Career Focus - IT
Check out the pay, prospects and talking points of careers in Computing 2008.
THE PAY
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- Pipping the US on pay
UK IT professionals have the fourth highest salaries in the world, according to Mercer’s 2007 IT Pay Around The World survey. The average salary for an IT manager in the UK is now £62,180 vs £56,550 in the US. So which three countries pay their IT pros more than the UK? Switzerland (average IT manager salary £74k), Denmark (£65k) and ..er... Belgium (£64k), would you believe.
- Crunchtime for compensation
These high UK IT pay figures are, apparently, skewed by the dominance of IT salaries in the City, which, if the rumours about the credit crunch turn into redundancies, could mean pay feels the pinch in 2008.
- Confusion over the north/south divide
The story about pay for those further down the IT job chain is harder to unpick. According to a CV Screen survey, programmers in the south-east saw their average earnings rise 3.4% to £33k in 2007. Ask e-skills, however, and the figures are more optimistic – the average IT salary in the north is now £33k vs £44k in the south-east. Different figures, same underlying trend – slightly above-inflation rises in the south-east and much more aggressive rises for now in the north, which still lags behind.
THE PROSPECTS
- Demand for developers on the rise
For now, despite the credit crunch cloud, permanent IT staff with SQL Servers, .net and C# skills are in high demand, according to a study by the IT & Comms Sector Group of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. In fact, demand for .net skills and C# skills was up 50% and 48% respectively.
- ...despite a drop in overall IT staff numbers
There were just under 1 million IT staff working in the UK during the third quarter of 2007 – down 1% on 2006. So while some signs of a slowdown are appearing, commentators expect the impact in 2008 will be a halt on new IT projects and jobs, rather than a shedding of existing IT posts. And, since systems development recruitment, one of the key indicators of any slowdown in the job market, remains buoyant, recruiters remain optimistic – for now.
- 'Soft', not just 'hard' skills sought
It's not your technical skills that are letting you down in the IT job market – it’s your personal skills – those ‘soft’ skills like communication, diplomacy, teamworking that employers and tick-box interview processes value so much. Nearly one third of IT recruiters surveyed by e-skills UK said the level of personal skills on offer form candidates is below that required by their business. The polite programmers among us with an ability to communicate will beat their less communicative colleagues to the job.
THE TALKING POINTS
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- Skills shortage, what skills shortage?
According to the European Commission, the IT skills shortage is alive and well – a recent report by the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies, claims that, if the current trends continue, there will be 70,000 unfilled IT positions each year across Europe. Back in the UK, however, the signs are that the skills shortage has been easing, with UK employers finding it easier to hire staff with the right IT skillsets. Just 6% of IT employers surveyed in Q2 2007 said they were experiencing difficulties in finding workers with the right IT skills, experience or qualifications – the lowest figure for 2 years.
- Where have all the graduates gone?
One shortage giving IT employers in the UK cause for concern is in the area of graduate recruitment. The British Computer Society (BCS) is predicting a 25% fall in computer science graduates by 2009. IT services firm LogicaCMG, for instance, was forced to recruit A-level students at the end of 2007 to fill its IT vacancies due to a shortage of graduates with relevant qualifications.
- Offshoring, nearshoring – IT jobs are being shipped out
Given the reality of the skills shortages in the UK, it’s hardly surprising that outsourcing is alive and kicking in 2008. In fact, research firm Gartner expects the global IT outsourcing market to grow by 8.1% in 2008. The key difference this year? More firms appear to be considering ‘nearshoring’ – outsourcing, but to countries nearer home. A 2007 survey by the National Outsourcing Association showed that some 41% of outsourcers rate Eastern Europe as the easiest region to do business with. Brace yourselves for a year of jokes and jibes about Polish programmers...