It's the Biggest Job in Tech. So Why Can't They Find Anyone To Do It? (zdnet.com) 97
An anonymous reader shares a report: An exciting new vacancy has opened up that will likely tempt some IT leaders into freshening up their CV: the UK is recruiting a Government Chief Digital Officer (GCDO), who will be working at the highest levels of the Cabinet Office to lead the digital transformation of public services in the country. All of this and more, for 200,000 pound ($255,000) a year. The job is the biggest one in government tech so you'd expect the recruiters at the Cabinet Office to be deluged with applications from hyper-qualified aspiring GCDOs, who got tech goosebumps from just reading the role description. Yet strangely enough, the GCDO job has been open for almost a year now.
"We sought out candidates for a similar role last autumn," confirmed Alex Chisholm, the chief operating officer of the civil service, as he announced the new vacancy. And indeed, a similar vacancy went live last October albeit with a slightly different name -- Government Chief Digital Information Officer (GCDIO) -- but almost exactly the same responsibilities. In both versions of the job, the successful candidate is expected to "enhance Her Majesty's government's reputation as the world's most digitally-advanced government." This includes leading the Government Digital Service (GDS), a branch of the UK Cabinet Office dedicated to the digital transformation of government, and heading the 18,000-strong Digital, Data and Technology Profession department.
"We sought out candidates for a similar role last autumn," confirmed Alex Chisholm, the chief operating officer of the civil service, as he announced the new vacancy. And indeed, a similar vacancy went live last October albeit with a slightly different name -- Government Chief Digital Information Officer (GCDIO) -- but almost exactly the same responsibilities. In both versions of the job, the successful candidate is expected to "enhance Her Majesty's government's reputation as the world's most digitally-advanced government." This includes leading the Government Digital Service (GDS), a branch of the UK Cabinet Office dedicated to the digital transformation of government, and heading the 18,000-strong Digital, Data and Technology Profession department.
Because their looking at Executives (Score:1)
Re:Because their looking at Executives (Score:5, Funny)
I don't think that's they're main problem.
Re:Because their looking at Executives (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, this was painful to type, and I had to un-correct myself ~4 times.
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The responsibilities of the job are massive - anyone qualified enough for this is right to requie executive pay. $255K for this is paltry when someone with the skills necessary for the task is likely already an entrepeneur or in senior management of a company, and there are technical roles at most companies that earn more for someone in management or with technical skills who would be qualified for the GCDO which jobs have much narrower responsibilities, So why go work for the government at a more monu
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The responsibilities of the job are massive - anyone qualified enough for this is right to requie executive pay.
No human or benevolent deity is right to require executive pay, but I'll admit that relatively speaking there is some job requirement/pay mismatch here.
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The responsibilities of the job are massive - anyone qualified enough for this is right to requie executive pay. $255K for this is paltry when someone with the skills necessary for the task is likely already an entrepeneur or in senior management of a company, and there are technical roles at most companies that earn more for someone in management or with technical skills who would be qualified for the GCDO which jobs have much narrower responsibilities
The PM's salary is only around $200k p.a., though that shouldn't be taken to suggest the current holder of the office is giving us our money's worth. Besides, this will be nothing more than a managerial role with little to no technical experience really required.
So why go work for the government at a more monumental assignment for low pay?
The desire to serve the public maybe? Knowing that the inevitable golden parachute will have a knighthood attached? Some serious padding for your CV?
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Some serious padding for your CV?
Are you talking about the same thing as the Exposure Bucks people want to use as an excuse for paying artists nothing?
The people who will be already qualified for this job will have No need to pad their CV -- that's Not something that will incentivize them.
Much of the "supply" will be unavailable -- if the pay is not enough to even catch the attention of people that were already wildly successful, and know that what this job entails would be technically a risky PITA f
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It's only serious padding for your CV if you were viewed as a success. I can only imagine how many conflicting requirements will make this job a guaranteed failure.
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Sadly no, anybody holding this role for six months or more can fuck it up as badly as they like, they'll still get lucrative NED offers, consultancy gigs and speaking invites.
It's not them or their skills that'll earn that money, it'll be their contacts across Government.
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this will be nothing more than a managerial role with little to no technical experience really required
Almost. It's a managerial and political role, needing leadership but also it really does need someone with at least some career understanding of technology.
That doesn't need to be a hardware engineer or business software designer, but the person appointed to the role really does need to be able to speak credibly about technology, the future plans around it, and the risks and mitigations needed to introduce it successfully at a Government scale.
So basically your talent pool is largely limited to people that
Easy answer (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't pay enough, you cheapstakes. I make half of that per year for 1/10th of the work and 1/100th of the responsibility. Why on Earth would I apply? For Queen and country? Screw that...
Re: Easy answer (Score:3)
Exactly a lot of consultants are earning very close to this but with 1/10th the responsibility and risk. This kind of role needs to be awarded to a senior consultant at one of the big firms but the pay is way to low to attract them. I
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If they aren't going to pay market rate the least they could do is include a more impressive sounding title and a whimsical uniform to match. Lord Grand High Commissioner of Electrical Communications Contrivances. The LGHCECC. Uniform includes massive golden epaulets, and the wearer's choice of a pith helmet or massive powdered wig.
Can't Pay Enough (Score:2)
You don't pay enough, you cheapstakes.
Have you seen the current UK government and, more particularly, the way they treat civil servants, especially high ranking ones? It's not that they are cheapskates it's that they literally can't afford to pay anyone enough to make them willing to do the job.
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the way they treat civil servants, especially high ranking ones
What, expecting them to actually do their job and not try and subvert the democratically elected Government?
About fucking time.
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What, expecting them to actually do their job ....
No, expecting them to take the blame when policy decisions made by their minister turn out to be an utter disaster. It's called ministerial responsibility [wikipedia.org] although I'm not surprised that you have not heard of it since nobody in the government seems to know about it and most of them have had far more expensive educations than you or I.
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Who's taken the blame for poor policy decisions under the current Government?
Name them, name the failed policy, explain why this was the Minister and not the Civil Service that's culpable.
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Would you want to work for a government that treats you like this?
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The exam policy was agreed by the Government, agreed by the Civil Service, agreed by Ofqual, agreed by the Labour Party and indeed, agreed by everybody asked about it.
The algorithm designed was agreed by Government and by the Opposition.
Implementation of the algorithm was fucked up. Ofqual were accountable for that, which is why their Chief Exec left.
Slater was going to go anyway. Slater was already on the way out. His departure was brought forward but given the Civil Service had failed to get children back
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Patel refused to take his nonsense, after his department had been continually incompetent over a period of years.
Fine, if he is incompetent then say so and fire him for cause. You'll still probably have the dismissal proceedings but at least then everyone knows why you fired him - or even that you did at least fire him - rather than this shady "forced out" approach where it looks like they did not actually have a reason to fire him Patel just did not like him which makes her look unprofessional rather than him incompetent....and if the reason they did not is that it is too hard to fire someone for cause then the gove
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I'm more than willing to believe that there may be a few civil servants who are incompetent but, if that is the case, fire them for that incompetence. It not only gets them out of the way but it also serves as a wake-up call to the rest that they can lose their jobs if they do not do them.
Well, that's what's happening. You can't just sack someone in the UK, you need cause. The roles aren't disappearing so redundancy isn't an option, and proving poor performance is fucking complicated, let alone when it's mired in Civil Service bureaucracy.
Sounds like an PHB job with no real techwork to do (Score:3)
Sounds like an PHB job with no real tech work to do.
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A PHB certainly wrote the job description: "the successful candidate is expected to 'enhance Her Majesty's government's reputation as the world's most digitally-advanced government'."
They forgot to mention "synergy" though. Maybe they should contact the Ministry of Dilberthood.
No matter what you do (Score:5, Insightful)
You will fail.
You have to fight vested interests.
You have to fight for money.
You have to fight "but that's not how we do this!"
And you won't get paid enough to drink your cares away.
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Re:No matter what you do (Score:4, Interesting)
I'll do it. Fuck it, it's doomed to failure but it's the kind of failure that opens doors to cushy consulting jobs.
They need to pay more though, can't live anywhere decent in London in that kind of money.
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Sir AmiMoJo sounds pretty good. Unfortunately I'm a republican so I'll have to reject it.
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I applied for a job last week that I know I won't get. Why? Because the online application form asked me to list my honours.
Their example genuinely was whether I had a CBE or just an OBE.
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I'll do it.
I heard somewhere that they were taking resumes for the posistion.
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I'm not in the old boys club or a friend of Cummings though so not qualified.
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They need to pay more though, can't live anywhere decent in London in that kind of money.
that is the whole point though, why would you do this job that is destined to fail for such a relatively low remuneration. It may open doors but to do that you have going to have to sit in this shithole job for a couple of years demonstrating that you are at least trying to succeed and survive endless political minefields and people looking to scapegoat you.
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Re:No matter what you do (Score:4, Insightful)
Indeed. Anyone smart and experienced enough to qualify would be too smart and experienced to step into a mare's nest like this.
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Hear that, Elizabeth? They're saying not only that I'm the only one qualified, they're saying I'm the only one crazy enough to accept it in the first place. Think on it...
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Indeed. Anyone smart and experienced enough to qualify would be too smart and experienced to step into a mare's nest like this.
Or take the pay cut.
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$255,000/year will buy you a lot of booze.
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Not after you have paid rent in central London.
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Paying rent cannot be more than $3K/month. That's $36K/year.
I see 1 bedroom apartments for the equivalent of more than the equivalent of $4000/Month in US $, so yes... it very much can. Need a tiny bit more space and now you're up to $7000 a month. try $85k a year.
Man cannot live on rent alone.
There will be other expenses people have.... Like, oh, Utilities, Internet, Food, Household/Pesonal Supplies, and Transportation costs. Also.. finally Entertainment - booze on its own doesn't wor
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You forget the nature of this role.
Booze is "entertainment" and the GCDO will be obliged to build relationships across Government and industry.
Not a single penny of that salary needs to go on booze. That's what expense accounts are for.
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"Paying rent cannot be more than $3K/month."
Ahahahaha. There are places in London where the average one-bedroom apartment costs the equivalent of over $4K a month.
Wrong name (Score:2)
If they titled the job as Government Officer Digital they might get more applicants. Hell, Trump might even apply if he remembered long enough.
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Sounds like a move towards... "Making IT Great again." Rejecting all this Amazon black magic, ban all Ecommerce and replacing all the POS terminals with Abacuses, mechanical tabulators, cash registers and Card Imprint machines.
PR ? (Score:2)
If the goal is to enhance the reputation, then it is clearly a PR job.
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It's already gone through PR. Only someone living in a reality distortion field could claim that the UK government's reputation for IT is anything other than disastrous.
It's the usual answer: pay more (Score:2)
Why would anyone qualified take a pay cut for that role?
Consultants (Score:3)
Re: Consultants (Score:2)
This man knows!
Oddly, this is a dead end job (Score:2)
Simple (Score:5, Interesting)
a) Because it is _not_ the biggest job in tech
b) The boss is a clueless clown
c) The pay sucks
d) The organization to take over has a catastrophically broken IT landscape
Anybody with a clue runs screaming from this offer.
MOD PARENT UP (Score:4, Insightful)
THIS.
"You will make less than half of tech executive pay, inherit a poorly run and maintained tech system, work for a bad boss, and have all your actions broadcast to the press."
A shame they're looking in the wrong places. (Score:1)
There's at most 5 other people in the entire world actually qualified for the job other than me. To bad they'll end up hiring some non-technical showboating political baffoon instead.
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...and other than me and 4 others
High base, no stock (Score:2)
I don't think tech executives are interesting in a total compensation package that is a fraction of what they find in the private sector.
Because it's a lightning-rod position (Score:4, Insightful)
Executives in public service don't do it for the base salary, because the payoff comes later in connections, kickbacks, etc. So, finding execs who aren't willing to take the job at that salary isn't the issue. The problem is this...just by the job description alone, this looks like a total lightning-rod job. You'd be the head of an agency looking to get rid of layers of civil service bureaucracy...imagine how popular you'd end up being. Even if you succeeded, you'd be reviled by everyone.
Another thing to consider -- the UK seems to be even more in love with outsourcing/offshoring every task than the US is. As a technology person, I would not be happy watching contract after contract with the Wipros, Capitas, Accentures, IBMs, Infosys's, etc. of the world fail while setting bags of taxpayer money on fire. Seriously, all of my UK colleagues complain about how awful government services are under the regime of an outsourcer who absolutely does not care about doing anything beyond not losing the contract.
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Wasn't there some kind of UK government organization that discovered how hard it is to remove layers of civil service bureaucracy? I think it was something like the Department of Administrative Affairs?
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Wasn't there some kind of UK government organization that discovered how hard it is to remove layers of civil service bureaucracy? I think it was something like the Department of Administrative Affairs?
The UK National Health Service ?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/... [bbc.co.uk]
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Sir Humphrey is likely retired or most likely even dead by this time so perhaps they would get better results now.
Salary too low for experienced tech CEO (Score:1)
Because it cannot be done (Score:2)
This is simple. Anyone who wants to take this job wants the pay. Secondly the job cannot be done due to the regulatory mess that the UK government is currently involved with (GDPR, Brexit, etc.) Unless I am not remembering carve-outs for Government usage of data in the spaghetti legal code, they cannot do stuff (anything to make them more modern) without consent from people.
If you want a better portal for paying taxes or doing those sorts of things, they are not actually making them a leader in digital t
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No, they don't want the pay. That is chicken shit pay for that level of work, people qualified would get much more elsewhere.
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He meant 'they want the pay commensurate with that level of responsibility'.
He and you are both wrong. The pay for that job is irrelevant. The person that lands this will will be a millionaire within three years of leaving it, with the chance to become a member of parliament, a fast track to Honours and their choice of how much they want to work for the rest of their lives.
This is an establishment role for an establishment person. Which is why they can't easily fill it; the establishment know fuck all about
I'm gonna go with (Score:3)
Who in their right mind would take such a job?
What About Estonia (Score:3, Informative)
The UK isn't the world's most digitally advanced Government by a long way. Estonia is. And they did it by ignoring the bureaucracy and their existing IT systems and processes and simply build a new system using off-the-shelf open source software for $110m. It is designed to handle everything from welfare, voting, drivers licenses to drug prescriptions and all data is siloed and encrypted. They now sell services to the surrounding Baltic States and boast that the Russian's haven managed to steal any information at all.
Try make a functional system out of cobbled together legacy systems while public servants impose silly conditions and processes and obstruct any possible efficiencies and productivity gains. You are destined to fail and be fired for producing a system that costs billions that can't even to do what the previous system barely managed. And you are working for an employer who is only interested exploit things politically, lies all the time and is totally deluded. in the politics, lies and is totally deluded.
He's a report that explains how and why every major IT project by the Australian Government between 2013-18 failed, resulting in the Digital Transformation Authority being sidelined by public servants and it's masters and its head resigning. It wasn't even responsible for most of the problems, it tried to fix them but ended up being scapegoated by public servants and their political masters.
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliam... [aph.gov.au]
Let's see... (Score:2)
250 grand for a job where I'm basically sitting on an ejector seat with someone else holding the trigger. You get the full blame as soon as (not when, and certainly not if) something goes south, you'll have no chance in hell to avoid it and you can tell anyone to do what they're supposed to do but they don't give a fuck.
I could of course also stay with consulting, with zero responsibility for anything I do, zero red tape because in our company that's what beancounters are for and with the client I don't giv
If you follow british politics its kind of obvious (Score:2)
i am quite confident in the hypothesis that a huge percentage of qualified candidates do not want to work for ministers Johnson and his main adviser Cummings, because of their reputations and their actions over the past few years.
People like to watch Game of Thrones, but they don't want to live in it.
bad pay for high risk unstable job (Score:2)
obligatory xkcd (Score:3)
Perhaps they should be glad at least not getting candidates as in "Secretary of the Internet" of xkcd fame ...
https://xkcd.com/494/ [xkcd.com]
Lack of ownership in government (Score:1)
As a consultant working for a gov now, and dealing with a CDO, nothing gets done because no single person really wants to "own" something in government. Too many people get involved, too many requirements for even the most simple projects, analysis paralysis. Everything gets done at once and nothing gets finished for everything to work together. Nothing is ready to start because you will never find a real product owner. CDOs and similar positions tend to be filled by technocrats and cause more problems by m
Paperwork (Score:2)
In murica (Score:2)
Heavens almighty! (Score:2)
In both versions of the job, the successful candidate is expected to "enhance Her Majesty's government's reputation as the world's most digitally-advanced government."
AaaaaahahahahaHAHAHA!
You know how many requests I get per month from recruiters and projects not even half as dimwitted as the UK (or just about any other) administration when it comes to IT?
Ok, I'll fix UK IT for ya.
500 000 Euros per anum,post-tax. I want a 10 - 15 billion euro budget for the next 5-7 years. I get to call the final decisions
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We all know they won't find anyone competent to fill that job
Well, based on your preferred approach to the role they sure as fuck won't if they employ you.
"We want you to run this five star restaurant..." (Score:3)
"...and you'll be making $1 more per hour than McDonalds."
Holy crap, that's low pay (Score:2)
Yeah, I know for a lot of people $250k/yr seems like a lot; but if the job is REDIRECTING THE IT INFRASTRUCTURE OF AN ENTIRE COUNTRY, you have to pay more.
$250k is not even double what ordinary no-name programmers in Si Valley make--and if something blows up in their face, they can just avoid putting it on their resume and find another job. If this one blows up, you're all over those vicious British tabloids. Soo..... not worth it. If I had the ability to do this job, I'm already at a start-up or somethi
peanuts (Score:2)
Not that surpising. (Score:2)
Two words (Score:1)
Sinking Ship.