Invading IT

New articles like this claim that ex-service men have the capabilities required for the IT profession and are being invited into the field. Though the news sounds good at the outset, I'm not quite sure what these 'suitable' capabilities are. The websites say that army men can speak well, are disciplined, and are adapted to traveling. I believe every 10th grade student from a decent school can speak well; very strict discipline is not necessary in IT; and IT people don't need to travel to deserts or flood affected areas. On the contrary, if we accept that the skills needed to be in the IT profession are these, then can we assume that the people already in IT have these skills? Some guys I know of in the industry would be mighty pleased to take this assumption forward and let their parents know how well disciplined they are.

Thinking about it, I'm not even sure on the kind of skills that are required in the IT profession. In my opinion the only capability required to be a coder is to be able to think logically. Softwares and languages can be learnt by anyone. That's why all software companies these days keep aptitude tests before recruiting engineers. To be on the management side I guess it is enough to be able to articulate well, i.e. in addition to being logical.

Nowadays everyone is into IT - mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, science graduates and the like. Then why not ex-service men? The only reason that I see is that IT offers so much opportunity that the services might start facing high retention