Job Market Snapshot

By default, no two IT careers are alike. 20th century job titles such as "COBOL Programmer" that entailed only one or two technologies have given way to vague, versatilist titles such as "Web 2.0 Developer" that require a large subset of tech skills within cross-platform frameworks. What does it all mean, and how do you distill the ultimate dream job from your own library of interests?

Although it's impossible for us to recommend the exact path for you without knowing your needs (Contact us for individual help), we have compiled a small snapshot of IT software and networking field categories, a cross-section of jobs and estimated median salaries within those categories, and suggested technologies to learn for each. Keep in mind that this is not a comprehensive list for IT, as it overlaps many other extensive fields such as computer hardware, bioinformatics, and management information systems.

Job Categories in Information Technology

2011 Seeing Strong Private Sector Job Gains in Technology

Great news in 2011: The jobs are coming back, and fast. In fact, according to a May 6th AP article by Jeannine Aversa, Businesses are now hiring at the fastest pace since 2006:

The job growth was better than economists expected and perhaps the strongest sign yet that what they call a "virtuous cycle" has taken hold: When people spend more, corporate earnings rise, leading to more hiring and then more spending.

Even better news: A good portion of the returning jobs are in information technology and software engineering. According to Ruth Mantell of the Wall Street Journal:

Information-technology also will be adding jobs as companies that have been sitting on cash will want to upgrade their technology to gain a competitive edge as the economy emerges from the recession, says John Challenger, chief executive of outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas in Chicago.

"A lot of companies over the last couple of years have cut down their spending on IT," Mr. Challenger says. "But, as we know, technology takes quantum leaps every few years. So there is technology that companies are buying, and they will need people who can come in and implement it, customize it, teach people how to use it [and] provide technical support."

Andrew Striber of the job-search board CareerCast even goes a step further, declaring software engineering as the Best Job of 2011:

What helped Software Engineer capture the title of America's Best Job? While many factors push a career to the top of the rankings, the strong performance of Software Engineer this year can be attributed to two emerging industries: web applications and cloud computing. A proliferation of companies making applications for smartphones and tablets, along with the push to develop "cloud" software hosted entirely online, has made the job market for Software Engineers broader and more diverse. And a diverse job market brings improvements in stress factors such as Growth Potential and Competitiveness, as workers become less beholden to employers or vulnerable to outsourcing. In fact, the stress ranking for Software Engineer improved 10 spots this year, jumping from 25th to 15th place overall.

The best part is this: These jobs in IT and software engineering aren't just for job seekers with previous experience, nor are they limited to large, established corporations.

IT Job Market Growing, Technology Sector Set to Rebound in 2010

It's no shock that the outlook for employment in 2010 is generally grim. However, what may come as a surprise is this: The IT job market is actually growing. According to Leslie Stevens-Huffman of Dice.com:

The weather and the overall employment picture might be frigid across most of the country, but it's summer in the IT job market. Newly released employment data from the Labor Department reveals a fourth straight month of gains in IT services jobs, and a third consecutive month of overall increases in IT employment. Together, these numbers suggests the IT job market is recovering faster than other segments and that companies are looking to technology to get them out of the doldrums.

There’s no doubt about the fact that this was a disappointing jobs report for the nation as a whole, with the unemployment rate remaining the same at 10 percent. But for unemployed and underemployed IT workers, it’s encouraging that the IT services industry can look forward to increasing demand for their services and is responding by adding workers. We can expect to see hiring of technical and management specialists picking up further in the first quarter of 2010 as demand for services continues to expand.

The analyst firm expects U.S. IT spending to grow by 6.6 percent in 2010 after plummeting 8.2 percent in 2009. On a global basis, IT expenditures will jump 8.1 percent in U.S. dollars and 5.6 percent based on local currencies.

By 2016, current government projections show that more than 800,000 high-end computing jobs will be created in the economy making it one of the fastest growing occupational fields. Five of the top ten fastest growing jobs will be in computing-related fields ( i.e., computer software engineer jobs expected to grow 45% over the next five to seven years).

Even with the Grim Economy, Certain IT Skills are Still High in Demand

Nerves are frayed in the current recession, and the IT field is not immune to that. Still, according to Mathew Schwartz of Dice.com, "all is not bleak in the tech jobs sector".

Of course, some IT careers are destined for faster growth than others. Says Thibodeaux: "There's a need for systems engineers, application developers and database gurus." Also, don't discount the help desk. "Many employers still struggle to find computer support technicians, which is still the best first job for new workers to break into the IT industry," Thibodeaux says.

In another Dice.com article from March 2009, Dave Wilmer explains, "The overall gloom hasn’t extinguished some bright spots within IT — regions, industries, positions, and skill sets still experiencing growth and demand."

Experienced IT professionals with specialized skill sets continue to be in the greatest demand. IT professionals with in-depth knowledge of .NET, SharePoint, Java and , for instance, are at a premium across many industries. Web 2.0 development skills also continue to be in demand.

For IT professionals that prefer to work freelance, the Elance Online Work Index for May 2009 indicates that the top freelance skills are firmly in the open source realm.

"How’s My LAMP Stack?” For three months running, PHP (#1) and MySQL (#2) continue to dominate the list as the most sought after skills in the market with no signs of being dethroned. Businesses continue to look to online experts to save cash by hiring IT expertise in open source (Linux, Ruby on Rails, Joomla, WordPress, osCommerce) and other leading technologies (AJAX, Javascript, ASP.NET, ).

HTML and CSS are also perennially in the top 10.