IT Talent Shortage, or Management Failure?

Posted on January 7, 2008  Comments (5)

IT talent shortage, or management failure?

Is there a talent shortage? Only because employers have created it. The real shortage is in good management. Without proper seeding, feeding and cultivating, the IT community withers like any other garden. Companies are madly trying to hire skills, not talent. They want to harvest fruit overnight. Give a smart IT worker some manuals, a workstation, an objective, and a little time, and they’ll come up to speed every time. That requires strong leadership.

But if you leave it to some personnel jockey who relies on buzzwords and resumes, you’ll never hire real talent — and it will always seem there is a talent shortage. What’s difficult to understand about that?

Great post. I agree: the main problem is poor management. Dr. Deming kept increasing the percentage of problems due to systemic issues (which are management responsibility to address), he was saying 97% of issues were commons cause problems (from the system) at the end of his life.

So what should managers do? Read the Curious Cat Management Blog and follow the advise in our previous posts, including: Stop Demotivating Employees (IT employees are especially disdainful of pointy haired boss actions that others tolerate more easily) – Signs You Have a Great Job … or Not – Joy in Work for IT – hiring silicon valley style – Bad Management Results in Layoffs

5 Responses to “IT Talent Shortage, or Management Failure?”

  1. Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » Young IT Workers Demands
    January 13th, 2008 @ 9:36 am

    “Millennials are coming in with high expectations and are disillusioned about the reality of a work place….”

  2. CuriousCat: Internships Increasing
    June 8th, 2008 @ 3:48 pm

    “The summer posts allow students to bolster their resumes, learn more about their field of choice and meet executives who could hire them for full-time positions one day…”

  3. CuriousCat » Ruby on Rails Job Opportunity
    July 16th, 2008 @ 1:10 pm

    we are very focused on creating applications that follow rails, and ASEE coding conventions in order to maximize performance and minimize life cycle costs…

  4. Curious Cat Management Blog » The Manager FAQ
    November 20th, 2008 @ 5:38 pm

    “Try to treat him with respect, and remember that, in general, you show people respect on their terms, not on the terms you might otherwise prefer…”

  5. Curious Cat Management Blog » What to Wear to an Interview
    January 4th, 2009 @ 9:21 am

    If you are hiring someone to sit in meetings with MBAs and translate technology to them, then maybe being comfortable in a suit is a valued trait. But if you are hiring someone to create code 90+% of the time the suit is a completely silly measurement of value…

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