What is Digg?79 Comments
- bondo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+37***** that - how about we define the perfect CIO
- offers training to staff to ensure their skills are current
- makes hiring decisions based on aptitude and demonstrated competence rather than checking off a ridiculous skills checklist
- sets reasonable wages and working conditions, avoids silver bullets and goes in to bat for staff against stupid requests or frivolous complaints from other business units.
- keeps the fridge full of free coke, pepsi and juice
- understands tech workers *must* scan digg every hour or so - itguru624, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19I like how on monster and career builder they have jobs for $30,000 that are entry level, but require 5 years of experience, 4 year degree, and certifications. Not to mention the job is 5 positions (dba, programming, help desk, sys admin, and web design) for a lousy salary. I apply to those jobs with a fake resume just turn them down and tell them how ridiculous the position is. Hopefully I opened jobs for all of you.
- philovivero, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I think CIOs are discovering the age-old three-way conundrum: Adaptable, Valuable, Low salary. Pick two.
I haven't read the article, but I suspect they want all three, since this is the same thing managers have wanted for all time. - birdwatcher3000, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15The perfect IT person does exist. I meet tens of them each year.
Unfortunately CEOs CIOs Directors Managers and Supervisors can't recognize them when they seem them. The reason? They just don't know enough about computers to "know" when they see one such person. - KevinJ, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16The perfect IT Person is one who after being pounded with insults and dealing with stupid problems(like un-CAPLOCKS because a password doesn't work), and doesn't get pissed
- Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14And yet, salespeople only have to know how to schmooze, and don't have to know anything about using a computer or handling their own travel plans. What is it with IT staff being demanded to have five and six different areas of expertise - outside of the IT field - when virtually everyone else in the company only has to have one, maybe two? And they still want to pay IT people ***** money.
- dmbuzz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13I too have this attitude. I'm happily employed but have considered interviewing for a couple of these positions where they want a M.S., CCIE, MSCE, Checkpoint Certified, J2E Certified, Oracle DBA who's also won a Grammy or an Oscar. I'd love to interview just to sit down and make the interviewing realize how ridiculous their job posting is. Until these companies realize that if they want the master of all trades, they'd better be prepared to pay some "CEO-like" prices or they need to come down to planet earth with the rest of us and understand that people don't like being slaves for embarrassing salaries.
- Leo55, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13If such perfect IT person can be built or created...
he/she would not be a perfect IT person but rather a slave. - r00t3d0ut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Am I the only one who finds it appalling that most companies only allot 2% of their spending to their IT infrastructure? What's even more aggrevating is that the CIO's salary is [roughly] 0.5% of that. I think the article should zero in on the fact that CIO's are often hired not for their technical skills (many have absolutely none) but rather for the initials behind their names. This article boils down to the basics: we don't want to pay IT personel what they're worth because we don't understand what they say or what they do.
I hate these stupid articles. - AlbinoRaven, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10You can have it good and cheap.
You can have it fast and cheap.
If you want it good and fast, it's not going to be cheap.
- Contractor's Mantra. (aka mine) - Stopher, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9They forgot to add "Works for free" to the list of what they expect.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10If you've seen the SNL skit with the Computer Guy, THATS the perfect IT person. MOOOVVEE!
- Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Yeah, after a quick read, what I (still) see is:
"We don't really know what we want IT to do, but basically, they need to take care of all the stuff that no one else can or will. So that means they need to be able to do a million different things very well. But since they're really the people who all the ***** rolls downhill to, we also can't pay them very much."
Good, I hope all your servers get hacked. Then pay a consultant $200/hr to come sort it out. - TheKillDoctor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I've gone from a group of 3 people down to just myself after multiple layoffs.I'm a Network Admin, Email Admin, Security Admin, Desktop Admin, Server Admin, and Firewall Admin and I only get paid for one of these titles. It seems companies just want a Swiss army knife of IT and I'm personally sick of this attitude. It's time to go on vacation and disconnect my phone and then watch this place fall to pieces. Maybe then they'll hire me some people...
- repins, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8well i think they left one out, able to work 80 to 100 hours a week 52 weeks a year
- mtcook01, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12The number one item of interest here is that IT professionals must work on their appearance and conversational skills. I am an IT Manager for a mid sized EMS and 911 agency. My job includes the norm of a dba, programmer, web designer, sysadmin and help desk person. On top of that, I am assigned to several committees such as our Enterprise GIS project, and other homeland security and communication groups. I am expected to interact with these group members whom may have little technical expertise. Then I report my findings back to my directors and other staff members. Communication skills are extremely important for these tasks, as I frequently have to give presentations. More and more I find that my directors rely on me to attend these meetings in order to better "dumb the information down" for them. I also find that other agencies are starting to do the same thing.
In closing, my advice is to learn the basis, be ready for unrealistic requests, be open minded and well rounded with your education, and tune up your appearance and conversation skills. Also read digg and other publications daily. Staying on top of knowledge is a key to success. That IMHO makes a good IT professional. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Especially since that extra 40-60 hours a week will be needed to fix all that code the offshore help wrote incorrectly...
- DoctaStooge, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9on top of that, a perfect IT professional is one who will know when to hold the hand of people who can't preform certain tasks, and when to give the employees who know enough the materials they need and get out of the way.
- ohearn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@viking: Just do what a friend of mine did one time. He was the sole sys admin and DBA for a small company and got laid off. When they called him a week later to come fix a bunch of stuff that they no longer had anyone capable of doing and offered him the job back, he turned them down. He told them that since he was probably going to be let go again as soon as the crisis was solved, he would do the work, but only as a consultant paid hourly. In the one day it took him to fix the mess he made as much as he would have in a week at his old salary. Of course if the owner of the business hadn't been arrogant enough to think he could handle the admin and DBA priveleges himself none of that would have happened to begin with.
- UncleToxie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"Be a good corporate citizen. Be the good guy who has something good to say about everything. Negativism should be limited to proposing positive ways to deal with a situation," said Pickett.
In other words, be a corporate stooge who doesn't have the balls to stand up tell someone they are wrong. The gist I got from this article is that people want mindless, low paid drones who will kiss their ass and tell them that every idea they have is so great. Rather than take the time to understand what it is IT does, managers would rather come in a throw their authority around. If you want me to run the network, let me. If you want me to train to be a data entry clerk so you can outsource my job, tell me at the interview so I'm not wasting my time. - ryanknapper, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Here I am, _learning_ things like a sucker.
- szembek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I would start off with a nice set of firm boobies!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Basically the perfect IT person is as follows:
1. Always at their desk regardless of what problems they're currently handling.
2. Picks up the phone on the first ring and has an instant, 5 second solution to anything.
3. Works after hours and on weekends without complaints or expectations of bonuses, rewards, or salary increases. Vacation not in person's vocabulary.
4. Is clever enough to keep old crap running (servers, desktops) without spending a penny of their budget.
5. Has at least one degree yet happily works for a $30k/year salary regardless of the cost of living in any state/city/country.
6. Can do anything; anything said person cannot do will be resolved within the hour via some googling and experimentation.
7. Works in such a way that every process undertaken is thoroughly documented, so much so that the individual is instantly replacable and the new person coming in just 'follows the yellow brick road'.
8. Is very friendly, approachable, and a master at dumbing it down for the average COO, CEO, user, manager, you name it.
That's a perfect IT person from management's point of view. Now, here's the perfect IT person from an IT point of view.
1. Is adaptable and learns fairly fast, doesn't have to be instructed frequently on how to complete everyday tasks.
2. Works reasonably hard but always saves the last hour of the day for a quick fragging in UT2004 with the rest of the IT staff.
3. Never, ever starts nasty, undocumented projects on Friday. Ever.
4. Is a jedi master at extracting 'needs' from users. No users ever truly know what software or hardware they need at any given time, particularly new users. It takes a sixth sense to roll a machine out to most of them, especially specialized users like CAD designers.
5. Willing to lift heavy stuff without breaking a sweat from time to time. New servers have to be racked up and that takes a little muscle.
6. Degreed or not, make sure you're competent. Nobody likes a paper MCSE or a pedigreed CCNA that doesn't even know when or how to reboot a production server or router.
The list could go on forever. Ultimately you really need an IT team, and when those guys get along and are competent you usally have a win-win situation. Pay them well and keep them happy, after all, they're what's REALLY running your business. - CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5it'd make your job more secure
- theweekend, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Yeah... I can see that.
-long hair
- unshaven for months
- has much patience.... - viking, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7just a little side note...I'd love to hear their reply to the lot of ITs that were considered *among the peons* to be perfect IT people...we have this obserd "B-Gene"...did get up and walk around...knew half the building...we all get around to knowing the buisness were in and basically passed all these criteria their spouting...but STILL got outsourced because some CIO desided they "wern't necessary" just to have days later a flood of IT repair calls come in...of which the CIO had the audasity to call one and say something like...I know we just fired you but there's a problem we can't fix...do you mind answering a few questions...
bottom line is that any of these bloaded egomaniacs with a "C" in front of their title will outsource God if they thought it would save them half a percent on their shares... - databasecowboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people? " - Tom S.
- procdaddy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Then I must be perfect.
- CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6haw. IT people dont get promoted. they get used and discarded
if youre NOT an IT person and are better at brown nosing and blowing the boss than IT skills you may get promoted. - CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7i believe that response evolved in response to being treated like *****.
right now im coasting on unemployment. i know i could easily get another tech job. its more a rather of do i lose my dignity by taking another tech job when im just starting to feel good about myself again. im highly skilled and i get paid well but the profession is so horrible in that you constantly get treated like *****. i have to ask myself what is more worthwhile, the money or the happiness? right now i side with happiness but my debt from prior bouts of unemployment tells me the former. its called being trapped. i used to love this profession too but they made me hate it. ive always been a humble person too, i didnt feel all the recognition i got during the dotcom years was warrented and would dismiss it. honestly im not sure i can ever love doing tech again, its dead to me. the only reason ill take a tech job these days is financial survival. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Me thinks someone's had one too many Mountain Dews this morning.
- CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4its more like it seems impossible to start into a new career. to start a new career you either have to start at the bottom and work your way up with low wages or go to school and get an education and degree to get a better paying job. with tech permanently on the decline i feel like im on a sinking ship climbing ever higher up the mast trying to fend off the debt that once was never a problem before salaries dropped. now they even got rid of the bankrupcy escape hatch. you have to keep pushing out of your mind that suicides a viable option.
- robweber, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I like your last comment the best:
"after all, they're what's REALLY running your business."
many people in a company fail to realize this. a lot of places these days literally fall to pieces without the tech needed to keep them running.i've worked places before where the IT guy will go on lunch, and then something will happen to a critical system. the whole business bascially had to sit and wait for him to get back and fix it (it is a smaller company with only 1 IT guy). for many people that was a real eye opener to how important he was. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I am a Telco/IT Consultant. I don't pretend to know everything, but I deal directly with the executives of a lot of mid sized companies in the SF Bay. I would say 60%-70% of my clients are people recovering from the ***** work they had done overseas.
You get what you pay for and unless you want your company to end up in Internatioanl Litigation/Arbitration for the ***** work you had overseas, stick to American help. If you don't want to hire a permanent employee there are plenty of consultants like me that will do contract work. - weprin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4From the article:
"The truth is that IT is just not valued that highly by the people in charge—rather, it's still being viewed as a cost center by many companies that focus more on business."
I can't agree more with this statement. It's sad, too, because IT is (in most industries) one of those absolutely critical business elements. There are a few organizations that recognize this. Fortunately, the company I work for is one of those few. We are a marketing logistics company, dealing with very physical assets, but by staying ahead of the IT curve, we are able to provide services to our clients that no other company can. As a result, the owners recognize IT as one of the main reasons for our tremendous growth and great competitive advantage... and it shows on the bottom line. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6@Cixel: and let me guess, within minutes, the valuable IT workers all updated their resumes, and immediately started looking for a new place to work, while the fakers looked busy hoping to avoid the axe. Why work somewhere where your head is in a guillotine daily... especially if you know you're good.
- intangible, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@robweber
The downside to that is that 99% of the time, the manager at said company is going to blame the downtime on the IT guy regardless if it was his fault. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7One thing some "techies" need to learn... IT is more than just tech support...
It's also what a lot of "normals" need to learn too. Too many of them have a bad view of IT in general because of their interaction with tech support. - nuggetboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"Peace, child. For thy password hath expired. Have faith in the Lord that it shall be reset in the blinking of an eye."
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5They want all three and an MBA, and willingness to go along with cutting your co-workers off in favor of off-shoring.
- heathenx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5ha, yup. how about: the perfect IT person must have patience when on the other end of the line is a user who doesn't know the difference between the computer "desktop" and the "desktop" on which the computer sits. that actually happened to me. very frustrating for me since i assumed everyone knew, who users a computer, what one's "desktop" was. i kept my cool though...:)
- josegutz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5"- makes hiring decisions based on aptitude and demonstrated competence rather than checking off a ridiculous skills checklist"
Also considers the amount of years of on the job hands on experience as well. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"how about we define the perfect CIO"
- Was once upon a time a perfect IT person before maturing and getting the management gig. - heathenx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Jesus would be the perfect IT person. right?
- CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4when burgerking corp hired a new indian CIO he had a meeting with the IT team and the first thing he said was verbatim 'youre all replacable' and that they had to defend their jobs.
- CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@ siekosunfire
do i need to list off all the major companies ive worked for and all the executives and ceos? i have had some of the top ***** jobs. i work my ass off. i have excellent social skills. i have amazing amounts of technical skill and can make plenty of money but i would trade ALL OF IT for a normal boring stable career. i never wanted to be somebody special. i just wanted to make a ***** living. there is no dignity or respect in IT anymore. i have been under so much stress in IT jobs that Ive woken up choking myself in my sleep. Somedays I wish i never knew a damn thing about computers so my debt level would have never increased beyond that of a retail jockey. The only thing keeping me in IT now is debt. Debt from unemployment and salaries that no longer exist. - williamdyer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2At most companies, IT is a joke.
Hint: If your company ever did any business with Computer Associates, they were too stupid to know they were being robbed.
Your only recourse is to find a different job. Companies only change when in crisis, and you are too small a cog in the wheel to bring about the crisis. No, they won't listen, no matter what they say. The only thing they understand is a board that's pissed off at the CEO, and in many cases that only happens when a takeover is threatened. - etnu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Any company that doesn't know the value of quality IT workers are doomed to be usurped by their more knowledgable competition.
This article is idiotic. The best way to stay in IT in the face of outsourcing is to NOT DO IT? Sorry, but being a PM is NOT the same thing as being a developer, dba, or anything of the like, and any PM who thinks it is probably has an MBA (and, yes, that's an attack on MBAs in general who don't know a damned thing about their problem domain).
Any business that dumps their local workforce for their offshore counterparts is going to quickly find that the people that were so easily "replaceable" are able to replace their former bosses just as easily -- with themselves, as they launch their own companies.
The blind belief that every IT job is the same, and you can always outsource any job is very dangerous ground. No smart business leader honestly believes that. If they did, they'd have already dumped all their jobs and gone offshore. Good IT workers are scarce everywhere (that being said, most IT workers are not good, and I have no qualms about offshoring work done by idiots). - CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ Snarl
who said it was a party? like most people we just thought we had successful jobs.
it costs money to start a career meaning you have to go greater into debt (if you even can)
how can people have a family, buy a house and raise kids if theyre constantly having to start over in a new career? please answer that one for me snarl. - itguru624, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yes I have a lot of free time :-(
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