Recruiters are expecting a big demand this year for mid-level IT pros, such as Java programmers and other developers, and the Harry Fox Agency already knows what that means for CIOs. As soon as HFA's CIO, Louis Trebino, gets a Java developer trained, he loses him or her to another company offering more money, reports Carolyn Duffy Marsan at Network World.

Each of Trebino's six current Java developers has been with the company for less than a year, and the CIO considers staff turnover his "most significant issue" right now.  "It puts us in a really uncomfortable position to have this kind of turnover because knowledge keeps walking out the door," he said. "We invest in training people and bringing them up to speed to where they need to be, and boom they're gone. That has been my biggest struggle and concern."

Mid-level IT pros are more aggressive in pursuing career ambitions than they once were, according to Lily Mok, Gartner's vice president of CIO research. "Traditionally, it took two or three years for a person to move up into the next level in an organization. They want to be on a faster track than that. They don't want to stay in one spot for more than 12 or 18 months."

Core developers at HFA tend to stay with the company much longer than Java developers stay, and they understand the business as well as the technology. The web-based developers have shown less interest in understanding the business, Trebino said.

"Where I think these guys would be very energized, they get almost disincentivized. The way our projects work, we bring in a developer to work on a module. These guys own a system from start to finish. To me, that's a great opportunity," he said. "But they're not always comfortable with the risk. I find more of a reluctance to jump in and figure something out, especially if they're inheriting somebody else's code."

IT professionals newer to the workforce become frustrated by custom applications in large, complex systems, Trebino said. They prefer to write fresh code and "own" their programs. However, HFA isn't about to throw out existing systems that they've already put a lot of investment into.

Generally, Java developers leaving HFA have said they are moving on to pursue higher salaries. "They say they love the work environment and they think the company is really good. But they feel it is a heavy workload and that they can do better," Trebino said. "Years ago, when I was first out of college, IT guys worked round-the-clock. My guys work basically 9 to 5, so I find it interesting that people are complaining."

For more:
- see Carolyn Duffy Marsan's article at Network World

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