| "I am not 45. I am a twenty-year old with twenty-five
years experience!" - proclaimed a T-shirt in the crowd.
Now, if I were to guess the profession of the T-shirt owner,
I would say that person was not a doctor, lawyer or teacher:
in these professions the older you get, the more respected
and sought after you become. Therefore, this person could
only be an IT professional - probably looking for work!
Can we talk about the age divide in IT? Even for the young
and trained in the latest skills, landing a job and starting
a career in IT these days is not quite as easy as some of
the college ads claim. But what about those who have spent
quite a while maturing in the field?
The challenge
Both in the press and in private, there are many stories
depicting a more or less subtle bias against the aging IT
worker - especially when it comes to finding or maintaining
employment or upgrading skills. Once they hit their forties,
IT workers have reason to feel insecure in their professional
lives: the field is notorious for an ever accelerating pace
of change, and for the rate at which yesterday's hot skills
become obsolete tomorrow.
With the recent cut in government subsidies for training,
and with so many high-tech companies operating in survival
mode, Canadian IT workers are now being asked to take a
personal gamble when it comes to managing their skills.
They now are responsible for choosing the technology, paying
for their training and for putting in all the effort - with
no promise that a job will be there in the end.
Employed or not, permanent or on contract, it is not always
easy to maintain the skills and spirit required to continually
reinvent yourself - the supreme survival strategy that many
IT career gurus prescribe.
Many IT professionals, after having already transitioned
through several technologies (mainframe, client-server,
Internet) and paradigms (procedural, relational, object-oriented),
with things getting more complex every time, reach a plateau
in their career because it is not possible to advance into
the management ranks. Some older workers also develop what
can be perceived as a mentality problem: there is a dose
of cynicism, an erosion of enthusiasm and a questioning
attitude, that many younger managers may find difficult
to cope with and would rather avoid.
Despite years of best efforts, results and a good attitude,
an IT worker over 45 may be dismissed with little ceremony,
and finding other work in the field is often problematic.
On the other hand, many IT workers feel that the only way
to advance their career and remain marketable is to switch
employers every two or three years.
Is it all doom and gloom for the IT worker coming of age?
The opportunity
Unlike traditional goods and services sectors, the IT industry
has not yet been hit by the massive wave of impending baby-boomer
retirement. It doesn't seem to be worried by the prospect
of losing a good chunk of its workforce. Also, there is
no concern over the loss of specific skills because IT skills
evolve so quickly. Nevertheless, the IT industry will have
to account for the demographics and take an affectionate
look at its older workers as the overall labour pool ages.
Now that the glamour of the "fast IT money" is
very much a thing of the past, and the reality of fewer
opportunities, down-to-earth rates and long hours has settled
in, less young people may choose to enter the IT field -
adding to the already notorious skills shortage.
Also working in favour of older workers is the fact that
they have the discipline and maturity that only come with
age and experience, and as the IT industry itself matures,
it will seek and place an increased value on these attributes.
The lessons of the dotcom bust made it clear that technological
virtuosity per-se will not necessarily be the only factor
in an IT company's success.
The legacy factor is another thing that bodes well for
the maturing IT worker. For all the attention new and hot
technologies command, it should be not overlooked that many
solid companies still rely on some 20 or 30 year-old technology
to run the transactional backbone of the business. This
trend is expected to continue, with some of today's technology
morphing into a legacy that will need to be supported. Young
talent is not very likely to want to embrace this area,
because they don't see potential to cultivate their technical
skills here. However, this area presents opportunities attractive
to aging IT workers, who become interested in developing
portable skills such as analysis, planning, methodologies,
quality assurance, and system and customer support.
The conclusion
Coming of age in IT is a phenomenon that embraces not only
the workforce; it touches the whole of IT technologies,
methodologies and practices. If IT is to prove itself a
truly progressive force, economically and socio-demographically,
this phenomenon has to be acknowledged and managed creatively
by IT professionals of all ages, and at both ends of the
corporate ladder
Tatiana Andronache is IT technical staff
for a large information technology company in Toronto, Canada.
She can be reached at tatiana.andronache@sympatico.ca
|
