But it'll never happen in IT... Yeah!

Recently I saw an article on the CNN websiteindicating that the Oil industry is having a hardtime trying to build up its employee numbers. Ithas tons of cash, it has lots of lucrativeprojects, it has great opportunities, it haseverything a potential employee would want... andit has a terrible past.

Back in the 1970's and 80's, when the Oilindustry was going through it's last majorexpansion, it hired the best! (Well mustn't bragon that too much, you know, but they did get me!)It had great jobs, it tossed money at employeeslike it was going out of style. Then the price ofoil nose dived. The late 1980's saw the Oilindustry shed hundreds of thousands of jobs. Timesgot tough, the tough got gored.

Over the last 10 years the price of oil hasreclaimed former territory and zoomed into a placeof prominence in our lives. $90 a barrel priceswill do that. The Oil companies have been makingmore and more bloated profits for almost 10 years,but over the last 3 or 4 they have been massive.

But now we hear the industry has a problem: Itcan't hire enough people. I'm sure there areplenty of people to hire, but this is an industrywith a tainted past and a questionable stancegiven the new political "climate" of globalwarming and all that implies.

The oil industry took a decade and a half tothink about hiring people back, by then the doorhad closed on peoples desire to join the industry.Now old guys design platforms and plant, and thecompanies face the prospect of having tore-educate a whole set of fresh new faces in whatit takes to get Oil and Gas out of the ground.

But what does this have to do with the ITindustry?

I think lots. Public perception of an industryis critical to the people that could potentiallybe employed in it. If the industry is seen to becavalier and ride roughshod over the employees,and there is nothing to be gained in suchsituations - no great opportunities for big pay,glory or early retirement - then young people goelsewhere with their skills. The IT industry, andhow business makes use of it, are critical to anew generations' perceptions of what they will getout of it all. If they work hard and are Great,are they going to be rewarded or does their jobget sent to South East Asia? Are they going to seethe possibility of early retirement, or an earlylayoff?

Keeping people happy with the direction anindustry is going is not just a matter of payingthem when times are good, it also requires payingthem when times are hard. If industry and businessdon't do that, then the IT industry will becomevery rapidly a second rate job. A forget and fireposition. This will stop people with any interestin technology going into businesses that use itbut abuse the employees, it will rob business ofthe life line it needs to pursue new prospects, tothe detriment of the entire country.

We just got through a nasty IT recession, somejobs are indeed back, but the fact that theindustry has seen layoff after layoff, now meansthat less and less are inclined to look at it. Ifwe are to reverse this perception companies haveto start hiring locally, not in India and otherplaces outside the national boundaries. The jobshave to have substance, not just be a place wherepeople can find abuse, 24*7.

I get a kick out of IT, I have done this stufffor many years now, I'm getting old and gnarled,but I still love what IT stands for. It stands forinnovation, risk, development - both business andpersonal; and it stands for doing something forpeople that people themselves can't do.

IT has to look over its shoulders and take along look at the Oil industry and see where itsproblems rest, and see what it can do to avoidthat mess.