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The management of information technology (IT) personnel poses unique challenges, including high turnover, limited advancement potential, low organizational commitment, and burnout. By matching individual expectations and job characteristics, managers may be able to provide IT professionals with appropriate opportunities and career paths. This study is designed to identify the career anchors or orientations which are possessed by IT personnel, and to identify which career anchors are the strongest determinants of organizational commitment. Based upon preliminary results of the pilot survey, the respondents expressed a variety of career anchors, including Organizational Stability, Variety, Managerial Competence, and Geographic Security. The career anchors and career orientation variables that were less important to the respondents were Identity, Technical Competence, Creativity, and Autonomy.

WHILE THE IT WORKER SHORTAGE IS well documented, traditional institutions of higher education, even operating at full capacity, will not fill this shottage in a timely manner [2, 3]. The enormous growth of industry certification programs has likewise not succeeded in closing this gap [1]. The U.S. Congress has been pressured to allow the importation of more international IT workers; but even with an increase in the Hl-B visa allotment to 200,000 for 2002 and beyond, the shortage will not go away anytime soon [4]. No silver-bullet solution to the IT worker shortage exists; multiple and creative ways to attack this problem are needed. One source of IT labor that may not be fully utilized is the movement of non-IT workers to the IT profession. Traditionally, this involves returning to college for a second bachelor's or graduate degree in an IT-related field. Completing such a program while remaining employed typically takes from two to six years and a correspondingly high level of dedication and sacrifice. There are likely more workers who wotild make diis move to IT if there were more reasonable and practical ways to accomplish it.Three initiatives undertaken to provide more immediate paths for individuals wanting to make career changes to IT are described here. Although similar efforts are surely being made elsewhere, these examples are offered as a springboard for additional creative ventures to ease and enhance the movement of talented non-IT workers to IT. UniversitylCorporate Initiative: Foundation Computing Technology ProgramIn response to the growing shortage of technology workers in 1997, several businesses entered into a partnership with Illinois State University (ISU). A certificate program in Foundation Computing Technology (nicknamed the FCP) was created to prepare underemployed workers from non-computing disciplines for the IT work force in a relatively short amount of time, and minimize the risk, financial burden, and time commitment to these potential candidates. The FCP is supported entirely by corporate partners and generates sufficient residual revenues to pay for itself.Parricipants are recruited in rhe local labor market and careful applicant screening, including aptitude testing, is conducted to ensure acceptance of individuals highly Hkely to succeed. Graduates ofthe program have ranged in age from 25 to 65 and include teachers, construction workers, and ministers. Participanrs must quit their current employment to begin the program, but a corporate partner pays them at a nearly full-salary rate during the full-time (7.5 hours per day, Monday through Friday) 12-13-week training program. Upon FCP completion, the new IT employees are placed on staff at the partnering client at a salary equivalent to that of a new four-year computing graduate. FCP training is developed and delivered by ISU faculty, staff, and full-time technology trainers, and the content primarily involves Cobol programming and systems analysis. EfTorts are made to assimilate participants into the client's

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