CIOs Complain College Grads Aren't Ready for IT Work

Computerworld — The newly minted college grad comes to your door with a four-year computer science degree and a résumé full of technical acronyms. He knows about simulation and modeling, parallel computation and Internet software development. He's very familiar with Web 2.0 applications and social networking technologies. He has even built a Web site to showcase his talents. Surely, he's every employer's dream entry-level IT staffer, right?

Not exactly, CIOs say. More often than not, there are significant gaps between what even the smartest and most tech-savvy graduates learned in school and what CIOs need from new members of their IT staffs.

What's more is that most companies have neither the time nor the money for on-the-job training. They'd prefer that universities incorporate more training for real-world IT roles into their curricula so that graduates are ready to start contributing their first day on the job.

"The problem is that universities don't train people to take jobs," says Michael Gabriel, CIO at Home Box Office in New York. "If they were better prepared to hit the ground running, they would be a more effective and lower-cost resource that could compete with offshore talent. They wouldn't hit potential constraints imposed by the time and effort required to get them to be productive."

Here's a rundown of some key gaps three CIOs from the insurance, financial services and entertainment industries see between what computer science graduates know and what they need to know to be truly productive and valuable to the business from Day One.

1. Inadequate Grip on Business Realities

Most of the college graduates that Cindy Warkentin talks to have what she considers "unrealistic expectations." "I had one young man tell me that unless I could offer him $75,000 or above, he's not interested. That's way above what's normal for a trainee," says the CIO at Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund in Annapolis.

Pathways to the Real World of IT

More internships for university students majoring in IT -- and a formalized road map of skills and talents required to be successful in different IT jobs -- would go a long way toward closing the gap between university life and the world of work, CIOs say.

HBO CIO Michael Gabriel, for one, is calling on IT executives to step up and contribute to the cause. Among other things, he suggests that IT executives let universities know what skills they're looking for and describe the corresponding jobs that use those skills.

"Academics haven't been in the workplace for a while, so they may not be in tune with what's really needed. You really need CIOs," he says.

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