So far, the year 2009 bodes both good and ill for IT professionals with Internet skills, at least from the perspective of Foote Partners LLC, a research firm specializing in IT salaries and skills compensation.
First, the good news: In general, IT skills remain in demand despite the recession. According to Foote's recent research, culled in part from surveying a pool of 84,000 IT professionals in 1,960 companies in the U.S. and Canada, a majority of IT workers surveyed continue to get at least 7 percent of their pay for specific skills, such as networking, security, database management, or project management.
The bad news? Some specialized skills, including Web development, have suffered a reduction in demand.
David Foote, CEO of the eponymous firm, says demand has grown for IT skills related to project management, architecture, and security. According to data from a set of 22,550 respondents to Foote's survey, IT security certifications grew nearly 6 percent over the last two years as a percentage of overall median pay.
But the same sample of respondents reported that skills related to Web development certifications dropped 36.8 percent as a percentage of median pay in the same timeframe.
Foote's research in the area of non-certified IT skills reveals a similar trend: Over the last two years, respondents have reported that management, methodology, and process skills have grown as a percentage of IT staffers' premium pay by nearly 21 percent. In contrast, Web and e-commerce development has grown just 3.5 percent as a non-certified skill.
What gives? Isn't the Web the way forward for many IT pros?
David Foote says many firms, especially in healthcare, retail, finance, and education, hired an abundance of experts in specific kinds of online applications in recent years. Many of these were pilot projects, and when the going's gotten tough, they have been cut mercilessly.
At the same time, Foote points out that demand has risen for IT skills involved in designing and overseeing an organizational move to automated processes in the data center. Ironically, being able to help design and implement technology that reduces headcount is more popular than swelling the IT ranks with specialized Web-related expertise.
Further, these kinds of skills will come in handy as industries consolidate: "With the anticipated escalation in recession-driven mergers and acquisitions creating an enormous amount of integration-related activity, IT architecture and project management expertise are [sic] in more demand than ever," Foote writes in his report's executive summary.
Another expert confirms the trend. "Enterprises today are more concerned with solving business problems than with employing the 'latest technology,' " writes Tom Nolle, CEO of the CIMI Corp. consultancy, in an email. "If you go to the online forums for IT and networking, you find all kinds of questions that sound like, 'Why can’t my management accept that my ideas need to be implemented even if I can’t prove any business value whatsoever?' The executives look at this sort of thing and laugh. Project managers are typically very connected to the business justification and becoming ever more so, and technical types are fleeing justification more every day."
Bottom line? IT is still hiring, and online applications are still important, but demand has shifted from specialized skills, including Web development, to architectural expertise.
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As you mentioned network architectural experties are in demand because they the one can understand the total networks connection and how they can enhance it and save the company money. I think its very important to any business small or large to have very effecient network and that will be like the information stream line of the business. So I agree with you about these types of technical experties they should be in demand. (FYI I'm one of them)...
Mary, you raise a key development and new trend in light of the changing economy.
I believe it also reflects, beyond moving past the development stage, the focus on operational and functional skills, i.e., security, etc. This is both good and bad. Bad in that it slows down the earlier advancement of the broader role of the internet, but very good in that it offers opportunities for IT to demonstrate functional value and gain stature for the business potential of the internet.
If IT can now step up to the plate and demonstrate the value of their skills and the business potential of the internet in cost saings, operational improvements, and customer relationships, business intelligence, etc., the result will be a net gain.
It is critical to identify and track these trends and changes so that IT and the internet can stay relevant.
I'm actually a bit surprised that demand in general hasn't flattened out more across all skill sets and sectors, but maybe I just need to come up for some air after trolling the news feeds and wire services for too long.
But given that most companies, managers, and IT staff are waiting to see how deep this recession really is, I bet there's more in the way of let-it-ride, management-minded approach to IT projects and a lot less what-would-happen-if-we-did-this experimentation.
I must say that none of the observations here are very surprising.As Technology matures we need more and more people to 'Manage" it as against" Develop" it.
Also,in times of a Recession,the frills on all the projects go out and its Functionality,efficency and ROI that matters ,above everything else.
In many ways these trends are timely.On the other hand that does mean that innovation is dead.On the contrary,if you believe very strongly in your Idea/Strategy and your Project then you should be willing to put in the extra hours on your own time.Just don't expect the company to pay for it.
And remember the Ciscos,Microsofts,Facebooks were all created during Downturns in the economic cycle.
Interesting piece Mary. Seems to me good project managers are always in demand. When things are good, everyone's swamped and stuff needs to get done. When things are bad, everyone's swamped and stuff still must get done. Send the Web programmers my way-- Good Massachusetts 2.0 developers are swamped right now.
Phavanha, you seem right on the monay with your observation that database skills are rising in demand. After reading the report I mention above and a few others, it's clear to me that applications based on Oracle and other enterprise database programs could be a focal point for organizations near term.
As you said there are new priorities to fucus on
in those difficult times. But I think that the trend will change and
specialized skills will be in demand again when the economy will get
better. However, for those who are still IT students , this
situation can help them determine in which path to direct their
studies.
Unfortunately not everyone can be "jack of all trade". Even if every IT specialists have the required
architectural expertise, a company would not be able to keep all of its
workers in these difficult times, no matter how skillful and
imaginative they are. Some will have to go. Of course, it is an
advantage to be able to do many things and contibute to the
business inovation of your company, but most of the times you are
hired bacause you are good in a given domain. We
cannot not blame those who have specialized skills.
Mary
It appears that IT, especially software development, is maturing. During initial growth phase, less emphasis was placed on the return on that investment. Management is experiment and adapting to this new disruptive technology. Now that they understand the role of IT, they want to extract real and measurable value out of it. From that perspective, it makes sense why there is a shift in recent trend.
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