Young IT workers disillusioned, hard to hold, survey says

Discussion in 'News' started by Kitkatninja, Jan 11, 2008.

  1. Kitkatninja
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    Young IT workers disillusioned, hard to hold, survey says



    Young IT employees pose a challenge to many managers who say the Millennial generation holds employers up to unrealistic expectations and makes unreasonable demands for their services.

    "The issue managers are facing is with retention, not hiring. That means the work environment is not living up to the employee's expectation," he says. For instance, many younger workers expect to get an office immediately or be paid at a rate higher than entry level.

    See here for the full article.

    -Ken
     
    Certifications: MSc, PGDip, PGCert, BSc, HNC, LCGI, MBCS CITP, MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCE, A+, N+, S+, Server+
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Comments

    1. BrotherBill
      BrotherBill
      Love to take a look Ken. Now quit teasing and give us a link to look at.
    2. Kitkatninja
      Kitkatninja
      D'oh link fixed :oops:

      -Ken
    3. zimbo
      zimbo
      Talk to uni IT students and they think they will make millions in their first job!!!! :biggrin
    4. Theprof
      Theprof
      Of course, there are people who study towards IT because they think they're going to make a lot of money, not realising that it's not as easy as it seems. Heck even though I love what I do and I am good at it, I thought that I was going to make some good money, boy was I wrong. It's ok though I am still happy with what I do and am moving up in the career so no issues there.
    5. BrotherBill
      BrotherBill
      Think about it a moment. A lot of the people trying to get started in IT have already been assured by someone at some point that they were going to make it big. Either from friends or family that were even less educated about the industry than they are, or what about the stories we hear from time to time from people that were promised the world if they signed up with one training provider or another.

      Haven't you heard? The halls of IT are lined with gold. Now, welcome to the real world.

      I'm not sure that the trend is isolated to IT, but regardless what your career, I think Theprof has the right idea. Do it because you enjoy it. The money will come in time.
    6. BosonMichael
      BosonMichael
      Hunger and homelessness will fix that attitude. 8)
    7. Kitkatninja
      Kitkatninja
      :lol:
    8. antr
      antr
      I'm just happy I got the job in IT for my enjoyment of IT. better money somewhere down the line bonus :D but you gotta work had to get there.

      No hard work, No hard cash
    9. Arroryn
      Arroryn
      I agree with comments already hinted at - disillusionment only happens, because people are led to believe that the road to an illustrious career in IT is paved with gold.

      Well I'm sorry, but they need to read into the IT Crowd a bit more. Dingy messy basements can sometimes be nearer the accurate guess!

      But my own personal opinion is that young + disillusioned = wrong career.

      If you're doing what you passionately want to do, then there's no way you can be disillusioned about the job as a whole. You can be irked with your current employer or working conditions, but that's just life, and you will be looking to take the next step within your career.

      I can't whinge for too long though. I'm still in the middle of a 3 site VoIP rollout, that isn't going wholly to plan..... I love working in IT 8)
    10. MrNerdy
      MrNerdy
      Up until the end of last year i worked as a contactor in IT within the NHS
      The agency looked more at the industry standard qualifications like CompTIA or CCNA as the min benchmark for IT Tech's.
      And those with degrees often would complain that they thought they would be on £25k once they left Uni.
      1st Line Support does sometimes pay well, but you need a good knowledge & experience to get the high paid jobs.
      I was in 2nd/3rd line and even with the basic industry standard qualifications i never got over £18k a year.
      I mostly did pc audits or basic support to users with network problems & the odd rebuilds.

      IT is marketed by some education establishments as the way to earn £££ and students thing it's true!
    11. BosonMichael
      BosonMichael
      The only way to change these perceptions is to warn people who are thinking about getting into IT. Be outspoken about it. Find IT newbies and show them the right way to build an IT career. That's exactly what we're doing here on this forum... providing advice to warn people before they buy into a lofty-sounding training course propped up by a bunch of lies.

      There's good money to be made in IT... but it takes time to get there. Not a few weeks... not a few months... but a few years.

      But here, we are preaching to the choir. We need to find a way to spread the word outside of these virtual walls.
    12. Phoenix
      Phoenix
      This trend is not IT bound, this trend is generation bound, its what happens when a new generation with different goals and expectations starts providing the manpower in the workplace

      and it will not result in homelessness and hungryness, in fact if you try and fob off an entire generation because its not how 'you' worked 20 years ago, chances are your business will go under with a lack of skilled employees

      sure theres always those that will work for peanuts and put up with archaic business practices, but you get what you pay for

      this discussion is coming up more and more as we get nearner to the 2011 decade, when we will see a large percentage of baby boomers retiring and Gen X filling their shoes, that leaves Gen Y (whom myself and Arroryn are part of, albiet the early half) filling the majority of the work force

      and whilst those at our half of the generation did now have things like the internet and computers our entire life, the ones in the latter half did, and expectations will change because of it, thats just life, time to adapt to changing times!
    13. Bluerinse
      Bluerinse
      So Ryan, are you saying that your generation is willing to pay super high wages to IT newbs just because that is what they expect?

      I don't think you'll find that's a very profitable way to run a business :rolleyes:
    14. Kitkatninja
      Kitkatninja
      That right:

      Become a Driving instructor

      Become a Plumber

      But IT is targeted more because of the year 2000 boom (which has calmed down now) & the fact that IT professional really is the new kid on the block. :rolleyes:

      -Ken

      For reference uses only: Driving & Plumbing
    15. BosonMichael
      BosonMichael
      What he said.
    16. zebulebu
      zebulebu
      Another interesting topic. Personally, I think that IT is pretty similar to most professional occupations (we just like to think it's different because we all want to feel superior :twisted:). There will be people who are in it because they love it, people who are in it because they're proficient at it, but see it as 'just a job' and people who are in it because they were told by some idiot they know in the pub that just because they can shove a stick of RAM in their brother-in-law's home PC without it exploding that they can manage a 10,000 user data centre :biggrin

      I think that the latter kind is slowly starting to die out. There are now less complete no-hopers applying for jobs than there were a few years back - I have seen the calibre of the average second line candidate (the niche I've usually had input into recruiting for) increase steadily in the past couple of years. By no means are most interviewees anywhere near the level I would expect them to be, but I've usually managed to get at least one decent candidate on every interview process I've been involved in over the last 18 months or so. This indicates to me that the 'get rich quick' nonsense may be abating somewhat.

      That said, there are still people out there who have no right to be demanding the ridiculous salaries companies seem willing to pay these days. I know my market rate and am under no illusions that my skillset, experience or abilities should 'guarantee' me 75k a year (the sort of figure I'd need to earn if I was single and wanted a decent property anywhere in or near London). Maybe if I was contracting I'd look at that sort of figure, but contracting has a lot of drawbacks (no leave, no sick pay, zero job security) and, as a married man, its not something I would consider. I think that being reasonable when assessing salary expectations - doing your research on current salary rates for similar roles in your area and applying a figure to that dependent on experience & skillset - stands you in good stead with a prospective employer - I'm sure that I've been successful at interviews because I have pitched my salary expectations at the appropriate level for the role.

      I have, however, known people younger than me who expect everything to be handed to them on a plate - and maybe that's a general problem in society today. I can't speak for the US, but it certainly seems that the majority of kids straight out of school now seem to think that the world owes them a living - witness the 'respect' culture that has sprung up over the past few years, whereby little turds in hoodies demand 'respect' from people without doing anything to earn it.

      You know what I think tends to let most people down in the marketplace today? The fact that a lot of them don't show the slightest bit of initiative towards learning new skills, brushing up on things they learned a while ago but might not have used recently, or just showing that you actually give a toss about your job. Don't get me wrong - I think employers often make ridiculous demands of their staff - this can often be especially true in IT where you can be expected to drop absolutely anything you are doing during your free time to come in and fix a problem that requires immediate attention. However, most people seem to have the attitude of either 'don't blame me, it's not my fault' or 'I don't care if I **** something up, someone else will always be there to fix it for me'. There is no wish to take any responsibility amongst a lot of 'Generation Y' - and that irks me.
    17. The_Geek
      The_Geek
      I agree that the younger generation seems to think they'll be making 100k the first year, and not just in IT, but in any field.

      I started in IT during the Windows 3.1 days, got to see Windows 95 with plug-n-pray capability, 98 (first and second editions), NT, 2K (I skipped Mistake Edition), then on to XP, 2K3, Vista and currently testing Server 2K8 in the lab. I have friends doing almost the exact same job I am but with other companies, and they all keep telling me to come to work at their company. Heck, I even went on an interview to discover that if I were to "jump ship" I would almost double my salary..............but then I had to think about what I have at the company I'm at:
      1) company vehicle
      2) fuel card
      3) personal use of the company vehicle
      4) cell phone (Blackberry's are nice when someone else is paying the bill)
      5) freedom to come and go as I please (as long as the work gets done)

      So it's not always about the money. Sometimes the benefits outweigh the salary.
    18. dmarsh
      dmarsh
      Actually there was no Y2K boom...it was over hyped, the few COBOL programs with issues were patched easily with new libraries that compressed the 2 char date field as binary offset/UTC to allow for another 50 or so years.

      In fact it was a Y2K slump in IT terms as companies largely put their IT projects on hold...

      Apart from that 'what zeb said !', I must be getting old but never have I seen so many expect so much for so little...

      This generation is richer than any generation before it but perhaps 'emotionally poorer', they have mobile phones, tvs, xboxes, but they hang around and beat up old grannies outside one-stop because 'theres nothing to do'. Generations before FOUND something to do, like go to school or get a job !

      There really does seem to be a sort of Xfactor attitude, 'I'm crap but I deserve success!', and the media seems to constantly reinforce this. Its the forest gump generation...
    19. Kitkatninja
      Kitkatninja
      It was the way the media protraited it, sorry that's what I meant. :oops:

      -Ken

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