4.2.2 Identification with a skilled technical self (C2) The ways in which participants viewed their technical skills as part of their overarching professional identity differed broadly according to the routes into the IT profession identified above. For both Lindsay and Hazel, who had entered the IT profession over 20 years ago, their aptitude was recognised at school and a strong skills-based identity was observed through value expressed regarding their own skills base and evidence of “struggle” with experiencing higher levels of skills in their teams as they had to spend more time on management. Both competence and enjoyment was expressed: Hazel: “The technical side of things I’ve never had any issue with and I always really enjoyed taking something and making it work.” Lindsay: “absolutely [setting up a new computer system] –being in at the beginning - it was just so exciting.” Identity as an expert was observed and Lindsay explained that on more than one occasion, she had said to her colleagues “I told you so!” to reinforce that she had been right with a decision about the implementation of new technology. She also expressed pride at her skills being recognised and in having specific skills unique to the organisation: “I was the only person that could do it.” Lindsay stated that her colleague described her work as “sprinkling fairy gold.” Love of technology was observed: “new stuff would come out, you could play with it, you could try stuff out” and “the technical stuff – I do get a buzz out of that”, and finally: “I loved getting the computer to do what I wanted it to.” Lindsay “wanted quick fixes” and several times mentioned a love of her work, particularly in relation to problem solving. She also “always knew I thought differently from other people.” Those who had studied computing more recently with a view to entering the IT profession, Steven, Pete and Michael, expressed their skills in terms of building up through successive roles and projects. Describing how he made the choice to study computing, Steven stated that “I just like computers, always liked computers” and that he had a “kind of analytical brain.” Michael described an early role: “I could do it with my eyes closed.” Considering applying for a better job, he told himself: “I can do
have emerged as the discipline has expanded and specialisations emerged from computer science to, for example, software engineering, security and games. In the UK the Quality Assurance Agency is currently consulting on a new computing benchmark with a publication date in 2016 (QAA, 2015). The second, a unified approach, was the aim of the Seoul Accord which was signed by eight national professional bodies, including the BCS, in 2008. However the challenge remains that it is only one of seven agreed frameworks (Bacon & MacKinnon, 2010). Finally, in terms of continuing professional development, although the focus on graduate skills has been taken up by the BCS through organising training courses and issuing publications, in general, specific vendor training has been perceived by graduates as having greater value for employment prospects. In terms of autonomy, the BCS, in common with other professional bodies, operates as a membership organisation and is run by a board of trustees. However, Monteiro’s (2015) final category, prestige, is problematic. The IT profession could be said to lack prestige. To be effective, professional bodies need an authoritative voice. With 1.3M jobs in IT in the UK (Office for National Statistics, 2014) and membership of 70,000 only 5% of IT professionals are members (by comparison, accountancy can claim 14% from the same source). According to the National Careers Service (2014) most accountancy jobs advertised require chartered status while very few advertised IT jobs require chartered status. Only one of the participants was a member of the BCS and he had questioned whether this was worthwhile for him. Two others knew of the BCS but had not seen the value of membership, relying instead on self-development and product-based training. Although IT professionals are generally highly skilled, there remain low barriers to entry to the profession. Using data published in the 2001 Employers Skills Survey, employees in computer services have the highest mean skills score across all science, engineering and technology industries (Mason et al., 2002, p. 11). However Donnelly et al. highlighted ‘loose controls on entry into IT occupations’ and observed that only a minority of graduates hold a qualification in computer science (2011, p. 101). This is largely explained by Donnelly et al. as due to the falling numbers of computer science students (from 27,000 to 13,000 between 2001-2007) but also by the fact that 57% of IT graduate recruiters favoured recruitment of graduates with
It was not unusual for participants to have held a number of roles, moving on when the role had come to an end. The nature of project work with short term contracts had led some to opportunistic careers. Between roles, identity work was focused on technical skills development. Outsourced and consultancy work led to long commutes for Andrew and Ian. The IT sector’s recent move towards outsourcing and away from in-house development teams (for example, Grimshaw & Miozzo, 2009) was mentioned by five participants. For Andrew, outsourcing changed the nature of his organisational identity and impacted on his identity salience and he created a status seeking narrative based on being invited to join new projects and loyalty was closely aligned to project teams. James mentioned that within his sector, “very few places now have a development team.” Studies have shown feelings of powerlessness and vulnerability when working in areas prone to outsourcing (for example, Gunz & Gunz 2007; Hickson et al., 1971). Working within a global organisation was mentioned by Ian, Andrew and Adrian. Andrew and Adrian mentioned excessive workloads necessary to interact across time zones and having to adapt their leadership styles to suit local working practices. Overall a picture of uncertainty of career progression within and outwith organisations emerged and may be a contributing factor in the lack of identification with the IT profession. 5.4.4 Mechanism 4: IT project failures All participants had to justify IT and experienced a weight of expectations in return for project spending. Although the workforce is generally considered highly skilled there has been a number of high profile public sector IT project failures including the NHS National Programme for IT project which was abandoned in 2011 after costing £12.7bn. The project suffered from years of delay and made little progress, citing technical difficulties (Campbell, 2011; Sampson, 2012). Other examples include the benefits card project which started in 1996 and abandoned three years later as project outcomes could not be delivered within budget or timescale (National Audit Office, 2000). In 1999 the passport office oversaw a largely unsuccessful IT rollout (Cross, 2005). On investigation, Cross reported that the factors behind lack of success included: IT projects which were overly ambitious in