29 Nov 2007
Marks and Spencer is restructuring its IT department to embed technology staff in the company’s business units.
The technology function is no longer one entity located at the company’s Stockley Park headquarters, but has individual teams working in different areas such as buying, merchandising, retail and back office.
Further reading
The firm is also taking on five times as many technology graduates, but with an emphasis on general business skills rather than pure computer science qualifications.
Instead of out-and-out technical people, M&S wants recruits who can talk productively to non-IT staff, IT director Darrell Stein told Computing.
“We want people who are more business-savvy, rather than people who would just start tinkering with code,” he said.
“It is time to focus on business people because technology is becoming more componentised.
“As an employer, you no longer need people to build systems, you need people who know how to apply packages to the company and get the best out of them,” he said.
The new direction is changing the nature of the M&S IT department.
“Now we have one strategy where technology and business colleagues are working on the same agenda,” said Stein.
“So the IT department will evolve into a service function, not a separate entity.”
Increasing the IT graduate intake from two to 10 in the 2008 recruitment
drive
is part of the same strategy and is designed to improve succession planning and
save money.
“It is better to get good people at the start of their career rather than have to hire more expensive people at middle-management level,” said Stein.
I am a fairly recent graduate, and guess what I got my first job as a COBOL
developer. I have been a COBOL developer for three years since graduating.
I can truly say I wish I stayed away from COBOL and so should all you recent
graduates.
It really doesn?t matter whether or not there are 70 billion lines of COBOL
and all that other stuff; if you can?t get a job in this area (trust me I?ve
been looking). All you have to do is type COBOL in a job search (and there
we have it ? the last time I got 100 hits) ? ?COBOL IS DEAD? if you want to
get a job. When you narrow down your search to say London and you only get
about 12 hits ? so if you want to work as a software developer stay away
from COBOL.
It really doesn?t matter if some developer says ?COBOL is not dead, I?ve
recently got a job in COBOL?. These people probably been programming in
COBOL for a life time (that?s like 25 years) so you are competing with these
guys for those handful of jobs.
It really doesn?t matter if one says ?there will be plenty of jobs when
these old people retire and a company will give you loads of money if you
have COBOL experience?. They may give people with COBOL skills loads of
money to fix a bug but how often do these bugs cause faults (remember if its
working don?t touch it). So you maybe sitting unemployed for years before
anything goes wrong, waiting for your one off big contract payment (sounds
like too much of a risky investment).
Anyway I?ve been looking for work out their and finding it very hard (almost
impossible) to find a job. I am a First Class graduate and have a Masters
and even with these academics three years of doing COBOL has crippled my
chances. I wish I had not done COBOL and stayed with the skills (what you
should be learning at university) that have jobs. I have got 3 years COBOL
and someone has 3 years of Java or C or C# etc.. so I am out of the
competition when looking for jobs. Don?t listen to those that say it don?t
matter what the language is (because it does), all you have to do is look at
the job specs (they generally mention the programming language because it
really does matter).
I am now hoping to build on those skills at university and then will keep
trying to apply for jobs. I am also hoping to do some courses to refresh my
knowledge in areas I have neglected over the last three years (which from my
experience you don?t get from COBOL and my opinion is this language should
not be taught at university). Certainly its IT and you have too keep up
with recently skills set (that?s RECENT!! skills set), but why get into the
position I am in and many (I hope not too many) recent graduates may be in.
I know this is very negative and may not read well, but COBOL has made it
very difficult for me to forward my career and I really don?t want this to
happen to any other graduate.
Basically ?COBOL is truly dead? if you look at it from the perspective of
your career. Go out there, do the research and see the truth for yourself !!
Posted by: COBOL WAS 25 Feb 2008
An in-depth understanding of wider business aims and practices is vital to any IT department and every employee within it if they are to fully contribute to their organisation. Therefore any move to further align business and IT practices should be welcomed, and taken seriously by the wider industry and academic establishments.
However, organisations must take care not to neglect their core systems. Industry is witnessing a widespread shift in focus from ?new and shiny? to ?turning old to gold?. IT departments are increasingly under pressure to do more with what they have. Whilst many major corporations continue to rely upon their existing IT infrastructure in their day-to-day tasks, those professionals equipped to deal with these systems are quickly approaching retirement. Most Universities have moved away from teaching essential and widely used skills like COBOL, which has left most graduates without the skills to understand these systems or the importance of them to these organizations. Recent research has shown that more than three-quarters of CIOs expect the recruitment of programmers with the skills to maintain and modernize these systems to be a key focus of their IT departments over the next five years.
Organisations should see this as an opportunity to instill not only the necessary skills to maintain current systems, but also relevant acumen to help bridge the perennial gap between business and IT.
Posted by: Arunn Ramadoss, Micro Focus 30 Nov 2007
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