IT Leaders Can't Get No Job Satisfaction

Among all functional executives, IT leaders have the lowest level of job satisfaction, according to a survey conducted by executive career and recruiting network ExecuNet. Just over half (53 per cent) of the 286 IT executives who responded to the survey say they're satisfied with their current jobs.

Finance executives expressed the greatest job satisfaction, with 68 per cent claiming contentment, followed by HR (65 per cent), marketing (63 per cent), general management (61 per cent), sales (54 per cent) and bringing up the rear, IT.

Dave Opton, founder and CEO of ExecuNet, thinks IT leaders are the least satisfied executives for a variety of reasons. Chief among them: They're not doing work that truly excites them because of weak economic conditions and companies' general reluctance to adopt leading-edge technologies.

"The people who migrated to IT careers are motivated and stimulated by being able to work with things that are state of the art," says Opton. "The number of companies that are prepared to keep their organization state of the art are not as profuse."

The other major reason Opton says IT executives are unhappy is due to the thankless nature of their role. "IT, in many cases, doesn't get the respect that some of the other, more traditional functions, such as marketing and finance, get," he says.

The results of the ExecuNet survey, which was conducted online from last November to January, differ from research Harvey Nash Executive Search released earlier this year on CIO job satisfaction. The Harvey Nash study found that 79 per cent of IT leaders found their jobs fulfilling while reporting a 9 per cent decrease in IT leaders' job satisfaction from 2007 to 2008.

-Meridith Levinson

Flex Your I.T. skills to Fight Poverty

Volunteering If you ever regretted not joining the Peace Corps, now's your chance to lend your time and skills to a developing nation.

Finca International, a nonprofit that provides financial services to the low-income entrepreneurs in Africa, Latin America and Eurasia, is seeking volunteers with IT skills to help expand its mission of fighting poverty.

Finca CIO Jiten Patel says as countries transform into regulated financial entities, the lender is replacing the home-grown applications each country has used to manage its operations with off-the-shelf community banking software. The new software will allow Finca to expand the services it provides to its customers, more 70 per cent of whom are women. It should also help streamline processes and lower operating costs so better interest rates can be offered to customers.

The organization needs project managers, business analysts, architects, software quality assurance experts, Oracle DBAs and Sybase DBAs to help with the implementations in each region. It also needs creative LAN and WAN experts.

While the work is unpaid, Finca offers airfare, room and board. Most volunteers are needed for three months to six months. Patel says volunteers benefit from a range of cultural experiences and get to improve their soft skills. Interested parties can contact Patel at jpatel@villagebanking.org.

-Meridith Levinson