The myth of the ICT-professional
With a pointedly 'Do you know which month it is ?', Sander reminded me that it was time for another blogpost. Not that I had forgotten, but the past weeks have been busy enough. That, and I wasn't 100% sure on which to write. Admittedly, an article had been brooding in the back of my mind for some time, but the shape and form had been eluding me for some time now. It's an article that may or may not offend some people while reading it, but quite frankly, I don't care.
So, here it is, my monthly contribution to the world of blogging..
Introduction
Lately, I've received quite a few job-offers. Once every while, when you update profiles on websites, the hordes of headhunters seem to spring into attention and jump for the bait. Quite frankly, I've felt tempted to add a PhD, Master-degree and a certification in advanced Yoga to the list, just to see what happens. Who knows.
Every mail I receive seems to contain the sentence 'We're looking for ICT-professionals who... [fillinofferedjobhere]'. At first, this seemed flattering. 'Look at me', I thought, 'I'm an ICT-professional'. A bit of pride swelled up inside of me, and I'd have to take a quick nap to make the feeling go away.
Then, one day, I was browsing through a few profiles on LinkedIn and their connections, and I didn't feel so special anymore. It seems that everyone is an ICT-professional these days. People who answer the phone at a call-center at your local DIY-computershop have now been named 'Customer Experience Management Professional'. Keith, the guy who waters the plants in your office, is now a Climate Management Professional.
And for the job roles that you possibly couldn't match with anything like 'Management' or 'Professional', we'll just have our wicked way with the term 'Consultant'. Everybody wants to feel special. The result is that everyone is now so special, that it's not too special anymore.
Classification
So what makes someone an ICT-professional ? Well, judging from the enormous selection of titles on vacancy-sites and such, moving your little home-PC from the cellar to your new study would just about do it. If you also manage to install a wireless router (consulting the manual is optional, but probably earns you the title 'Jr'), you're just fit about to be a consultant.
The only conclusion that I can draw from this that the term ICT-professional has been completely and utterly raped. It may be just my humble opinion, but having worked at an ICT-call center for three months, patching through customers to in-house technical specialists, does not make you an ICT-professional. It makes you a secretary, and you deserve a cuddle from your boss and a bouquet of flowers once a year at Secretary Apprecation Day.
But, let us for the sake of argument, classify an ICT-professional as someone who earns their living by performing ICT-related duties on a somewhat daily basis. I fully realise that this puts the true technical specialists on the same heap as Bob the one-day fly system administrator who couldn't open up a PC to save his life, but it seems that the job market has made it so.
Distinction
However, if we do that, how do we distinguish between aforementioned Bob and a technical expert ? Surely, I hear the masses cry 'Certifications!'. Ah. Yes. Certifications.
Let us have a look at those certicifations, shall we ?
A few days ago, I enjoyed a nice dinner in Eindhoven (where I live) with a group of co-workers. A part of the group had just attained the MCP-certification, another part of the group had earned themselves the chance to try again, and yet another part of the group consisted of general hangers-on (including myself and blogmeister Sander Berkouwer). As the formal spokesperson of all things Microsoft-related at our company, Sander made a short speech to rally the spirits into more development, search for wisdom and ambition. After the applause had died away, I too delivered a short speech, in which I stated that certifications were all nice and well, but did not determine if you're any good at your job. (One of the lads who had failed to pass the exam works for me at a customer, and does a great job, regardless of the MCP-shaped hole in his resume).
This little statement did not fall well with one of the accountmanagers present, who asked me if I thought that was a smart thing to say. I was happy to respond that, yes, I thought it was. I explained to him that I believe that letting people pursue certifications just to get the certifications is not a true worthwhile goal. As an example, I described an excellent servicemanager with extensive knowledge and experience in the field of ITIL and making things happen, who was forced to pass his MCSA as part of his yearly evaluation. As he rarely got into the nitty-gritty of servers, he had a particular tough time attaining this certification. This, I pointed out, was a perfect example of the 'Get them papers even if you don't need them'-mentality that seems to thrive in ICT-companies these days.
'But surely certifications are also meant to display your knowledge and capabilities in a field of expertise ?', he replied. My only response to that was the example of the paper-MCSE, a symptom that was suffered greatly during the Windows NT4 period, in which any complete twit could pass the NT4 exams with flying colours without even ever having touched a server. To this day, I believe that certifications are very poor indications of knowledge and experience; it only shows you either knew enough theoretical information on the morning of your exam, or that you were lucky enough to guess the correct answers.
Let us also not forget the excellent technical experts amongst us who could pass all MCSE-examens in less than a day's work, if only a) their boss would pay for it or b) they'd be bothered.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that certifications are pointless, but they are completely useless in determining a person's capabilities.If you're not convinced, have a look at the Certified Novell Sales Exams 2008 and get yourself a Novell-certification with no effort whatsoever. Go ahead. I dare ya.
Experience
So, if certifications are not a viable option to determine one's worth as an ICT-professional, what is ? Surely experience must provide a way out ?
True, experience gives away more than certification, but there is a catch. How is experience displayed ? Through resumes. A piece of paper. Written and judged by the same person who tries to sell himself to the world. Well, there is definitely a bit of a catch there, isn't it ? Ever seen a truly objective resume ? If you have, please frame it and hang it on the wall, because they are truly rare. Why, I fondly remember my time as an Interior Maintenance Professional, during which period I was personally responsible for the customer experience of over 500+ students, striving to perfect all bathroom-, hallways- and floral experience while not neglecting the wishes of 20+ employees whose joy of work solely depended on my performance! (This little example of resume-decoration refers to the time when I got to work at 6 in the morning to wipe the floors, clean the bathrooms and extract rather dried-up pieces of gum from underneath desks at a local university..)
When I conducted an interview at a customer to determine a candidate's suitability for the vacancy of systemadministrator, I first read his resume which looked impressive. Knowledge and experience with security appliances, management of a servicedesk, extensive systemadministration-skills..
At the interview, it turned out that the resume had neglected to mention that the 'security appliances' was a small Soho-firewall he had set up at home (once), managing the servicedesk consisted of getting in on time in the mornings so he could answer the one phone that the ICT-department had and his system administration-skills boiled down to double-clicking a script that reset several services on a server (a script written by someone who had left the company years ago). Candidate denied.
Talk the talk, walk the walk
Once again, let us make an assumption for the sake of argument. Bob is a candidate for the job of technical consultant at your company. Bob passed his certifications because he found the exams a challenge, and he passed them because of studying hard and having massive experience in the curriculum. Bob also doesn't know how to lie, so his resume truly displays what his career has looked like so far. Bob seems, in every way, the perfect match!
Then Bob comes in. He can't seem to take his eyes off the floor, looks like a big runny egg on legs dressed in an oversized parka, has the charisma of a piece of roadkill and when, by chance, his eyes do meet yours, you have trouble resisting shaking him while shouting 'Make some human contact, curse you!!'. Yep. Bob's definitely perfect for the job.. provided you put him in a dark room somewhere with a lot of TFT-screens and toss some food inside every once in a while. He won't join anyone for lunch, because in his breaks he's rewriting mathematical algorithms for fun. When it comes down to it, Bob is a complete and utter stereotype nerd. Even though he'll do his work just fine, it's impossible to send Bob to any customer.
Thankfully, the clever people who write job advertisements have circumvented this possibility by stating that candidates need to have excellent social skills.. yeah. Right.
Appreciation
Of course, HR-departments throughout time have understood that measuring and appreciating people is a complex matter, and a solution was found. Using lists of levels and competencies, ICT-professionals are swiftly classified by using criteria such as 'Must have a pro-active attitude towards commercial opportunities at customers' and 'Is capable to establish social contact between co-workers easily'. Apparently, the clever people at HR seem to think that a person can be judged solely by numbers and standard classifications, which is, of course, a load of nonsense. I've met plenty of excellent people who, because of these criteria, never got further in the direction they wanted because they lacked (sometimes by choice) the qualification for some of the criteria. Only the reincarnation of Mother Theresa, after years and years of training and practice in the field of IT, management and psychology, could perhaps hope to ever comply with these ridiculous demands.
Conclusion
As some of you may know, I study musictheory in my spare time, hoping to become a better composer of music. A little while, I read an interview with a composer who stated that anyone who had not graduated from the conservatory is not a true composer or musician. Oddly enough, I've played with many excellent musicians who couldn't even read a sheet of music. In his world, these people should not be allowed near a musical instrument; yet, even though they knew nothing of theory, had no certification, never passed exams that said 'Hey, you're a musician!', they played with a feeling and passion that would shame even the most avid graduated musician.
Personally, I feel that there is only one way to truly judge a person's qualification for their job, and that is the judgement of their peers. In the same ways that musicians recognize fellow musicians and their skills, people in ICT recognize the skills in their peers. It's not unthinkable that a group of experienced ICT-consultants would gladly choose someone as their colleague who doesn't possess the slightest certification or even has a career in ICT on their resume, just because they've all seem him or her at work. This person, however, could only hope to be given a chance of becoming a call-center support employee if the industry itself had any say in it.
The greatest appreciation is a pat on the back by someone you look up to, a fellow administrator, developer or architect (let's just use the real terms, shall we, instead of titles that consist of five words with four syllables each), saying 'Great job!' and mean it. Only a peer can judge your worth, and the bigger the group of peers, the more accurate the judgement will be.
Now, if you will excuse me, all this ranting has made me thirsty, and it's time to contact my local Beverage Distribution Management Center and make some coffee..
PS: If you've actually read this entire rant to the end, you might get the impression that I believe myself to be an expert on ICT. I don't. I do, however, get fed up with complicated, meaningless titles, ridiculous methods of trying to ascertain one's skills and other ways to insult the complexity of the human mind. I've seen plenty of it throughout the years and it just seems to get worse now that ICT begins to take an even more prominent role in our everyday lives. There is no such thing as 'The ICT-professional', because that'd require the existence of a perfect, serene person who has complete control over their emotions at all times, while having studied every single scrap of information on every aspect of ICT ever, who is also fun to be around, trustworthy and all those other things we appreciate in other human beings.
It seems, however, that with the ICT-hype taking off again full flight, that a lot of people think themselves to be just a bit more than they are, simply because the sign by their office door has to have two lines to display their full title. Not to mention the presence of no less than two real plants in their office, watered by Bob, the Senior Floral Management Executive on a day-to-day basis..(Keith, mentioned earlier in this post, has become a gardener at the local park and is quite content with it).