IT professional must do more

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

By: Madeline Bayliss
   Searches today are like a child’s Christmas list. They want everything.
   Rod Colon used to be the one initiating those searches in his human resource positions on Wall Street. Then he took his practices of career and network management to the recruiting side of the technology business, currently as director of business development for New Jersey-based TechnoSphere. TechnoSphere offers recruitment and staff placement as part of a range of information technology services.
   And as a Hamilton resident, he is just as likely to have these conversations in the local Barnes & Noble café. Mr. Colon’s philosophy of maintaining regular contact with a wide range of people in the business keeps his ear to current issues and keeps his network alive.
   With consolidation and layoffs, Mr. Colon observes, many information technology (IT) professionals are doing the work of three people. It’s not just the workload of three, but often different functions as well.
   "People are working more than ever. Where’s the time for development, for quality of life both at work and home?" he asked.
   So when people leave or prove unable to handle a position, the search begins for a replacement that may not exist. The traditional role of using an external recruiter to find the unknown, perfect match has switched in many cases to asking the human resources department to do the placement.
   Certainly the cost of using outside recruiters has been a factor for companies bringing the function inside. The impact of the Internet is equally significant in allowing companies to source candidates through their own company Web sites and tap online recruiting services such as Monster, CareerBuilder and 6figureJobs, to name a few.
   So with "perfect information," economic theory would say that the matching of talent and openings would be very efficient.
   Then why do technology jobs represent almost 20 percent of openings, as a recent sampling of the Monster board for central and southern New Jersey indicated?
   Go back to three jobs becoming one job. Many times those were three different jobs, in terms of technical expertise. The image of technology is a dynamic, ever-changing one. In terms of job skills, however, this means that the technology function is ever expanding.
   New technology does not always replace old technology. Technology is being applied to an increasing number of business processes. Not only do users need to adapt, but also the technology support must expand to cover new applications, new programming languages, new computing and networking hardware.
   What skill areas are at a premium today?
   "Process management, project management and expertise in the CMM models," said Mr. Colon. (CMM is the Capability Maturity Model for software development created by Carnegie Melon and considered a standard of quality for software.) "There’s a heavy emphasis on understanding how to get things done on time and on budget."
   And that’s not all.
   "Technology professionals can’t just be good at technology," Mr. Colon said. "They have to have an interest in the business. They have to work well with others. They have to be comfortable working with more matrix management to respond to both the technology and business leadership in their company."
   He recalled the case of an IT department manager who was fired because he failed to recognize his role as a consultant to his business peers.
   For CIO’s (chief information officers), the demands and challenges have changed, too.
   "The old view of a CIO was someone who sat in the office, not involved in the day-to-day, focusing on managing the technology plan," noted Mr. Colon. "Today, the profile is more tactical, more financial, managing to the company’s overall business plan and being directly accountable for business, not just technical results."
   Not all technology executives want to follow that career path. Mr. Colon mentioned a number of discussions with CIO’s who are looking for the opportunity to develop the technology function, not just manage to the numbers. "They are considering smaller and mid-size companies, and often trading off the higher profile and pay for the opportunity to stay more technically-oriented."
   As CIO’s have had to assess the changing demands for themselves and their staffs, there has been an increase in the use of contract workers and outsourcing. Even this strategy requires careful management, not only of the skill match, but also of all the human resource issues due to the demands on these workers.
   For example, Gartner research made note of two cases of suits by temporary IT workers who are asking for equal treatment as employees when they go beyond minimal expectations of their work. In Vizcaino v. Microsoft Corp. in 1996, the U.S. Court of appeals for the 9th Circuit held that workers who perform the same work under the same rules and controls as employees are, in fact, employees. Those temporary workers sought access to benefits such as stock options.
   In a case reported by the San Francisco Chronicle in January of this year, but not confirmed by Hewlett-Packard (HP), two temporary workers are filing a class-action suit against HP for overtime pay.
   How does Mr. Colon see technology professionals navigating through the coming years?
   "Networking and support systems. Everyone needs to establish a network of contacts of peers and one to two levels above them, along with the means to communicate with them regularly. You want to be in a position of having 20 to 30 people available, whether you want to talk about your own next move or how to address an issue you are facing. And look for a search professional who can be a coach, a mentor and a pathfinder. Make sure that person is also practicing the art of networking so you can leverage those contacts and that expertise."