively demonstrate - continuously - that the code you put out tomorrow is somehow worth more than the code you produced yesterday. This is a difficult thing to do, which is why you won't get raises and bonuses like some sort of union gig as often as you would like.
Here's my take (Score:2)
CIOs and other executives appreciate one thing more than anything else from their technical people: know the business.
That's it really - if they can be confident that you understand the nature of the business they are in, it's quirks and gotchas, in addition to the ability to harness the techy stuff, you will succeed.
Be careful not to fall into the typical IT trap of assuming everyone above you is an idiot. Sometimes t
Re:Looks great but (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Looks great but (Score:2)
Re:Looks great but (Score:2)
No, this is Slashdot. You may only imagine a Beowulf Cluster of those CIO's.
Thats fine (Score:2)
Re:Whoever they're playing golf with. (Score:2)
Re:Whoever they're playing golf with. (Score:4, Insightful)
Upper management isn't supposed to be a microcosm of society: they're supposed to be the creme de la creme. If they were all geniuses, I don't think many people would be too jealous, because they would obviously be earning their money. But if some are fucktards, as you put it, and most of them are just mediocre, then what the hell are they doing in upper management making tons of money (and also having a large impact on the careers of all the employees under them)?
I'd be happy(er) if I lived in a society where only the smartest and best people got to positions at the top, whether it be in business or government. Things would work out a lot better that way, and I wouldn't have so much of a problem with them making millions of dollars per year. But don't tell me to not be jealous or angry when morons and incompetents are promoted to very high positions while much better people get passed over.
Re:Whoever they're playing golf with. (Score:4, Insightful)
The only thing I would add to that is that it isn't really that someone's not as smart or someone isn't "better" than someone else, it's that the people who work hard get passed over while the people who take credit for other people's hard work get promoted. It encourages people to not work hard, because 1) nobody cares if you work hard, you certainly aren't going to be recognized or rewarded for it, 2) all hard work gets you is more hard work, and 3) someone else is just going to take the credit for your hard work anyway. It's the "Office Space" cliche: you only work hard enough not to get fired, because there's no reward in going above and beyond that.
Re:Whoever they're playing golf with. (Score:2)
Yep. It seems the best way to conduct your career in companies today is to not work very hard, only enough to avoid getting fired, and enough to make your resume look good. Then quit your job after 2-3 years and go to another company at a higher salary. Rinse and repeat until you retire.
The problem with this is that changing jobs every few years is a real pain, and when you
Re: (Score:2)
OK, it is a bitter pill when those skills appear to be "play golf, make worse decisions than a crack-smoking chimpanzee and stab people in the back left and right". If that's the case at your company, you probably need to either find a new employer or take up hard drugs and golf.
Re:Whoever they're playing golf with. (Score:2)
Re:Whoever they're playing golf with. (Score:2)
Tell me that *sort* of thing doesn't happen. Maybe not that thing specifically, but that *sort* of thing. Which is why I ended that sentence with "$randomOldBoyNetworkFactor".
My point is, it's still not what you know, it's who you know, and a moron with an influential frat brother is still more employable than someone qualified for the position who has no connection like that.
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Re:The study agrees with what employers tell us. (Score:3, Insightful)
1) You're less likely to have Engineering Skills 1, 2, and 3 if you have skills in other disciplines. Granted, there are exceptions, but in general, that's the case. And since everyone does hiring by search engine these days, your resume will never see the light of day if it doesn't have all the right keywo
Re:The study agrees with what employers tell us. (Score:2)
Re:The study agrees with what employers tell us. (Score:2)
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Are you serious?? You are completely off base, MS is hiring like crazy right now at Redmond. I actually recently got invited out to Redmond to interview for a senior developer position and I am not H1-B, etc, I am a US citizen.
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We can replace you with a very large tape silo.
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Here's the thing: If you have a successful business selling widgets or whatever, it stands to reason that you're successful because you're doing something differently than everyone else.
Now, in a lot of cases, that "difference" that sets you apart affects your business processes: you know the ones supported by your catch-all product?
In almost every case that I have come across, off the shelf products don't do nearly as efficient job at harnessing the efficiencies of a business the w
Re: (Score:2)
Then we're in agreement, what's the problem?
but that doesn't seem the most efficient way to me
Have you ever considered that perhaps you knowledge of the process is less than complete?