TODAY’S 10 HOTTEST IT JOBS
Baseline analyzed recent employment studies and interviewed technology recruiters and industry professionals to
find the hottest IT positions today. Although there is still demand for the “old-reliable” jobs such as network administration and help-desk positions, the picks below reflect the current gaps between supply and demand.
1. SENIOR-LEVEL
JAVA/J2EE AND .NET
DEVELOPERS
Most headhunters
agree that finding lead
developers with Java/
J2EE or .NET proficiency and management experience can be a hard job
in today’s market.
“If they’re software developers and
have Java/J2EE or any of the .NET
skills, they’re very hot right now,” says
Janet Miller, president of the recruiting
firm Computer Management.
4. ARCHITECTS
OF ALL TYPES
“Architects of all
stripes are big right
now, but the hottest
ones are applications
architects,” says recruiter Martineau.
According to the Robert Half
Technology 2008 Salary Guide, applications architects are expected to see
the second-largest average pay raise
this year: 7. 5 percent.
administration and
management as one of
the key growth niches
in IT, particularly
in light of Bureau of
Labor Statistics predictions that this sector will outpace
the growth of all other occupations
through 2014.
2. APPLICATION
DEVELOPMENT
MANAGERS
“There is a definite
need for applications
development managers
with strong technical backgrounds,
specifically within object-oriented and
service-oriented architecture applications,” says Dan Martineau of Martineau
Recruiting Technology. In the Robert
Half Technology 2008 Salary Guide, lead
applications developer was the position predicted to see the largest salary
increase this year: 7. 6 percent.
5. TALENTED IT
MANAGERS
Businesses seek candidates who not only have
strong technical skills,
but also are proficient
in communications and business knowledge. In a recent survey by Robert Half
Technology, more than
41 percent of CIOs questioned said they
are placing a greater emphasis on knowledge of business fundamentals when
considering applicants for IT jobs.
8. INFRASTRUCTURE
PROS WITH
BACKGROUNDS IN
VIRTUALIZATION
Most organizations
these days are trying
to find a way to leverage virtualization deployments into bottom-line
savings. “Virtualization is the biggest
thing going on in the data center
right now,” Martineau says, “so
people with virtualization skills are
in high demand.”
BASELINE JUNE 2008
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3. SECURITY
PROFESSIONALS
A recent Comp TIA
survey found that
among all IT skills,
security shows the biggest disparity between demand and
supply of proficient workers. “The
security landscape changes so rapidly
that it is very difficult for anyone to
stay on top of all the different threats
out there,” says Steven Ostrowski,
Comp TIA’s director of corporate communications.
6. BUSINESS
TECHNOLOGY
PROFESSIONALS
“The difference between
information technology
and business technology
roles is that IT delivers a particular service,” recruiter Martineau says, “while
business technology workers accomplish
the hybrid goals that live between the
business and IT. These are strategic roles
that are all about aligning IT with the
business needs.”
9. WEB 2.0
DEVELOPERS
“There’s a lot of
interest in Web 2.0
applications and development, so people who
have some ability in that arena have a
leg up,” says Comp TIA’s Ostrowski.
7. DATABASE ADMINISTRATORS
AND MANAGERS
In its annual salary report, Robert Half
Technology recently named database
10. WIRELESS
NETWORKING
EXPERTS
“Wireless I T skills are
going to be critical in
the not-too-distant
future,” Ostrowski says. A recent
Comp TIA survey of more than 3,500
IT managers found that wireless and
radio frequency mobile technology is
the skill set they expect to be most in
demand over the next five years.
