Are you the ideal IT staffer? Rob McLuhan uncovers the rising
demand for interpersonal skills within the coding community
"It's easy to be seduced by the sexiness of a new system, but
instead of telling everyone how mind-blowing it is you need to
think whether it has a practical application or is really just a
solution looking for a problem," he says.
An ability to learn fast is crucial, Charlton adds. "The pace of
change is phenomenal, and what you learned about last year may well
be dead by now, so if you're the type that takes a long time to get
to grips with new technology you'll really struggle."
Surviving in this pressured environment means being able to
communicate, says Asher Rickayzen, head of commercial change
management at One 2 One. "We are often being squeezed for time," he
says, "Working with badly defined requirements to tight budget
constraints. The business is very unforgiving if IT holds it back,
but quite often project leaders can't express what they need to
function effectively."
Rickayzen's 14 years in IT have made him realise how difficult
it is to train interpersonal skills. "If an individual can
understand patterns and logic, then you can teach the technical
side, whereas showing them how to communicate is quite hard," he
says. Rickayzen himself recently attended a course at Cranfield
School of Management, which encourages executives to balance out
the logical side of their personality by nurturing the intuitive
aspects.
A logical person who communicates well can be seen as a
contradiction in terms, agrees recruitment consultant Carol Mote,
director of online career development agency Henri Mote. She says,
"This type is often pedantic and won't let go of the detail, which
can be very irritating. Good people don't bore their colleagues by
talking endlessly at meetings. They know what needs to be done and
get on with it."
Mote compares two staffers she knows who are both competent, but
demonstrate opposite extremes in the way they work. One, a
technical writer who works with media organisations like the BBC
and Granada, listens carefully to what people want and then gets to
work, while the other, an Oracle consultant, gets lost in his own
verbiage.
"The media staffer is always probing to find out what the
expectation level is, and then tries to exceed it," Mote says. "He
has a personal sense of pride about that and is very successful.
People like working with him, because he does the job far in excess
of what they expect, and within the agreed time-scale. The
consultant, on the other hand, always has to have the last word on
everything and as a result is quite unpopular. People seek
information from him but find it hard to get what they need. Also
his projects never seem to get finished, because as the picture
gets bigger he loses sight of the original objectives."
In practice, the perfect individual is hard to find. Instead the
aim should be to create a balanced team, in which individuals
complement each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Some characteristics will depend on the role. For instance, a
candidate who has shown dogged loyalty to the same company for 18
years may be ideal for a position in a big traditional organisation
like IBM or Unilever. However, in an Internet start-up company such
a person would soon get frustrated at the lack of structures and
procedures.
To identify the right person they prefer to use proven
techniques such as behavioural interviews, assessment centres or
psychometric tests, which can precisely identify whether an
individual has the qualities needed for the role (see box).
A bit of pressure at the assessment stage is useful to determine
a candidate's resilience to stress, a personal characteristic that
in these technology-driven times no IT staffer can be without.
Signs of fluster during an interview or role-play exercises could
signal an inability to cope when the going gets rough.
"Meeting deadlines is imperative, and even the best can crumble
at times," says Tom Bannister, marketing manager at recruitment
consultancy DPP. "The more laid-back person is indispensable in
these situations, because they can absorb the pain but still
deliver results."
What job advertisements euphemistically call "a sense of humour"
means not so much an ability to crack jokes but a willingness to
put up with abuse, Bannister says.
"In IT you will often have to work with someone who is your best
mate at one moment, and then at the next is screaming and
threatening to sack you. Afterwards you'll probably have to sit
down with them in the pub as though nothing had happened."
Selecting potential programmers The use of psychometric
tests with job applicants is controversial, but advocates say the
method is ideal for identifying the mental attributes needed for
specific roles, for instance those with a strong technical or
problem-solving element.
The Oxford Psychologists Press has just written a new test to
help identify the qualities needed to be a good programmer. It asks
the candidate to set up the lighting for a stage play, conveying an
understanding of the effects that the director wants to create.
"With programming you need a deductive approach, first building
up the big picture of where you want to end up, and then assembling
the building blocks to achieve it," says director Robert McHenry.
"We found that these skills have more in common with the technical
director of a theatre than with a mathematician."
Filling the role: it takes two
Recruiters
- Think ahead, to be sure that the technical role you are
recruiting for now will still be there in six months or a
year
- Establish the competencies that are required for the
job
- Don't rely too much on instinct. Behavioural interviews and
assessment centres are proven methods of establishing an
individual's suitability for a particular role
- When interviewing, test for stress by creating artificial
interruptions. An applicant who appears ill-at-ease may perform
badly under pressure
- Take interviewees round the offices or perhaps even to the
canteen for a coffee. They will often be more candid with you there
than in the interview room
Applicants
- Be clear in your mind about why you want the job and what you
can offer
- Dress appropriately and don't try to convey that you are fun to
be with by wearing a wacky novelty tie
- Be yourself. Pretending to be someone you aren't will make you
behave awkwardly and could cause problems down the line
- Do your homework so that you can show a detailed understanding
of the company's activities and the sector in which it
operates
- If you have done something you are proud of summarise it on a
single sheet of paper to leave with the interviewers
Ideal personal characteristics
- Business understanding. To know how the systems serve the
overall strategy
- Interpersonal skills. To negotiate with colleagues and
represent the company to customers
- A capacity to absorb information and turn it into a practical
solution
- Resistance to stress
- An ability to learn new technologies quickly
Myers-Briggs who?
If you are a typical IT professional you will be strong on
sensing and thinking but poor on intuition and feeling, according
to Cranfield School of Management. The School is running a five-day
course to help IT executives extend their interpersonal skills,
based on the widely-used Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
"Common sense and pragmatism are the natural characteristics of
such people," says course lecturer Robina Chatham. "That makes them
good at implementing systems and processes to make businesses run
smoothly. The downside is they tend to be impatient, poor at
delegation, and more inclined to focus on short-term tactics at the
expense of long-term strategy."
Where IT professionals can bring out their feeling and intuitive
side they will become more naturally empathic, Chatham says, and
better able to listen and negotiate effectively. "They will be good
at building networks in relationships and initiating change, and
will engender loyalty in the people who work for them. They will
also find it easier to deal with customers, enabling them to show
genuine concern and address individual needs."
But the more rational components are important too, and the
ideal is to get a good balance, Chatham says. Her own problem is
the reverse. A relative lack of sensing and thinking qualities made
her somewhat atypical during a 14-year career in IT, latterly as
the European IT director of a merchant bank.
"I found it difficult to handle the politics, and didn't have
the degree of influence at senior levels that I needed. Also I
found it difficult to manage people," she says. But she put her
assets to good use by joining Cranfield to teach skills she was
sure there was a demand for. Her hunch paid off. The course, held
four times a year, is now always over subscribed.
Cranfield School of Management 01234-751122