IBM User Group
President Warns Of IT Personnel Shortage
Oct. 7, 2005
The public sector will be particularly hard-hit,
he says. One increasingly popular solution, he suggests, is
for ITers to retire and then return as consultants to new posts
that are more interesting and less stressful.
By W. David Gardner
Alarmed at the loss of key FEMA information technology personal
and the looming wholesale retirement of IT specialists at other
federal agencies, a federal CIO manager who heads an important
IT user group is stepping up a campaign to retain and recruit
specialists in the IT field.
Robert Rosen, president of the independent IBM SHARE user group,
said the shortage of IT experts is likely to turn critical
in a year or two.
Indicating that FEMA’s poor performance in the aftermath
of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, was impacted by the loss of
several key IT persons, Rosen said: “A lot of knowledge
walked out the door at FEMA in the last few years.”
After conducting an informal survey
of IT personnel at federal agencies, Rosen said in an interview
Friday that he found “really
depressing numbers. Eighty percent of Social Security Administration
Administrators are eligible to retire today.”
The problem generally persists throughout
federal agencies and also in business and other large organizations,
Rosen said. “And
it goes beyond IBM,” he added. “The IT industry
as a whole has to deal with it. It’s a disaster just
waiting to happen. People are just startng to understand it.”
He noted that IT enterprises are increasingly
working to retain experienced personnel. One tactic – bringing back retired
IT specialists as part-time contractors after they retire – has
met with come success, Rosen noted. He cited the case of an
IT manager who retired, took one day off, and then returned
to his enterprise as a contractor. He said many are retiring
as managers, but returning as “technologists” and
enjoying their new posts, which are more interesting and less
stressful.
Rosen detects a lessening in interest
in programming among young IT applicants. “The ability to program is getting
lost,” he said. “Programmers are going to be in
short supply. The question is: are we going to have enough
people who know how to program.”
In spite of great gains in automating IT installations, hands-on
expertise is still needed. Rosen said, for instance, that the
ancient COBOL software language remains in great demand although
it is often viewed by younger IT people as representing a bygone
era of computing. SHARE is promoting some new training and
educational programs designed to improve careers of people
already working in IT. Some educational programs are aimed
at enticing young people to enter the field.
“People like to say that COBOL is dead,” said
Rosen. “But an amazing amount of software is sitting
out there in COBOL.” Other older IT solutions like OpenVMS
and CICS remain vibrant, although their demise had been predicted
years ago.
Rosen said the IBM mainframe sector
will likely be particularly hard hit by retirements. Many
IT specialists cut their eye
teeth on IBM’s 360 and later mainframes with the result
that many of them are ready to retire. SHARE and IBM have predicted
a 20,000 person shortfall centered around the mainframe market.
IBM has stepped up its attempt to train more IT people through
a brace of programs.
What about the money factor?
Rosen said IT salaries are likely to remain high, although
top managements may grump about salary payouts. Experienced
technical IT people can make $70,000 to $80,000 a year, according
to Rosen, and those with managerial experience can make $100,000.
Rosen is concerned the IT enterprise
field no longer seems glamorous or exciting and he said several
surveys reveal that
IT managers generally don’t want their children to follow
in their IT footsteps. This dampens interest in the field.
Rosen says they have it all wrong. “Sometimes they don’t
get it,” he said “Working in the information technology
area is still fun.”
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