| I was recently surprised to see some new faces behind the
counter of the small store where I buy my vegetables. Occasionally,
the owner would chat about his long hours in this always-open-when-you-need-it
outfit.
But I was more surprised to see the (former) owner smiling
at me from some newly printed business cards displayed near
the cash register, together with testimonials about his
great achievements and long experience in the real estate
field. Surprised, but also reassured, because although real
estate is not rocket science, unless one passes examinations
and gets a license, that person cannot sell real estate
in this country [Canada].
Since the license of the former shop owner is as valid
as anyone else's in real estate, I guess the fact that skills
for this profession can be successfully honed in a corner
store is of lesser importance.
Few would argue that IT is closer to rocket science than
real estate. However, certification requirements for IT
are often found in the "nice to have" league,
and licensing is almost unheard of. Notwithstanding the
rising popularity of technical certification in many IT
sub-fields, lack of certification is not a show-stopper
for someone who's up to the job - ever hear of a certified
Cobol programmer? On the other hand, there are all those
recent Web design course graduates who, six months later
are still seeking employment.
The IT profession today is an open one that requires all
sorts of players, and is probably uniquely relaxed when
it comes to certification and licensing requirements. Some
years ago I met a talented linguist who was studying Lotus
Notes on his own, hoping to break out of a not-so-rewarding
teaching position. Notes is not a particularly easy skill
to acquire or practice, but I heard he was later successfully
employed as a Notes contractor. His intelligence, hard work
and probably some creative wording around the experience
chapter of his resume made him a player in the IT profession.
The question is, does this make the status of the IT profession
less respectable than that of more established professions?
Of course, the IT profession also has its share of defectors:
a technical analyst in a company I've worked for left his
position to become a firefighter, for example. Our profession
is permeable at both ends, and more so than other professions:
people of all sorts of backgrounds come in (with little
scrutiny) and also opt out for reasons that would be interesting
to research. It can be argued that this openness provides
synergies to employers, as well as opportunities for the
newcomers. Then again, a fondness for cheap labour may be
accounting, at least in part, for this laissez-faire attitude.
This, combined with a very dynamic body of knowledge, the
ever shorter shelf life of technology, plus the fact that
IT professionals are rarely working directly with the public
(and thus are rarely directly accountable for their work),
just does not make the case for a regulated profession -
at least not in the same way as for those more traditional
professions.
That said, professional certification in IT is far from
being a non-issue. Even if they do it for non-tangible reasons
(for now), many people in IT think of themselves as true
professionals and are embracing the code of ethics and the
responsibilities that come with an established profession.
A structure which recognizes and organizes this trend is
already in place: CIPS (Canadian Information Processing
Society), an organization to which I belong, is among the
many professional organizations that dot the IT landscape,
and is the only one to offer the ISP designation (Information
Systems Professional), which is already officially recognized
in Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia and New Brunswick.
The debate around certification and professionalism in
IT has only started, and promises to be a very interesting
one to watch.
Tatiana Andronache is IT technical staff
for a large information technology company in Toronto, Canada.
She can be reached at tatiana.andronache@sympatico.ca
Courtesy of: Computer World Canada ©Computer World Canada, 2002. Reproduced with permission.
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