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 CIOs
and HR Managers Differ in Hiring Approach and Needs Assessment while
Market for IT Professionals Remains Relatively Strong
November 9, 2001
In our last article we asked the question "How
Safe is Your Career as an Expert IT Technologist?" Even in these
current market conditions the skilled IT professional's career appears
safer than most. According to new research from CompTIA, in spite
of a downturn in the economy and the highest unemployment rate in
almost four years - the average number of open IT service and support
positions in American companies has more than tripled, in terms
of percentage increase, since 1999. "The Ongoing Crisis in IT Management"
study, which polled both CIOs and HR managers at companies with
sales of $20 million or more, was conducted in May and June, 2001.
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What we find fascinating about this CompTIA study, besides the
robust IT demand, is that the research showed how HR managers tend
to screen candidates for hard, technical skills while CIOs may put
even more value on "soft skills" such as communications and patience.
Intuitively one might think the opposite would apply. Those IT Consultants
who are currently considering new career opportunities may find
this information invaluable. Further differing opinions between
HR managers and CIOs exist. In response to questions relating to
this subject, 61% of CIOs say they outsource at least some part
of their company's IT services, while only 37% of HR professionals
say their companies outsource IT functions. CIOs are almost twice
as likely in 2001 to cite the need for outsourcing as a result of
IT staff shortages as they were in 1999.
Another surprising finding of the study is the increase in open
IT positions comparing 1999 to 2001. For IT departments of approximately
25 people there is a factor of three times percentage increase of
open IT positions in 2001 as compared to 1999. The study appears
to indicate a pent-up demand scenario is occurring. This pent-up
demand has most probably increased since this study occurred before
the events of September 11. Large company CIOs are now even more
likely to be experiencing IT staff shortages because the uncertaintly
forced a scale back by companies in their overall hiring.
The study reflects further on the increasing importance IT Managers
are placing on independent IT industry certification. The independent,
IT industry certifications they are referring to are those "vendor-neutral"
certifications vs. vendor specific certifications such as the Microsoft-MCSE
or Cisco certifications. These vendor-specific certifications carry
less weight with CIOs. Many highly skilled IT professionals with
vendor neutral certifications might serve themselves well to ignore
those lay-off headlines and seek out career advancement opportunities
with many IT managers who are still finding it difficult to find
the right people to fill their human capital resource gaps. Vendor-neutral
certification gives the IT professional another feather in his/her
cap when seeking those career advancement opportunities. IT professionals
seeking career advancement should remain keenly aware of the probable
differing perspectives they will encounter when interviewing with
the CIO and HR executives. The CompTIA study points out that companies
would be better served if the HR Managers and IT Managers were better
aligned in the value they place technical skills and soft skills
such as communications and patience.
Bottom Line: In this environment, companies are less likely to
train their own staff. This has created high quality long term assignments
for qualified IT consultants.
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