| 'Sizzling' IT careers market still evokes lukewarm response
By:
Joaquim P. Menezes
- IT World Canada
(05 Oct 2007)
Watch video of John Pickett's presentation Length: 8.30 minutes. File type: Windows Media Video Also read related blog post: Responding to a schizophrenic IT careers market  A career in Information Technology (IT) can be very rewarding for those who choose to pursue it, but sadly fewer Canadians today are making that choice.
This "strange dichotomy" afflicting Canada's IT sector - a hot market, evoking a lukewarm response - was highlighted by John Pickett, IT World Canada's vice-president and editorial director, at an event in Toronto yesterday. Organized by Cisco Canada, the event marked the 10th Anniversary of the Cisco Networking Academy – an e-learning program launched globally to equip students with Internet technology skills required in a rapidly changing job market. Among other things, Pickett's presentation focused on a couple of key challenges confronting the Canadian IT sector: • The growing need for skilled IT professionals • Factors hindering companies from meeting this need Pickett cited key findings from IT World Canada's 2007 IT Salary Survey, which he said, also tracked other factors including job satisfaction, practices that help companies retain IT staff, and the hiring environment. More than 3,000 respondents from the IT industry responded to the survey, including 1,200 hiring managers. Pickett noted that 61 per cent of the hiring managers polled are set to hire new IT staff over the coming 12 months, and they forecast a net IT staff increase of 12 per cent. This finding, he said, fits in well with other surveys that reveal around 48,000 IT positions will need to be filled. Pickett said companies expect to fill 27 per cent of these jobs internally – through training, transfers from other departments and so on. "But that still leaves 73 per cent of the positions unfilled, which nets out to around 35,000 new people required in the industry." 
 
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| |  | While jobs in the industry have become more stable and frustration levels with uneducated (in IT) management have eased, hours are still very long (work + study, and real average wages in the industry has gone down. If the next 20 years are like the last 20 I have spent in the industry, I would not recomend it to young people today. Anyone with smarts and soft skills to survive in IT can make more money with less effort in many other industries. The only ones left are the ones that truley love it, and it seems thier patience is waning. IMHO | |
Written by: John Billins, from Toronto | |
| | | I am in Public Sector IT. There are no perks, the salary won't make you rich, and there are many restrictions I did not experince in the private sector. My teenage daughter are both pretty confortable with IT, but they don't want to persue a career in that field. They say I work too hard and too much for the money I make, and I don't get enough time off. They also say that working in government would not be for them becuase all the restrictions take the fun out of it. The equipment I use is too old, I don't have the neat stuff and gadgets that some of their friends dads have like a state of the art notebook PC, cell phone, etc...
and using any of my equipment for personal use is a big taboo, not even a call home on my gov't cell phone to say I going to be late, unless I reinburse my employer for the cost. Too picky they say. They say it wouldn't be so bad if they paid alot more, but they don't think I get pasi very much compared to their friends dads. I like my job, but if it end up that I don't have enough money to put these girls through university, I will either have to get a second job, or consider a return to the more lucrative and rewarding private sector. I took a job in the public sector to make a difference, but the cost to my family is gradually becoming too high. | |
Written by: Pierre Laframboise, from Kingston | |
| | | Perhaps employers who can't find IT people should take a good objective look at the job advertisements being posted. A typical sample: "Must have expert level ASP, ASP.NET, IIS, DOM, HTML, Javascript, Flash, Actionscript, PHP, MS SQL, MySQL, Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, MS Project, Visio, Access, ... (add three more cans of alphabet soup) ..., Salary $35K". When young people, who are generally technically savvy, see this list of requirements that would take years to learn in return for pay that barely allows a basic standard of living in many Canadian cities, they say to themselves "Forget IT, it's for losers". Quit making a wish list and calling it "requirements" and watch applicants appear that would never have considered your job ad otherwise. Oh yeah, quit requiring a university degree for an entry level help desk slot. And don't let HR write your recruitment ads. I haven't had a problem getting all the good IT people I need, and all I do is ask for realistic qualifications and pay a wage that shows I respect the skill set. | |
Written by: Christopher Shaw, from Toronto | |
| | | I think that the real culprits are the HR departments. Everyone wants the perfect candidate and so the AVAILABLE candidate gets skipped. I went to an interview for a job where I was a perfect candidate (had everything they asked for) and wasn't a fit because of HR personality tests. At the same time in my current job I overrode HR to hire someone with more or less the right tech skills but poor HR test skills. They have worked out exceptionally (HR doesn't test for geeks!). | |
Written by: Noel McLeod, from Toronto | |
| | | I have been in IT for 8 years. Except for my first manager (who had been a professional engineer for 25 years) most of the management I have dealt with have been (at best) completely lack luster. I would not tell anyone to go into IT at this point for the following reasons:
-little respect (most managers believe anyone can do IT given enough time)
-not enough pay (one of my manages stated that if he could find someone to do my job for $5 and hour he would have already done it)(he also said that I could be replaced in 25 minutes, took him 3 months)
-long hours (somehow IT is exempt from the Ontario labor laws when it comes to overtime or the maximum amount of hours an employee can be forced to work)
I only stay in IT as I can not afford the time or money to start something new. Computers were my hobby since I was 7 years old so they have always been a big part of my life and I love using them. But if someone was to ask me if they should go into IT I would say pick a degree and career where at least you can properly feed your family and maybe get a little respect. | |
Written by: Jeff, from Waterloo | |
| | | Chris Shaw has it right. I've been looking actively for a new position for almost a year. I have a degree and 10 years experience in IT. Employers have a list of of requirements as long as your arm and usually have no idea what any of it means or what it is used for. If you don't have even one of the "requirements" you don't get an interview. If you do have them they don't think it's of value and don't want to pay you what its worth. The only problem is that IT managers appear to be so ignorant of the field they manage they wouldn't know a qualified employee when they see one. The current manager of my IT department used to manage the Building infrastructure. He's utterly clueless with regards to IT, yet he's the manager. | |
Written by: Lyle Gordon, from Edmonton | |
| | | I have done it within the golden years and loved it. Then Windows and PC's came along and anyone tought they were D.P. expert since they could handle wordprocessor software. From then on the IT field was a steady downfall.
Back then IT managers had to have the know how and were sponsored by computer companies and under watch from DPMA an CIPPS associations.
IT has been let down ... and employers will have to rebuild confidence and show respect before this field becomes glorious again. | |
Written by: Guy Baron, from Montreal | |
| | | I keep reading these articles, and wonder why I'm not employed by one of these 'hungry' companies. My last 'real' job was a contract position as a Network Analyst on the Scotiabank WAN. I had all the skills req'd, including the people skills, and the ability to learn on the job everyday. *AND SOLVE PROBLEMS!!!* Couple this with business process analysis and planning skills (I once saved a company $350,000 p.a. via a six month project), and you have me.
The last couple of years have been difficult. I find myself on production lines, and shoving tapes into silos and whatnot. I am not bitter, I just keep on slinging, but I do wonder if ALL those jobs are really out there. (sometimes) In me, you would not just get a good employee, but a faithful one, so I keep on slinging, and hope the JOB is just around the next corner.
...Garry | |
Written by: Garry Johnston, from Waterloo | |
| | | Recall the line from "Jerry Maguire" - SHOW ME THE MONEY. That's the root of the problem. Companies want a long list of capabilities, but they aren't prepared to pay for it. The average student fresh from university has a huge debt load. $40K per year in most major centres in Canada leaves a lot of month left at the end of the pay cheque. Employers need to get real. | |
Written by: S McPherson, from Bradford | |
| | | I've been in IT since 71 but I would never recommend it today. Reasons:
- pay not commensurate with the long list of alphabet soups skills employers supposedly need
- an age ceiling of mid-40's beyond which you are simply not liable to be hired
- no respect from business management who blame IT all too often for their own lack of foresight
- no respect in the public arena - to whom we are all geeks
- no promotion by our professional organisations
- managers who equate professional level IT work to being PC-literate or the abilities of their game-playing teenagers
| |
Written by: Bob Gilbert, from Blind Bay, BC | |
| | | Sizzling IT Market? IT Job Skills? Shortage of IT Workers? What is that all about?
At every job fair I have been to in the last year, there have been hordes of unemployed IT or former IT people looking for work. All of them have the same story - there are no jobs out there in the IT field - time to try something else.
If there are jobs out there somewhere employers would do well to make it CLEAR, SPECIFICALLY, what skill sets are you having trouble finding?
There are lots of potential employees out there wondering what skills they need to add in order to get a job in the IT field these days. | |
Written by: Tim Cook, from Richmond Hill | |
| | | Ten years ago one was getting about the same hourly rate as today for a similar position! I switched from tech jobs to doing business analysis because nowadays it's hard to get $25 an hour as a developer. Back in 1997 I remember getting contracts at $60 an hour as a senior DB specialist. Today if you get $50 you are very lucky. With the inflation rate that means that the value of a I.T. jos has dropped more than 50% during the last 10 years. We can get more money today working as a certified mechanic, electrician or plumber! | |
Written by: François Ouellette, from Toronto | |
| | | Get out of IT asap. Seriously. Don't wait, change career. The situation is quite clear, unfair hiring demands, low wages, long hours, unpaid training, low recognition, dead end job, etc .. it's a slow and painly death. You know they won't have a standarize certification like accountants. You know the managers only care about bottom line and shareholders. You know you're not getting any help from government or the industry. They have these conferences to talk about the dire state of lack of IT workers, but it's all talk. There isn't a concrete solution. Everyone is using their own band-aid solution. They'll setup programs and courses which course an arm and leg and fool you into thinking it'll help with your job hunting, but it's not true. Technology changes so quickly, you cannot keep up. You got family to feed, morgage to pay. You don't need this kind of stress. All the cool challenging programming has already been written into libraries or web services. It's pretty boring writting code nowadays. So wake up and smell the roses. Get out of IT. It's becoming a commodity like water and electricity. You don't get praise when things are working, but you get blame when network goes down or database are corrupted. Why suffer anymore. Bye bye IT. | |
Written by: Cheeky, from | |
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