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IT consultants have become aware of the fact that they are in-demand
knowledge workers. They are realising that their real allegiance
is to the profession, not the company or consultancy that employs
them, writes MOHAN BABU
In the previous two columns, we looked at
the role of the Organisation Man and how that concept is dying,
if not dead. This is leading to a fundamental shift in the way individuals
view their careers. Traditional organisational hierarchies are giving
way to project and performance-oriented groups and organisational
structures. With this, we are seeing the advent of Gold Collar workers—highly
skilled professionals who owe a greater allegiance to their professions
than to organisations where they work. Professional lives are becoming
more entrepreneurial than ever. Even though executives of Fortune
500 companies vehemently deny that organisational hierarchies are
going to vanish anytime soon, the Organisation Man is dying.
IT workers as free agents
Careers in the IT consulting sector have
already come a full-circle. The Y2K, the Internet and dotcom boom
brought a whole legion of professionals into the field. Some joined
IT departments of traditional companies, but many decided to explore
a career in consulting. The industry also saw the emergence of a
whole array of consulting companies, ranging from small shops with
a handful of consultants to large system integrators like IBM and
EDS. These companies and consultancies afford a gamut of vocational
choices, from short-term projects spanning a few weeks to long-term
maintenance projects that last a few years. Many IT consultants
have become aware of the fact that they are in-demand knowledge
workers. They are realising that their real allegiance is to the
profession, not the company or consultancy that employs them. Getting
certified in certain vendor technologies and building expertise
in current skills gives them the real leverage in the marketplace.
Working on hot technologies matters more to IT Gold Collar professionals
than working for cool companies. IT workers have also started becoming
market savvy by trying to read into the needs of the market and
are able to don the COBOL, ERP, Java and the Web hat with equal
élan. IT workers rarely think of themselves as Organisation
Men, and are more comfortable being free agents.
We see a similar trend in other professions
like law, medicine, finance and academia too. Lawyers and financial
analysts have long known that their real allegiance is to the profession
rather than individual organisations or companies.
Being a corporate attorney or a corporate
financial analyst is less glamorous and paying than working for
a high profile partnership, or better still, founding one’s
own firm. They also maintain strong relationship with their peers
in the industry through active participation in industry forums
and associations.
Doctors around the world have traditionally
relied on private practice to provide the gravy, even if the bread
and butter come from working for a hospital. Academicians and professors
have refined moonlighting into an art, consulting for large corporations,
helping their clients understand and incorporate the latest academic
and research ideas, raking huge fees; this even when continuing
their “day job” teaching in universities.
Such free agent professionals thrive by
building and maintaining a “brand,” attracting a steady
stream of clients. Professionals in the following vocations have
being relying on an entrepreneurial or free agent model to manage
their careers:
a) Lawyers and legal professionals
b) Chartered Accountants, financial professionals
c) Doctors and medical specialists
d) Management consultants
e) Software consultants
f) Architects and builders, masons and
craftsmen
g) Artists, performers, singers and musicians
h) Freelance writers and columnists
i) Sports stars
j) Academicians and professors (moonlighting
as consultants).
By working with other like-minded professionals,
individuals in these vocations strive to look for new clients to
expand their practice. Daniel Pink, in his book Free Agent Nation,
sees the emergence of moonlighting as a way to hedge one’s
bets in a changing world. He says, “Diversification—that
is, an independent worker spreading her risks across a portfolio
of projects, clients, skills and customers is the best hedging strategy….
Take the resurgence of moonlighting. In the Organisation Man era,
moonlighting was a big no-no, the very name implied that you were
doing something illicit concealing your behaviour under the cover
of darkness. No more. Today, anybody who holds a job and isn’t
looking for a side gig—or crafting a business plan, writing
a screenplay, or setting up shop on eBay—is out of touch. Moonlighting
is a way to diversify your human capital investments—and hedge
against the risk of your company collapsing or your job disappearing.
In some sense, we’re all moonlighters, because in every sense,
we’re all risk managers.”
In the next column, we will see how the
change in paradigm from an Organisation Man to a free agent is changing
the way individuals view their professional lives. In the next,
final column of this series, we will tie the two ideas to see how
individuals like you and I can benefit from these changes.
Mohan Babu is a US based software consultant
trying to find the ‘sweet spot’ where IT meets business.
E-mail: mohan@garamchai.com
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