“The IT industry as a whole has experienced remarkable growth within the last decade, actually growing faster than the number of qualified professionals available to fill positions. This current shortage of IT talent combined with our strengthening economy presents talented IT professionals with exceptional opportunities to not only find positions, but positions that pay well,” said Anthony Curlo, CEO of DaVinciTek, an IT recruiting and Staff Augmentation firm. The same statement cited research conducted by Robert Half, which said salaries for newly hired IT professionals are expected to increase 5.7 percent this year.
What’s interesting is that IT workers are in demand across all industries, not just technology companies. Corporate budget allocations for IT are expected to rise 3.2 percent and are a reflection of IT’s increasingly integral role in maintaining competitive operations for any business in any industry, according to statistics cited by DaVinciTek.
DaVinciTek points out four important trends for IT job seekers:
- Job seekers need to be open to various opportunities and position titles as they search for jobs, and should be willing to explore all offers, rather than take the first one that comes their way.
- Jobs in the mobile IT sector are particularly in high-demand. IT professionals with experience developing mobile applications can expect to find jobs rather easily in this market.
- Companies seeking IT professionals should be ready to make competitive offers; strong candidates will likely have multiple options, so the terms of an offer should not appear to undervalue the candidate’s talent.
- For those working towards an IT degree, consider specializing in specific IT positions projected to still be in high demand in 3-5 years, such as business analysts and cloud computing software engineers. For those still considering a degree in IT, know that the industry is predicated to continue to grow until at least 2020.
All this bodes well for solution providers and everyone involved in the IT industry. However, there is always a catch. With increasing opportunities, companies will have to make it more appealing to keep their current IT workers if they don’t want them to jump ship.