Technical jargon - who needs IT?

Take a look at the IT job ads in your daily newspaper or weekly magazine. To the uninitiated, the headlines read like they were created by a clumsy copywriter who leant on their keyboard by mistake.

Unix, AS400, WAN, LAN, NT, PBX, C++, Visual C++... What does any of this really mean?

All of these came from the headlines or first sentences of recruitment ads found on one page of a trade magazine. Some of these ads were for senior management positions.

It makes you question some companies' human resource policies.

Of course, developers within IT departments will need certain technical skills, and all departments need those people. But for senior management posts, should technical expertise be that high up the agenda?

Take this example for a job within the NHS, an organisation that has had its fair share of IT cock-ups in recent times. The first key words (apart from the rather vague 'enthusiastic' and 'proven track record') are 'two years IT experience including the use of HP Unix/Oracle systems'.

This is for a project manager's position. Is it really necessary for the successful candidate to have technical skills? If you follow this line of thought, Richard Branson must be an insurance expert, a soft drinks connoisseur and an airline guru. But he's not. He simply knows how to run a business, regardless of the market in which it operates.

Surely a good manager's primary role is to manage. After all, which is more difficult to pick up on the job: technical nous or good people skills?

If IT and business are to become one, then maybe HR policies need a change in emphasis. An IT director recently told Silicon.com that he thought most IT recruitment ads completely miss the point.

IT managers need to understand management first and foremost. If they have technical expertise, then that's a bonus. Get your personnel people to change tack - or else you'll never be part of a business-focused IT department.

This might not be the best example, but the point remains valid: Richard Branson never drove a train, did he?