Re: The plight of IT professionals in their 40s Wanted to post something on this thread but couldn't get time, so I will keep it short this time. Since this thread only focuses on IT professionals in their 40s I will focus only on that, as such, there is a lot going through IT sector and employees across all age groups are going through a radical change and there is a lot to write about.
The plight of a 40 year IT guy can be compared to a security guard in our society when I was a kid. In the early days the watchman had 3 tasks primarily.
1. Guard the premises
2. Register entry/exit manually
3. Switch on/off electrical equipment (water pump/ lights etc)
He was doing this job for the last 10-15 years happily and earning well, he used to get increment as well for the same job he had been doing for a long time. Over the years, he also hired some juniors to share his workload. Then technology happened. Premises were guarded by CCTV cameras, register was updated automatically using finger-prints or IR cards. Electrical equipment was fully automated using electronic devices and timers.
The watchman who had been doing these job was caught off-guard. He had not learnt anything new besides these three tasks. One fine day the management asked him why we should keep you on-board paying you a hefty salary as most of the work is getting done by technology ? He had no
answer and had to leave.
Then the society hired another young watchman, he had additional skills of monitoring the CCTV cameras, fixing any electrical faults, he had knowledge of technology so could co-ordinate with people who would fix the elevators etc without any involvement of higher management.
Like this analogy of a housing society, IT industry is going through the same churn right now, its not like there is no work, in fact there is more work than one would expect. How one manages to stay updated with newer technology and mindset is up to the individual.
Many people who are in IT since 90s got promoted to managerial jobs very quickly, while they lost a track of their technology or core skills of coding. Many failed to keep themselves updated with new tech, they were paid fat salaries compared to today, so they were able to make lot of investments too. Now when IT industry is automating or radically changing most things to keep costs down, management is the first thing that has taken a hit. Many people who did not realize this coming faced the heat. People who read the dynamics correctly sailed through it. People who have taken hefty loans and other things are going to find it difficult going forward. IT industry is not the same as it was before 2008 slowdown.
I will take an example of my own. I was working in Cognizant last year, and many people around me (myself included) were on radar. 'Utilization' was the only metric based on which people were going to be retained, it didn't matter if the resource was good or bad. Three of us (other two were seniors with 15+ years of exp) were assigned a project which was not associated with our core skills. I took up the challenge saying I will learn something new. The other one was a manager, he hesitated first saying 'am I supposed to write code with 2 year old chaps now ?' and the third one refused right away with a straight face and waited for another project. Three months later, the third guy was asked to leave, the second one stopped complaining and I got a better appraisal (I still left the company though :P)
The fact is, people in their 40s have a lot going with them, they can do some amazing things with their knowledge, but many of them don't want to fall back to what they actually are : coders and developers. In automobile parlance, its like IC engines getting upgraded with turbocharging or hybrid tech, the core function of automobile remains the same. New technology is mostly built on older tech, so core knowledge can always come handy.
Keeping updated with new tech is not difficult for ones who have lot of experience and companies do give enough opportunities before asking to leave.
At this point, I will also blame the biggies like Infosys and Wipro which inculcated this habit in Indian IT folks of climbing the ladder quickly without actually getting the right skills (in 2000s). It might also have to do something with human urge to control people as much as possible, I dont know. People used to become Senior managers and managers in less than 10 years in India. In order to retain resources 'promotions' were fast-tracked. Compare that to the folks working in US. I am having 9 years of experience, my college friends in US are working at the position of Senior Software Engineer/ Senior Consultant in companies like Uber and Amazon. While those in Infy and others are Managers/ Team leaders, but they are doing the same job as people in US. In my consulting career, I have seen database administrators and System engineers in US and South America, in their 40s happily learning new things aligned with their core skill set. This trend is slowly changing now in India thankfully, it is all boiling down to how useful you are to your company, your designation and experience matters only at the time of negotiating salary. |