No one wants to join IT industry

Today, I am in a thought-provoking mood. So, i will leave you with a thought.

How many IT pros in India went on to pursue IT as a career because they really had a liking towards it? Or was it more because IT was the easiest choice and there was nothing else to bank on for a living?

And if you yourself are Indian IT pro, do you actually want to continue with your career in IT? Or would you rather quit IT if given an option?

I will leave it here then. Just think. And also think, why i asked you to think on these lines-- and you will have the answers?

Why restructuring causes attrition

Restructuring exercise in any organization is interpreted by people (employees) in this way: If I am going to get a new boss and a new department, I will have to prove myself again to the new group of people. I would be better off joining a new firm at a much higher pay scale. This is a typical case of comfort zone disturbance.
Similarly, a person (an employee) might feel loss of respect in the organization or might get a feeling of jealousy due to the promotion of others or better pay-revisions of others. Again, this is a comfort zone disturbance.

And whenever there is a comfort zone disturbance, people seek greater value (self perceived value) for themselves at other places (firms) either through a perceptibly better role or salary. Note that here we are talking about self-perceptions -- but isn't that the most important factor in employee retention.

Attrition can’t be attributed to aspirations, salaries or job location

Whenever we talk of attrition, we talk about one of the following:
1) Job/ Role aspirations not getting met
2) Salaries being too low or revisions being improper
3) Preferences of people for particular job location (generally near to their permanent residence or family/ friends)
4) Uncooperative boss

However, these are just the triggers (the cause) to a disturbance (the affect) which leads to attrition. The disturbance we are talking about here is the 'Comfort zone disturbance'. And this is really the cause of attrition. So, what do we do to bring down attrition?

It's quite simple. Change the affect that these triggers cause. If you can somehow prevent comfort zone disturbances, you can control attrition. This means, you need to identify the elements that comprise the comfort zone of your employees; and then you need to balance out those elements whenever a comfort zone disturbance is created. It does involve quite a bit of thinking, but I believe that is the only way of controlling attrition.

Now outsourcing can't cause unemployment in US

Yes. Now there is enough space for everyone in the IT industry. We often talk about outsourcing being the cause of unemployment in the US and other developed countries. This was probably true till last year or maybe even this year; however, this has changed very fast now. Here is what has caused this:

1. Growth rate of IT industry in India
With the growth rate of Indian IT industry not relenting, and the rate of creation of talent not matching it, it is obvious that there is going to be dearth of talent in Indian IT industry. Moreover, the India has not yet become a consumer of IT services in a big way. So, the growth rate is expected to be robust (same if not better) over the years to come. So, this gap between talent demand and supply is going to widen further and there will be no other choice for Indian IT companies except for hiring from US and other countries. Recently, TCS opened a 1000 people center in Ohio, US.


2. Overall economic growth of India
India is fast moving from its status of a 'developing country' to a 'developed country'. So, there is demand for talent and skill (at all levels) in all industry segments in India. Since the demand is coming from all sectors, and the pay scales rising fast in non-IT segments too, there is further dearth of talent in India.

Do you think Indian IT industry will be able to contribute to unemployment in US anymore?

No one wants SEI CMMI, not my guys at least

A typical IT services company sells SEI CMM or SEI CMMI big time. And the selling is so huge that they have almost forgotten the value that SEI CMMI brings to an organization. See http://itcit.blogspot.com/2008/06/sei-cmmi-is-crap.html

The big problem at hand is -- people (on ground) don't want to follow the processes laid by the IT firms as per SEI CMMI. The quality department is almost always running behind the delivery guys to get them to follow the processes. I know that this is the trend across most big IT services companies. But why do people not follow SEI CMMI processes in the right earnest (they do follow/fake them under the pressure from SQAs)?

I did a study, quite long back, and the major observation that came out from it was:

1. People don't understand the objective behind these processes -- and no one takes the pain to make them understand the objectives -- instead the focus is on getting them to comply either through carrot or through stick

2. Even if people are told the objective behind the processes, the objectives are explained in way that focuses towards the benefits to the IT firm and not towards the individual -- I believe the benefit of processes is more for the individual. How? Check --http://itcit.blogspot.com/2008/06/no-it-firm-benefits-from-sei-cmmi.html

Hence, people are not motivated enough to follow these processes. And wherever there is a lack of motivation, the failure is imminent.

3 secrets behind frequent restructuring of an IT firm

We recently heard about organizational restructuring in top IT companies of India -- wipro and Infosys. And this is not the first time that such an exercise has happened in these companies. If you look back into time, you will find that this happens quite frequently. So, business vertical based organizations get converted to geography based and then again to vertical based and the cycle goes on and on. So, let's see the reason cited by these orgs:

When moving from vertical based to geography based --> "This will enable us to focus on those particular geographies, hedge our risks, develop an employee base that understands the culture in particular geographies etc...."


When moving from geography based to vertical based --> "This will help us provide the whole range of services in a particular vertical and seamlessly across the globe etc...."

However, i see different benefits from it:

1. Satisfying aspirations of people
Well, this is a double-edged sword. On one hand you could be creating new designations or re-designating people in order to cater to their aspirations but at the same time some other people might feel that their aspirations are not going to be met and hence decide to leave the organization (some might also leave just out of jealousy). So, extreme care needs to be taken on this part.

2. Increased networking within groups
Since the people that formed one single group are now spread across different groups --- there is an automatic creation of communication channel between the new groups and their people. Hence, the level of networking and knowledge sharing gets a boost. Nothing else can lead to this level of networking (and that too at all hierarchical levels)

3. Fresh enthusiasm - like when you join a new company
Again a double-edged sword. People will need to prove themselves again (since their bosses have changed) and hence restructuring infuses fresh blood into the organization. However, some people might also think "Since this is going to be like working in a new company, why don't i actually go ahead and join a new company where i will also get a good jump in pay". These guys were previously sticking to the company because they gave more importance to their own comfort level in the organization then the pay they were getting.

Is the next big restructuring approaching your firm? Maybe yes, if it's been a long time (3+ years) since the last restructuring.

Shortage of people in over-populated India?

I would say 'IT' in India is a job spinner. I remember my days 14 years back when i was really slogging to get admission into one of the major engineering institutions (the IITs) . That was real hard work -- 16 hours put in every day continuously. The carrot was -- if i get into an IIT i will get a job for sure and if i don't i might have to really struggle. IIT entrance exam was a tough one where we had around 0.2 million students competing for around 2000 odd seats.

That was then.

Now, with the IT industry roping in engineering graduates from across India (and the world), the jobs are aplenty. Almost, all engineering colleges across India have campus selections in the IT industry. So, it easy guys. No more 'burning the midnight lamp'. Just chill. And note that the campus selections are rising by the day and students are booked when they have just completed 50% of their course i.e. 2 years of their study. Which also means 2 years in advance. In my days, even in the IITs, campus placements were not always 100%. But now all engineering colleges have excellent campus placements. Leave engineering grads, all grads are having a great time -- thanks to ITeS (IT enabled services) i.e. call centers and BPOs.

So, IT is a real job spinner. And, in fact, it looks quite strange that we are soon going to reach a stage wherein we will say that there is dearth of people (IT-able people) in the 2nd most populated country of the world (or has it become the most populated now)?

Let me introduce this blog and me

Friends,
I am MGoel, an IT pro who is fast approaching 10 years of age in Information technology industry. An engineering grad from India's premier institution (IIT) , I have worked across the globe on various IT assignments of various size and nature. I will not take this intro further since i see the risk of being interpreted as a self-seller.
So this idea of starting my blog came to my yesterday. And this is my first blog --- and even the first experience in the blogging world. So, i will discuss almost everything about IT on this blog.

Anything else that i need to write about on this intro???

So, welcome to my blog.

As i signoff, i am just thinking what my first post would be --- and i have decided that i will not think about the topics but will write about whatever comes to my head. And if you, my friends, want to discuss about something -- i will write about that.

That's how you will see IT thru the eyes of a globetrotting IT pro.

Thanks
MG