Career Changers

Computerworld - The resume of your next CIO might look something like that of physician Mitch Morris, newspaperman Dan Gingras or accountant H. James Dallas. Your next application developer could be a nurse manager; your next help desk staffer, a mill worker. Your next IT manager could come from marketing.

Many people are making those kinds of career changes, and as a confluence of factors transforms the U.S. workforce, IT managers need to be on the lookout for potential talent, regardless of its place of origin. "Changing demographics are going to force them to do that," says Gretchen Coch, director of the skills development program at the Computing Technology Industry Association.

The upcoming retirements and semiretirements of baby boomers will take millions of workers out of full-time employment. Meanwhile, there aren't enough young people coming up through the ranks to fill the expected vacancies. And, particularly problematic for IT leaders, the number of college students in technology and computer-related programs has dropped. "You put all this together, and it's quite a big issue," says Claire Schooley, an analyst at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc.

But the good news is that more people are willing to make major career changes than in the past.

Schooley says that human resources managers have been watching these trends for a while and developing strategies to cope with them. IT managers need to do the same. They have to broaden their recruitment and retention efforts to ensure that they're capturing those career changers and aging boomers who, with their business experience and IT acumen, can really drive a business forward.

"That's a pool of talent not to be ignored," says Leon J. Leach. As executive vice president of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Leach oversaw Morris' performance there as CIO.

Unusual Resume

Mitch Morris

His avocation became his job when he took the hospital's top tech position in 1997. He worked as CIO there until 2001, when he left to join First Consulting Group in Long Beach, Calif.

Leach acknowledges that Morris wasn't a techie but says he "displayed an aptitude and interest" in IT. However, being an IT natural doesn't make up for years of experience coming up through the ranks, "so Mitch had to make sure he had good people working for him," Leach says. For example, Morris created a deputy CIO position and hired a strong tech person to fill it.