Stereotype #3: The "IT-Technology anchored IT-Professional": Consistent with the "technology geek" image, IT professionals define themselves and their value in terms of the number and difficulty of the technical skills they have mastered [8]. Their careers are anchored in technology. Since the half-life of technologies is short, anyone who does not keep up is a dinosaur. Like the dinosaur, these out-ofdate individuals are in danger of becoming extinct, forever severed from the evolving IT career world. According to this third stereotype, moving into a managerial position limits career options since technical competencies erode quickly in such a non-technical position. Therefore, this stereotype views IT professionals as not valuing non-technical/ managerial competencies and assumes management positions are career dead-ends, thus limiting the pool of potential IT managers. In the words of one IT professional who made the transition to manager, "Most of the young-gun technology talent out there say they tolerate the ‘suits’ but have no aspirations to become one".

Stereotype #1: The "High Maintenance" IT Professional: According to this stereotype, IT professionals provide significant value to their organizations, but they expect their organizations to meet their many needs. Expectations of these high achievers include more pay, benefits, interesting work, recognition, and opportunities for growth and development. These IT professionals define more interesting work as the opportunity to work on hot projects with the latest and greatest information technology. They spend long hours, preferably at their time and place of choice, learning new technologies and determining how to make systems work. Nonetheless, they want the organization to provide them with training and new technologies to help them keep current. They want to be challenged to make great things happen with these technologies and to be appreciated for their contributions. Fundamentally, the character of this stereotype is consistent with research showing that high performers are motivated by specific challenging goals and feedback [3, 5] and that IT professionals have a high need for growth and development [2].