The recent survey results from Career Zoo on Irish IT pros rating family friendly work policies, conducive, attractive environments and opportunities to travel as the top influencers in job hunting are not really surprising.
As Jackie Slattery, director, Career Zoo points out, the majority of respondents were mature, experienced and skilled professionals who all can command a hefty pay packet, wherever they go. As such, remuneration is not the key factor, but what is not mentioned is that it is not a key factor as long as it is above a certain threshold.
“Old hands might say thus it ever was, but there is still a strong culture out there of certain levels of coding and development in particular, as being facile in some way that devalues the skills of developers and encourages short, low value engagements. Developers can get stuck in a loop of such work”
While this may not be the same as the infamous ‘won’t wake up for less than $10,000,’ it still strongly attests to the fact that pay is not an issue only if it is already dealt with. If an IT pro can command a certain base level of remuneration for whatever job is on offer, then of course, one can fret over the quality of the office, the freshness of the free fruit and variety of organic granola in the press.
However, there are very many freelancers and up and coming IT pros out there for whom the reality is all too different.
For them, flexibility means answering emails, IMs and mobiles at all hours, with fast responses and going beyond the call of duty. Now the old hands might say thus it ever was, but there is still a strong culture out there of certain levels of coding and development in particular, as being facile in some way that devalues the skills of developers and encourages short, low value engagements. Developers can get stuck in a loop of such work and often pay is the only glimmer of hope in it — as in, by taking a few of these distasteful jobs you might save enough to find a decent contract, role or position by which you might exit the gruel train.
While the respondents of the Career Zoo survey are lucky in their position and laudable in their outlook, I wonder how representative they are of developers as a whole, and especially the younger ones who might be either self-taught or primarily experience based in their skills.
Another trend of note on the pages of TechCentral.ie this week is around the Internet of Things (IoT).
Firstly, there was the example of a massive botnet comprised of hijacked IoT being used to carry out an equally massive DDoS attack. This was followed by an IDC survey saying that companies acknowledge the strategic importance of IoT in the future, but without any real agreement as to how to secure it, followed by an initiative driven by GE and Bosch for an opens source approach to IoT security. Added to this is the 5G Automotive Association, driven by Audi, Daimler Benz and BMW with various connectivity partners, to provide inter-car and smart city connectivity for the next generation of connected cars and swarm intelligence.
It does not take a genius to work out that whoever can crack the basics of security for IoT, and particularly industrial IoT (IIoT), will become very successful indeed. Let’s hope it is a consortium or not for profit that has the greater good at heart, rather than some share price driven, dividend focused corporation that doesn’t pay any tax anywhere. Alas, that doesn’t narrow down the latter list.
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