Technology, as a profession, is an interesting social experiment. You can have a front row seat to just about every stereotype imaginable. Introverts, extroverts, passive aggressive know-it-alls. They are all contained in this microcosm known as Information Technology. What I’m finding fascinating of late is the interaction between the generations.
In the interest of full disclosure I’m near the end of Generation X as defined by the greatest source of useless information on the web.
So what am I seeing? A greater disconnect between the Boomers and Gen Y. I think for most folks this probably isn’t much of a surprise. However, I’m in this precarious position called management. I have Baby Boomer bosses who come in at the crack of dawn and wonder where all the ‘coders’ are. I have Gen Y that comes in at 10 and stay until midnight and wonder why all the ‘bosses’ have gone home. And this is probably the simplest example I can think of. And if your like me, a Gen X’er, your stuck in the middle as a translator for both sides! At times this can be a challenging position because you need to be somewhat more conservative in your approaches with Sr level staff, but you also need to build and nurture a team of folks that will become the future of your IT organization. And god forbid if either side sees you fraternizing with the other!
This sounds like a rant. However, I’ve had a chance to put some perspective between my initial observations and some recent experiences. As a Gen' X’er I get the best of both worlds. I get the experience and guidance from the Boomers who actually have seen it all (even Fortran). I get the Gen Y’ers that have grown up consuming technology and believe anything is possible and everything SHOULD be easy. And what do these folks get from this Gen X’er?
Let’s take Your experience and Your enthusiasm and do a start-up. Seriously, we can IPO in a year.