IT professionals back our campaign

We have already had an lot of interesting and positive reactions to our new campaign, Tomorrow’s IT Leaders. There is clearly widespread concern at all levels of the profession about the future direction of the IT management role.

Frustrated IT staff with many years’ experience are finding their careers hitting a glass ceiling as firms say they want IT leaders who are business savvy, yet fail to offer the opportunity to develop such skills.

Offshore outsourcing remains a major bone of contention for many who feel their career development is being given less priority by employers in favour of introducing lower-paid overseas resources.

And many IT professionals who have found themselves out of work as a result of recessionary cutbacks are struggling to find suitable roles or to push open doors to jobs that are being closely guarded by recruitment consultancies.

Yet we constantly hear that the UK is crying out for technology expertise and leadership. There is a serious mismatch happening somewhere.

Perhaps it is important to remember that IT is still a relatively young profession – ­ law, medicine, engineering have been around for centuries, IT for decades.

As City University’s David Chan points out, the definition of an IT leader has already changed many times as the adoption of technology has evolved. It is a constant challenge to plan your career to reach a goal that is constantly changing.

But to encourage talented people into IT, and to groom them into tomorrow’s IT leaders, requires enough stability to give them confidence in their future opportunities.

There is an important debate to be had, and we hope that our campaign offers
today’s aspiring IT professionals with a chance to air their concerns and voice their opinions at this critical time for the UK IT industry.

Tomorrow's IT Leaders

As part of Computing's Tomorrow's IT Leaders campaign, we talk to the UK's top chief information officers (CIOs) to find out their views on the role of IT leaders and how this will change in the post-recessionary world.

• Click here to find out more about our Tomorrow’s IT Leaders campaign