Letter to the editor

I am referring to the July 26 article titled "IT workforce hurting e-gov."

It is very clear to me the reason the government is losing its edge in the IT arena. I am a good example.

At 42, I went back to college and majored in mathematics and computer science. After receiving my degree, I went to work for the government under the AMC Intern program. In this program, extensive training and funds were spent on me to ensure that I had the necessary technical skills the government needed.

Then I hit the civil service system of promotion. As I did well, I was promoted to a GS-12, project leader, now using less of my technical skills. As privatization progressed, I was made a "manager" of the "doer" — the contractors — and now use none of my technical skills.

At the moment, I am a project manager and not programming at all. May I suggest that you hire managers to manage and allow those who are technical to continue to train and learn so they can keep their edge?

Name withheld upon request