IT skills 'Undervalued'

Discussion in 'The Lounge - Off Topic' started by Cockles, Dec 14, 2007.

  1. Cockles

    Cockles Megabyte Poster

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    This struck me as quite interesting....

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7143417.stm
     
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  2. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    It shows what the bloody Mds and managers know.

    Interpersonal and commuication skills being above IT those skills should be mandatory, everyone has them anyway they just need developed IT is a real skill that needs learned over many years.
     
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  3. Cockles

    Cockles Megabyte Poster

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    It's so annoying isn't it?

    Ok, I have not worked in 'real' IT per se, but the vast majority of my working life has been spent designing and producing publications, which requires a much higher than average operational IT literacy and a dependency on the hardware you are presented with. The amount of times I've had arguements with managers over things such as hardware simply because those-that-get-paid-too-much don't get it is just daft

    me: If you want to improve throughput and output, we need new Macs and PCs as the ones we have are too slow
    manager: well, why don't the studio just work harder or longer to get the work out quicker?
    me: because it is not a question of working harder or longer, the hardware physically can't work any quicker. Magazines are getting more sophisticated, you need to invest in technology to cope
    manager: (blank face, silence) no, sorry, it's not in the budget, you'lll just have to put the hours in...etc etc
    me: ok, I'll get inside the PC myself and run alongside the gerbil in the wheel a bit shall I, speed it up a bit?
    manager: great, right, must dash, I'm taking a potential client out to the Ivy.....

    ...and so on
     
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  4. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    I have said the same thing myself, when I used to work fridays in design studio at the newspaper where I work I used to say the same things "these macs are slow they need upgrading, these PCs look like you got them cash converters or local pawn shop they are shite. Managers just look at you and say things can you not work faster.

    I stopped doing it after a while because was getting mad with the fact the managers didnt understand that a page at first is normally and .eps which will be a hefty MB size and then it needs converting to a .pdf after the images on the .eps have been embedded. I would say the computers need more memory because the large size of the eps file and they would but we use pdfs which are small. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr :x
     
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  5. Armchair Pimp

    Armchair Pimp Byte Poster

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    .. working for an organisation who has consistently under-invested in it's IT staff.. continually cutting numbers while increasing workloads without full training and then deciding to outsource everyone to a supplier who I'm not convinced won't try and cut numbers further.. I can totally believe it..
     
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  6. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    Seems to happen a lot
     
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  7. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    When you find a good employer, hold on for dear life... they're great to work for. A bad employer can completely crush your spirit.
     
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  8. Phoenix
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    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

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    Perhaps I missed something
    but this article doesn't seem like its talking about tech staff, but staff in general
    I hate to say it but I'm glad IT features in the top 10 year, but i'm not sure it necessarily should be that much higher, whilst a skill in IT should be a requirement in this day and age (a recent interview with bill gates highlighted the fact; in todays world, everyone is an information worker) that said, non IT staff have a lot of varying responsibilities and as long as IT skills factor, I feel others may be more prominent to their chosen career


    If I did mis read and it is IT related, I feel those soft skills are all VERY important, but your knowledge is what your getting paid the stupid money for, the soft skills just make you more useful to a company

    and no matter how many tech smarts you have, if you piss off my team because your interpersonal skills are shite, then get lost!
     
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  9. Cockles

    Cockles Megabyte Poster

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    It is referring to staff in general, and I am one of them. I don't work in IT, but I use it to a high level, where a lot depends on the hardware we are presented with and the stability of it. Yet most organisations I have worked for have ahd an attitude of wanting things done, but not caring how or why, so us end users are the ones suffering as a result of management not realising how vital even soft IT skills are to the successful running of the company.

    I fully appreciate that interpersonal and communication skills are probably THE most vital skills an employee can have, but there always seems to be a lax attitude towards IT until something seriously f*cks up, and by no means am I saying it is down to the IT staff, it is down to the MD who won't sanction the finance director to give the budget to the head of IT to ensure things run smoothly.
     
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