Young IT workers flee the industry

if there were not better paid jobs people would not leave their current company. 

Plus there is NOT enough IT staff.... check some old inquirer articles or google there is far more demand then decent people.

and hard to manage... i know about 50 people in their 20s in IT and only 2 caused some "pain"... sounds normal, mind you 30 out of those 50 will leave within 3 years cause thats how the new IT world works

as it allows a company to rid itself of the dross quickly and with minimal fuss. When (if?) a company identifies a good staff member, one who's actually worth their pay it's very easy to reward them accordingly.
Of course if it turns out that none of these kiddies is prepared to buckle down, grow up and do a fair day's work for their pay then that's a different problem. Just wait until they have a mortgage and kids - they'll soon change their tune!

If they are hard to keep it is because they got a better deal somewhere else.
It’s not the young IT workers that should adjust their expectations; it’s the managers that should adjust their rewards. People don’t leave because they think that they may get a better deal somewhere else. They leave when they have an actual offer on hand that is better is some way than their current employment. Management should get up to speed or they will be left without competent IT workers. 

Also, they are not ‘fleeing the industry’; they are ‘fleeing crappy work conditions/ employers’.

Maybe it's all those adverts for IT courses that say the average IT salary is £35,000!

:-))

Then again, my Boss told me that my job does nothing to promote profit for the company.

I'd like to see the company try to exist without IT staff...

this article suggests that IT "hooligans" are bailing out of the industry.... not bailing to other jobs...

There should be somewhere for IT, maybe not an actual desk but a workspace. 

I've had complaints from higher-ups telling me to move all my equipment out of the staffroom. But there isn't anywhere else to put 3 computers with their guts exposed, and my actual "desk" is an intray in someone else's office and a book for writing problems in at reception.

I'm part-time, and they've forced some unskilled employee into doing my job while I'm away (I hate to think how badly that's gonna end up screwing with the setup)

IT Employers have unrealistic expectations of us young IT guys. They expect us to have numerous certifications - Microsoft, Sun Java, etc. and to keep up to date with all the new technologies... Fine. But if I'm spending 30+hours/week on top of a full time job studying for these certifications and keeping my skills up to date then you better believe I'm going to have high salary expectations. I have no problem keeping up with the senior guys; in fact I'm usually the one showing those old dawgs all the new tricks and it's just not acceptable when Management plays the experience card to low ball our salary. 2.5 years experience does not automatically equate to junior skills and abilities and its a lame excuse to pay us half as much as the senior guys for doing the exact same job.

I had to laugh when I read this. On the one hand, it means that people like me (32 years old, Generation X) will be looking to earn more money, since the younger slackers lack the motivation to compete with me (and the skills too, if some are to be believed - with most graduates having less of a clue about real Computer Science issues, and more about how some RAD suite works). With most companies being hideously-managed (nobody wants to have resources in-house, everyone prefers to have contractors at 2-5x the cost), I'm really cashing in at the moment - current contract nets me £2k (net) per week. When the baby boomers start retiring, I'll *really* have a licence to print money...

On the other hand, I can't help but curse them - for I know exactly what will happen in the long term: Companies will decry the lack of skilled labour in Western lands, and mass-outsource everything to India, China, Russia and Poland (or whatever other countries look the cheapest). Leaving those young, ungrateful little toerags without a job, as well as without an office. Cry for them. For people like me, I expect my skills to last another 8-15 years in the market, depending on how fast the outsourcing happens. Certainly by the time I have kids that can read, write and do arithmetic, I would expect to be getting out of the IT market, if not out of it already.

Oooohhh pooor companies! Poor managers! >D

Jokes apart...

...it's both "obvious" and "right" that people leave their current company if they're underpaid. One of the funniest thing about our society is that till yesterday a lot of people spoke against
Communism because they thought that, under its noble words, it made everybody poor and because, in truth, more skilled and gifted people ended paid the same as anyone else...so no "meritocracy".

Today the company want you to be a Commie for their profit...yeah, boy!

"Fight for Justice, Kill for Truth and Die for the Company!"

They want you to love an organization that's live for profit and they want you to work for it for free...

...one could have his own idea about Communism, but definitely THIS is even WORSE as it is utterly LUDICROUS!!

So pay your "genious children" or let them go...and stop whining, greedy whining companies!!

So I can care less if they quit. IT is there to support value creation people, not create value, therefore they do not get the incentives enjoyed by said value creators. As an engineer, the only time I need them is when THEY screw something up and I notice it. 

Just venting. Sorry good IT guys, but the bad ones (which there are many) have ruined your rep for me.

Hey, I bet Raven and Julian are one these kiddies this article refers to...

I agree with this author. I managed a PC store for 2 yrs ( I was 30 then) and all except one of the many staff was one of these beta kiddies. And none of them survived because they all wanted high wages, low hours and less work responsibility. 

BTW - I live in South Africa so this is not just an American thing.

No where in the article does it say that IT workers are fleeing the industry. Look, I've been job hunting just this year and I can tell you the real reason managers are say what they are: it was a seller's market last year. IT workers were in very high demand job hopping was the rational way to get a raise. This year will be a different story with the econ tanking.

If you read the original article it says absolutely nothing about younger IT people leaving the industry. It says they are harder to retain.

Frankly this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. The expected norm coming out of college these days is that you will spend 2-3 years at an employer, then move on to the next employer. This is a side affect of the dot coms, where you could get another $5k by jumping to another company in 6 months to a year. The industry made this trend, now they're paying for it.

I'm one of those young IT people that jumped ship after only a year at my last IT outfit. College trained me to be ready to learn anything, and when I got out into the real world my job was to make the impossible happen to keep an old business model alive in a new business world.

I think most new grads find this out. IT is supposed to be fast pace and move at the speed of advancing technology, but I was constantly railroaded by "old school" managers who had no concept of what's possible in modern computing. Not only would they not allow me to use new technology to help with old problems, but they wouldn't even listen to my input about NEW problems.

Anyways, with my new company (a much smaller one) I was listened too, and quickly increased their profitability by using the aforementioned new technologies doing EXACTLY the same thing.

It's like anything else, the "Peter Principle" holds fast and true, especially for IT.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle

I went to college a few years ago and specialized in networking (MCSE, A+, Network+, CNE). I specialized in security. Once I was released to the masses I gradually became disillusioned.

First job, small IT firm. Payed well, but beyond handling the occasional CISCO box, most was common networking stuff. Small servers and small networks. I thought ,is this why I learned about managing corporate networks of 25,000 users?

Second job, Big Blue. Worked here for 3 years. I again became disillusioned when I thought I'd be handling some big networks. Provided support for a large engineering firm of 20,000 employees worldwide. However because the client was so big, you only specialized in a small area, same as everyone else. Often it took days to fix small problems because it required so many different support teams. Also the constant need to work longer hours, night shifts, weekends became annoying. Then add on the constant stress from management that you need to work faster, with better first time resolutions, with several times more responsibility. 

Third, medium sized company (500 employees). Good pay, good benefits, good management. I thought this is where it's at. Then the company was bought by a national company and laid off the IT staff.

IT?, I think not. Now I'm an electrician, I work less, make more, and really enjoy the work. I'm glad the IT chapter of my life is done.

When employers start treating staff more like people than numbers and reward the best people instead of screwing them over for cheap outsourcing then they might retain staff. Loyalty means nothing these days to companies so if you find a better deal jump now and jump often. You'll find yourself on a better salary quicker. Meanwhile the clients will be wondering why the quality has gone downhill at your previous job. Company loses contracts, goes bust and the whole cycle starts again. If your marketers aren't securing work SACK THEM. Best advise to anyone.

Today companies to easy fire employees only for profit, I don't see any smart reason why employees would do different things.
At the end, if I can earn the same money working quite similar (or equal) job in similar environment and afford nice summer holiday extra, I will always change company.

I bet most of these kids still live at home. If they had a mortgage or child to take care of, they wouldn't be leaving so fast.

The original article this is referencing has more nuance in it tha the summary here. Take a read of it.

IT is business and value. Actually there is no way you could do effective business without IT. I don't speak about the computer guys who repair computers, this is not IT! IT makes the difference with inside applications: allows executing business rules fast with less people needed. Also you can virtually make an e-business work for you without any interference - if the strategy is right.

Maybe programming goes to India, but how the firm operates and IT delivers - this remains unless the managers want to move to India themselves.

All this means that most of the guys in the future have to be consultants 30 hours a week learning new stuff - what's good and what's not and 10 other hours consulting business people how to go on to compete better.

That's my honest opinion.

Ya, too many certified idiots in the market. I know and work with several certified experts that can barely tun a computer on, but they get jobs based on thier certs. Meanwhile, I support thier useless butts everyday and have no certs because I have neither the time nor the money to get any. Been doing it for 15 years, have kids and mortgage.

Most certified IT beta kids are overpaid no matter what they are paid because they studied a test, wrote and passed it, and got certified.