We see it every day, “Fantastic opportunities for those who are willing to re-train into IT” This has been a standard advertising slogan for training companies for as long as I can remember. In fact I have almost become immune to the ad, until a discussion by like-minded professionals recently.
I am talking to out of work IT people on a daily basis and to them there is definitely no skills shortage in the industry. According to Yuri S.S. Tan, Software Development and QA Manager said to me “One IT recruiter I am in regular contact with says that things are completely dry currently”, a story that I have heard much recently. This article is based on real knowledge of the North American and European situation, but I am speaking to IT professionals on a worldwide basis and I think the trend is repeated everywhere. It seems that weekly I receive emails from Indian IT Service firms trying to drum up new business.
There are certainly a number of trends active at the moment. Tan says “I have observed over a number of years that IT service firms are quite obsessed about the latest technology and finding people with certifications in this latest technology, to the point that a paper certification may be worth more than experience”. I think more recently it is the recruitment firms that have become obsessed with certifications rather than skills. As a hiring manager when listing a skill on the job specification I have had recruiters turn this into a list of certifications, to which my response was to tell them in no uncertain terms that I prefer skill and knowledge to certifications. But this is only part of the story.
In my view the trend started quite a few years ago, probably in the mid-90′s. It was at this time the question of ‘build versus buy’ swung firmly in the direction of purchasing pre-canned solutions. many of the early solutions did not survive till today, and others have been the subject of corporqate buyouts. On the whole out-of-the-box solutions have become increasingly sophisticated and large corporations have had less need to employ large IT teams, other than during initial deployment. However the list of IT Requirements sitting on the CIO’s desk has not decreased with many IT leaders estimating that they have an unstarted pile of work that would take 3 years to complete.
Between 2005 and 2007 questions were already being raised in the IT press about the future role that IT would need to play within business. That necessitated a shift to providing real corporate value from IT solutions. The focus of IT should have started to shift from deployment of operational applications to a contribution to improving business results. The traditional provision of operational applications was rarely added value to the corporation and some instances there was no positive ROI. The problem was that many IT leaders had cut their teeth on operational solutions and were very slow to change to new business needs. As a result IT has become an adjunct of corporate operations (with the CIO reporting to the COO and not the board), and in some instances the budget is under severe attack.
In addition to this pressure the arrival of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platforms as a Service (PaaS) brought additional pressure to cut costs, with external service providers promising great savings. The fact that SaaS solutions are on the whole immature and unproven has not diminshed demands for their use.
In 2007 and 2008 there was a definite recession emanating from corporate IT that either halted projects or caused a rething in implementation strategy. The Banking collapse in September simply added fuel to the raging fire that was the IT industry.
To answer the question posed of whether a skills shortage exists in IT. This supposed skills shortage has been a standard quote in training company adverts for as long as I can remember. Today business has less and less need to employ technical IT resources. Even many IT Service providers have reduced staff due to either greater automation or increased off-shoring. Obviously projects were being deployed, but these were largely implemented by either software solution providers or other consulting organisations. I would have to say the answer is a resounding NO – there is no skills shortage in IT, quite the reverse we have some highly skilled workers looking to other professions for an income.
