It takes courage to make a career change, but the healthiest job picture in more than 20 years is giving more and more people the guts to make the move.
Take John Clifford. Three years ago, the 35-year-old West Chicago resident had just been laid off after 15 years working in and managing restaurants. At the same time, his father was facing a liver transplant and needed Clifford’s care. Facing a dead-end career and a family crisis at home, Clifford did some serious thinking about upgrading his skills.
“One thing I noticed while I was working in restaurants was that I was good at fixing computers. Most everything in the restaurant industry operates on computers these days, and when one needed a quick fix, I was the guy,” he recalled. “Once I got laid off, I figured I wasn’t getting any younger, so it was time for a change, and I thought I would try something I knew I was good at.”
Clifford turned to the Addison campus of the DeVry Institute of Technology, when he enrolled in a three-year, full-time degree program. It was anything but easy. He worked throughout his schooling, including several months as an overnight hotel clerk so he could spend daytime hours caring for his recovering father.
But it paid off. Clifford got his degree on Feb. 28 and is weighing three job offers after more than 20 interviews with area companies since January.
Those companies came to him. Clifford didn’t send out a single resume. “There wasn’t time. I went right into interviews. They called me,” he explains. “I feel very fortunate.”
Clifford’s accomplishment is a proud one, but education experts note that for computer science majors with average to excellent records, the job picture is the brightest in a very bright labor market for new graduates, and that means graduates of all ages.
In other words, John Clifford is not alone.
“We have seen a real increase in adult learners coming back to the classroom. This year, enrollment in our evening program stands at 1,300. At this time in 1992, it stood at 600,” notes John Petrik, dean of career services for the DuPage campus of DeVry. “If you’re a student coming out with an Information Services (IS) or an Information Technology (IT) degree, demand far outshines the supply of job candidates.”
A recent study released by the Information Technology Association of America and Virginia Polytechnic Institute showed that in spite of aggressive training, retraining and hiring programs, the shortage of skilled information technology workers is worsening. The survey, conducted last November and December, said that of the “core IT work force” of 3.35 million positions, about 10 percent are consistently unfilled.
The pay is outshining many other fields as well. On average, starting salaries for entry-level graduates in IT or IS fields range from $38,000 to $42,000, according to national studies and career administrators at local colleges.
According to the most recent recruiting trends study by Michigan State University, employers are looking for skilled workers who can solve their companies’ Year 2000 problems; students with knowledge of computer languages, such as Cobol and C and C++ source code, are particularly in demand. Aside from that, students with skills in developing and programming content on the Internet and company intranets are also in high demand.
With 1,200 students in the program, DePaul University now has the largest graduate computer science program in the country and also boasts an undergraduate computer science program that, at 900 enrollees, is the fastest-growing department in the university, according to Keith Johnson, assistant director of DePaul’s Career Center.
“Our average CS graduate is getting 5 to 10 offers, with an average salary of $42,000,” says Johnson. “Last year at that time, the average offering salary was $38,000.”
It is due to that rising technology-degree enrollment that DePaul recently announced a plan to expand its downtown campus, with a separate building dedicated to computer sciences, according to Carol Montgomery, director of DePaul’s Career Center. “Computer science is driving a lot of growth here,” says Montgomery.
She and Johnson also point out that DePaul’s certificate programs in the computer sciences are the most popular of all certificate programs in the university. “Companies are sometimes just looking for skill sets to address certain problems, not degree candidates, and mid-career workers are seeing it as an opportunity to become more attractive in the marketplace,” said Johnson.
Students in their early 20s, as well as mid-career professionals, are all reveling in the healthy technology job market. Metin Hamidof, 21, was weighing five programming job offers “ranging from working in an information technology department to consulting firms.
“I’ve wanted to be in this business since the fifth grade, when I got my first computer,” says the Des Plaines resident and DeVry student. “I’d like to start my own business someday, but first, I want to work for someone else and get some idea of how business works.”
Angela Renkosik, 21, a DePaul computer sciences student, recently accepted a full-time offer from Amoco Corp., where she interned last summer. However, taking the job wasn’t a quick decision for Renkosik. “They immediately made me an offer after my completion of my internship, but I wanted to look into a few other opportunities,” said Renkosik. “But a few months later, I received a letter from them offering me more money and a sign-on bonus. So, after some thought, I did accept the offer.”
DeVry’s Petrik cautions, however, that the technological component of a student’s education isn’t the only determining factor in winning the job search. “Few people realize that DeVry is a four-year college that includes a liberal arts component with the technology sequence. Our students are required to take courses like English and history, and have an option for classes like public speaking. They need communication skills in areas beyond technology to get ahead in the world.”
Clifford, meanwhile, stresses that adult students going back for a degree program need to find schools that will accommodate their needs if work or family issues take precedence. “I was able to work with DeVry to schedule around my dad’s illness; they really accommodated me. They held a blood drive for him while all that was going on, and he’s fine now.”
