With increasing budgets, IT is coming back. If you are a job seeker with the right skills, it is fairly easy to join the force of 10 million people who make up the U.S. IT job market. It is true that companies are sending U.S. IT job offshore, but how many? In my estimate, about 2%, really not much. Then, what are the right skills a job seeker should hold. It’s easy to find out. Look at Monsters and Dice to see what’s in demand. That’s what I found:
In fact, an exclusive Computerworld survey revealed that two of the top four skills IT executives will hire for in the coming year are perennially linked with outsourcing, namely, application development (ranked first) and IT help desk skills (ranked fourth). Information security skills ranked second, and project management came in third.
1. Application Developers
Think all programming jobs go overseas, not true. While some low-level coding jobs could be done offshore, a lot of high-end developments must be hold in house. In fact, the demand for developers with .Net and Java skills increased a lot. As many companies outsource application development projects to consulting firms, you may have better chance to find a developer position with consulting firm. The pay is pretty good, starting with $60,000 or more and could reach over $100,000 with some push.
In addition to new application development, developers are needed to work for application integration on existing infrastructure or developing new components to extent existing application systems. Skills are in high demand on COTS application developments such as ERP and CRM.
2. Security Specialists
There is no surprise, security is getting ever hotter. The demand for people with information security skills remains strong and is expected to continue for years to go. No wonder many IT pros are working hard to obtain IT security certifications. Specially, we see strong demand for people with Cisco security skills as well as those with IT auditing certifications.
3. Project Managers
Project management job may be the last one to be outsourced overseas, it is offshore safe. As IT budgets increase and more projects go on, project manages are in high demand. But companies are looking for project managers with specific expertise — like those who have worked on projects related to Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance — are becoming harder to find, according to Computer World.
4. IT Help Desk
The demand on IT support is increasing, but not the pay. It’s a low-level job with only limited potentials anyway.
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