Doomed

[Mich the Tester]

Given that the manager / wannabee manager / techie ratio on my current project is approx 8:4:2 this does not bode well.

Right now, on any contractors or jobs site in NL that shows the number of responses, you'll see that for management roles there are often 30 or 40 responses. For tech roles, it's usually between 0 and 5. Now I know, this isn't a representative sample or a particularly scientific approach, but when you add this to the fact that universities and colleges have been producing thousands upon thousands of 'business studies' and 'international marketing management' graduates and MBAs are now ten a penny, I think the management bubble is bursting and the 'IT manager' of the future will be a lacky running around arranging basic stuff like coffee machines and an extra server here and there for self-managing agile teams of techies. Any article that encourages even more yoof down the road of becoming managermen will simply result in less competition for us.

Let's get this absolutely clear; THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF PEOPLE TRAINED TO BE MANAGERS. THERE IS A SHORTAGE OF PEOPLE WITH GOOD TECHNICAL SKILLS, AND AN EVEN GREATER SHORTAGE OF PEOPLE WITH GOOD TECHNICAL SKILLS WHO CAN 'MANAGE' OR LEAD.

[doodab]

The trouble is heirarchy. The craftsperson is seen as the bottom rung, not something to aspire too, and that affords a lack of respect and income, unless one goes a contracting.

[Mich the Tester]

The trouble is heirarchy. The craftsperson is seen as the bottom rung, not something to aspire too, and that affords a lack of respect and income, unless one goes a contracting.

That's changing; market forces at work. But it'll change slowly; big companies have a lot of inertia, and even more useless managermen.

[darrenb]

But if we import indians to do the managing won't that balance out. They can sit in the corner and manage each other and the contractors can get on with the work.

... for a hundred rupees an hour, the way things are going. Bit of a reversal. But in line with recent newspaper articles suggesting that the UK is turning into a "developing nation". (When this happens in reverse it should be called "undeveloping nation" or "wheels-coming-off nation" but anyway.)

[SimonMac]

All depends on what you class as a "senior professional"?

I would class Tech Architect, Solutions Architect, Release Manager, Lead Designers all as senior professionals but not Managers, its a vague definition. There will always be a need for people to actually do the work, they will just be called middle managers in any other organisation.