We have all had Monty Python moments where we try and outdo each other on how tough we had it at the beginning of our careers. But rather than having it easier, today’s aspiring IT professionals find it tougher than ever to get a foot on the career ladder.

The IT profession has changed significantly since my move into computing many years ago as a trainee programmer in local government.

Would-be programmers took apprentice positions and developed their skills on the job. Most operating, coding and systems design was done in-house and there was a clear career direction – aided by IT being a narrowly defined function.

The ambitious could reach the giddy heights of senior analyst/programmer, systems engineer, or even data processing manager. Loyalties and career paths were focused on computer manufacturers such as IBM, ICL and Sperry Univac, as much as business sectors such as banking, retail or insurance.

In parallel with developing systems analysis and coding skills, a trainee learned that the business world did not always follow the path of logic.

They also discovered that it was better to ‘succeed despite…’ rather than ‘fail because…’, that you had to prepare and present a case for new hardware, and that just because someone was in a senior position, it did not always mean they were competent.

It was expected that commercial acumen, business knowledge and similar skills would take many years to acquire and hone.

Today, IT graduates leave university well equipped with the technical basics and a good grounding in technology. But at that stage in their working life they have had little opportunity to develop the range of softer skills required for the role of the modern IT professional.

Degrees, or basic programming skills, are no longer the guaranteed passport to an IT career they once were. Software firms and businesses outsource coding to cheaper offshore alternatives, leaving home-grown IT talent competing for a decreasing number of entry-level positions.

Programming is no longer a viable career path for the mainstream, and the opportunity to gradually and thoroughly absorb what makes commerce tick, while developing the code to support it, is no longer there.

Instead, IT graduates need to move straight into jobs that require accounting knowledge, project management, problem solving, lateral thinking, and so on.

That, in short, is asking a lot: they are expected to communicate confidently and accurately about subjects in which they have had far less time to accumulate experience.

As a result, we suffer from a lack of men and women who can carry out a hybrid role, for example, review a transcontinental communications design in the morning and present a business case for a direct shopping channel in the afternoon.

The lack of such individuals means that employers may now take a more agnostic approach to degree subjects and to employ-ee development. They look for bright people who have the potential to apply IT in smart and innovative ways that support strategic business goals and priorities.

Such people need to understand enough of the underlying technology nuts and bolts to make informed decisions, but will rarely be able to improve the performance of the code delivered by offshore workers.

Instead of looking for IBM or HP experience, firms value knowledge gained in complementary business functions. Someone with an accountancy background might have skills suited to enterprise resource planning or project management.

Ex-military personnel can have the exact disciplined approach needed to manage computer security. And non-IT people will often have built up their skills in other business areas and become engaged in a technology project before making the leap into an IT career.

Such opportunities are growing, not just because of the imperative to align technology and business strategies, but because there is a shortage of rounded management skills within IT itself.

IT has definitely become a more rewarding and richer career over the past couple of decades. Increasingly, IT has a seat at the board and is now seen as a strategic, rather than purely operational, function.

But there is no denying that there is a real need for new blood with the skill-set to meet the mandates of the technology department.

If universities cannot thoroughly equip IT graduates with business and management skills, then companies must instead turn to equipping business and management people with the technology skills which they need to support and energise their business.

Sandra Smith is IS director for Toshiba UK