The McDonald-ization of IT staff and workforce across North America

I'll list a few examples here, for one of the leading top 3 IT management companies, much like IBM

Example 1:

We have 3 insurance companies merging. The Novell Netware v5.1 will be migrated to NT 2000, coupled with Domino migrated to Exchange Server 2000. Yes, people are moving to Microsoft for a one-stop-shop solution, even though Novell was more stable than NT, and Lotus Notes more robust and user friendly and versatible than MS Outlook. I'll get to the core issue. I worked on this contract, with another individual, who has only his A+ certification, was well versed in hardware, and had good people skills. No Bachelor's in Science, MCSA, MCSE, CCNA, or anything of the sort. I had to walk him through how to share a folder on the network, map the drive remotely, so we could back up the data, and later copy the data on new workstations, after we had finished ghosting them. Apparently, sharing a drive, mapping one, and doing peer to peer networking is brain surgery.

Example 2:

On another gig, I had to rollout a few 100 centrino enabled laptops. One of the individuals got canned in the first week, for lack of skill. No certifications whatsoever, however, a modest amount of working with computers but mostly with people was the case. This guy admitted operating his own landcaping business in the summer, with his own trucks, salesforce, etc. Apart from the technical failures demonstrated along the way, this guy had to make a call on his cell phone, while 2 of us were ghosting and customizing AutoCAD and similar apps, asking his pal on the phone, how to save a picture from a website, onto his local hard drive. You know how to right click on a picture on a website, and click SAVE PICTURE AS, pick a spot and press OK? This was brain surgery to him. Of course, a few days later (despite good human rapport skills) he was out.

Example 3:

Another individual I worked with, tried to do a

1 year IT program, but quit mid-way because he couldn't master the concepts, or hack it. That didn't stop him from getting hired on another contract that I did. Why ? Perhaps soft skills. This guy, one more time, had a sense of responsibility (as did the others) but very minimal, or null, technical skills. This dude turned out to be OK on the contract, but had no prior IT experience.

Often people believe that A+ technicial work normally requires technical skills, right?

Example 4:

Finally, I did another contract, where the project manager, responsible for a 3 million dollar contract and managing the IT infrastructure, could not hope to pass a MCP exam, if his life depended on it. And this is not an exaggeration, as the field techs, had they required technical or Tier III or Tier II style knowledge, would have been dead in the water.

The CWNA is a technical achievement, obviously, but in IT, much like as McDonald's, if you can flip a burger, let the fries fall out of the plastic bag from the fridge into the cooker, and can press a lever to let the coffee cup fill up, then that's all you need to know to get and keep your job, as a quote unquote cook. In networking and computers, the lowest common denominator often is the case ... which is not a bad thing, until a job is bungled, the contract is bungled, jeopardized possibly, and another individual is brought in to mop up the mess.

The upshot here, is that employers, and even the project managers are not looking specifically or minimally for technical wizardry, but mostly, hiring people whose technical aptitudes are nil, but who have some experience and some demonstrated success in soft skills and in dealing with people.

Will wireless rollouts require people who are CWNA ? Or will project managers require that their technicans doing the rollouts be CWNA ? Nope! Already they don't need the A+ or the MCSA or Network+. Why would the CWNA be required any more ? Or MCSE ? CCNP ?

The problem, as I see it, is that the large IT management companies are arrogant, and purposely dumb down all operations in the field, with rollouts, and contracts and such. It's called the McDonald-ization of their IT staff and workforce.

Reply to
Ryan Tullis
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I here what you're saying, but there's many different levels of IT. As a company, you may well be willing to let your desktop support go to people with good personal skills, and low techincal skills....but.... if you're responsible for the network of a bank or oil company you're hardly likely to let anyone into the routers unless they have a proven track record.

Reply to
Richard Head

this annoys me, I am currently half way through CCNA which I am doing as a part of the first 2 years of a BSc in network computing, now At the minute I would say I was pretty quizzed up, i can do most things computer related including hardware.

The thing is that no one will give me a part time job fixing up computers or networks because i dont have any past experience or simply because I haven't got any qualifications, its the age old problem of having the knowledge but not having the piece of paper that says you have that knowledge, it annoys me!

Reply to
Christo

Honestly,

I wouldn't want to work for a company that hires people only because they know the people skills and no technical knowledge First of all you'd be (prolly ) underpaid, and then u have to put up with idiots that don't know the ass from the elbow

Reply to
Julian Dragut

Just wait until you have the degree and certifications and can not get a job because you do not have the work experience.

My problem is, i ran my own online business for 3 years from my own home. Windows 2000/2003 domain, ISA firewall, cisco equipment etc... and no one in the IT world wants to count this as actual experience. I have a degree in IT and I also have certifications. My main concentration in in network security and securing cisco and microsoft products. I can get very inventive with access lists that provide a great deal of security from most casual attackers, but still no job because no IT experience. i studied for 2 weeks and passed the CCNA, basically read the sybex book.

now certifications do not mean anything, anyone can go pass an exam. i know many people at my school who passed the MCSA and can not do anything within a windows environment.

BAH, another frustrated qualified IT worker that can not get a decent job

Reply to
Eric Eastridge

There are pros and cons to having lab only experience. Or in your case, a SOHO operating environment. But the problem is that large companies have large networks. And you typically never see issues unless you happen to have some trench time in large networks. The problem comes in defining the term "large network" Large to me means thousands and thousands of routers (more than 10,000). To some, it means hundreds of routers.

But be take comfort in knowing that some people, are willing to give junior network people a shot.

Reply to
Hansang Bae

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