Paul

Cheshire

Software engineer, photographer, gardener and amateur thinker

Sadly, the I.T. industry has brought this upon itself.

The lack of loyalty shown by I.T. staff can be directly traced to the behaviour of companies towards their staff.
Most companies are happy to work their staff into the ground, then make them redundant the moment profits dip. This is a management failure, showing an unwillingness to confront the real problems a company faces (*why* aren't people buying your products?), and an inability to see beyond the next quarter's profits. My Dad used to call it 'eating your seedcorn'.
When a company shows no loyalty to its employees, it can only expect them to reciprocate.

Secondly, I.T. leaders seem to be unable to look beyond the surface in terms of the skills they seek.
I constantly see job adverts asking for skills in VB6, or SQL Server 2005, for example. This is ludicrously over-specific.
For example, any half-decent programmer will tell you that it takes years to learn to program, but only a week or two to learn a new programming language.
If our I.T. leaders could grasp this simple fact, they would realise that there is a huge pool of highly talented people out there; all that is needed is the tiny investment required to train them in whatever language/platform you happen to use.
A crazy idea; rather than seeking such specifics, why not advertise and interview for problem-solving, lateral thinking, analysis, intuition and creativity? Get people with these qualities, and they can quickly learn whatever skills you need them to have today, AND tomorrow.

Short-termism works... in the short term. Come on I.T. leaders, it's time to grow up and lead with real vision and depth. Are you up to it?