IT bosses still getting the 'mushroom treatment'

IT managers in the UK are being bugged by a lack of clear guidance from the board and feel hampered in their career progression by a lack of recognition.

Senior techies are also bemoaning the fact they find themselves outside the traditional 'old boys networks' which often determines promotions and board room favouritism.

According to a survey conducted by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), nearly a quarter of IT managers said they feel excluded by such social pressures and cliques, while a lack of career guidance and training was cited by more than a third (38 per cent) of respondents as hampering their career progression and that of more junior colleagues in IT.

And although there are those who would argue IT has done a good job of alienating itself over the years with an 'us and them' mentality, a third of disenchanted IT managers said they should be getting more from their bosses. A third (33 per cent) said they feel they do not get recognition for their achievements from the organisation, while slightly more (37 per cent) said they feel hampered by a lack of opportunity to progress.

A spokesman for the CMI told silicon.com training and career progression for IT is often not seen as a priority as long as they are able to do the job that is required of them.

"Businesses realise there is no point in training people for training's sake," said the CMI spokesman. "Training must be linked to business needs."

Paul Broome, IT manager at 192.com, told silicon.com: "We are the oily rags that keep the machinery running. We are viewed in the main as a cost to the bottom line. That’s a reality check, we need to understand that and work with it."

"It's up to the CTO to ensure that his voice and his staff’s personal development issues are listened to and even sometimes acted upon."

The CMI spokesman said the increasing numbers of CIOs and CTOs at board level should be good news for redressing any negative trends and he said he expects to see an improvement.

192.com's Broome added that even those companies counting the pennies of training IT staff outside their core skill areas would do well to consider the costs and the "risk to the company of losing key IT staff".

However, the survey found that only nine per cent of respondents said they would switch companies in order to secure a promotion.

Although the IT industry itself often stands accused of being ageist, managers in the sector ironically claim they are often overlooked because they are seen as being too young.

A fifth of respondents said ageism is rife across companies and the fact many of tech's bright sparks are in the mid-twenties to mid-thirties means they are often overlooked.