It doesn’t take a psychic to predict a continuing demand for information technology workers in the 21st Century. A scenario of plum jobs dropping from corporate trees into the laps of average, one-dimensional IT specialists, however, just isn’t in the cards.
The need for basic programmers, analysts and engineers is fast evolving into a need for innovators and integrators. Not long ago, companies looking to tap into the Information Age needed a Web site and someone to construct it. Today they need integrated networks and a savvy developer to envision, design and manage it. The little home page on the cyber prairie is fast becoming a sprawling metropolis of interwoven information channels, infrastructures and functions.
As the landscape changes, so do the skill sets behind the hottest jobs.
“Companies are crying for good IT people, crying for them,” said Phyllis Shurn-Hannah, president of Cascade Associates Inc., a human-resources solutions company in Blue Bell, Pa. Indeed, according to recent Information Technology Association of America statistics, more than 346,000 IT positions currently are unfilled.
“We plan to hire 200 employees in 2000, many (of them) ITs,” said Trudy Norman, recruiting manager for Chicago-based Knightsbridge Solutions, a systems integration company for large corporations.
The trend is expected to continue. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Projections released by the U.S. Department of Labor last November, more than a million new IT jobs will be created by 2008. In fact, the report indicates the four fastest-growing occupations between 1998 and 2008 will be IT professions.
“We expect that jobs for systems analysts, project managers and database administrators will double in that time period,” said Daniel Hecker, labor economist in the bureau’s office of employment projections. He said jobs for programmers will grow more slowly but will increase as well.
Experts caution, however, that not all jobs (and job offers) will be created equal. Corporations are getting increasingly savvy about what they need, and several report that what they need is someone who can do more than program, design a graphic or solve a mainframe problem.
“We look for fantastic athletes who can come up with innovative ways to do things, who enjoy change and can manage change,” said Norman, whose Knightsbridge Solutions clients require sophisticated management of complex data systems.
Other desirables on Norman’s checklist: “Team players who may play one position today and another three months down the road and who are willing and able to expand their knowledge.”
“Broadly speaking, anybody can write HTML,” said Jeffrey White, vice president of The Harris Group in Chicago, a recruiting organization for IT companies. “Programming only takes you so far, and you sure won’t learn everything you need to succeed in college.
“I match an individual to a culture, not a resume to a job description. If somebody isn’t the right fit, I just tell them straight out,” he said.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Hecker said the right fit increasingly requires an expanded skill set. “There are routine technical jobs out there, but candidates likely to be most attractive to employers are those that bring flexibility, the ability to learn fast and people skills along with their technical know-how,” he said.
Ed Hildy, president of Schaumburg-based recruitment company Systems One Ltd. and president of Illinois Association of Personnel Services, agreed. “It’s true that in the last five years, business has become critically dependent on IT expertise,” he said. “Technology is no longer a luxury; but there is a large segment of computer experts that is NOT in demand – those who can’t communicate.”
So, what does the IT employment future really look like? According to a number of experts, the job game will be won by IT professionals who display a solid muscle of technical skills, the flexibility to embrace change, the mentality to be a team player and the speed to keep up in their field. Following are a few of the all-star positions on future IT teams:
Project managers
“Too many companies relegated the role of IT project manager to a secondary position in their early flush of tech development, and that has caused problems,” said John Goode, senior vice president of information technology at Burr Ridge-based EZLinksGolf.com, which provides IT services to golf course managers.
“Creativity has to be harnessed by someone who can keep everyone on schedule,” he said. “Over the next six months, our employees will triple from 15 to 45. I need project managers who can get our product and service out there, period. It’s critical.”
In this job experience counts. That opens opportunities for older job seekers with business backgrounds — if they have or can acquire enough technical training to be effective in an IT environment.
Indeed, according to a spokesperson at William Rainey Harper College in Palatine, most students enrolled in the school’s Technical Education and Consulting program (TECH) are career changers, predominantly men aged 35 to 50 or older seeking to expand their job options in the IT world.
In addition to project managers, there is a growing need for liaisons — folks who can tread the sometimes choppy waters that separate the tech staff island from the business staff mainland. In these jobs, “People skills are ultimately more important than pure technical skills,” Hildy said.
Educator Phyllis Tate, executive technology officer for Chicago Public Schools, is a prime example. “I oversee technology issues impacting our 600 schools,” she said. “Chief Education Officer Dr. Cozette Buchney speaks the language of education. Chief Technology Officer Richard Koeller speaks the language of technology. My job is to translate.”
Technology trainers
According to Training magazine’s “Industry Report 1999,” information technology training, defined as instruction for both end users and IT professionals on computer applications and systems, represented a full one-third of all employer-sponsored training in the United States last year.
Cascade Associates’ Shurn-Hannah, whose clients require a variety of human resource solutions, sees a strong demand for both face-to-face and computer-based learning. “In demand are trainers who can talk the talk,” she said. However, Web sites are evolving to serve many needs, including the management of internal training programs, she added.
As technology applications become more pervasive and powerful, employers will have to establish or expand training programs, be they teacher- or computer-based, and IT-savvy people will be needed to design, develop and administer them.
“Right now, I am desperately seeking the appropriate individual to lead our corporate technical training program — someone who not only can develop curriculum but genuinely understands the mentality of our IT staff,” said recruiting manager Norman. “Learning everything new is mission-critical to these individuals.”
Technology integrators
If yesterday’s IT landscape was defined by a need for innovation; today it is defined by a need for integration.
As companies and organizations seek to implement e-commerce into their business plans, many are finding they need techies who can make legacy databases work with newfangled, Internet-based systems or make their networks communicate with the networks of partners and suppliers.
These jobs require specialists.
“‘Specialist’ is such a buzzword these days, it’s losing meaning,” said Brian Weis, president of Recruiters Network, a Milwaukee-based association of Internet recruiters and human resource personnel. “But it suggests the sophisticated level of IT expertise that is needed more and more.”
Hildy said that expertise includes the ability to both develop Internet applications and maintain networks within organizations.
“We need network engineers who can meld private networks on a national basis, database architects to build and administer infrastructure and those who can develop Java applications,” EZLinks’ Goode said.
Biz-tech switch hitters
The numbers might not be overwhelming just yet, but business-technology crossover is creating new opportunities on both the business and IT sides of the job market. Some IT pros are moving into administrative jobs, while some business types are moving into IT jobs.
Norman, for example, moved from a job programming and designing application systems to managing recruiting for her company. “I was tapped (for the job),” she said. “Putting the right individual with the right opportunity is exciting, rewarding … and I love not getting the 2 a.m. tech-in-distress phone calls,” she said.
“I am looking for a human resource person for a client launching an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) project,” Hildy said. “Although this is an IT project — overhauling the entire organization to accommodate the all-encompassing software — the client wants a solid HR individual, not specifically a technically backgrounded one.”
Help desk and support
If you’ve ever lost hours or days of work to the dreaded “blue screen of death” on your PC, you already know what industry experts have been saying for some time: The need for tech-support workers has never been greater.
“Sure, the technology becomes simpler and easier to operate,” Weis said. “But technology is so pervasive that as soon as one area becomes nearly glitch-free, 10 new applications crop up.”
Computer-based workers aren’t the only ones counting on computer service and support. As consumers increasingly depend on technology in their day-to-day lives, tech-savvy hardware and software gurus with endless patience and excellent listening and communication skills will be needed to help with the snafus.
One such permutation is the mobile help desk operator, such as the “compcierge” at Ritz Carlton Hotel in Chicago, whose primary function is to help guests with laptop or other technology problems.
“Who are you going to call … now that online computer systems are being built into cars?” Weis wondered. “More important, who is the auto mechanic going to call for support of the new gizmos?”
