The Hidden Potential: Explaining How and Why Late-Entry IT Professionals Move Into The IT Profession

Barbara Prommegger, Damien Joseph, Helmut Krcmar

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

To sustain the rapid technological evolution, more than our internal market of young IT talent will be required to satisfy the need for IT staff. Integrating skilled non-IT professionals in the IT sector may help combat the IT skills shortage. However, we still lack an understanding of how and why non-IT professionals enter the IT sector late in their careers. We address this research gap by drawing on the careers of 53 successful late-entry IT professionals. By combining the theories of boundaryless and protean careers with the signaling theory, we discuss how we see shifts in the signals of knowledge, skills, and abilities that lower the barriers of the IT profession and explain how signals of behavior and practices act as door openers into IT. Lastly, we introduce four career patterns of late-entry IT professionals and thus shape our understanding of contemporary career development in but also outside of IT.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInternational Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2023
Subtitle of host publication"Rising like a Phoenix: Emerging from the Pandemic and Reshaping Human Endeavors with Digital Technologies"
PublisherAssociation for Information Systems
ISBN (Electronic)9781713893622
StatePublished - 2023
Event44th International Conference on Information Systems: Rising like a Phoenix: Emerging from the Pandemic and Reshaping Human Endeavors with Digital Technologies, ICIS 2023 - Hyderibad, India
Duration: 10 Dec 202313 Dec 2023

Publication series

NameInternational Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2023: "Rising like a Phoenix: Emerging from the Pandemic and Reshaping Human Endeavors with Digital Technologies"

Conference

Conference44th International Conference on Information Systems: Rising like a Phoenix: Emerging from the Pandemic and Reshaping Human Endeavors with Digital Technologies, ICIS 2023
Country/TerritoryIndia
CityHyderibad
Period10/12/2313/12/23

Keywords

  • boundaryless
  • career transition
  • protean
  • signaling theory
  • skills shortage

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