Jobworksaz.com - Job Seeker Tips

Where the Hot Information Technology Jobs Are
By Joyce Lain Kennedy

Dear Joyce: My IT (information technology) counterpart may be selected when my company is absorbed by a competitor. For the past month I have anticipated a problem and have begun exploring my opportunities -- with no good result.

You told the older ex-test engineer that age is a slippery slope in the IT job market. I'm 36 -- funny, I don't feel old -- and seem to be visiting the same slope. I've been using online job boards, reviewing the newspaper ads, running down leads from friends and using a headhunter.

Do I need to start fresh? What are the highest demand IT specialties? -- J.H.G.

Dear J.H.G.: You're not old, but the IT job market is not simple. The skills IT organizations die for change as rapidly as women's hemlines. Too bad, but IT recruiters go after new people with the needed skills instead of retraining people who have already proven their IT skills, even those emerging from yesterday's technology.

Among this year's IT fave faces are those noted by About.com Information Technology guide Darhl Stultz:

Web World Winners. Database specialists who can support the back-end processing of a Web site. A geek talk sampling: Oracle experience, Perl and PHP scripting language experts and animators who can use Flash 4.

Net Security Tigers. Both intranet and the Internet marshals who can keep script kiddies and serious crackers at bay are prizes for which recruiters vie. This work requires industrial-strength programming and operating systems know-how to hold your own.

Network and Server Hot Shots. For every 10 or so PCs a company adds, a server appears in the back room. The servers and PCs are joined by a what Stultz calls a "rat's nest of wire and fiber-optic cables, wiring closets, hubs, routers, switches and more." Someone has to ride herd on this complex package. When the network shuts off, the whole pace comes to a roaring halt.

Software Gurus. Stultz says companies are using more large-package "off-the-shelf" software to run their businesses. SAP, Bann, Oracle and Peoplesoft are the big names in the business. The software is so multifarious that lots of people are needed to understand it and scribe it to a company's business methods. This category is called MRP/ERP/CRM personnel.

Graphic Artists and Usability Experts. This category is the next big thing, says Stultz. The reason: So many applications are becoming Web-enabled, particularly on intranets. Graphic artists who will soon be in high demand are those who draw and use Freehand or Flash programming to zip up presentations.

Intranets tend to be navigational nightmares, the About.com guide explains. Programmers who are talented at doing the back-end operations usually aren't so great at designing the user interface.

Even if you are facile with this year's hot skills, the May 1 edition of The Industry Standard, a trade journal, reports that the Congress and Clinton are expected this month to approve a bill easing limits on the immigration of high-tech workers, a move that will continue to be detrimental to American programmers who would love to retrain to become this year's IT darlings.

You can read the article online. (www.thestandard.com; search for "Huddled Masses Yearning to Write Java.")

My best suggestion to solve this employment travail isn't network news but familiar advice: Keep your skills up to date, consider contract jobs, network your socks off, become a sophisticated job seeker -- and keep plugging. I wouldn't count too much on headhunters -- they're paid to find what IT employers consider to be the cream of the crop.

E-mail career questions for possible use in this column to jlk@sunfeatures.com. Sorry, the volume of mail makes personal replies impossible.