IT is an industry which always needs skilled workers, but is also always in a constant state of flux. Ewan Brodie is a self-employed automation consultant with his own business, Brodies IT Services Ltd. We spoke to him to find out about his experiences in the ever-changing IT sector, and how going it alone as a freelancer compares to in-house IT jobs.
Can you tell us about your route into the IT industry?
I always knew I wanted to work in IT and was almost obsessed with computers from a very young age. So, like many others, after finishing sixth-year at school I applied to universities to study Computer Science but also decided to take a year out to earn some money. After working in many and varied temporary positions, I ended up working for a cardboard box manufacturer as a sales assistant.
During a normal day at work, their IT support technician walked out while all their systems were crashing; I naturally offered my services to fix it. A week later, and having been moved literally immediately from sales assistant to ‘IT guy’ since fixing their initial problems, they offered me the job full time, with the promise of my pick of technical training courses.
After much deliberation, and a visit to the university for their open day where I realised that they were not going to teach me anything relating to practical real world IT, I took up the offer of full time employment and decided not to go to university. I worked for that particular firm for about 3 years, during which time I earned my first MCSE, (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), qualification. After that, I was quickly snapped up by Standard Life where I worked in a full-time contract for 7 years, moving to different roles internally, obtaining more industry qualifications and – most importantly – gaining experience, before becoming a freelancer.
Academia vs experience is a debate that occurs across many industries, what do you think is the balance of importance for a role in IT?
A balance between academia and experience is important, which doesn’t necessarily have to include university. I have worked with people who have always been purely academic and others who have always been purely practical; each has their own niche, but the most talented people I’ve worked with have a good balance of both. For instance, it is difficult to teach someone how to explain complex IT solutions or problems to a non-technical person – that comes with experience. In the same way; English, foreign languages, maths and IP Subnetting are not something that you can “pick up on the job”.
You’ve experienced both full-time contracts and freelance work – what do you find the pros and cons of each to be?
I have experienced both full time contracts and freelance work – obviously full-time contracts benefit from more stability, training, holidays and potentially a fancy title. I find the drawback of full-time employment is having to deal with the internal company politics that plague IT departments; the ceaseless power struggles, the quality and ability of managers and “contribution plans” which, as anyone who has had to actually fill one in will know, are difficult to write in an ever-changing world like IT. What I want to learn one month may change or evolve by the next and, when these plans affect your salary increases, they become a burden.
Freelancing on the other hand comes with more freedom; technically you work for yourself and are being brought in to do a specific piece of work. You have also been chosen because you are able to work on your own initiative and have a proven track record, and this balances up nicely with not requiring as much management as an average full-time employee.
Generally, the rates of pay are higher, but this comes with a price of its own – running a limited company with all the necessary bookkeeping and VAT administration that entails. Another drawback is that there are no such things as holidays – if you are on holiday, you are not being paid! Putting money away for a rainy day is one of the first things that people considering freelance work should be doing – you never know when you will be out of contract or for how long; notice periods are generally anywhere from a single day to a week depending on the contract. I like to remember my old school motto when it comes to freelancing – “never unprepared”.
What have been the biggest changes to the IT industry during the time you’ve been involved in it?
This is a difficult question, as so much has changed during the past 17 years! We have evolving interfaces and platforms such as mobile and tablets with touch capability, the socialisation of nearly everything and massive consumerisation. If I had to pick one area, I would say cloud computing. From file storage services for home users, to cloud-hosted banking platforms used by large corporations, this technology means businesses are no longer tied into owning their own datacentres, or indeed their own software, and can purchase systems as a service. While cloud services are still in their infancy, I think they are starting to build trust with their user base and it’s definitely a technology space to watch.
You’ve worked in both Scotland and England: do you detect any significant differences between those two job markets for IT workers?
Generally, the IT job markets in Scotland and England are fairly similar; companies still need good people to create, set up, improve and maintain their systems. The biggest difference, especially in London, has always been the salaries/rates! Although in recent years, this gap has been slowly closing.
What do you think is currently the biggest challenge facing the IT industry?
I believe the biggest challenge facing the IT industry is a skills shortage. There have been a lot of stories in the news recently about computing curriculums in schools changing to meet new demands, but I’m not sure that this is enough. There needs to be more communication between commercial and academic organisations to ensure that the education is matching requirements, and this doesn’t just cover the IT sector – very soon, 90% of all jobs will require some kind of digital skills.
If nothing is done to increase the number of skilled IT workers joining the workforce, then IT outsourcing will most likely continue to grow to cope with demand, thus locking the UK into an endless cycle of outsourcing. I am definitely an advocate of bringing these skills back to the UK and employing college-aged young adults to fill this gap, not only increasing the skills available in the UK, but also decreasing the amount of young unemployed.
The best piece of advice I could give to people just joining the industry is – keep up to date with technology and keep pushing your boundaries. Learn new technologies (even if they are only new to you!) and get the certification if possible, even if that involves turning down that trip to the pub with your friends to finish setting up a new Active Directory and squeezing in another module from a training course. The extra effort definitely be worth it in the end.
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Photograph supplied by interviewee and other image via Creative Comms licence, by Victorgrigas.
